Jump to content


Photo

Map Nights


  • Please log in to reply
6 replies to this topic

#1 Azkyroth

Azkyroth
  • Modder
  • 3496 posts

Posted 28 August 2009 - 05:27 PM

I have, today, come to the unfortunate realization that I am absolutely clueless about how the game handles the day/night changes in the appearance of a given area. Can anyone point me to a good tutorial or explanation for that?

"Tyranny is a quiet thing at first, a prim and proper lady pursing her lips and shaking her head disapprovingly, asking, well what were you doing (wearing that dress, walking home at that hour, expressing those inappropriate thoughts) anyway? It's subtle and insidious, disguised as reasonable precautions which become more and more oppressive over time, until our lives are defined by the things we must avoid. She's easy enough to agree with, after all, she's only trying to help -- and yet she's one of the most dangerous influences we face, because if she prevails, it puts the raping, robbing, axe-wielding madmen of the world in complete control. Eventually they'll barely need to wield a thing, all they'll have to do is leer menacingly and we fall all over ourselves trying to placate them." -godlizard


#2 Miloch

Miloch

    Barbarian

  • Modder
  • 6573 posts

Posted 29 August 2009 - 08:03 AM

http://www.simpilot..../main.htm#night

Infinity Engine Contributions
Aurora * BG1 NPC * BG1 Fixpack * Haiass * Infinity Animations * Level 1 NPCs * P5Tweaks
PnP Free Action * Thrown Hammers * Unique Containers * BG:EE * BGII:EE * IWD:EE
================================================================
Player & Modder Resources
BAM Batcher * Creature Lister * Creature Checker * Creature Fixer * Tutu/BGT Area Map & List * Tutu Mod List
================================================================
"Infinity turns out to be the opposite of what people say it is. It is not 'that which has nothing beyond itself' that is infinite, but 'that which always has something beyond itself'." -Aristotle


#3 Azkyroth

Azkyroth
  • Modder
  • 3496 posts

Posted 29 August 2009 - 10:01 AM

http://www.simpilot..../main.htm#night


So, the AR####N tilesets are for night areas, as I suspected...which is confusing because, at least in BG2, several areas that look different at night (such as AR1600) don't have matching AR####N tilesets, at least, that DLTCEP can find. Are the tiles for that somehow embedded in the "normal" tileset, or is it done with color filters somehow, or...?

"Tyranny is a quiet thing at first, a prim and proper lady pursing her lips and shaking her head disapprovingly, asking, well what were you doing (wearing that dress, walking home at that hour, expressing those inappropriate thoughts) anyway? It's subtle and insidious, disguised as reasonable precautions which become more and more oppressive over time, until our lives are defined by the things we must avoid. She's easy enough to agree with, after all, she's only trying to help -- and yet she's one of the most dangerous influences we face, because if she prevails, it puts the raping, robbing, axe-wielding madmen of the world in complete control. Eventually they'll barely need to wield a thing, all they'll have to do is leer menacingly and we fall all over ourselves trying to placate them." -godlizard


#4 Mike1072

Mike1072
  • Modder
  • 539 posts

Posted 29 August 2009 - 01:18 PM

http://www.simpilot..../main.htm#night


So, the AR####N tilesets are for night areas, as I suspected...which is confusing because, at least in BG2, several areas that look different at night (such as AR1600) don't have matching AR####N tilesets, at least, that DLTCEP can find. Are the tiles for that somehow embedded in the "normal" tileset, or is it done with color filters somehow, or...?

If the flag 'extended night' is set in the .are file, then in addition to the WED specified in the .are at offset 0x08, there will be a <wedname>n.wed file (which will in turn specify the tileset) and in addition to the <arename>lm.bmp, there will be an <arename>ln.bmp. If the extended night flag is set and those files are missing, you're likely to get a crash in-game.

I don't know what the deal is with Brynnlaw - it doesn't use the extended night method and does just look like it's had a dark purple filter stuck on it.

#5 Azkyroth

Azkyroth
  • Modder
  • 3496 posts

Posted 29 August 2009 - 04:02 PM

http://www.simpilot..../main.htm#night


So, the AR####N tilesets are for night areas, as I suspected...which is confusing because, at least in BG2, several areas that look different at night (such as AR1600) don't have matching AR####N tilesets, at least, that DLTCEP can find. Are the tiles for that somehow embedded in the "normal" tileset, or is it done with color filters somehow, or...?

If the flag 'extended night' is set in the .are file, then in addition to the WED specified in the .are at offset 0x08, there will be a <wedname>n.wed file (which will in turn specify the tileset) and in addition to the <arename>lm.bmp, there will be an <arename>ln.bmp. If the extended night flag is set and those files are missing, you're likely to get a crash in-game.

I don't know what the deal is with Brynnlaw - it doesn't use the extended night method and does just look like it's had a dark purple filter stuck on it.


Hmm. Brynnlaw has the Day/Night flag, but not the Extended Night flag, no *n tileset, no night map, no night WED, and I note that it seems to have four color patterns, Day, Night, and also Sunset and Sunrise, and as far as my probing indicates it does not display the "Sunup/sundown" movies that most of, say, the Athkatla areas do. I'll need to take a look at a few more areas with day/night versions but it seems as though the "extended night" function refers to the use of a separate WED and tileset (with the "sundown" and "sunup" movies obscuring the transition), whereas the Day/Night flag may just use a color filter that's applied at specified clock times by the exe...does this sound like a plausible interpretation?

(With some probing I've determined that AR300 also does the color-shift thing at sunrise and sundown, but that AR1600 indeed does not display the movie).

"Tyranny is a quiet thing at first, a prim and proper lady pursing her lips and shaking her head disapprovingly, asking, well what were you doing (wearing that dress, walking home at that hour, expressing those inappropriate thoughts) anyway? It's subtle and insidious, disguised as reasonable precautions which become more and more oppressive over time, until our lives are defined by the things we must avoid. She's easy enough to agree with, after all, she's only trying to help -- and yet she's one of the most dangerous influences we face, because if she prevails, it puts the raping, robbing, axe-wielding madmen of the world in complete control. Eventually they'll barely need to wield a thing, all they'll have to do is leer menacingly and we fall all over ourselves trying to placate them." -godlizard


#6 Yovaneth

Yovaneth

    The newly-appointed Master Builder of Baldur's Gate

  • Modder
  • 3058 posts

Posted 30 August 2009 - 08:54 AM

I don't know what the deal is with Brynnlaw - it doesn't use the extended night method and does just look like it's had a dark purple filter stuck on it.

Any area that does not have an extended night gets the lightmap overlaid with a single blue/purple colour after the change to night. During the sunrise/sunset periods, a rose-tinted colour is blended onto the existing day lightmap. Both are hard-coded - at least, I'm pretty sure that's what happens. The day lightmap is not replaced; remember the frustration of trying to keep track of everyone in the rotting forest on your way to the temple north of the Umar Hills? Your party kept vanishing into the lightmap shadows and behind dithered wallgroups.

You may find that without specific use of extended night that the night period may actually be too light to be convincing. As it happens, the latest version of my DLTCEP tutorial describes a quick and dirty way of adding extended night if you suddenly find that you need it. I did...

-Y-

#7 Azkyroth

Azkyroth
  • Modder
  • 3496 posts

Posted 30 August 2009 - 11:15 AM

Any area that does not have an extended night gets the lightmap overlaid with a single blue/purple colour after the change to night. During the sunrise/sunset periods, a rose-tinted colour is blended onto the existing day lightmap. Both are hard-coded - at least, I'm pretty sure that's what happens.


That's what I'd concluded as well, though I'm guessing it's the "Day/Night" flag that controls that behavivor since dungeons don't do it (you probably intended that but just skipped over it). I'll have to look at the area scripting to see whether the sunup/sundown movies are run from it or whether that's hard-coded as well.

The day lightmap is not replaced; remember the frustration of trying to keep track of everyone in the rotting forest on your way to the temple north of the Umar Hills? Your party kept vanishing into the lightmap shadows and behind dithered wallgroups.


I don't, but that's consistent with what I've concluded.

You may find that without specific use of extended night that the night period may actually be too light to be convincing. As it happens, the latest version of my DLTCEP tutorial describes a quick and dirty way of adding extended night if you suddenly find that you need it. I did...


Ah, that's the link I wanted. Awesome, thanks.

"Tyranny is a quiet thing at first, a prim and proper lady pursing her lips and shaking her head disapprovingly, asking, well what were you doing (wearing that dress, walking home at that hour, expressing those inappropriate thoughts) anyway? It's subtle and insidious, disguised as reasonable precautions which become more and more oppressive over time, until our lives are defined by the things we must avoid. She's easy enough to agree with, after all, she's only trying to help -- and yet she's one of the most dangerous influences we face, because if she prevails, it puts the raping, robbing, axe-wielding madmen of the world in complete control. Eventually they'll barely need to wield a thing, all they'll have to do is leer menacingly and we fall all over ourselves trying to placate them." -godlizard