8 replies to this topic

[Caserius Tendook]

Ok, I'm a little confused.  What is the fundamental difference between BWP and BWS?

 

I use BWS to install mods for my BG series of games, it's a community tool that was developed, I got that.

 

I see BWP by Leonardo, and I try to dig around and see what it is, but I'm not getting it, or I'm just missing it.  I see several different items like BWP Text pack, etc., which looks like things that are included in BWS, so is BWP attached or a part of BWS?  Or was BWP the standard used for BGT and other mods going back to TuTu?  Thanks for helping me sort this out!

[The Imp]

BWP = BiG World Project, is a tool + .PDF file, that allows you to make a setup of the BG2 game manually, that will then be installed with the BiG World Install.bat, but you did all this in the past manually, downloading, extracting files... and then the install.bat did it's thing. And only the forum could help you if something went wrong.... and it a lots of times did.

BWS = BiG World Setup, is a tool that makes the setup automatically...

 

The BWP was there first, and so ... the BWS came after it as a part result. And parts of one is parts of the other, but the "BWP fixpack" for example are not the same betwenn the two, todays.

And their maintainers are different too, cause of course they are.

[Leonardo Watson]

I would suggest to investigate my tool first before you advise against it. It can do anything around the installation except (yet) download the mods.
After several checks (most of them you won't notice except something is missing) you can select between various kinds of installation. You can choose to install unattended in one go without any interruption or to select the components during installation. You can filter the mods on the basis of several parameters (for example only voiced NPCs with content for BG1 and SoA and ToB). If some mods or components are not compatible there is a conflict resolution.

The installer checks the disc place and calculates the required size. It also checks the OS and offers a solution for Stratagems if needed. It will convert some EE-mods to the classic game and makes other modifications as wished. You can backup and restore a clean BG2 folder and many things more that are not mentioned yet.

The user guidance is self-explaining and you cannot do something wrong. If you accidentally close the DOS window the installer will continue at that point where the installation was interrupted.

When starting the installation all mods will be extracted out of the download folder into the game folder. Then all mods will be installed according to your configuration and some corrections will be done during installation. Most important: The installation runs without any error!
Additionally you can trafy, list components, make a change-log and much more.
I query that the BWS is such versatile.
 

[The Imp]

@Leonardo:

I would suggest to investigate my tool first before you advise against it. It ..

As I read this, I took this as an advice to me... and as such, I can't accept it, cause ... I wasn't really advicing against either, I was saying, what each of them are/were.
The BWS has the backup system. It has download system that uses a folder for all the downloads that checks if the file is acceptable or if it/or new version needs to be downloaded.
It has a setup log very much if not better than that of the BWP. It can save the mod selection or edit the current one. It lists component for every mod out there and you can select to install them ... before you download the mod. Yes, there's a lot of complexity in your tool, but there's also that in BWS. I can't say which of them is better.... cause more than likely BOTH of them are better for different users and use cases. Which I hope came through at least this post. If not the earlier.
 
Also the BWS can "be closed" at nearly every point, during install too... and re-enter to that point. This is done via stopping the install via the console input and then exiting the program, the actual stopping will install the current component that's in progress if it is, and then allow you to go to a stand-by state and thus exit, from where you just re-run the non update setup.vbs again, and progress fom there.

PS: you might want to edit the BWPv18 topics first post a bit to include a list of the few mentioned features.

Edited by The Imp, 28 July 2018 - 03:19 PM.

[Caserius Tendook]

I would suggest to investigate my tool first before you advise against it. It can do anything around the installation except (yet) download the mods.
After several checks (most of them you won't notice except something is missing) you can select between various kinds of installation. You can choose to install unattended in one go without any interruption or to select the components during installation. You can filter the mods on the basis of several parameters (for example only voiced NPCs with content for BG1 and SoA and ToB). If some mods or components are not compatible there is a conflict resolution.

The installer checks the disc place and calculates the required size. It also checks the OS and offers a solution for Stratagems if needed. It will convert some EE-mods to the classic game and makes other modifications as wished. You can backup and restore a clean BG2 folder and many things more that are not mentioned yet.

The user guidance is self-explaining and you cannot do something wrong. If you accidentally close the DOS window the installer will continue at that point where the installation was interrupted.

When starting the installation all mods will be extracted out of the download folder into the game folder. Then all mods will be installed according to your configuration and some corrections will be done during installation. Most important: The installation runs without any error!
Additionally you can trafy, list components, make a change-log and much more.
I query that the BWS is such versatile.
 

@Leonardo, thank you for that very comprehensive explanation.  I have a much better understanding of what the two tools are all about now that I didn't have before because you and @The Imp explained it very well.

I have played the games since their first incarnations in 1998, but it has only been the last year that I have discovered all of the great tools and Mods that have been developed.  Being a newbie I didn't really understand alot of the differences on things in getting Mods put together so getting a better understanding of the tools is a big help.  The forums here and Beamdog, Plus G3 have alot of info but it's not always clear about how to avoid problems with Mod installation.  I just recently started using BWS for a couple big installs, and now that I understand what BWP is I will definitly give it a try.

 

EDIT:  For those of you that have been around these forums for a long time, just understand that the new guy looking around only see's BWP and BWS, much like we see TuTu, BGT, and now EET.  It's not always clear that these are all different sides of what is the same coin in the end.  I honestly assumed that BWP was just something that handled the older game, and BWS was the newer version, it's not real clear.

Edited by Caserius Tendook, 28 July 2018 - 05:32 PM.

[Cahir]

So, Leonardo, to clarify some things. Is BWP 18 capable of installing all EE mods (including EE-compatible only) along with EET or is it the perfect tool to use, but only for original (non-EE) BG Saga, BGT or TuTu?

[Cahir]

So it seems BWP is not meant for EE games after all. Here's an excerpt from Big World Project v18 guide:

 

The BiG World Project is meant for the classic version and not for the enhanced edition. You can add more than 500
mods to the game. Most of them and especially the large quest mods will probably never be available for the Enhanced Edition.
For the Enhanced Edition there are about 150 mods available. Most of them had been created for the classic games
and were converted to EE, but they have no content for the new NPCs that come with the EE. To solve this problem,
you could disable these new characters by a mod, however, what's the reason to play an enhanced edition with disabled enhanced content? Only a few mods are exclusively for the EE.

Other than the BGT mod the EET mod can also merge "Siege of Dragonspear“ with the BG1EE and BG2EE games.
This guide describes the installation procedure for the BG classic edition. For the EE the install order will not be the
same because the BG1 mods have to be installed before the EET mod. Also most of the listed mods are not avaible
for EE.

 

But Leonardo, I see there are quite a lot of mods compatible with EE on BWP list. Does your guide cover the installation order of components that are only EE-compatible or just skips it? I don't mean whole EE-only compatible mods, just components of mods that are generally compatible both with EE and classic versions of the game.

 

I'm asking because even if I won't use BWP for installation purposes (I play only EE games these days) I may want to use your guide to help me with the installation order (if I decide to not use BWS as an installation manager). But if your guide skips EE-only components it wiell be only semi-helpful for me.

[Leonardo Watson]

At least the install order for the BG1 part from EET is different from the classic games with BGT. The BG2 part should be largely the same.
My focus is aimed to the classic games. I have a lot of plans (about 5 major releases) for BWP and probably they will not be available for EE. As long I am not ready with them I will not concern with EE..

The BWS "downgrades" some EE-mods to BWP and also converts some BG1-mods to BGT. This is a test for future releases.

I had started description of the Installpack but stopped it temporary because of its huge content. I will continue when all planned components (e.g. download) are integrated.

[Cahir]

Thanks for clarification Leonardo! Keep up the good work! This tool is a blessing for all BG classic saga players.