33 replies to this topic

[Andrea C.]

This thread is becoming my monologue LOL

Siege of Dragonspear adds hamatula devils. It would be nice if IA had the option to give them the NWN animation.

[skellytz]

I would guess sample 3 is the standard RGB, and perhaps sample 2 is the faux anti aliased?

So the correct answers are:

• Sample #1: anti-aliasing preserved (the best)
• Sample #2: faux anti-aliasing applied (surprisingly good enough)
• Sample #3: standard RGB-to-indexed (too jaggy)

 

This thread is becoming my monologue LOL

But I'd like to thank you for your unwavering interest in the project and all the support you've given!

[Graion Dilach]

contrary to IWD and PST animations, NWN animations cant be given the IS treatment.

 

Source?

 

NWN also has an extensive amount of audio feedback. While it makes sense to mix them with the IE sounds (the environmental audio probably should be kept from BG/IWD instead of copy-pasted from NWN), the main blocker on that front is that the IA 5.1 ports are rendered as a hodgepodge with some of them (like the aforementioned succubus) even having their 60 fps animations (instead of BG's 30 fps). They should be first rerendered to correct the frame pacing/lighting before reviewing/applying a sound resync.

 

I'm completely okay with redoing the sound sync (already got familiarized with aspects of the audio due the NWN soundsets of mine), but I haven't attempted to try out Artisan's own NWN animation toolkit yet to see how the rendering part works.

Edited by Graion Dilach, 16 January 2026 - 09:17 AM.

[Salk]

Hey, I had three for three! 

[Andrea C.]

@Graion Dilach

That was insightful

My source wasnt really a source as much as an uneducated assumption on my part. I figured NWNs sound sets would have a different structure from the Infinity Engines, and that therefore mapping them 1:1 would be impossible. I also assumed that all NWN animations had been ported without their accompanying sounds (my assumption was, in this case, highly uneducated and based solely on the fact that IA is not an audio mod and that most people dont seem to care about audio anyway.)

I would like nothing more than to have been wrong. NWN animations are pretty spiffy and Id love to use them to give my game a more varied appearancebut I would only do that if their attack sounds matched their respective animations frame by frame (IS spoiled me and I cant play any other way now.)

The inconsistent porting is something I was unaware of, but heres to hoping IA v6 will take care of it.

[Graion Dilach]

NWN's soundsets does have a different structure, but it is mostly matchable.

 

This is the CRE voice slot counterpart: https://nwn.wiki/dis...ts or Soundsets When it comes to intelligent creatures, it might require some creative role reassignment for a wide amount of feedback (like for example, the "guard me" option for the becoming leader reaction), but I already have a NWN voicepack in practice which includes almost all NWN1 voicesets to demonstrate how well it works on the EEs.

When it comes to weapons, NWN actually does a lot of things differently here - it basically classifies all weapons based on various properties and classifies the material hit by them, and then takes both these data in separate 2DAs to decide what sounds should be played. See 5.7.3 of https://nwn.wiki/dow...rmat.pdf?api=v2

This one obviously can't really be pulled over on an 1:1 basis since we don't have hit classes, but selecting one of the common targets and then timing that to the animation frame should still work - while that might sound like to not cover something like a bite attack, for such we can refer back to the "CRE voiceset" and combine these. (While modders have options to even tie sounds directly to animations, that's an NWNEE feature and as such, it's not used in the vanilla assets and I doubt it's used in resource packs like CEP.)

 

Besides, if the animation basically incorporates a weapon already existing in the IE games (e.g. the user has a warhammer), the primary choice should be to grab the game's sounds already associated with that weapon and time those to the imported animation for audio consistency afterall.

 

I also care about these details - although not such blind obsessively -, and in that regard I can understand if some of the current conversions are let down on audio timing. (Honestly, I haven't really bothered with reviewing the IA 5.1 NWN animations when it comes to sound sync though, because, again, I don't think there's a point in trying to fix the audio of assets which have frame timing issues already). Still, NWN provides more than enough legroom to deliver a comparable audio setup (and if it turns out that selected actions still miss out on audio feedback, well, it's not like one can't just source/create sfx either, also visual artists and sound designers are separate people in professional environments afterall). And timing is basically just a number to be set appropriate for each sound - but one can only set a number to existing sounds to begin with.

 

I can list you games people have ported animations from into the IEs which have so weak audio depth that yes, their audio must be entirely reconstructed, because the animations/actions outright lack audio. But NWN wouldn't be on my list.

Edited by Graion Dilach, 20 January 2026 - 05:23 PM.

[Andrea C.]

That is very interesting and insightful, thank you.

Im glad to hear those dapper NWN animations may indeed get IS-ified once IA 6 is released. Now Im even more excited to see how things develop

[Andrea C.]

Siege of Dragonspear adds hamatula devils. It would be nice if IA had the option to give them the NWN animation.

Forgot to mention: Siege of Dragonspear also adds displacer beasts, which could also be given the NWN animation.

Edited by Andrea C., 22 January 2026 - 11:13 AM.

[Isewein]

I *really* miss functions such as distinctive fiends or the diverse Sahuagin sprites on EE... not to mention the Shadow Thieves who looked properly menacing with their Ps:T animations. It's actually quite shocking that there doesn't seem to be much of a generally perceived need to adapt IA for the EEs. Is there no chance that the current state of the mod could be made available as a beta for the Enhanced Editions until all these revisions have been completed for a proper release?
 

 

One more thing to consider. Presently, planetars are using the solar animation. In the lore, however, they are green and have white wings. It would nice if the solar animation for the planetar could be recolored accordingly.
 
EDIT: Devas also confusingly use the solar animation. I believe in the lore they are pale-skinned and with white wings. It would be great if they could aldo be recolored. Note that TBP II also has astral and monadic devas.

 
RandomGraionTweaks offers a lore-friendly green Planetar install option (although to me personally it does not blend in well with the game, being based on the original Bioware solar animation which already looked out of place to begin with).

Edited by Isewein, 10 October 2026 - 01:19 PM.

[skellytz]

It's actually quite shocking that there doesn't seem to be much of a generally perceived need to adapt IA for the EEs. Is there no chance that the current state of the mod could be made available as a beta for the Enhanced Editions until all these revisions have been completed for a proper release?

I'd say there's a good chance for a new release somewhere in 2027. Our members' activity, feedback, and friendly attitude definitely help tap into some of the more recessed deposits of motivation to complete the project!

 

Currently, the EEs are a lower priority for me. When it comes to the visuals and audio, I think the originals are now superior, while the EEs actually suffer from quite a few issues (e.g. rendering glitches, upscaling artifacts, bugged sprite rotation, missing or overlapping sounds), limitations (e.g. inconsistent animation and paperdoll support), detrimental shortcuts (e.g. re-encoding all game audio from an already lossy format to another), and inexcusably removed features (e.g. EAX reverb). New opcodes, convenience, or tablet support just aren't enticing enough for me to forgo the atmosphere and esthetics of the originals.

 

Of course, I'm going to work on the EEs for the benefit of the community, but in order to renew my own interest in IE modding, I'd like my upcoming activity to revolve around my personal goal of offering an alternative to the EEs: a project that I've named Baldur's Gate: Faithfully Enhanced, which is playing the same old classic CRPG with integer scaling, mild anti-aliasing, EAX, and necessary fixes or improvements.

 

To this end, my first new release will be a new version of Infinity Sounds with the latest additions to the environmental and positional audio, including HRTF support (all based on my research on EAX in BG2). Then, I'd like to go back to 1pp, 1pp HQ Music, BGT, and Final Touch; these projects had to be put on a back burner several years ago, and now I feel an urge to resume them. Next, the new version of IA and the BAM 101 guide for modders.

 

I realize this doesn't sound as exciting to the EE fans, but with the recent completion of the Index of Mods, I should now do something that is more fun for me and less voluntary work for others

[eyre]

an alternative to the EEs: a project that I've named Baldur's Gate: Faithfully Enhanced, which is playing the same old classic CRPG with integer scaling, mild anti-aliasing, EAX, and necessary fixes or improvements.

As someone who only plays the originals, this is great to hear!  I'm looking forward to it.

[MikeX]

Same here.
@skellytz, thank you for all your efforts (not just regarding IA).

[Andrea C.]

Same here.
@skellytz, thank you for all your efforts (not just regarding IA).

+1

Edited by skellytz, Today, 09:30 AM.
fixed quote

[Isewein]

 I'd say there's a good chance for a new release somewhere in 2027. Our members' activity, feedback, and friendly attitude definitely help tap into some of the more recessed deposits of motivation to complete the project!

That is excellent news! I apologise if my above post came across as nagging... it's sometimes difficult to balance activity & feedback with the proper friendly attitude, but be assured that I was trying to bring all three to this brilliant mod and its maintainers.

Currently, the EEs are a lower priority for me. When it comes to the visuals and audio, I think the originals are now superior, while the EEs actually suffer from quite a few issues (e.g. rendering glitches, upscaling artifacts, bugged sprite rotation, missing or overlapping sounds), limitations (e.g. inconsistent animation and paperdoll support), detrimental shortcuts (e.g. re-encoding all game audio from an already lossy format to another), and inexcusably removed features (e.g. EAX reverb). New opcodes, convenience, or tablet support just aren't enticing enough for me to forgo the atmosphere and esthetics of the originals.
  

See, the unfortunate reality is that I actually agree. I was playing BGT still until recently myself, when a number of really interesting content expansions became available which, unfortunately, will probably never be ported to the originals since their modders have no interest in them. Besides, I can say that SoD is actually better than its reputation, after trying it out for a bit. But in pure engine terms yes, the originals are superior. Personally I hope that the community can avoid a situation in which some mods are only available on EE and others on BGT, which only serves to cause endless analysis paralysis before every new playthrough...