35 replies to this topic

[Derkoth the Disgruntled]

Like I said, a custom one will do the trick easily enough...

[codebox]md OVER-WAV
move override\*.wav OVER-WAV
weidu --make-biff OVER-WAV
rd OVER-WAV /s /q
[/codebox]

If you use that, please, [i]please[/i] make sure you have a copy of WeiDU in your game folder. If you don't, your .wav files are deleted, and I don't know how to get 'em back. I made that mistake, at least twice.



DtD

Edited by Derkoth the Disgruntled, 12 July 2007 - 06:34 AM.

[Strontium Dog]

[quote name='Derkoth the Disgruntled' post='325726' date='Jul 12 2007, 03:33 PM']Like I said, a custom one will do the trick easily enough...

[codebox]md OVER-WAV
move override\*.wav OVER-WAV
weidu --make-biff OVER-WAV
rd OVER-WAV /s /q
[/codebox]

If you use that, please, [i]please[/i] make sure you have a copy of WeiDU in your game folder. If you don't, your .wav files are deleted, and I don't know how to get 'em back. I made that mistake, at least twice.



DtD[/quote]

(My previous post seems to have disappeared, so here it is again!) - Just wanted to say that my end-biffer mod worked beautifully and my game is A-OK. However, due to stupidity, I tried to copy the override folder to the desktop, but cut and pasted it instead - I know from past experience that if you mess around with files ina game-folder that there is a high chance of resulting errors, and I want as perfect a game, as is possible. So I'll have to do this mega-mod install, al over again. In the meantime, wouldn't it be a good idea to have this "end-biffer" mod be widely circulated to all the major groups(ie Pocket-Plane/Sorcerers.net etc.) so that people can be warned in advance re this? I've just realised that I've spent countless previous TOB+TDD games, with serious slowdowns in some areas, solely because I'd never heard of this "biffing tool" on any of the individual mod forums I visited.

One other question:- The Tactics mod component "Improved Small Teeth Pass" overwrites the Darkest Day part of that area. Would this cause a CTD if I entered that area, or would it just erase that Darkest Day PC, Vesine, and related encounters, without causing errors? I installed it previously via WEIDU, and there were no error-messages, though that isn't exactly 100% proof everything is OK.

[Derkoth the Disgruntled]

Is your end-biffer by any chance an older one that was posted in a BP forum? I recall Horred the Plague had a PreBPOverBiff batch file and a couple of other batch files posted somewhere, but they're not on my hard drive anymore. Doesn't matter so much, I'm just curious.

If you're reinstalling, you might want to check out this thread for tips on creating a mega-install batch file:

[post="Mega-Install Batch Files"]http://www.shsforums...showtopic=26710[/post]

Finally, the Small Teeth Pass, IIRC, had real issues with crashes. Maybe they're fixed in new releases, but if you're using the old Tactics that overwrites files instead of patching, you very likely will have problems there. Do a topic search on that one to see what comes up.



DtD

[Hoppy]

Thanks Azazello!
Hoppy

[Hoppy]

One other question:- The Tactics mod component "Improved Small Teeth Pass" overwrites the Darkest Day part of that area. Would this cause a CTD if I entered that area,

SD
Yeah I had this problem with BP going to Small Teeth Pass. It happened a couple times but I could CLUA there with no problem. Once I realized what the hell I was doing I put the difficulty on CORE or higher because of the BP encounters. It worked fine everytime after that. Tactics might be the same way (difficulty slider) although I haven't tried it.
Let us know in your tests/playthrough
Hoppy

[Strontium Dog]

I sorted out the slowdown solutions by using the end-biffer mod. I then installed again and had a situation where every time my PCs/NPCs went left towards the Rielev area after meeting the genie, the game would automatically CTD. Due to a commment on the Tactics mod readme re the Badlurdash remix causing this same bug, I decided to reinstall everything minus the BG2Fixpack beta-core component - and everything worked absolutely fine.

[Hoppy]

SD,
You are still in Chateau Irenicus? I salute you man for that mega "modster" you have. Please post your new weidu so others can see if they want something similar to yours. All in all. I got sick of installing this and that to end up being disappointed with gameplay or bugs or messed up dialogs/banters etc. That reminds me, I have to search the posts on this Small Teeth Pass Problem I am having again. Doesn't crash....just doesn't finish loading. Good luck on your new install and get out of Chateau Irenicus to see how the game runs after that.
Good Luck Strontium and have fun!!
Hoppy

[Oldwolf]

OK I know there was a big controversy over the biffing of the overide folder some time ago... I will now risk my neck with this post. I personally always biff after installing the final mod I intend to play. One point I would like to make is that if you do biff it makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to do any installation changes without causing major problems after you run a final biff. That said I will drop this file for those who wish to use it. It has a file called Biffinst.txt included with rather minimal instructions as its very simple to use. Just extract the files in the zip to your bg2 directory, ensuring that weidu.exe is in that directory then run the owfbiff.bat file. This will Biff EVERYTHING in the overide forlder that are in recognized Infinity Engine file formats ... ie Baf, bcs, dlg, are etc etc .... my running of this usually leaves me with about a 1 meg overide folder size and it's my personal opinion that it helps reduce game slow down but that's my personal view of the situation. For those who wish to give this a shot I'll attach the file. One other note, the very LAST thing this tries to biff is *.mov files (which usually aren't in the overide folder any longer) so there is a message about file not found/or duplicate file present which is normal and expected so there's no reason to panic if you see that message at the end of the run. One other note the DelDir.bat will run automatically to clear the temp folders created during the biff process you don't need to run it manually.


 OWBiff.zip   1006bytes   259 downloads

Edited by Oldwolf, 29 March 2008 - 06:56 AM.

[Strontium Dog]

SD,
You are still in Chateau Irenicus? I salute you man for that mega "modster" you have. Please post your new weidu so others can see if they want something similar to yours. All in all. I got sick of installing this and that to end up being disappointed with gameplay or bugs or messed up dialogs/banters etc. That reminds me, I have to search the posts on this Small Teeth Pass Problem I am having again. Doesn't crash....just doesn't finish loading. Good luck on your new install and get out of Chateau Irenicus to see how the game runs after that.
Good Luck Strontium and have fun!!
Hoppy

I'm afraid I was somewhat premature in stating that my mega-mod was absolutely fine. Luckily, I'd decided to start off BG2 with the same XPs(and triple-classed Fighter/Wild-Mage/Thief) character, and I found that the cloudkill I loosed(as level 9th wild-mage) had certain bizarre animations(a series of minute versions of the cloudkill image, each minor image set into a green rectangle. Even worse, the cloudkill-images all fizzled out after a couple of seconds, whereas it's supposed to last a lot longer. I've checked through a large number of other spells for that particular install, and they all seem to be fine. My suspicion is that the animation issue is caused by my using the BG2TweakPack component "Icewind Dale Spell-Casting Graphics" or it could be the spell-animations of other spell-altering mods which foul up the BG2FixPack animation-install. Anyway, I'll post my current WEIDU install in a couple of hours, just ignore the spell-altering/spellpack-type mods for now, and you should have a pretty good install.

So far I've come across a few basic rules as regards getting a 99.9% bug-free install - don't install the Big Picture, don't install BG2FixPack Core-fixes or the werewolf component, don't install any component which might conflict with BG2Fixpack(I'm almost tempted to use the old Baldurdash instead, at times) - as for the Small-Teeth Pass component of Tactics, I've wisely decided to drop it - I've already got 8 other dragons in the SOA part of the game, what with "Deeper Shadows Of Amn" imod installed, so I can always CLUAConsole them in, as soon as my PCs arrive in the Small-Teeth Pass area.

[Chevalier]

I think you mean not install BG2FixPack Beta Core-fixes and it you use Baldurdash-WeiDU use version 1.5 with the Mega Mod install.

[Hoppy]

Downloading....... Unpacking. Oldwolf, does the deldir.bat need to be run too? I ran the OWBIFF and seems to be fine. Now what about uninstallation of mods? Will there be more difficulties uninstalling. Usually I just use my backups of original install and patch...Data, override, BGmain, chitin, and dialogtlk after I uninstall the mods and clear out the remaiing data from the old installations.
Thanks for this little treat! I will try the game later but, usually my major slowdowns are with the dragons mostly or any big battles. It is like watching a football game in play by play slowmotion. .
Hoppy

[Strontium Dog]

I've just done a partial installation, and have found out that the minor spell-altering mods I'd installed hadn't had the cloudkill spell animations altered. Thus, I am now absolutely certain that the Icewind Dale Casting Graphics" component of BG2Tweaks mod was resposible for fouling up the cloudkill spell, previously - besides, now I've realised that I was already incorporating some IceWind-Dale casting graphics with the Spell-Pack mod, which may well have caused a conflict.

I'll be installing everything all over again, this evening, and will post my WEIDU log, tomorrow (up till now, I've been installing the various mods while listening to music on the computer or playing DVDs at the same time, and I'm slightly worried that the extra strain on the computer's performance might potentially have fouled up one or two installed BG2 files, in the process). I'll post any bugs that occur with the installation as I go through the game, if they occur, but I'm pretty confident, now, that everything will turn out fine. Just one word of caution:- there is one item-file "DEITM049" from the SPItem folder, which blocks the installation of the "Creature and Area Improvements" component of DoTQuestPack(or DoTweak?) - just delete it from the override folder, and the installation will continue with no problems.

Re biffing:- I use the "End-Biffer" mod - it works fine and it also includes an option where, for an extra 2 GB, you can uninstall it.(though I don't recommend uninstalling/reinstalling as that usually fouls things up a little).

[Hoppy]

Virtual memory too low. I have had some instances where the installation fails at some point because I got the aforementioned message. Which leads me to believe it does make a difference but depends on the machine. I think it would be safer to let weidu install and run those files without any interference so nothing becomes corrupt. Sure it might install everything but some of those files may be damaged. Just a suggestion.
Hoppy

[Shaun]

Sorry to ressurect an old thread but I recently had quite a bit of lag on my megamod. I searched the boards and tried dumping all my bags, kicking out every party member, turning off the ambiance, lowering the settings to minimum, even took the plunge and tried editing the baldur.bcs, all to no avail.

I perservered however and soon ran into a quest concerning a Lord Salimdanich who liked to kill children. After a fairly tough battle he went down, and my game went from pausing every other second to running without a hitch. Just something I thought people who encounter similar problems might like to know.

[maximus2001]

Which mod is that character from? Just wondering because despite following all advice biffing, etc. that you mentioned there is considerable lag in my game as well. I am pretty sure its some quest trigger or timer for Saerelith or Robillard (TDD) so I'm waiting it out. Of course its also possible its that dude you mentioned...

[Shaun]

Which mod is that character from? Just wondering because despite following all advice biffing, etc. that you mentioned there is considerable lag in my game as well. I am pretty sure its some quest trigger or timer for Saerelith or Robillard (TDD) so I'm waiting it out. Of course its also possible its that dude you mentioned...

I've almost certainly spelt the guys name wrong but hes part of the Knights of Dark Renown portion of Revised Battles. According to the readme he spawns when you hit level 15 and return to Athkatla.