13 replies to this topic

[pewbeng]

Hello SHS

I would really care for a mod that adds portraits to non-party-NPCs. Like, Aran Linvail, the Bloodscalp guy, Mae'var.. Maybe a generic one for the cowled wizards.. The evil druid witch, whatshername.

Those are just some characters that come to mind and I just realize again and again(The idea has been wandering around in my head since I made first contact with bg2 mods in 2002): It would add so much more depth if someone would make such a mod.

The portraits wouldn't even necessarily need to be manufactured individually, as there are enough fitting "Portraits" to be found on the internet already. (Of course one would need the authorisation of the artist, but I can't imagine that would be a major problem)



My two cents. Ooo, and if my english makes your head hurt, it's because I'm not a native speaker and I apologize hereby.

Greetings,
pewbeng

[Emzeror]

Find me portraits and I can easily add them for you in a mod

It is not really hard if you put some time in it, it can look crazy before you get the "plong" in your head. Basically you only need to write one line in a ".tp2" file and copy it over and over again. (Now I don't really remember the line but something like WRITE_ASCII 0x....).

But back to the topic, bring out some portraits and I can get it done for you, pretty busy currently, so don't really have time to find portraits

[Ilmatar]

I've been thinking of painting portraits (and thus making a portrait mod) for important NPC's outside the party - like the thieves you mentioned, and definately Saemon and some others. My alternative NPC portraits come first, however. So far I haven't heard of any portrait mods such as this, but I would be interested in one as well.

Edited by Ilmatar, 19 February 2008 - 12:53 PM.

[pewbeng]

All I could actually contribute to such a mod is searching for pictures that would fit. I don't really have a clue regarding *anything* IE-mod related


So, if there are even more people interested, raise your hand and we can start a little brainstorming session to find the characters that qualify for their own portrait. I think this would be an adequate first step.




I'll start right away to keep the potential workflow going


Aran Linvail
Phaere
Ellesime
that Ribald-Guy
Artemis Entreri
Firkraag
Kangaxx
Drizzt Do'Urden
Lilarcor(That'll be an easy one )
Renal Bloodscalp

+as mentioned before, generic portraits. For the sahuagin, the cowled wizards, illithids...


Umm, I've so far only been lurking on the consumer-end of this forum, without an own account even. Could anyone explain to me how to usually get mod-ideas to turn into something more serious? What's the process there?
The getting-the-mods-crew-together forum is this one, right?




Greetings,
pewbeng

[Kulyok]

Modlist has all the answers: here you go.

[Ilmatar]

Isn't Entreri a mod-character? But Jarlaxle is there originally.

[Kulyok]

Entreri is there, spawned via console; Unfinished Business does(or does not, it's an optional component) add him into the game. He's not in the vanilla game, however.

[Daulmakan]

aVENGER's Rogue Rebalancing also adds a bunch of portraits for several of the game's non joinable NPCs, among other goodies.

[Rabain]

The BG2CPM (character portrait mod) that I put together, link above in Kulyok's post gives portraits to all non-player characters that are not assigned portraits in the original game..or were assigned portraits that don't exist.

Thats over 1800 portraits, so essentially the only characters that won't have portraits are ones added by mods where the author hasn't assigned a portrait.

If a mod has assigned a portrait to a character and is installed before BG2CPM, then I will not replace the portrait assigned by the mod.

Feedback on portrait appropriateness is appreciated as I couldn't handpick all 1800+ nor do I have knowledge of personality of every nj-npc in the game!

Enjoy!

[pewbeng]

The BG2CPM (character portrait mod) that I put together, link above in Kulyok's post gives portraits to all non-player characters that are not assigned portraits in the original game..or were assigned portraits that don't exist.

Thats over 1800 portraits, so essentially the only characters that won't have portraits are ones added by mods where the author hasn't assigned a portrait.

If a mod has assigned a portrait to a character and is installed before BG2CPM, then I will not replace the portrait assigned by the mod.

Feedback on portrait appropriateness is appreciated as I couldn't handpick all 1800+ nor do I have knowledge of personality of every nj-npc in the game!

Enjoy!

I just had a look at your mod and like it very much. A question though: The pictures in the "BG2CPM\portraits\unique" folder... are those all the handpicked ones? If so, i very much plan on helping you extend this mod by supplying you with portraits and ideas for the corresponding characters, if allowed/wanted


Greetings,

pewbeng

[Rabain]

No the unique portraits where ones I just thought of off the top of my head when I was browsing through the portrait files.

The others were broken down as much as possible into the categories you see in the folders. By race, gender and class, I sorted the portraits as best I could and then just randomly assigned based on the creature race, gender and class in the cre file.

It wasn't a very exciting task to do! I can only improve it by people using the mod and commenting on inappropriate portraits, I'll do my best to fix these in each version.

The first of the changes for v2 can be seen here.

[pewbeng]

No the unique portraits where ones I just thought of off the top of my head when I was browsing through the portrait files.

The others were broken down as much as possible into the categories you see in the folders. By race, gender and class, I sorted the portraits as best I could and then just randomly assigned based on the creature race, gender and class in the cre file.

It wasn't a very exciting task to do! I can only improve it by people using the mod and commenting on inappropriate portraits, I'll do my best to fix these in each version.

The first of the changes for v2 can be seen here.

I'm starting another run-through right now and will make notes if I stumble upon any "inapproriate" portraits and send it to you after I'm finished.




For starters: Rampah, the beggar that helps you solving the skinner quest in the bridge district does not look as poor as I imagined..Digged a little:

Attached Files

•  Rampah.bmp   6.85K   285 downloads

Edited by pewbeng, 21 February 2008 - 07:44 PM.

[Linaze]

Rabain, I've tried the mod and I like the idea. But I would rather see some quality before quantity. I mean for example some NPCs have green cloth without a hood, on the portrait there is a different type of charachter with a red hood. Try focus on the main charachters, Aran Linvail, Valen etc. You can use the existing WeiDU portrait for Valen for example.

pewbeng, when there already is a mod out there, why not cooperate with the author and take some time together to match them up? Still like the idea thought.

[Rabain]

Personally I think most people would prefer a mod that adds portraits to everyone (but might have some inappropriate portraits) instead of one that adds 10 handpicked portraits that not everyone will agree on anyway.

I don't have the time to release 150 versions adding 10 portraits at a time so I did it this way.

As for the mismatch of hoods etc on creatures and portraits, while I agree in a perfect world someone would have time to check the creature colour on every creature in the game and handpick a portrait that both matches the class, race, gender and colour of the creature I think it would be a very time consuming project. Considering some of these creatures you will never meet or never talk to I can't justify the time spent on the research (not that I wouldn't like to do it...in that pefect world I spoke of earlier).

I think my method is the balance between quality and quantity...and now that the quantity is done...quality can always be improved!

Quantity doesn't always imply a lack of quality either...just the chance of a higher number of errors due to volume.