10 replies to this topic

[Archmage Silver]

I can't remember if these have been posted before, but even if they have been, I don't think they've been gathered in one place before, so here you go. These are the alternative "early" versions of the Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn NPC portraits (+1 half-orc) by BioWare. I grabbed these gems from the bonus disc included with my Baldur's Gate II: The Collection box.

Some of the changes are more noticeable than others, but obviously the skin tones have been toned down for all the portraits later in development. Personally I think that most of the female portraits actually looked better early on. And yes, they mirrored Edwin! The alternatives are on the left, and the originals (used in the game) are on the right. Here's a 7-Zip archive with the alternatives in BMP format as well:

 BG2BioAltPortraits.7z   2.61MB   908 downloads

[Epantiras]

Interesting! But somehow I expected to see Yoshi's older portrait, as seen in some veeery old pre-release screenshots (and also seen in... was it Unfinished Business?)
Anyway... I wonder why they've mirrored Edwin!

[berelinde]

Maybe you wear the nose-ring in the other nostril if you don't like paladins?

[Miloch]

At first I thought this was one of those pub games where you're supposed to spot the difference between two photos, and it's like impossible to see any. But after staring a bit, I see that (apart from Edwin and Anomen) they dulled the orangey skintones a bit. Which is, in the case of characters like Viconia and the half-orc who didn't have much to begin with, still pretty hard to spot.

[Archmage Silver]

Interesting! But somehow I expected to see Yoshi's older portrait, as seen in some veeery old pre-release screenshots (and also seen in... was it Unfinished Business?)
Anyway... I wonder why they've mirrored Edwin!

Yeah, Yoshimo had a different portrait in the beta version of BGII. UB has had the option to restore that portrait since version 8... I haven't seen the beta portrait in any official game releases so far though (bonus discs et al).

At first I thought this was one of those pub games where you're supposed to spot the difference between two photos, and it's like impossible to see any. But after staring a bit, I see that (apart from Edwin and Anomen) they dulled the orangey skintones a bit. Which is, in the case of characters like Viconia and the half-orc who didn't have much to begin with, still pretty hard to spot.

Yeah, most of the changes are pretty subtle, a telltale sign of the fact that the portraits were almost complete at the time. Anomen's changes are probably the most obvious ones, what with the scar, aging and a different shirt. Cernd's armor is actually different if you take a closer look at it, as is Minsc's. Same with Nalia. Imoen is missing a hairband, and her hairdo is a bit different.

Most of the changes are minute stuff like that, but I think it's pretty interesting to see how the portraits developed, especially the Anomen one (even though I still don't like the guy). Although I guess I've obsessed over the Infinty Engine game art for so many years now that none of this is a surprise to anyone.

[Yovaneth]

So far as all that scarring goes, the leftside portrait of Imoen is most realistic. Someone once truthfully said that you can't get a scar like the one in the rightside portrait without losing an eye. I've gotten a fair collection of facial scars over the years (if you haven't got any then you can't have been doing anything ! ) and one set comes from a dog bite. Four teeth - four scars. One through each lip, over my right eye (deflected by the ridge bone) and one under my right eye (deflected by the cheekbone). Neither of the two top scars came anywhere near my eye and that dog's jaws must have been sweeping through a much smaller arc than any sword blade. It beats me why people fail to think about contact points when they start putting ugly great scars on portraits after all the time they spent creating the unblemished picture in the first place.

-Y-

[princesspurpleblob]

Thanx a lot for uploading I actually think the earlier versions look much better than one used in game.

[Cal Jones]

You're right, Yovaneth - she should have a blind eye there - or a less obvious scar. I have one that runs below my left eyebrow (I ran into the corner of a table as a toddler) but it's horizontal, not vertical.

Some of the scarring, in general, is a bit over the top - some scars leave indentations but most tend to be pale and flat (like the one under my lip from where my tooth went right through - another childhood falling over accident!)

The Aerie portraits are indistinguishable but some of the others have more definition - Valygar and Nalia, for instance. Nalia's gem and armour change colour, too.

Thanks for posting, AS.

[LC Gregorian]

Of course, Imoen may well HAVE lost that eye at one point. There is magical healing in the game, after all. ;-)

I'm reminded of all the folks who complained about Aerie giving birth in ToB - "There's no labor pain! Have you ever seen a woman give birth?" Well, I've never seen an ELF woman give birth. Maybe the kid was only 8 oz. or so as a normal elven / half-elven newborn?

[Zireael]

Of course, Imoen may well HAVE lost that eye at one point. There is magical healing in the game, after all. ;-)

I'm reminded of all the folks who complained about Aerie giving birth in ToB - "There's no labor pain! Have you ever seen a woman give birth?" Well, I've never seen an ELF woman give birth. Maybe the kid was only 8 oz. or so as a normal elven / half-elven newborn?

Re: Imoen - that's true.
Re: Aerie - not true. She moans a lot in that scene.

[gtxman]

How could I install these and use them ingame?