6 replies to this topic

[colo]

I own several copies of all the Infinity Engine games, and recently bought them for the, I don't know, maybe 15th time or so off of gog.com for added convenience of not having to have optical media present to be able to play the games. Now I'd like to get started with BGT once again, and I was wondering if it's possible to distill a BGT-WeiDU-Setup out of the games as packaged and installed by their GOG.com distributions and installers?

Thanks a bunch in advance for letting me know

Btw, since I am at it - what are the most essential Fix- and Tweak-Packs to incorporate into BGT? (I prefer sticking to Pen&Paper AD&D rules-wise and to the original bioware-envisioned experience content-wise, mostly, if that's an issue).

[fearless]

Should be possible to use GOG for it.

I recently installed BGT-Weidu myself and after couple of attempts, got it going. This is what i did to get it created

- Install BGI + Addon, BGII + Addon
- Install patches
- Install NO-CD Cracks (Not applicable if DRM is already removed: GOG et al)
- Run both games, create saves to initialize any stuff the engine needs.

What you should do is install both games and both addons (to different directories), and then patch them with the best patches, the (the BG1&BGTotSC v1.3.)5512, and (BGII - SoA & ToB v2.5.)26498, and then start both games with a one of the pre-made characters(import) so tha games make an auto-save after which you can quit them. 

- Installed Games (See above)

- Installed BGII-Fixpack

- Installed BGT-WeiDu

- Installed BGT-Tweaks

- Installed BGII-Tweaks

- Installed FontMod v2.0 (Bigger Fonts For High Resolutions)
  Copied floattxt.bam, normal.bam and toolfont.bam to C:\BGT\BGII - SoA\override folder

- Installed Yovaneth replacement lightmaps for Baldurs Gate I

- Installed other mods (See BGT-Weidu Compatability Topic)
  - DSoTSC
  - NToTSC
  - DarkHorizons
  - SOA
  - Sirens Call
  - BG1 Unfinished Business
  - Baldur's Gate Mini Quests and Encounters

- Installed BP-BGT Worldmap

- Installed BGT-GUI mod (Setup-GUI.exe is auto created by BGT-Weidu in C:\BGT\BGII - SoA after BGT-Weidu finishes)

- Installed BGT-Music (Setup-BGTMusic.exe is auto created by BGT-Weidu in C:\BGT\BGII - SoA after BGT-Weidu finishesset to BGI music whilst i play BGI)

- Installed Widescreen-mod

Once BGT-Weidu is installed, copy any mod your installing into the BGII - SoA folder (i made the mistake of putting them into BGI the first time round) and run setup.exe's from there.

Look at the readmes that are prompted to display when you install a particular mod. It will show you the list of things that can be installed, if your going for pnp style, then accept the core fixes for any that prompt for it, and optionally choose the other stuff as suits - some are definitely worth having that wont break the essence of the pnp style your looking for.

[colo]

Thanks, that was very helpful! I think I'll be doing the install today in the evening, will report back here if it worked out OK using GOG's distribution!

[jedi21]

[quote name='fearless' date='23 January 2011 - 02:37 PM' timestamp='1295789862' post='505947']
I recently installed BGT-Weidu myself and after couple of attempts, got it going. This is what i did to get it created

[code=auto:0]- Install BGI + Addon, BGII + Addon
- Install patches (the BG1&BGTotSC v1.3.)5512, and (BGII - SoA & ToB v2.5.)26498
[/quote]

Hi Fearless, what language (US or International English) should patches for GOG be?

I've read BG and BGII are already delivered fully updated by GOG, so are just the expansions (TotSC & ToB) that I need to patch?

Thanks

[rbx4]

[quote name='jedi21' date='29 January 2011 - 09:23 AM' timestamp='1296258814' post='506565']
[quote name='fearless' date='23 January 2011 - 02:37 PM' timestamp='1295789862' post='505947']
I recently installed BGT-Weidu myself and after couple of attempts, got it going. This is what i did to get it created

[code=auto:0]- Install BGI + Addon, BGII + Addon
- Install patches (the BG1&BGTotSC v1.3.)5512, and (BGII - SoA & ToB v2.5.)26498
[/quote]

Hi Fearless, what language (US or International English) should patches for GOG be?

I've read BG and BGII are already delivered fully updated by GOG, so are just the expansions (TotSC & ToB) that I need to patch?

Thanks
[/quote]

Yes, the gog.com installations are fully patched. The expansions are also patched. I had all of this working on a gog.com installation lately. It usually runs without any problems.

edit: As a direct answer to your questions: don't patch anything on the gog.com installations.

To run something like Big World, you'll need to have the CD5 folder as well. Plus, you'll need to create a file with the name BG2-ToBPatchReadMe.txt in your BG2 folder. For some reason, the gog.com installation does not include these files.

Edited by rbx4, 28 January 2011 - 10:59 PM.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Yes, the gog.com installations are fully patched. The expansions are also patched.

Well, the original form of a patch usually has to be made so that it includes a few relevant features, as such as putting a .txt file to that game directory, and if that's not meat, you have just not patched the game to it's full specifics... Or call that the wrong version if you like, and then you have version number ugliness.

This is the reason why you should install the official patches, no matter what 'version' you originally had. And by the way, the patches can be applied to already patched games, so there is no cross contamination, unless you go put mods in to the mix.
For these reasons, fearless put the instructions like he did. I only have to add to those instructions that the Windows Operation Systems have their own mediocrities, and you should read this if you have Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola, 29 January 2011 - 12:52 AM.

[rbx4]

Well, the following post is likely going to be boring to all but 1 or 2 people, but it does satisfy the semantic level that we're at right now and does need to be said in order to ensure precision and to make sure that we get to the bottom of things:

In further answer to jedi21's question: try the U.S. English patches if you're going to patch. Point #4 below explains this suggestion.

1. Apparently what gog.com did was delete and rename a few files. This means that they are providing their own special installation, and not an official version.

2. The difference between an installation and version number is that official version numbers are, by convention, assigned to official Bioware releases and patches. All other changes to the game are "different installations." We can give different installations our own special version numbers, but those are, by necessity, arbitrary and unofficial. There is an effectively infinite number of installations that can be produced by having 3rd parties delete, add, or modify files, and so nobody can number them all in an internally consistent manner. Instead, installations get arbitrary names or numbers, if they are indicated at all. The gog.com installation is not an official version, but instead is what we call it, the "gog.com installation of program x." If gog.com assigns a number to their installations (I don't believe they give us those), then that would still be independent of all other installation indicators because it could be identical to them but produced by different people. If we want to give the gog.com installations consistent and useful indicators, we therefore have to give the download date and time, the way that all other useful Internet citations are done.

3. I know that the gog.com downloads are patched because for ToB, the gold and silver ioun stones (helm23 and helm25) and Deidre (wmart2.cre) are there in the right spots, plus all other patch 26498 changes are apparently there. For the BG1 TotSC installation, oddly enough, the patch 1.3.5521 readme is included--this implies that different guidelines were followed in preparing the different program downloads. I'm not sure exactly what files were excluded, and therefore I can't vouch for exactly what problems may crop up in installing mods. All I can say is that mods seem to work fine and apparently fail only when user error is to blame.

3.1. Strangely enough, I cannot find keymap.ini.ToBpatch.backup in my installation either. I don't know if gog.com deleted it or whether they "patched" things using a different means. edit: or it never existed with the way they patched it.

3.2. Another oddity: the Tob patch readme is not missing, but is instead renamed. It was renamed to ReadMe_addon_patch.txt.

4. There are no incidences of British English spellings in the Bioware dialogues of the gog.com installation. This indicates that the International English releases and patches were not used. You won't find spellings such as "colour" if you search through the dialogues.

5. One has to find CD5\Movies\25Movies.bif (at least) in order to get Big World installed (this is to clarify my earlier statement). This file is actually included in the installation (I am correcting myself here) in a different directory [edit: data\movies\]. Create the right folder (CD5\Movies\) in the installation directory and copy the file to there. There is an ongoing thread on this subject at the gog.com forums. I can verify that this currently works.

Edited by rbx4, 29 January 2011 - 07:35 PM.