8 replies to this topic

[EricP]

After several months, I've been attempting a new installation of BGII - SoA with the ToB expansion (by way of GOG) under Windows 7 Ultimate. Previous installations with a long list of mods have been successful and enjoyable, but for reasons unknown to me, now many mods fail to install, so I can't complete my installation process.

 

I follow the BiG World installation guide very closely to maximize compatibility. In these current attempts, I get as far as installing 1PP 4.1 (from a previous game installation on another machine), but that mod fails to install unless I create a 1pp-setup.exe file by copying and renaming weidu.exe. If I don't do this, launching the installer provided by the mod opens a window, some text flashes by, and the window closes. Afterward, if I check weidu.log, there is no indication that the mod installed, or other mention of it.

 

The same happens to some other mods, but not all. Is there a solution to this problem that will allow me to install mods successfully?

[The Imp]

. Is there a solution to this problem that will allow me to install mods successfully?

Well, the problem on this is that you are manually installing mods...

Well, this is not to be threaded lightly.

 

The flash open-close happens because the setup-*modname*.exe needs to be updated the the latest version of weidu.exe, sometimes it failes and some times it succeeds, you might have missed the BWP's mention that you should extract all the mods into a separated folder before copy pasting them into the game folder .. this is because the setup-*modname*.exe are updated to the latest version of the weidu.exe this way automatically, in one single go, and for that, you don't want to autoinstall processes to freak the system and F it up. Well, this is of course if it succeeds. And the first mods setup-*modname*.debug will tell what happened, in aither case.

[EricP]

. Is there a solution to this problem that will allow me to install mods successfully?

Well, the problem on this is that you are manually installing mods...

Well, this is not to be threaded lightly.

 

The flash open-close happens because the setup-*modname*.exe needs to be updated the the latest version of weidu.exe, sometimes it failes and some times it succeeds, you might have missed the BWP's mention that you should extract all the mods into a separated folder before copy pasting them into the game folder .. this is because the setup-*modname*.exe are updated to the latest version of the weidu.exe this way automatically, in one single go, and for that, you don't want to autoinstall processes to freak the system and F it up. Well, this is of course if it succeeds. And the first mods setup-*modname*.debug will tell what happened, in aither case.

OK, so how do I get weidu.exe to update to the latest version? What puzzles me is that this behavior has never happened before, so I don't know what has changed significantly to cause it now.

 

I always d/l mods to a single, separate folder first, then extract them and place the extracted contents (usually a folder and a .exe file) into the /GOG Games/BGII - SoA folder on the C drive. In the case of a self-extracting archive, I of course copy that into the game folder, run it, then run that mod's installer.

[The Imp]

OK, so how do I get weidu.exe to update to the latest version? What puzzles me is that this behavior has never happened before, so I don't know what has changed significantly to cause it now.

Well, it'a likely to never to be seen before you run into a weidu.exe that fails to update. To fully manually do this, you extract the latest weidu archives weidu.exe(Windows Binary, the file is in the bin folders, for either 64-bit(amd64) or 32-bit(x86) OS ) from there into the game folder and run it with this command as a .bat file:

weidu.exe --update-all
pause

That will pause the dos -interface, so you can actually see what happened to the files. If it fails etc, you then just exit with Enter, and then you delete the files that failed to update and then you copy the weidu.exe and rename it to each of the failed files(their pid number is wrong). The last step is suggested to be done one-file at a time.

[EricP]

OK, so how do I get weidu.exe to update to the latest version? What puzzles me is that this behavior has never happened before, so I don't know what has changed significantly to cause it now.

Well, it'a likely to never to be seen before you run into a weidu.exe that fails to update. To fully manually do this, you extract the latest weidu archives weidu.exe(Windows Binary, the file is in the bin folders, for either 64-bit(amd64) or 32-bit(x86) OS ) from there into the game folder and run it with this command as a .bat file:

weidu.exe --update-all
pause

That will pause the dos -interface, so you can actually see what happened to the files. If it fails etc, you then just exit with Enter, and then you delete the files that failed to update and then you copy the weidu.exe and rename it to each of the failed files(their pid number is wrong). The last step is suggested to be done one-file at a time.

Not experienced with creating .bat files, but I understand the procedure. I suppose I need to place all mods I want to install in the game folder before running this, yes?

[The Imp]

I suppose I need to place all mods I want to install in the game folder before running this, yes?

Just the .exe's(the setup-*modname* primarily... but there's mods that also have *modname*-setup.exe's, and *modname*.exe's that are NOT self extracting auto archives.. ).
And .bat files are just text files(.txt) that have been renamed as .bat, and they contain MSdos coding(very similar like mods setup-*modname*.tp2 files are just text files that contain weidu code).

[EricP]

I suppose I need to place all mods I want to install in the game folder before running this, yes?

Just the .exe's(the setup-*modname* primarily... but there's mods that also have *modname*-setup.exe's, and *modname*.exe's that are NOT self extracting auto archives.. ).
And .bat files are just text files(.txt) that have been renamed as .bat, and they contain MSdos coding(very similar like mods setup-*modname*.tp2 files are just text files that contain weidu code).

As I suspected. I'm more comfortable with Mac OS X and UNIX, but alas, BGII runs MUCH better under Windows. I'll give this a try and post the results. Maybe name the file weidu.bat?

[The Imp]

Or just "weiduupdate.bat" ... .. there are horrible creatures created in here.

[EricP]

Success so far! The procedure resulted in successful installation of everything for BGII up to Tales of Anegh. I'm not installing any BGT or NEJ specific stuff, but my list of mods to install is extensive. Interestingly, a peek into override reveals a much smaller number of files than I expected. I suspect that SoS moved a great deal of files around, but I haven't poked around to find out. Will continue installing until the end, and try launching the game. Updates to follow.