240 replies to this topic

[The Imp]

Tomkaz, I advise you not to install Widescreen.

Yeah, and I advice everyone to use it.

The reasons you gave would have a point if the game had a proper centeralize camera to the player character with no other options ... like they have a camera mode in the console version and you had no mouse ... but that's not classic BG2, where you move the camera. And what about the 1/5th of the unused screen space. We use the widescreen mod to play the game with widescreen screen ration monitors. So rather than the "vanilla" 1024x768 resolution(or 640x480, or 800x600), you can play the game in 1280x768 resolution for example.

 

Come and show me how you first rationalize and then play the game in a vanilla resolution with a ultra widescreen monitor(21x9).

[Sergio]

All what you've said is cool, but Vlad has a widescreen monitor and actually advises against it.

And no, it's not a panacea to all evils as you seem to describe

Said this, that's BWP topic, so I won't comment further on this.

[The Imp]

All what you've said is cool, but Vlad has a widescreen monitor and actually advises against it.

Erhm, but that is not this:
 

 I'm playing the max allowed standard resolution of 1024×768 with the widescreen. This way, I get the image filling the entire screen. It's wider than the original picture, but much larger, which I really like. The picture occupies the entire screen of 24" wide display. I really like it. Look in YouTube.

It was a one case advice... not over all advice AGAINT it's usage.
By the by, the recording is done with 1280 × 720 recording(720p60 HD). Aka 16:9 widescreen resolution. And so, when said display shows the entire view, it's done with Widescreen mod. 
And we are not even talking about monitor and graphic card compatibility ... cause people have setups that do not extend well to old resolution settings. Or at all... as it depends on the graphic card settings.
 
I might agree if one said that one should use their own judgement to set their resolution settings. But the usage of the widescreen mod is to improve it as a tool, to give more options.
I play all my games with 3940x2160 resolution from a 28" monitor... but I don't play BG2 at this time... when I did, I set the resolution to 1920x1080 with widescreen mod ... but I have good eyes, with glasses.

And no, it's not a panacea to all evils as you seem to describe

But it is, see instead of limiting to 3 resolutions: 640x480, or 800x600, or 1024x768 resolution, you can:
Choose anything including those to anything above 642x482(in BG2). Say you have a ultrawide display(21:9), you just choose one of these: 2560x1080, 3440x1440, 3840x1600 ... or one of the unofficial, like 1680x720 and 1400x600. And you can even flip the screen to it's side and use the reverse settings(1600x3840,1440x3440, 1080x2560, 720x1680).

Edited by The Imp, 30 October 2019 - 12:40 AM.

[ckoe]

Hello !

 

So, I made some more tests. I just started Generalized Biffing in the failed install by hand and I got a game which would start and where I could get to the FAI in BG1 and move around Irenicus dungeon in BG2. So far so good.

 

To investigate further where the problems come from I added some echo statements in close2.bat. The "fail_end.png" screenshot attached shows the close2.bat with the echo lines and the command window output before the error happens (it is exactly the same error at the same position as in the screenshot in my previous post). As you can see there is the echo from before trim_IDS.bat but not the one from before trim_KitIDS.bat.  I am confused by the "next file ..." output, so I am not sure if the actual problem might be in trim_IDS.bat or in trim_KitIDS.bat. I hope Leonardo Watson can understand it.

 

The system monitor showed always more than 3 GByte free main memory during the whole install procedure.

 

So, Leonardo Watson can you (or someone else) suggest a way to proceed ? I can try to debug this further but you have to tell me how. Or I would also be highly interested in a procedure to re-start from this point, i.e. run the missing steps and the generalized biffing.

 

I attach a second screenshot, "f1.png". This is an error I get when I try to run the "check free disk space" step at the beginning. Maybe vbs scripting has changed in windows10 ? I am not sure, I try to avoid windows if possible (which unfortunately is not the case here :-) ).

 

Best Regards

 

EDIT: From my understanding of close2.bat there are only two steps relevant to my install before generalized biffing because I neither have Region of Terror nor Spellpack6 nor W_GUI installed. These two steps are trim_IDS.bat and trim_KitIDS.bat. It would be a very big help if I could run these two (or at least trim_KitIDS.bat assuming that trim_IDS.bat was ok) manually to narrow down the problem and/or finalize the install.

Attached Images

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Edited by ckoe, 28 October 2019 - 07:59 AM.

[ckoe]

Instead of editing again: After starting to understand trim_IDS.bat I believe the install fails in there and not related to trim_KitIDS.bat. I will make a new try tomorrow removing the ```@echo off``` from trim_IDS.bat and adding an echo (I hope I get it to work) for the name of the IDS file in the override. Does that make sense ? Or is there a better and more precise way ?

[tomkaz]

Hi All:

 

I think I am getting dementia as I am having memory problems. But, this morning I did remember something I did with Widescreen Mod that allows you to get the perfect game picture.  If after you install your game and the screen picture is too large or too small, you can change the size.  For example.  I used Widescreen to make my game picture 1600x900 pixels.  I thought that made everything too small.  So I opened 'setup-widescreen.exe'.  There I could remove the 1600x900 pixel screen and reinstall a 1280x720 pixel screen.  Yes, it took about 30 minutes.  But nothing else can do that.  And you can do it as often as you want. It is simple to do and nothing in the game gets messed up.  So like The Imp, I also advise every one to use Widescreen.

 

Tom

[ckoe]

Hello everybody,

 

I have the results with the echo statements now.

 

The first screenshot (trim_error.png) shows the command window with the error and the additional output from the echo statements on the left side and most of the modified trim_IDS.bat (so that one can see the location of the echos) on the right side. So the script fails directly after apparently moving "override\stats.IDS" to "override\stats.IDS.bak" when trying to execute :trimright (!, trimleft is finished at that point).

 

The second screenshot (stats.png) shows the "override\stats.IDS.bak" file, the "override\stats.IDS" has zero bytes size (windows hides extensions unfortunately). The .bak appears to have an empty first line, apart from that it looks fine to me. Would it be ok to upload the actual file ?

 

At this point I really need some input from people understanding the file formats and eventually someone can shed a light on the question why there is an empty first line (which I assume is the problem). Also, how to proceed here ? I could try to introduce a pause statement in close2.bat, manipulate the files and the unpause ?

 

Best Regards

 

EDIT: Looking more closely the first line is not empty but contains a single white space. I simply attach the file now in zipped form (because the forum software does not let me upload it without) together with the current weidu.log.

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Attached Files

•  WeiDU.log   41.72K   149 downloads
•  stats.IDS.bak.zip   3.55K   127 downloads

Edited by ckoe, 29 October 2019 - 10:18 AM.

[ckoe]

Hello !

 

I started to build up the installation basically one by one mod according to the Big World Project guide now. I run a full installation after adding only one or a few mods. With minimal mods, i.e. only bgt and section 1 of the guide, the installation is successfull. I expect to be able to pin down why it failed previously with this procedure, although it will take some time.

 

Best Regards

[Leonardo Watson]

The trim.bat works well for several years and douzens of times. The empty line is required because otherwise the batch does not work correctly. Unfortunately I don't remember why.
I think I found your issue. Your computer tries to read the file faster than it is written - therefore the zero bytes. For this reason the installer makes a small pause after every mod but not after the trim function. I will add a pause to this batch file at weekend. This should solve the problem.

To continue the installation delete in the individual.bat all lines regarding already installed mods up to the latest installed mod and start the install.bat again.

[ckoe]

Hello Leonardo Watson !

 

Thank you for looking into this issue. But please wait a moment with any work. There are a few things which I discovered in the meantime.

 

The current state is that I have nearly all mods included and did not have that problem again. The mods missing are essentially stratagems 32.6 (which I assume you cannot test) and Jarls BGT Tweak pack (which I will probably remove in the end, but for testing it goes back in). Also I had an old copy of BG1 UB, version 14 instead of 16.

 

Looking at your install guide I see that there is a potential problem with components 2160 to 2164 from Tweaks Anthology with Jarls BGT Tweak pack. My original individual.bat had component 2163 instead of 2160. The warning is about 2161 and 2162, but in hindsight this does not imply 2163 is save to use. If you check the stats.ids I posted there are seveal lines mapping the same number to different weapon proficiencies. I am not sure if that is ok, but I do not like it especially missile and melee weapons mapping to the same number. So I would like to make sure, if possible, that it is neither a stratagems problem nor a problem with the combination of mods and option 2163.

 

The install is on an external USB3 rotating hard disk (otherwise I would destroy the internal SSD pretty fast I fear). Assuming I can reproduce the problem in the new setup, everything else would be a bit embarassing, I can add a timeout command in the batch file and test.

 

This will take a few more days. I will report back with the results ! Thank you very much again.

 

Edit: changed the broken formatting.

 

Edit2: According to the weidu.logs BG1 UB was at version 16 all the time. Will have to check the logs very carefully again.

Edited by ckoe, 31 October 2019 - 03:08 AM.

[tomkaz]

Hi All:

 

Life is miserable.  Probably because I make a lot of mistakes with an very old brain.

 

Tried to install two games yesterday.  Only changed one mod in one and only changed one component in the other.  They were based on a megamod game that installed and worked.  Both failed. 

 

Looking for Unfinished Business for BGII v27rc1.   The author already erased it and replaced it with v27 which I have but does not work.  If these authors would keep the last 2 or 3 versions they posted around  so they could be used with other mods, it would make like wonderful. 

 

Some how my version of Wordperfect 12 got corrupted.  Coral hides files in your computer with your data.  Called Coral and they game me lots of garbage.  I was supposed to get a email in 30 minutes with a way to remove the secret files.  Well it has been three hours and no email.  If any one knows the way to strip a computer of all Wordperfect 12 files I would appreciate that.

 

Tom

[ckoe]

Hello tomkaz,

 

what is your problem with v27 ? I have it in my install and as far as I can see it does not make a problem for me.

 

It would be possible to roll back to v27rc1 by checking out the right commit from the git repository, so eventually it is no big deal for the author to help you ?

 

Best Regards

[khelban12]

Looking for Unfinished Business for BGII v27rc1.   The author already erased it and replaced it with v27 which I have but does not work.  If these authors would keep the last 2 or 3 versions they posted around  so they could be used with other mods, it would make like wonderful. 

 

Does this help you ? I think it is the correct commit. However, as ckoe said, maybe there is a way to make v27 work without needing to use the rc1 version. I also use v27 and it works fine.

[ckoe]

Hello Leonardo Watson,

 

after testing I can confirm that the problem is stratagems 32.6 . I wanted to have it because of its additional customizability after install.

 

The install fails with just adding that, the tweaks component is set to 2160 and Jarls BGT Tweaks was not included. The weidu.log together with the stats.ids is attached. The install would work without stratagems.

 

I will add timeout statements in trim_IDS.bat next to see whether that changes everything. I plan to add these to :trimLeft, :trimRight and :ProcessLine just before the final "goto :eof" of each of these blocks.

 

If I should test something different please let me know.

 

Best Regards

 

Attached Files

•  WeiDU.log   43.92K   159 downloads
•  stats.IDS.bak.zip   3.44K   157 downloads

[tomkaz]

Hi choe:  Hi khelban12:

 

My apologies to all about the following empty post, that is if it gets published,

 

Thank you for your suggestions.  I am temporarily busy reinstalling Windows 7 on the computer Wordperfect 12 messed up.  I happened before and Corel supplied a fix.  This time they insist I buy v9x.

 

I did use UnfinishedBusiness-27.zip and tried UnfinishedBusiness-26.zip and both failed in BWP.  I will try the suggestions you both posted.  I expect it will take me at least 12 hours to start a new game.

 

Anyone have suggestions for a keyboard with lit keys?  After the eyes operation, I need to have a lit room to see the keys.  The bright light hurts my eyes and the dim light makes it difficult to see the keys. I prefer a wireless keyboard with a mouse.  

 

Tom

Edited by tomkaz, 02 November 2019 - 06:09 AM.

[tomkaz]

Hi all:

 

I do not know what happened, but the post above got messed up and this post popped up by it self.  I cannot do anything to save or remove them.  Please delete both.

 

Tom

[ckoe]

Hello Leonardo Watson,

 

so the install attempt with the slowed down trim_ids.bat, which I thought I would not be able to do today, finished with a failure at line 1437 as before. The stats.ids is empty and stats.ids.bak is the same as ever. On the other hand I am not sure where you wanted to insert a pause. So, if I can test anything for you please let me know.

 

I will probably revert to stratagems 31 then. Too bad, I really liked the after-install customization which I could test briefly by starting one of the earlier failed installs.

 

Best Regards

[tomkaz]

Hi Leonardo:

 

I hate to be such a pain.  It is just that I look at details and as a result I find differences others do not see.  That tics off my wife.

 

In individual.bat, Section 1,  the 1pp section, there is the line "findstr /I /M "3D.Acceleration=1" baldur.ini".  In Baldur.ini,  the line is "3D Acceleration=1".  (Sorry for the fine print.)  Individual.bat has a period between the "D" and "A".  Baldur.ini does not have that period.  Which is correct?

 

I appreciate your hard work.

 

Tom

Edited by tomkaz, 02 November 2019 - 06:48 AM.

[ckoe]

Hello Leonardo Watson,

 

with stratagems v31 (and iwdification thrown in on top) the install works, no problem at all.

 

I will try a version with stratagems 32.6 and only ToBEx, Baldurs Gate Trilogy, and BG2 Fixpack on Monday. I believe those are the absolute minimum mods. This should really proof that it is stratagems 32.6 and not some other mod which messes stats.ids up and then the error only shows up with stratagems on top.

 

While tomkaz is reading individual.bat: There is a section

findstr /I /M "SANDRAHRTF.TP2~.*#.*#0./" %ELOG%>nul
if errorlevel 1 (
        Call ".\%BWIPI%\BGTTweak.bat
)

which appears to trigger for me and then installs components 1800 to 1808 from BGTTweak. At least that is what I suspect, because commenting it out removes those from the install (I did that earlier, but when changing stratagems v31 components I grabbed an older version) and nowhere else in the individual.bat is BGTTweak called with these components. The guide says not to install them. In fact, after installation the Installpack informs that 1800 and 1806 were not installed because the actual NPC mods are included which is nice.

 

I attach the weidu.log of the successfull install with stratagems v31. I will have to fiddle with the component selection a bit more.

 

 

Best Regards

Attached Files

•  WeiDU.log   48.42K   146 downloads

[Leonardo Watson]

@ckoe
Please add %W5% as shown to the close2.bat.
 

    rem trim leading and trailing spaces; remove duplicates
    Call ".\%BWIPS%\trim_IDS.bat"
    %W5%
    rem correct some possibly corrupted IDS files
    Call ".\%BWIPS%\trim_KitIDS.bat"

 

I hope this works. Unfortunately it will take at least one week until I can look into this issue.


@tomkaz
This is REGEX code and matches any single character. In this case the dot character matches a literal dot.