160 replies to this topic

[Cahir]

Stupid question, but why not join forces with Bubb and extend capabilities of EEeX even more? What are the advantages of the old engine over EE that I fail to see, that make people spending a great deal of time expanding it (parallelly to what has been done for EEs)?

 

I'm trying to understand... is it because of the EEs additional content (new NPCs, story, items, spells, kits etc) that are considered inferior and take out the pleasure of playing the game or is it something different? From a technical point of view, EEs are a great improvement over the old engine, so I'm really puzzled why so adamant to stick to old engine. I'm not criticizing, just trying to understand. We have a new, shiny engine, that CAN be expanded (see EEeX). Why not focus your modding skills to expand that?

[Insomniator]

Hi Cahir

Cahir, on 29 Dec 2021 - 10:26, said:

Stupid question, but why not join forces with Bubb and extend capabilities of EEeX even more? What are the advantages of the old engine over EE that I fail to see, that make people spending a great deal of time expanding it (parallelly to what has been done for EEs)?
 
I'm trying to understand... is it because of the EEs additional content (new NPCs, story, items, spells, kits etc) that are considered inferior and take out the pleasure of playing the game or is it something different? From a technical point of view, EEs are a great improvement over the old engine, so I'm really puzzled why so adamant to stick to old engine. I'm not criticizing, just trying to understand. We have a new, shiny engine, that CAN be expanded (see EEeX). Why not focus your modding skills to expand that?

EE has (important for me) advantage - killed low resolution, 640/800 is not more playable resolution due new fonts/gui. Why 640/800 - it's only way to see pixel graphic at original "big" scale by BioWare.This is reason to support old bg2 engine because i play it periodically on CRT monitor with native hardware screen scale by analog components
 

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why not join forces with Bubb and extend capabilities of EEeX even more extend capabilities of EEeX

What Bubb do after every updates from Beamdog ? change all injects ? check every structure in .h to see changes in size ?
Beadog changed this year EE platforms x32 ->x64, I just want to wish good luck in converting TobEEx...

Edited by Insomniator, 29 December 2021 - 05:22 AM.

[Insomniator]

Hi Arthas

Arthas said:

We can discuss about technicalities, but you cannot say it's a new mod, and then describe about the requirements suggested to install it (where you have to actually sub the .dll, thus acting as it's an upgrade).

It's either a new mod - or a revised version of an old mod. It can't be both at once.

Afterlife is addon to TobEx, I wanted to give him a separate life since I am not able to maintain the original project (i'm just amateur programmer) at a decent level as Ascension64, he is just a God of Reversing
 
 

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- the link on the first page of bg2 improved GUI is wrong.

fixed, thanx for reporting

[Cahir]

Insomniator, on 29 Dec 2021 - 13:19, said:

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why not join forces with Bubb and extend capabilities of EEeX even more extend capabilities of EEeX

What Bubb do after every updates from Beamdog ? change all injects ? check every structure in .h to see changes in size ?
Beadog changed this year EE platforms x32 ->x64, I just want to wish good luck in converting TobEEx...

 

Yes, I believe he needs to update it with every Beamdog update, but I believe we don't need to worry about that in the foreseeable future. With the last update and switching to x64 he indeed needs to rewrite the whole thing (unlike the smaller updates, where the changes he needs to do are minimal I guess), but from what I understand he already finished most of the work and there is already 2.6 EEeX working version available.

[Salk]

Well, I have produced some modifications for the old engine and I would never play without them and they were mostly made with BGT in mind.

 

The only thing I really miss from the EE are the new opcodes that could have made things easier for modders but otherwise, even if I bought the EE games and are very thankful for the effort produced, I don't see much of a reason for the migration.

 

But that's just me, of course, although I think I am not alone feeling this way.

[Andrea C.]

While I do enjoy the occasional foray into the Enhanced Editions, I do have a preference for playing modded classics. It's mostly for A/V, as that's important to me and the originals have an edge in that department (ironically.)

 

I'm extremely grateful to Insomniator for his continued work on ToBEx AfterLife, to skellytz for his work on BGT and Infinity Sounds, and to Gwendolyne for his work on 1PP and Infinity Animations. It's great to see that I'm not the only one who likes to play the classics and there are talented modders taking good care of them

Edited by Andrea C., 03 January 2022 - 11:04 AM.

[Salk]

You're definitely not the only one, Andrea C.

 

And I do feel exactly like you, as you surely know. 

 

Hypothetically, if ToBEx could also offer the new opcodes then there would not really be much we'd miss from the EE. The new content is not very popular from what I gather...

 

Said that, I am very happy the EE games exist! They gave a huge boost to the franchise and were/are an indirect huge beneficial boost for the modding of the original games as well.

Edited by Salk, 03 January 2022 - 12:47 PM.

[Insomniator]

Updated to V29.9

• Added: Remove Improved Invisibility saving throws +4 bonuses from patched spells
• Added: Assume SPACE key as ENTER in dialog
• Added: Mixed Soundset for BGT
• Added: Mixed Soundset for BGT Unknown BG1 NPC Have BG2 Soundset
• Added: Externalise Animation Sound Reference Override
• Added: Externalise Animation Config Override
• Added: Self-Patched Effect Removing Fix
• Added: Sequence Sound Override Fix
• Added: Ankheg Range Weapon Animation Fix
• Added: Stop Animation/Sound of Interrupted Casting
• Added: Disable Hidden TobEx Patches

[Andrea C.]

Truly fantastic work!

[Salk]

Outstanding!

[skellytz]

Well done, Insominator! Thank you for the new features.

[Insomniator]

Updated to V29.10

• Fixed: Mixed Soundset for BGT
• Added: Mute 2DA's HEAD_TURN/READY/WALK sounds if SELECT_ACTION are playing
• Added: Assigning key to not memorized spell exploit fix
• Added: Multi-target item swap exploit fix
• Removed: "Mixed Soundset for BGT Unknown BG1 NPC Have BG2 Soundset"
• Fixed: Animation & Modal State with ACTION_CLEAR_BLOCK_VARIABLES action opcode
• Added: new MAX type for Mixed BGT Soundset
• Fixed: Gender changing opcode bug
• Mixed BGT Soundset is enabled by default

[skellytz]

There seems to be an issue with the following TobEx AfterLife hack:

 

[Effect Opcodes]
Stop Animation/Sound of Interrupted Casting=1

This unintentionally disables casting voices (or "chanting") and/or sounds for certain spells:

 

- If the character must move before casting the spell, eg to get within range of the target, the casting voice (CHA_xxxx.wav) won't play when the casting animation starts. The casting voices should play when the casting animation starts even if the character must get in position before casting.

 

- If a spell has the primary casting sound (SPL: 0x10) and a sound in the spell abilities/effects (opcode #174: Play Sound) and/or a sound in the attached visual effects (VVC: 0x78), the casting sound will be abruptly cut off as soon as another sound (opcode or VVC) starts playing. All post-casting sounds, opcode sounds and VVC sounds should play in full even if another sound starts playing.

 

Example:

Jaheira casts Cure Light Wounds on herself (no movement) -> the casting voice (CHA_FP07.wav) is played -> the SPL casting sound (EFF_P07.wav) is abruptly cut off -> the visual effect (SPHEALIN.vvc) starting sound (EFF_P26.wav) is played

 

Jaheira casts Cure Light Wounds on another character (first moves up to the target) -> the casting voice (CHA_FP07.wav) isn't played -> the SPL casting sound (EFF_P07.wav) is abruptly cut off -> the visual effect (SPHEALIN.vvc) starting sound (EFF_P26.wav) is played

Edited by skellytz, 29 April 2022 - 05:00 PM.

[Insomniator]

Hi skellytz
 

skellytz, on 29 Apr 2022 - 03:00, said:

Stop Animation/Sound of Interrupted Casting=1

- If a spell has the primary casting sound (SPL: 0x10) and a sound in the spell abilities/effects (opcode #174: Play Sound) and/or a sound in the attached visual effects (VVC: 0x78), the casting sound will be abruptly cut off as soon as another sound (opcode or VVC) starts playing. All casting sounds, opcode sounds and VVC sounds should play in full even if another sound starts playing.

Engine itself uses ONE channel for pre- and post- casting sound, it always interrupts initial ApplyCastingEffect sound (CHA_FP07.wav) and  overrides it to ApplyCastingEffPost sound (EFF_P07) if casting time < lengh of initial casting sound.
Don't sure about VVC channels, check sound text output, if you see "Abort" or  "Mixer:Clear", it means one of VVC sound was stopped. Can you prepare spell with 3 three sounds or tell what existed spell has full sound combination ?
 

skellytz, on 29 Apr 2022 - 03:00, said:

Example:
Jaheira casts Cure Light Wounds on herself (no movement) -> the casting voice (CHA_FP07.wav) is played -> the SPL casting sound (EFF_P07.wav) is abruptly cut off -> the visual effect (SPHEALIN.vvc) starting sound (EFF_P26.wav) is played

Because i linked cast sound state to animation sequence, EFF_P07 was aborted because engine after casting animation changed sequence to READY.
 

skellytz, on 29 Apr 2022 - 03:00, said:

Jaheira casts Cure Light Wounds on another character (first moves up to the target) -> the casting voice (CHA_FP07.wav) isn't played -> the SPL casting sound (EFF_P07.wav) is abruptly cut off -> the visual effect (SPHEALIN.vvc) starting sound (EFF_P26.wav) is played

no CHA_FP07.wav - bug
 
I prepared better version:
1) Casting sounds splitted to CAST and postCAST phases, first phase can be interrupted because spell not applied yet. Second phase is ApplyCastingEffPost/VVC, it must continue playing even char making new action
2) Sound is not interrupted anymore when switching from CAST/CONJURE to READY sequence
 
https://anonfiles.co...obEx_cast_1_zip

Edited by Insomniator, 29 April 2022 - 09:41 AM.

[skellytz]

Insomniator said:

always interrupts initial ApplyCastingEffect sound (CHA_FP07.wav)
first phase can be interrupted because spell not applied yet

Yes, this is what I meant. What I wrote before was a bit confusing and implied the casting voices should also continue playing even if the spell has been already cast, which would be wrong, of course. The casting voice (chanting/conjuring) should be interruptible, for example when the spell has been cast and the casting animation is over.

 

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Can you prepare spell with 3 three sounds or tell what existed spell has full sound combination ?

 sppr103.spl   442bytes   145 downloads

Cure Light Wounds with an extra opcode sound (WEREW03.wav)

 

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Because i linked cast sound state to animation sequence, EFF_P07 was aborted because engine after casting animation changed sequence to READY.

Second phase is ApplyCastingEffPost/VVC, it must continue playing even char making new action

Ok, that is what previously caused problems. Seems to work fine in the new test version.
 

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no CHA_FP07.wav - bug

Sound is not interrupted anymore when switching from CAST/CONJURE to READY sequence

Confirm fixed. This also means CHA_ sounds will now continue playing if the character interrupts casting to move, but it's not a big issue.

 

Thank you!

[Andrea C.]

Can this new version be made to work by simply replacing the existing ToBEx AL folder with the new one without going through the installer again? A full restack of my WeiDu log would take hours.

[Insomniator]

Hi skellytz

skellytz, on 30 Apr 2022 - 01:27, said:

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Can you prepare spell with 3 three sounds or tell what existed spell has full sound combination ?

sppr103.spl

Cure Light Wounds with an extra opcode sound (WEREW03.wav)

 

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Creature::ApplyCastingEffect    sound: CHA_FP07  ch:4
CSound::Abort................   sound: CHA_FP07  ch:4
Creature::ApplyCastingEffPost   sound: EFF_P07   ch:4
VEFVidCell::PlaySound           sound: EFF_P26   ch:15
EffectDamage                    sound: WEREW03   ch:14

VVC and playsound (opcode 174) use diff channels, thanks to orig engine
 

skellytz, on 30 Apr 2022 - 01:27, said:

no CHA_FP07.wav - bug

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Sound is not interrupted anymore when switching from CAST/CONJURE to READY sequence

Confirm fixed. This also means CHA_ sounds will now continue playing if the character interrupts casting to move, but it's not a big issue.

 

v1 update has bug when ApplyCastingEffPost is stopped when char moved, there is v2 update to fix this bug, also v2 has fix to remove casting animation if died/disappeared in same time.

 

One bug still exist - if we summon controlled char with spell ability (Diva/...), start casting by this char any spell with enough long casting time, press cheat Ctrl+T to shift game ticks -> char disappears, animation of disapppear started, animation of casting effect stopped (v2 fix), casting sound stopped (ApplyCastingEffect), VVC sound still will be played. Probably this is bug because we shifted time by hack way,

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Creature::ApplyCastingEffect    sound: CHA_SM06  ch:4
VEFVidCell::PlaySound           sound: EFF_P64A  ch:15
CSound::Abort................   sound: CHA_SM06  ch:4

 

v2

https://anonfiles.co...obEx_cast_2_zip

[Insomniator]

@Andrea

Andrea C., on 30 Apr 2022 - 09:48, said:

Can this new version be made to work by simply replacing the existing ToBEx AL folder with the new one without going through the installer again? A full restack of my WeiDu log would take hours.

Yes, replacing tobex.dll is enough if you have installed 29.10 before

 

p.s. Install frequently changed mods by last (of couse if no special dependies, Afterlife and Improved GUI can be last)

[Salk]

Hello, Insomniator!

 

All of a sudden I realize I am not so sure about something so I'd like for you to confirm what I believe. Before installing ToBEx Afterlife the user needs to install ToBEx v26 or v 28, correct?

Thanks!

[Insomniator]

Salk, on 04 May 2022 - 12:54, said:

All of a sudden I realize I am not so sure about something so I'd like for you to confirm what I believe. Before installing ToBEx Afterlife the user needs to install ToBEx v26 or v 28, correct?

Yes, i updated first post to clarify