10 replies to this topic

[Rastor]

Do you mean making a custom NPC or replacing, say Jaheira's picture?

To add one to your own NPC, you can assign a portrait using your cre editing program and just throw both the creature file and the portrait into the override folder.

To change one of the already in-game NPCs, just save your portrait with the same name and drop it in the override folder.

[Johanobesus]

Now, there are three portraits for each NPC, a large one for the records page, and a small one for the main game window. There is also a medium sized portrait, but I can't at the moment remember what it is used for (maybe the epilogue?). For practical purposes, you only need to replace the large and small portraits. PC's only use the two portraits. The actual files are named xxxxl, xxxxm, and xxxxs, where xxxx is the identifier for the portrait set and is the same for all three files. The identifier might not be identical to the NPC's name. If the name is too long, it will be abbreviated for the identifier, or there might be some other alteration. I don't know exactly why, but sometimes it might have random letters thrown in. If you want to replace an NPC's portraits, you must determine what the files are called. If AerieL and AerieS don't work, you can use DLTCEP or Shadowkeeper to load the creature file and see what the files are called.

Of course, if you load the .cre file into one of these programs, you will have the option of assigning a different portrait and then saving the character. Then you won't have to worry about renaming anything. However, there are several versions of each NPC, and to do it this way you would have to edit and save each one, so it would probably be easier to just find the portraits' identifier and rename your pics.

Also, the portraits have to be bitmaps of particular size and format. You can't just use any old picture. They should be 24 bit .bmp files with a resolution of at least 72 dpi. Xxxxl should be 110x170 pixels, and xxxs should be 38x60.

[Rastor]

NAERIEL.bmp, NAERIEM.bmp, NAERIES.bmp should work.

[Plasmocat]

NAERIEL.bmp, NAERIEM.bmp, NAERIES.bmp should work.

Using the file names Rastor pointed out is the only way the change will work.

(well, according to the manual instructions)

[SConrad]

NAERIEL.bmp, NAERIEM.bmp, NAERIES.bmp should work.

Using the file names Rastor pointed out is the only way the change will work.

(well, according to the manual instructions)

Actually, there are other ways, but not as easy.

You could do it with SK, NI, DLTCEP or even let WeiDU do it.

[MagusWizardo]

Johanobesus, I think the Medium portrait is on the record screen, while the Large portrait is shown at character creation, and in the epilogue.

[SConrad]

Johanobesus, I think the Medium portrait is on the record screen, while the Large portrait is shown at character creation, and in the epilogue.

Yes, that is correct...

[Bane]

To get the names of the original pics from the game try using Infinity Explorer, that's what I used when I started to become familiar with customising my BGII games.

[Rastor]

DLTCEP or NI will also do it.