[Obsolete] Co8 Portrait & Voice Packs

[Cerulean the Blue]

Well, at long last, here they are. Late as usual, but what the heck. It's here.

It's a big file. 60.3 MB, so be warned, if you are using dial-up it will take a long time. Might take a while for you broadband users as well.

Two know bugs so far. Two of the original half-orc portraits do not show up in character creation, but they are the two really stupid looking ones, and I didn't feel like adding another control file just for two portraits. All the other original portraits are still available for character creation. The second bug is that some of the voice files are corrupt, but it appears that they always were (ever since ShiningTed posted his Custom Voices), and since there has been no mention of this so far, I don't think they actually play in the game. And of course Undomiel is still the same. Allyx worked hard on it, so don't complain.

READ THE README FILE!!! You have been warned.

I'm including it in this post for your convenience. Any questions posted that are answered by the ReadMe will get short but brutal replies. I don't write these things for fun. Read them. Questions about what's in the ReadMe are a different story, providing you actually appear to have read it first.

Co8 Portrait & Voice Pack ReadMe

Co8 PORTRAIT & VOICE PACKS - Compiled by Cerulean the Blue
==========================

This pack contains all the portraits from Thinker's BG Portrait Pack, Steelwraith's Custom Portraits (Royo art), both of which are available for download from Sorcerer's Place, and an Ice Wind Dale II portrait pack ( creator unknown). This pack also contains all of ShiningTed’s BG and custom voices, along with PC usable Darley and Scorpp voices. I would like to thank Thinker, Steelwraith, the unknown creator of the IWD2 portraits, ShiningTed, and Gaear (who remastered some of the voice files) for all their work in creating this.


COMPATIBILITY
==============

Co8 Portrait & Voice Packs is compatible with Co8 4.0.0 and the mods it contains. Any other mods may not be compatible.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
========================

ToEE Front End Users:

Use Front End to load the module you wish to install the packs in. To do this, start Front End, select the module, and start the game. Once the game has loaded, quit the game. Then unzip Co8 Portrait & Voice Packs into your ToEE root directory (the default directory is C:\Program Files\Atari\Temple of Elemental Evil).

NOTE - Co8 Portrait & Voice Packs is module dependant, this means it must be installed into each module you wish to use it in.



Non ToEE Front End Users:

Unzip Co8 Portrait & Voice Packs into your ToEE root directory (the default directory is C:\Program Files\Atari\Temple of Elemental Evil).


USING Co8 VOICE & PORTRAIT PACKS
================================

The voice packs require no additional steps to use. They should be present at character creation. The portrait packs require a few additional steps to use.

Co8 Portrait & Voice Packs contains 11 portrait control files, 6 for use with Front End, and 5 for use without Front End.

Front End Files:

Female Portraits 1.ppf (used when creating female characters)
Female Portraits 2.ppf (used when creating female characters)
Male Portraits 1.ppf (used when creating male characters)
Male Portraits 2.ppf (used when creating male characters)
Play File.ppf (used to play the game)
Original File.ppf (used to switch back to the original portrait control file)

Non Front End Files:

Female Portraits 1.mes (used when creating female characters
Female Portraits 2.mes (used when creating female characters)
Male Portraits 1.mes (used when creating male characters)
Male Portraits 2.mes (used when creating male characters)
Play File.mes (used to play the game)


ToEE Front End Users:

Start Front End, select the module you wish to play, and click on "Change A Portrait Pack". A window will open displaying all the available portrait packs. Select the pack you wish to use for character creation (one of the male or female packs) and click on change. You may then start the game and create the characters you wish to use the portraits in that packs for. If you wish to use portraits from a different pack as well you may do so by quitting the game, starting Front End again, and selecting a different pack. Once you have created all your characters, quit the game start Front End again, and change the portrait pack to Play File. You may now play the game, and all your character portraits, even if they are from different packs, will be displayed as you play.


Non Front End Users:

NOTE - it is important that you are renaming the .mes files, not the .ppf files, and some Windows installations do not show file extensions. Make sure you are renaming the correct files.

In your ToEE root directory, go to data\art\interface\PORTRAITS (you may wish to create a shortcut to this folder on the desktop). Find the file "portraits.mes" and rename it "portraits backup.mes". Now find the file you want to use for character creation (one of the male or female files). Rename that file (for example "Female Portraits 1.mes") to "portraits.mes". You may now start the game and create the characters you wish to use portraits from that pack. If you wish to use portraits from a different pack as well, you may do so by quitting the game, going back to the PORTRAITS folder, and rename the file "portraits.mes" back to its original name (in our example, "Female Portraits 1.mes"). Then rename the next file you want to use for character creation (for example "Male Portraits 1.mes) to "portrait.mes". Now start the game and create additional characters. Once you have created all your characters go back to the PORTRAITS folder and rename "portraits.mes" back to its original name (in our example "Male Portraits.mes", but this may be different if you have used another portrait file last). Then rename "Play File.mes" to "portraits.mes". You may now play the game, and all your characters portraits, even if they came from different portrait files, will be displayed as you play. If at any time you wish to no longer use the new portraits, simply rename "portraits.mes" back to "Play File.mes" and rename "portraits backup.mes" to "portraits.mes".


For Both Front End and Non Front End Users:

Do not attempt to create characters using the Play File. It will cause a CTD (Crash to Desktop).

It is strongly advised that you create dummy characters using each of the 4 character creation files before you start making your play characters. This will allow you to view all the portraits in each of the packs and decide which ones you want to use. Once you have view the portraits in the pack you can quit character creation and the game and switch to a different pack.


USING PORTRAIT WIZARD by JHUNZ with Co8 PORTRAIT & VOICE PACKS
================================================== ===========

Do not try to add new portraits to the control files. It won't work. You must replace existing portraits instead. I would recommend viewing the portraits with a program that will display .tga files, such as Paint Shop or Photo Shop, and note the name of the portrait you wish to replace. Then open the character creation files and search for that name. Note the number next to that name. Then you can use PortraitWizard to replace that portrait at that number with your custom portrait. This will have to be done in both the character creation file the original portrait was in, and the Play File. PortraitWizard only looks at "portraits.mes however, so you will have to rename the files following the instructions for use for Non Front End users above.

Okay, so you read all that, right? Good. Now get to downloading.

[EDIT] Now completely compatible with Co8 5.0.0.

Co8 Portrait and Voice Pack v1.zip

AND READ THE README FILE!!!!

A final not to all modders - If you are adding new portraits with your mod, and you want it to be compatible with this one, please include updated Play Files (both .mes and .ppf) with the mod but not included in it, so that they may be installed after this mod is installed.

[EDIT] Here are some jpegs made by aureushbg that show you what portraits are in each pack.

[Kalshane]

Very cool. Just DLed and it will give it a try once it finished extracting.

[Shiningted]

There are 10 corrupt files (out of over 500). None fire in normal circumstances, which is why they have never been reported and weren't picked up in bugtesting.

Specifically, we have:

Two that are meant to fire when a critical hit is made (these do not work in the game, and by the looks of things never will).

Three that are meant to sound when PCs are standing around bored (again, never happens and never will).

Three that fire on a map change (all obscure maps like the Ogre Cave, and those who play PC-only with my voices know the PC map-change lines are broken and don't fire at the right moment anyway. Besides, they only go off once).

One attached to some flagged scenery (Zuggy's hideout no less: rarely fires, and not in the right place anyway).

One from encountering a Boss-monster. This is interesting, because these lines never work but the mechanism for them actually is in temple.dll (unlike the other combat ones that were never programmed). I might fix it some day.

Anyways, chances are less than 1 in 100 u will ever hear one of these. I will fix them (read - DELETE the controls) and possibly prune this pack of non-working stuff at some future date (the non-working stuff was added in the hope we could get it working, and because I like to b thorough. Many fruitless weeks of .dll hacking and a confirmatory email from Steve Moret to Agetian confirmed these voices will NEVER work because they are not broken, they were never programmed in the first place).

Certainly, none of this should prevent u downloading this pack now and enjoying it. Well done Blue and Gaear!

[Allyx]

@ cerulean the blue - 5 minutes to download on my broadband connection
Oh, and good work dude.

@ ted (or blue-whoever reads this first I guess) are the new drow portraits in this too?

[Cerulean the Blue]

Yes, the new drow stuff Ted sent me is in there. Ted thought you might like it, and so did I.

[slategrey252]

Nice. Very, Very, Nice.

[Kalshane]

A thought, for version 2.0, should it ever come to exist, would be to organize the portrait packs up by race in addition to sex. Say 1 pack for male humans, elves and half-elves, 1 pack for male dwarves, gnomes, halflings and half-orcs and do the same thing with the female ones. You still have the same number of packs, but people can easily go "I'm making a male dwarf" and choose the appropriate pack, rather than trying to remember which pack had that cool dwarf picture they really liked. (Point of fact, a character I created recently has a picture I'm not completely happy with, but I didn't want to exit the game and re-start the creation process again so I just took what was there.)

This isn't a complaint about the new pack mind you, I think it's wonderful. Just a thought in case you decide to update it at some point.

[Heavydan85]

I'd kinda like to see more weapons involved in the pictures...usually only swords. but i can live with that. great work. and if you could do Kalshane's ideas it would rock...i personally just made a team in ironman by making characters with both packs for each sex so 2 of each character and choose the one i liked best when done it worked great.

[Cujo]

I don't really like weapons to much in the portraits cos it kinda seems strange that the picture of my monk is holding a greatsword - something like that

[Cerulean the Blue]

Originally Posted by Kalshane

A thought, for version 2.0, should it ever come to exist, would be to organize the portrait packs up by race in addition to sex. Say 1 pack for male humans, elves and half-elves, 1 pack for male dwarves, gnomes, halflings and half-orcs and do the same thing with the female ones. You still have the same number of packs, but people can easily go "I'm making a male dwarf" and choose the appropriate pack, rather than trying to remember which pack had that cool dwarf picture they really liked. (Point of fact, a character I created recently has a picture I'm not completely happy with, but I didn't want to exit the game and re-start the creation process again so I just took what was there.)

This isn't a complaint about the new pack mind you, I think it's wonderful. Just a thought in case you decide to update it at some point.

That is a great idea. I have no idea if I can actually implement it. I had to jump through a lot of hoops dealing with the mechanics of the system just to get all but two of the portraits to show up in the four packs. I did recomend browsing the packs first using dummy characters to get an idea of which pack you want to use for which character. Maybe I should have suggested taking notes, but I thought that was obvious.

Heavydan - I didn't make any of these portraits. I just used what was available and put it into a (hopefully) easier to use format. If you want to make some portraits I will gladly include them in any upcoming new version of the pack.

[Heavydan85]

Yeah I agree with cujo on second thought. although if you do find a picture the matches character race, class, planned armor, and weapon and still looks cool it is amazing, but that almost never happens and would take about ::prepares the hyperbole police:: a million pictures

[maalri]

This is a great, wonderful, fabulous addition, thank you to all involved!!

Again, thanks for taking the time and effort to do it up for us.

[Akalabethian]

Thanks, I did find the vanilla portrait selection in the game too limited (and some look downright retarded).

One question: do you reckon these are OK with the extra fixes people released in the past weeks to fix some broken tidbits in mod 4.0.0 (the famous "only 10 downloads") ? Thanks.

[Cerulean the Blue]

To my knowledge nothing anybody has released since 4.0.0 has made any changes to the portraits or PC voice files. So yes, this should be compatable with all of that.

[Shiningted]

More to the point, the Drow etc were included so that LATER yet-2-b-released stuff would still be compatible with this pack.

Ain't we wise

[jeffh]

I'm having a minor but annoying problem with this mod. One of my characters (a fighter/barbarian who is always at the front of the party, in case any of that matters) is using the Royo08 image, and (except for the big portrait, obviously) I always see her picture in-game in black and white when it should be in colour and vice versa. In other words, if she is healthy and in fighting trim, her picture at the bottom of the screen is in greyscale, and when she is down (or when someone else's inventory is selected, etc) she is in colour. None of the other portraits I chose have this problem. The individual .tga files are labeled CORRECTLY in the profiles directory, so that isn't the problem. Anyone got any ideas what might be going on here?

[Shiningted]

Well if u know what the files are named, would you mind having a look how they are arranged in portraits.mes? They should be

m
s
s_grey
m_grey

like all the others.

[Cerulean the Blue]

Ted's got it correct, and it is not correct in the contol files. Looks like that one got past me. I would be suprised if it is the only one. Just rearange the names in the play file. Doing so shouldn't cause any problems, and should be compatible with all saved games.

[jeffh]

Originally Posted by Cerulean the Blue

Ted's got it correct, and it is not correct in the contol files. Looks like that one got past me. I would be suprised if it is the only one. Just rearange the names in the play file. Doing so shouldn't cause any problems, and should be compatible with all saved games.

Thank you very much, I'll fix it right away and let you know in the unlikely event it's still messed up.

[Cerulean the Blue]

Originally Posted by Kalshane

A thought, for version 2.0, should it ever come to exist, would be to organize the portrait packs up by race in addition to sex. Say 1 pack for male humans, elves and half-elves, 1 pack for male dwarves, gnomes, halflings and half-orcs and do the same thing with the female ones. You still have the same number of packs, but people can easily go "I'm making a male dwarf" and choose the appropriate pack, rather than trying to remember which pack had that cool dwarf picture they really liked. (Point of fact, a character I created recently has a picture I'm not completely happy with, but I didn't want to exit the game and re-start the creation process again so I just took what was there.)

This isn't a complaint about the new pack mind you, I think it's wonderful. Just a thought in case you decide to update it at some point.

I've been playing around with this idea. So far I can't even get all the human male portraits to show up in one pack without having some non-human male portraits show up as well. At this point I don't think Kalshane's idea is going to be workable without adding garbage portrait.mes entries, and that is something I was trying to avoid. I'll keep tinkering with it though.

[ACE4490]

My internet cuts out every three hours and i can't download the portrait and voice pack because i have dial up. Any one no how to get rid of the three hour time limit.

[Morpheus]

You should use a download manager like FlashGet or GetRight, they allow you to resume broken downloads.

[ACE4490]

thanx man

[maalri]

Get right did it for me!

[krunch]

You can also try leaving the Internet Explorer window open [the one you used to start the download] and reconnect your dial-up connection to the Internet (remember to leave the IE window open). Then, re-start the download. The download should resume.

If you close the Internet Explorer window and reconnect using dial-up to re-start the download, the download will start over from scratch.

[Novah]

I need a little help handling these portrait packs. I have read through the read me file a dozen times and as far as I know I am following the instructions correctly, but I still can't get the portrait packs to register when I start up Front End. After I download the packs into the TOEE folder, I start up the game, quit, and unzip them into that TOEE folder. Am I doing this correctly?

[Allyx]

if you select "Unzip Here" on the portrait pack zip file while in the games root directory, it should install correctly.

The default root folder for ToEE is C:/Atari/Temple of elemental evil

If the portrait pack's zip is in another folder, cut and paste it into the correct folder before selecting "Unzip Here". opening and closing your selected module is to insure the last selected module's data folder is named "data" otherwise the portraits will end up in another module.

[pippetta]

hi everybody, i've installed the portrait pack yesterday, teh images are wonderful but... i got a little problem:
first i assume u have to start a new game and create new PCs this maight explane why any othr pc created previously have now no portrait.

when u have created the pc u need for the game u don't have to deactivate the module or your PC won't have a portrait no more.

ahh by the way ... u can have just an all male or all female party...

that sound all strange... what am i doing wrong?

pls help.

[Blair]

The "Readme" that should have installed with the portrait pack is quite thorough, and I recommend you check it out. You must load the game once with the first portrait pack you want to create a character, then exit after creation of that character or characters is done. Switch to the next pack you need for the next new character, then exit after creation. Continue until all characters have been finished, then switch to the "play file" portrait pack. When you begin the game, all previously created characters will have the portraits you gave them, even if created long ago. Note that you will NOT be able to create new characters while the "play file" is the loaded portrait set.

--Blair
"Beauty? Eh... I've seen plenty of stuff come out of beholder eyes, but no beauty yet."

[pippetta]

ok tks

is there any chance to modify a previously created PC? i noticed u can rename itbut u cannot modify his portrait....?