[Obsolete] Co8 Portrait & Voice Packs

[Cerulean the Blue]

There is a way, if you like hex editing files and know what you are doing. Other than that, nope. You can view the character, write down all the ability scores, feats and skills, and then recreate it using point buy, and pick a different portrait.

Hey Blair, thanks for fielding that one. I couldn't have answered it better.

[Blair]

NP, like I said, I write documentation.

(And like it! Muhahahahahaha!)


--Blair
"No, we already went that way! Why won't you just admit that we're LOST?!"

[foil]

I have a question related to front end 4 and the custom portraits.

Which folders do I install the sound and picture packs too to get them to work with front end modules...The one in the modules folder or the folder in the main directory that has the module names.

I am trying the modules directory first as we speek but thought others might have the same question when they go to install this pack (and she's a doosey big one).

Also: any chances for some more Royo packs. There are many classics that I noticed were not included with that pack (however, there are a couple in the pack that I have never seen and I love btw - so nice job).

Final question: characters created in main module don't show up when I switch to Liv mod. I'm sure this is answered somewhere but I didn't see it in search and am cheeting a bit by sneeking it in with my custom pic questions (I don't see their "picture" or anything else for that matter).

[Cerulean the Blue]

The instructions that come with the Portrait and Voice Packs are reproduced in their entirety in the first post of this thread. It does answer your installation questions. You should try reading it. But, since for some reason I am feeling charitable today, I will provide some brief answers.

Characters you create are stored in the module you create them in. Thus, when you switch modules, you are not going to find those characters. You can move them manually by copying them from the modules folder for one module to the module folder of a different module. For example, say you wanted to use characters you created for the basic, un-modded game in Liv's Mod. You would go to modules\ToEE\players, copy everything there and then paste it into modules\Livs_Mod\players.

The Packs are module specific as well, meaning you have to install them in the module you wish to use. For Front End users, this means you need to load the module you wish to install them in (start Front End, select the module and run it - quit as soon as you get the option to do so). Once the module is loaded, just unzip the Packs into your ToEE root directory (i.e. the Temple of Elemental Evil folder, where ever you have it installed).

I don't believe anyone is making more custom portraits for this pack atm. No one currently active at Co8 made these portraits. I just took what was currently available and put it together in a package that is hopefully easier to use than doing it by hand, and of course Agetian made it even easier by adding support for them in Front End. I am currently busy on other projects, and will be for some time, though if someone else makes a sizable number of new portraits I will be happy to add them to the Packs.

[foil]

Thanks for that...I see what your getting at now.
I think what threw me was your last note after the description in the read me. I would have understood better if it was moved above the instructions as I've done below. As it is, it sounds like an additional point and that is why I went and unzipped the pack into every module folder in the root directory.

===============================================
ToEE Front End Users:

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

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).
================================================

Some instruction indicating that the unpacking to the root directory has to be repeated every time the mod is changed would be helpful also (at least if I am understanding your instructions correctly now that is).

Thanks also for the info on the characters to be transfered from one mod to another. That should make things less frustrating

[Cerulean the Blue]

Fair enough.

I see what you are saying. It is perhaps a little clearer that way.

The whole bit about it being module dependent means means exactly that. Every time you install a new module to use with Front End, you will have to install the Packs into that module following those instructions. But you only have to nstall it once in each module. After that you can switch back and forth at whim and it will be there.

[Shayden]

Okay Co8 crew ....

Thanks for all the cool mods and packs. They've really enhanced mygame play w/ this game. Still doesn't feel the same as when I actually ran the game (w/paper, pen & dice lol). But I esp. like the 'Desperate Housewives' quest. I just downloaded th evoice pack and i'll post a reply as to how I like this one too.

Thanks a bunch!

BTY....R U guys working on some new mods? Can U guys show me how you did some of this cool stuff. I mean I a manga/anime artist (Record of Lodoss War rocks!) and don't know too much about programming but I can learn. TEACH ME SIFU!!!!

[Cerulean the Blue]

Check out the General Modification forum. There are a lot of tutorials on how to do some of this stuff, plus that is where all the modders meet to talk about modding. You may also want to check out the Toolset Project Documentation forum.

[aureushbg]

Hi. I am a long time lurker and love the game and all new mods and patches. My own programming skills are limite to cut and paste so i realy appriciate what you have done. I had lots of pictures from other computer games converted for use with ToEE. Now i think i have managed to add them to control files, like those in your pack. Lots of cut and paste and adding my pictures to free numbers. It seems to work. I dont know if youre pack is needed for my new controll files. But the new ones are copatible wit the old pack. I think. I have not tested it very much and i dont realy understand the .mes files. Anyway i have upploded my pack to http://www.savefile.com/files/6470568

[Cerulean the Blue]

Thank you very much aureushbg! These are great!

Would you mind if I included them in the Voice & Portrait Pack? I will need to do some testing of them, of course, and your jpegs are a wonderful idea and I need to do some of those for the packs I put together (unless you would like to volunteer to do them for me ). But sometime next month I should be able to integrate them and release a new P&V Pack if you agree.

To answer your question, you shouldn't need my packs to use yours.

[Lord_Spike]

Some of the best seen yet on the forum. Nice work!

[aureushbg]

I am glad you like them. You are welcome to include them in the pack. FYI the pictures come from Age of Wonders, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, Demise: Rise of the Ku'Tan and Warlords III: Dark Lords Rising. All good games.

ps. I have already made jpegs for your pack.

[Cerulean the Blue]

Thank you very much. I look forward to incorporating all this into the next Pack.

[Obnoxio]

Would it be ok if I made some portraits to fill up the empty spaces in the Female 2 pack?
They would mostly be made from artwork by Luis Royo, so they'll fit right in with the original portrait pack.

I'm not 100% sure how to do the .mes and .ppf documentation, so it would be safer if I left that up to someone who understands it better.


+ edit +

Preliminary efforts have proven disasterous.
I tried to bypass altering the MES and PPF by opening existing portaits with my imaging software (to ensure the dimensions were accurate), editing them, and then saving them as .tga with the original file names.
Not only did they fail to materialize at character creation, the game crashed when I tried to exit.

[Cerulean the Blue]

The images need a one pixel wide black border to work properly. Also, the grey pictures cannot be done in greyscale. They have to be done in three channel color (with an alpha channel, I think) and just have the saturation turned down to zero. Something like that. I haven't made any portraits myself, just used ones other people have made.

Any you make and get working I will include in future versions of the Packs. There should be another one out shortly after 4.1.0.

[Shiningted]

I just copy n paste over existing ones, its the easiest way.

[Obnoxio]

I had no idea about the 1 pixel border.
I made the grey images by taking the colour saturation down.
Hmmm...
If Ted's method works for him but not me, then it's probably my imaging software vs. the alpha channel (given that my primary image-editing software came bundled with a digital camera that was a free gift from a trial subscription to a magazine). I'd assumed that saving the files as a .tga would automatically make them game-ready.

I'll keep at it though, and if I can find a technique that works, I'd be more than happy to put some packs together.

[aureushbg]

If you are going to include even more pictures in the pack. Is it possible too have more than 349 pictures in the "playfile.mes"? There are already 322 pictures in my "newplayfile.mes".

[Cerulean the Blue]

In all honesty I do not remember what I determined the max limit to be. There are slots for 349, but I don't think I could get all of it to work for the portrait selection packs.

Even if 349 is the limit, who says we have to have just one Play File? .mes files don't take up much space, so we could make mix and match Play Files. Say you have packs a, b, c, d, e, f, and g. We could make Play File abc, Play File bcd, Play File aeg, etc. ... Especially now that we have handy jpegs overviews of the portraits in each pack, you just decide which packs you want to use portraits from, make you characters, and then use the Play File that has those packs. It will mean a little more work, but mostly just copy and paste stuff. And I have an idea that we might be able to use the Dialog Creation tools to speed the process of making new .mes files for the packs.

All this, as far as I am involved, will have to wait until after May 2, when 4.1.0 is supposed to be done.

[Lord_Spike]

Gaear already mentioned pics not being part of the next release. Blue's sort of seconded that here. Why couldn't a team work on creating the picture sets in a parallel track to 4.1.0, and get them going at approximately the same time? You new folks seem to have the talent for this. And there's a few Vets around to answer enough questions to shepherd the project.

Thoughts?

[The Rogue Trader]

Hello to everyone.

I've made some expansions of steelwraith's Luis Royo portraits pack. If someone is interested they can be downloaded at http://roguetrader.supereva.it/toee/TOEE.html
Please read the readme link.
For some reason the download with Opera is unnecessarily tricky, I guess the provider is optimized for M$ Explorer

Good gaming.

WARNING
The sets (of course, being from Royo's art) do include artistic nudity.

[Allyx]

IMO female nudity is always artistic

[Lord_Spike]

Well, in that case...here's some for ya!

http://www.spiderwebart.com/products...gory=pinup+art

These guys are among my fav-o-rite artists, ever.

[Ugignadl]

Originally Posted by Lord_Spike

Well, in that case...here's some for ya!

http://www.spiderwebart.com/products...gory=pinup+art

These guys are among my fav-o-rite artists, ever.

Hrm...maybe an e-mail is in order, although, I doubt we would be allowed to use some of these (cropped) for portraits? Awesome artwork.

[The Rogue Trader]

Originally Posted by Ugignadl

Hrm...maybe an e-mail is in order, although, I doubt we would be allowed to use some of these (cropped) for portraits? Awesome artwork.

I've beaten me pn my reply: "Uh, I see a new Rogue Trader custom portrait pack coming"
Sadly many of these pictures are, even if cruelly cropped, non-fantasy to the maximum...
I'll do better to return to python scrtipts

[Shiningted]

They're not my cup of tea, but a non-official pack of them would doubtless be popular Some would make damn fine NPC portraits, thats for sure. But alas, they are copyright as u say...

[The Rogue Trader]

Testing my Portrait Pack I found some still undetected problems: some portraits do not show nicely in the radial menu (I found this problem on Royo21 and Meleny) while others have a different colour behaviour (Royo39, the one I use as avatar). If someone finds similar errors, please, send me a private message. A corrected edition will come: not too soon, but it will come.
TIA

[Sirian]

I can't seem to dl this pack. Every time I try it gets like 2.29 megs of the file then says it's done. I had the same prob dl-ing Co8.4 but after trying like 50 times I finally got the whole thing. Can anyone tell me what the heck is wrong?

[Allyx]

Try using a download client, Download Excelerator Plus (DAP) v7 is quite good, it may not speed up the download a huge amount, but at least if the connection gets interupted, for some reason you can resume from where you left off.

[Sirian]

Thanx Allyx it seems to be working now W/ DAP 8. Now I just hafta wait for my annoying dial up to finish dl-ing.