dialog.tlk revisited

[Andrea C.]

Hello everyone.

 

A friend of mine and I were thinking about improving the italian version of SoA+ToB's game text to get rid of the several (and rather annoying) spelling and translation mistakes it's plagued by. I've tried altering the dialog.tlk file in Window's notepad but it looks like it ain't so easy: the slightest change had the game stop displaying any text at all. For the record, I'm running Windows Vista and the dialog.tlk file looks weird in the notepad... it doesn't even show the strings' numbers... so, I guess the OS can be a problem? I've heard BG has issues with Vista.

 

Anyway, my question is: how do I perform a revision of the dialog.tlk file which can be successfully implemented in the game tehreafter (much like the game text update component of the BG2 Fixpack mod, I guess)?

 

Thanks.

[berelinde]

If I were doing it, I'd look at the "Game Text Update" portion of the BG2 Fixpack for guidance.

[Andrea C.]

^ I am no modder and wouldn't know where to start "having a look" at it

[Qwinn]

First, have the latest version of weidu.exe in the main game directory.

 

Open up a DOS box. Change the directory to your main game directory.

 

Type:

 

weidu --traify-tlk dialog.tlk --out dialogedit.txt

 

This will produce the file dialogedit.txt. I used MS Word to edit the thing for PS:T.

 

When you have finished your edits, you can turn it back into a .tlk file by going back to the DOS box and typing:

 

weidu --make-tlk dialogedit.txt --tlkout dialog.tlk

 

(That will overwrite your existing dialog.tlk, so make sure you have a backup before doing it... or you could just name it something else, but it'll need to be named dialog.tlk for it to work with your game.)

 

The same should work for dialogf.tlk, by the way, which is the file that gets used when the protagonist is female.

 

Qwinn

[Andrea C.]

Thanks A LOT, Qwinn!! :D

 

Is it still possible to open DOS boxes in Vista?

[cmorgan]

Well, you can use the "command prompt", which runs a type of DOS - most of the regular DOS commands (including any you would need for weidu) will work in it. To save yourself hassle, turn of the UAC. If you don't want to go through all the text menus, click on the 'start" or "windows" button on the lower left of the desktop, and type "cmd" in the search box. It will bring up "cmd.exe". Hitting return will start the command prompt.

 

You may have to do some messing about to get to where you want. "cd c:\Program Files\BGII - SoA" may get you there, or it may not. I had to use "cd /d c:\Program Files\BGII - SoA" until I edited Vista's list of pathways.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Open up a DOS box. Change the directory to your main game directory.

Type: weidu --traify-tlk dialog.tlk --out dialogedit.txt

Why would you do such a thing as use DOS box? As you can do the same exact thing with WeiDU.exe itself in the game directory!!! You just have to push the Enter a few times(<20) to get the console out. Then type "--traify-tlk dialog.tlk --out dialogedit.txt" without the quotes or something the-like...

And that's why you have to push the Enter, to skip the instructions in it!

 

Is it still possible to open DOS boxes in Vista?

Yes, of course, just make sure you don't have the UAC on. (UAC=User Account Control) It needs to be nearly always off when you modify files in any game.

 

c:\Program Files\BGII - SoA

Why in the unheaven do you people insist on putting everything in the freaking "Program Files" -(sub)folder? It's the worst place in the devils blessed Windows Vista... as it has the invisible backup that kills every attemt to modify any of the files... bad planning perhaps? Just install the game to "c:\Games\BGII - SoA" , or if you wish you can call the Games folder that of your own languages game(plural) folder! Such as spiel, pelit, mäng, spil, gra...

[Andrea C.]

Hi again.

 

EDIT: I solved the problem.