Bypassing registration

[Guest Nermie]

Ok, so I'm trying to start up my Baldur's Gate: TotSC game, but the registration process can't seem to write to it's .ini file. I'm assuming it's because of the mods I put on it, but I can't say for sure. Regardless, I was trying to fix up the .ini file to just bypass the registration prompts, but nothing I tried works. Can anyone look into this and see if they can figure out how to do it?

[Guest Nermie]

And for those who care/say anything about it, I already tried Tutu and got it working, but for some reason, in certain areas (the starting wilderness area outside Candlekeep and Beregost, for two) when I walk with my party, the game lags heavily, but not really when I walk solo. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, I even tried turning down the game quality settings, even though my computer can MORE than handle the BG2 engine. Sucks too, cuz I wanted to play with all the spiffy things that come with Tutu. ANYways.

[Nermie]

There, now I'm registered. XD Sorry about the repeat posts.

[Jarno Mikkola]

but the registration process can't seem to write to it's .ini file.

You need to start the game for it to make the baldur.ini ... and if you need the .ini, make a new .txt file, edit it with Notepad and copy paste this info to it:

...

 

...

If the game lags, try the things in this list:

1. Always patch the game(s) with the latest patch, start a new game and exit after the game has auto-saves itself(so you have to make a char or choose a pre-made one), before you install any mod, and you might as well make a safe backup from the important files: data and override -folders, baldur.exe, BGMain.exe, dialog.tlk and CHITIN.key, in the unmoded game this should take about 960 to 1020 MB's, depending on how the computer counts it.

2. Put the ambient sounds off from the BGConfig.exe, as some of the areas might have no ambient sounds and so the game tries to start them many time continuously, and so looses processing power.

3. Get a huge RAM storage, and set the Cache size to huge from the BGConfig.exe... the recommendations wary, but it can be from the 300 to 3000(Mb's) depending on the size of your installation and how large the .bif files end up being. This will eat your hard drive, but only temporarily.

4. Don't mess with the game configurations so the speed adjustment percentages stay on "normal" ratings even if you have very high end machine, as the game has own it's internal fps counter, it sometimes tries to correct the fps on it's own by lowering graphs etc. Also the games frame rate should be set to about 30, as that's the default.

5. I wouldn't recommend to install any of the speaking item mods, as they run their scripts and fire their comments everywhere, and that's bad for the fps(frames/second count).

6. Trying to avoid too many effects on a character(about 20 is fine, 200 is too many, and 20 000 is way way too many...)

7. De-fragmenting your hard drive might also help... as you don't have to go find the data in the pieces. (hmm, there is a joke in there, hih)

8. Before installing the mods, plan the exact order, so they are in correct order, and make sure if you uninstalled the game that you deleted the old mod files, the data and override folders(don't go and overwrite them) so you can start from a clean install, so there is no leftovers from old mods.

9. Helpful links for Tutu and BGT(the English and German .pdf files) -based Megamods. And the most recent BWP vX, which today is the 8.0.

10. Take note that you should have done all the points 1-9 before you install any mods! But you should be able to do them still, with few alterations.

---

11. And when you have installed all the mods you are going to, it might be a good idea to test your game to make sure your mods work, particularly any newer or untested mods. Once you are satisfied your install works, and only then, you will want biff your override folder, but do that knowing that you generally can't change the game much after. The easiest way to do this is to use the End_biff from here, or the more modern Generalized Biffing.

12. Repeat the step 7 again, if you think it might help.

13. Run as few programs on the background while playing as possible, if you think it might help. And scan for viruses, but do so when you are not playing the game... so don't have the Anti virus program running in the backround. *

14. When you quit the game, delete all the files from the Cache folder, if the game even puts any files in there. This might cause a little loading time increase, but it is worth it, cause it removes lag when playing the game.

---

15. Inventory management(no stacks that have more than about 200 items, in a bag, arrows etc.), -might also help, as in if you drop an item to the ground or store it in a stash the stuttering might go away. And do not carry too many bags of holding and the like storage items.

16. NPC management, some mods might cause lag if a particular NPC is in the party for some odd reason or another, so if dropping the NPC from the party results in the removal of the lag or the stuttering, do so. And don't forget that somebody needs to know about it, the circumstance this happens etc. good debugging info...

17. Play the game yourself! So turn off the character AI's off by pushing the glowing lantern so it's not lightened anymore, unless it's strictly necessary for 1 action or another... as it's needed to be running while you level up a few mod installed Kits, for example, and if possible make the characters AI to be the None, or very limited and small script, such as auto attacking one if the character is idle.

18. Complete all the quests you are given, as in a long game, some scripts that are looking IF you have this-or-that quest active, will be screaming and causing lags, if their checks are in global category and used all the time... it can be very bad.

19. And if you know your way around coding a .tp2 file and have file name knowledge, you can debug files with a custom made mod based on this. One option in this is to make the line take every script(.bcs) in the game into account with:

COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP GLOB ~.*\.bcs~ ~override~

And take only the repeating lines into account, and report them! And make sure you also tell the circumstance it happened to you, perhaps attach the --change-log of the *.bcs to the report and mention what type of BWInstall it was... You can then uninstall the mod you made and play the game without the debugging stuff until you run into another slowdown you can't tolerate install the mod and try to find the cause... uninstall, play etc. etc.

20. For some unexplained reason, when you have played the game quite long time, starting a new game so it autosaves in ToB and importing the BG1 or SoA game in, might help to clear out some of the stutter in them, even after you go back and load the game in the BG1 or BG2 portion of the game, we have to investigate this a bit.

21. Keep in mind that these advices won't solve the whole problem, as there can be things that make a lot of lag for no apparent reason, until they are found, and then it's more than obvious... like the ambient sounds caused lagging problem, it's caused by missed files that references have never been rechecked to be accurate.

[Nermie]

Hm... I'll re-do Tutu and try the stuff in that list, see if it helps. But as for the .ini file, it's not the BG .ini, but the Registration process .ini file. In the folder RegisterMP1, eregui.ini. An error message pops up that says it can't write to that file after I either skip or go through the registration process.

[Jarno Mikkola]

Hm... I'll re-do Tutu and try the stuff in that list, see if it helps. But as for the .ini file, it's not the BG .ini, but the Registration process .ini file. In the folder RegisterMP1, eregui.ini. An error message pops up that says it can't write to that file after I either skip or go through the registration process.

You mean the age and eternity old registry prop the BG1 gives you. Well, to put it bluntly, the firm that it would be send has made a bankruptcy, so it won't give you the special gold bonus... so just skip it three times and it will ask you to put 123 into the line and it will then never ask that again.