Unique special effects icons

[Grammarsalad]

According to iedsp, special effects icons are found in STATES.BAM, starting at sequence 65... So, if I were to add a sequence to STATES.BAM with a unique icon of the right size, would I be able to reference it with

#142 and see it displayed on a portrait, or will I hit a hardcoded wall?

 

Thanks!

[argent77]

Theoretically it would work. However, there is a very limiting hardcoded wall in the BAM V1 format. The number of available cycles cannot be greater than 255. Vanilla BG2 already uses 238 cycles on its own. IWD:EE is using even more. The BAM V2 format of the Enhanced Editions does support up to several billion cycles, but at present it can't be used for state icons shown in the character portraits. Let's hope the next patch improves this situation.

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

For both STATES and STATES2, NI is showing cycles 3 through 65 inclusive as blank, 66-231 used, 232-254 blank, and 255 used. It looks like cycles 1, 2, and 255 are occupied but not accessed by the game anywhere.

 

There are only 166 choices when selecting which icon to display with effect 142.

 

What is happening with cycles 3-65? Can they not be utilized?

[argent77]

It seems to work (fully in BG2:EE and partially in original BG2). You have to use negative numbers though. So cycle 64 -> -1, 63 -> -2, and so on. You'd also have to update STATES2.BAM and add a new description (for the negative index) to STATDESC.2DA.

[CamDawg]

According to iedsp, special effects icons are found in STATES.BAM, starting at sequence 65... So, if I were to add a sequence to STATES.BAM with a unique icon of the right size, would I be able to reference it with

#142 and see it displayed on a portrait, or will I hit a hardcoded wall?

 

Thanks!

Yes, with the restrictions argent77 already pointed out (255). I had to rebuild states and states2 for IWDEE to get the right mix of BG and IWD icons available.

 

There's also something special about the level-up icon as I recall. It's either hardcoded to a slot, needed different centering than the other BAM frames, or both.

[Grammarsalad]

Cool. I appreciate the feedback. I can work with that

[Fiann of the Silver Hand]

It seems to work (fully in BG2:EE and partially in original BG2). You have to use negative numbers though. So cycle 64 -> -1, 63 -> -2, and so on. You'd also have to update STATES2.BAM and add a new description (for the negative index) to STATDESC.2DA.

Thanks. I understand it, but that seems so bizarre. It can't be coincidental that the zero point was moved 64 spots.