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On portrait sizes


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This is all known information, but I'm not sure if it's actually summarized anywhere.

There are now seven different portrait sizes used across the BG/IWD games. In the notes below I'll use the term 'S' or 'L' portrait; this is the suffix used with the portrait by the internal naming convention (e.g. IMOENS.bmp or IMOENL.bmp).

  • 36x58
    • An Icewind Dale exclusive, used for the game screen as the S portrait.
    • This portrait is also unique in that it's the only portrait that is cropped to just the face of the character; all other portraits across the games are generally the same portrait resized and not cropped at all.
  • 38x60
    • Used in the original BG and BG2 as the game screen portrait as the S
    • In original BG2, this S image also appears in the dialogue window.
  • 42x42
    • An IWD2 exclusive S portrait, used only for the game screen.
  • 54x84
    • Defined in the EEs as the S portrait, but appears to be unused.
  • 110x170
    • Used in original BG/IWD as the record screen portrait as the L portrait
    • This size is also used by the original BG2 as the record screen, but is instead designated M.
  • 169x266
    • Size exclusively used by the EE as the game screen and dialogue window portrait, designated M
  • 210x330
    • In IWD and BG this G portrait is used for the initial portrait selection image during character creation. However, once selected the rest of character creation process uses the smaller L portrait
    • In original BG2 this is the L portrait and used only as the epilogue portrait
    • As the L portrait, used in IWD2 for everything but the game screen
    • For the EEs this the L portrait and used for the epilogue and record screens

Creature files designate a small and large portrait at offsets 0x34 and 0x3c, respectively. By convention above these are respectively the M/L portraits (BG2, EEs) or the S/L (BG, IWD, IWD2).

Edited by CamDawg
updated for BG G portrait
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Or put another way:

  • Original IWD uses a cropped 36x58 S portrait for the game screen, a 110x170 L portrait for the record screen, and has a 210x330 G portrait that is used only for portrait selection during character creation.
  • Original IWD2 uses a cropped 42x42 S portrait for the game screen, and a 210x330 L portrait for everything else. Unlike the other games, there is no third portrait.
  • Original BG uses a 38x60 S portrait for the game screen, a 110x170 L portrait for the record screen, and has a 210x330 G portrait that is used only for portrait selection during character creation.
  • Original BG2 uses a 38x60 S portrait for the game screen and dialogue window, a 110x170 M portrait for the record screen, and a 210x330 L portrait for the epilogues in ToB.
  • The EEs uses a 169x266 M portrait for the game screen and dialogue window, and 210x330 L portrait for the record screen and epilogues in ToB. They also include a 54x84 S portrait that appears to be unused.

It's possible the EE S portraits are used somewhere obscure (character arbitration?) but I've yet to find it; same deal for the BG G portraits.

To make portraits available to the player, EEs only need the L version dropped into the portraits folder in the documents folder. The others either need the M and L portraits (BG2) or the S and L portraits (BG/IWD/IWD2) dropped into the game directory's portraits folder. The custom portrait screen for IWD uses the L portrait, and hence G is not needed for PC-available portraits.

Edited by CamDawg
updated for BG G portrait
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AFAIK the EE engine will scale portrait files to whatever size it needs.

I'm positive that it downscales though I haven't tested upscaling (why would anyone wanna do that?) and I'm also not sure how tolerant it is in regards to aspect ratio.

For pure size though, even rather large portraits like 420x660 or something should work just fine.

 

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Aye, there is no need to ever use one greater than 210x330 since that's the biggest any of the games uses. There is, however, also no need to manually down-scale a bigger portrait since the engine can handle that itself.

That's definitely something that should be noted for the IESDP.

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Actually, now that I think about it, I'm not sure the EE games' epilogue portraits are really displayed at 210x330 and not upscaled by default? If the game did upscale them by default, that would mean that a size bigger than 210x330 would theoretically offer a slightly better quality.

No idea about that though. Maybe it's something CamDawg knows about..

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On 12/28/2018 at 4:59 PM, CamDawg said:

It's possible the EE S portraits are used somewhere obscure

I believe they're used by non-joinable NPCs for dialogues. In original BG2, Bodhi, Ellesime, Irenicus, the Five, Gromnir, and Melissan all have 38x60 portraits but nothing larger. In EE, most of those are replaced by 54x84 portraits. (For some reason, Abazigal, Balthazar and Gromnir don't get new versions; they're noticeably blurry in-game.)

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