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////This is temporary rough version of the guide. Sorry I deleted by mistake the finished guide. But it is still applicable. 

 

This is guide for Windows users. Sorry I do not own/have Linux or any other systems. 

This guide will help you set up GemRB engine and install GemRB 10pp mod so you can enjoy 10 party members or decrease maximum allowable pary members.

I recommend you to install Notepad ++ or similar program for easier editing paths.

 

I. First Setting up your GemRB:

1. First go to this site and download the latest build 

Windows:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gemrb/files/Buildbot Binaries/Windows/AppVeyor/

Linux:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gemrb/files/Buildbot Binaries/Linux/

OSX:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/gemrb/files/Buildbot Binaries/Apple/OSX/

2. Extract your GemRB build to any folder although I recommend you to extract it to separately named folder e.g. _GemRB in Black Isles or GoG or close to where you have your Baldur's Gate 2 game directory. It makes things easier to navigate. 

3. Go to where you extracted GemRB build and find the file called GemRB.cfg.sample

4. Rename GemRB.cfg.sample to GemRB.cfg. Ignore any warning if it pops up about changing file format.

5. Open GemRB.cfg

6. ONLY if you have Polish or Czech version of the Baldur's Gate 2

Find:

Quote

# Encoding=default

Rename it to:

Encoding=Czech

or 

Encoding=Polish

7. Screen Resolution and Full Screen

Find:

Width=640

and rename it to:

Quote

Width=1024

Find:

Height=480

and rename it to:

Height=768

This is maximum allowed resolution supported by the original data. You can increase it still and the windows in game will be centered. Or you can install the widescreen mod.

For Full Screen Find:

Fullscreen=0

Set it to one:

Fullscreen=1

 

8. Find:

#MaxPartySize = 6

and rename it to:

MaxPartySize = 10

Or whatever number you want your party size to be restricted e.g. 3. Maximum party you can have with 10pp is TEN.

Don't forget to remove the #  pound sign. 

 

9. Find

#EnableCheatKeys=1

and rename it to:

EnableCheatKeys=1

You may need to use the cheats if you run into a unexpected bug.

Don't forget to remove the #  hash sign. 

 

10. Now comes tricky part - path editing. Your mileage will vary because nobody's paths are the same. Double and triple check your work it will work.

GamePath=/mnt/windows/Programmi/Black Isle/BGII - SoA/

So this would look like that

GamePath=C:\Users\Cygar\Desktop\Misc Files\Black Isles\BGII - SoA\

You need to provide your path to your Baldur's Gate 2 classic not Enhanced Edition.

You should need to do. Anything else below in the spoiler tag are optional steps let lynx know if you really need to do those steps for GemRB to work.

Spoiler

 

11. Find 

CachePath=.\Cache2\

And you need to rename it the path where you extracted your GemRB plus Cache2 needs to be renamed to Cache

My path for GemRB cache looks like this:

CachePath=C:\Users\Cygar\Desktop\Misc Files\Black Isles\_GemRB\Cache

_GemRB is where I extracted my GemRB build from the step 2.

12. Find:

#SavePath=/mnt/windows/Programmi/Black Isle/BGII - SoA/

For SavePath= you basically need to provide only path to your game directory. Mine path looks like this:

SavePath=C:\Users\Cygar\Desktop\Misc Files\Black Isles\BGII - SoA

Don't forget to remove the #  pound sign. 

 

13. Find 

GemRBPath=

and enter the path where you extracted your GemRB build from the step 2.

Mine GemRBPath= looks like:

GemRBPath=C:\Users\Cygar\Desktop\Misc Files\Black Isles\_GemRB

Don't forget to remove the #  pound sign. 

 

14. Find:

#GUIScriptsPath=

and enter the path where you extracted your GemRB build from the step 2.

Mine GUIScriptsPath= looks like:

GUIScriptsPath=C:\Users\Cygar\Desktop\Misc Files\Black Isles\_GemRB

Don't forget to remove the #  pound sign. 

 

15. Find:

#PluginsPath=

and enter the path to the plugins folder inside your GemRB build folder from the step 2.

Mine GUIScriptsPath= looks like:

PluginsPath=C:\Users\Cygar\Desktop\Misc Files\Black Isles\_GemRB\plugins

Don't forget to remove the #  pound sign. 

 

 

GemRB should be set up now. Go to where you extracted GemRB build and run gemrb.exe

 

II. 10pp mod

First incompatible and other problems mods:

1) Shadow Over Soubar. Don't install it because if you do you will get fatal error when installing 10pp. 

Quote

-Check the Bodies hits a bug in 10pp, which then produces an invalid script modification and weidu barfs on it; if you install it later, it just means it doesn't get extended for 10pp, with all the consequences that entails

Problematic mods:

1) Game Over The Party Death - can only be installed after 10pp mod.

a) it requires you to copy and override my edited .baf scripts BEFORE installing Game Over Only on Party Dead to extend support up to 10 NPCs in the party. Otherwise whenever 5 NPCs die your protagonist will also die even if you have 4 other party member alive.

b) the mod is far from perfect on GemRB it requires you to manually set variable #gbhaalhp1=2 to #gbhaalhp1=0 whenever your Charname gets knock out (1 HP or less). Setting variable can be done using Near Infinity in the save game BALDUR.GAM

c) There are lots of the issues I documented in this post written in violet color:

 

 

III. Installation of 10pp:

Software and mod prerequisites:

1 ) the G3 Fixpack

2 ) Download and install Active Perl 5.26.3.2603 or newer https://www.activestate.com/products/activeperl/downloads/

3 ) Download 10pp mod from here https://github.com/lynxlynxlynx/gemrb-mods

4 ) Extract gemrb-mods-master.zip and copy the 10pp folder into your Baldur's Gate directory.

5 ) Copy and paste any of your weidu .exe for example setup-bg2fixpack.exe  so you have setup-bg2fixpack - Copy.exe as well 

6 ) Rename setup-bg2fixpack - Copy.exe to setup-10pp.exe

7 ) Run setup-10pp.exe and choose maximum size of allowed party member. I suggest you type in 10 because in GemRB.cfg you can manually edit the party size if you want to restrict the group to less than 6 members. That way you shouldn't lose the flexibility of manually editing party size in the config file GemRB.cfg.

9 ) You can optionally install the widescreen mod with big enough resolution to fit in additional portraits. I recommend you to have at least 

Quote

 

#Screen width
Width=1600

#Screen height
Height=1200

 

With these resolution All 10 portraits will fit in but you will have to reload the game after having group size more than 6 in order to control 7th NPC via portrait. Likely the optimal resolution for 10 NPCs is at least 1920 x 1440. @Jarno Mikkola knows better and refer to his advises from here:

10) Hopefully it will install successfully. 


IV. Few pointers for GemRB wannabes:

Spoiler

1) Dont install too many mods adding kits they will mess up kits in your joinable NPCs
2) GemRB dont work on EE versions
3) Shadow Over Sourbar are incompatible with the best mod that there is - 10 party poopers mod xD (10pp)
4) Level1NPCs may not work on NPCs that were modified by other mods - your mileage may vary
5) Dont install fullplate armor mod (IMO) or your full plated warriors will lag behind your rest party horribly
Same goes with Item Revision Component although here you can choose not to install speed penalties for armors
6) Vlad's Compilation mod is very tricky to install even when you run vanilla engine I can provide you what components should be bug proof with mega mod setup
7 ) Clerics/Thief has no access to turn undead widget. Using turn undead hotkey still works. It's in the bugtracker. https://github.com/gemrb/gemrb/issues
😎 Expect to see bugs you wouldn't see on vanilla engine.
9) Regardless of drawbacks nothing beats 10 party pooper mod GemRB reigns supreme!
10) Homeward Bound v7 doesn't seem to work at all but it also doesn't break anything in the game
11) You can only install components [Infinity Animations ] and [Humanoid Animation Fixes] from Infinity Animations Core WeiDu beta 5
if you install more components from Infinity Animations Core WeiDu beta 5  the creatures changed by this mod will look like halflings or gnomes.
12) DrizztSaga v3 if installed will make saves GemRB unopenable on vanilla engine and ShadowKeeper

13) Level 1 NPCs component:
[Joinable NPCs more closely match the player character's experience?]
3 1] On initial joining only [1]
4 2] On initial joining and rejoining

There components have XP constant deduction bug which can be fixed by saving and loading the game but the NPC's XP likely will be incorrect.

Edited by lynx
Typoes and parsing updating more information about GemRB and mods
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So I've been trying to install a mega mod install of BGT (using the last version of BWP installer) that's compatible with GemRB and 10pp. Three times now I've achieved the first but failed at the second, my antivirus is definitely causing issues but after disabling it during the process I was able to get this (attached screenshot) suggesting extender.pl lines 26 and 27 are important but it didn't show up on the debug. Any insight would be appreciated, I'm getting better at reading the debugs and logs but I'm still pretty clueless.

10pp error.png

SETUP-10PP.DEBUG

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It isn't lying, that file has nothing in it 0kb according to windows, no text in notepad++ and nothing in nearinfiniity. That's from the temp folder in 10pp, I can't find it anywhere else via searching. I've tried to attach it a few times now but I'm guessing it won't because it's empty. Could this have anything to do with the antivirus stopping it at some point in the process? Would deleting it or the whole temp folder potentially resolve it?

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Forgot to mention I had an issue with it running out of memory a few times, after closing some applications it was able to run but it looked like it had a memory leak. It managed to get to nearly 5GB of RAM at one point with hundreds of instances of Weimer Dialogue Utilities showing up in task manager. Also after closing I had to manually end task to free back up that RAM as they didn't close

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34 minutes ago, reallyhairydave said:

That's from the temp folder in 10pp, I can't find it anywhere else via searching.

Thing is, like said, you need to use the Near Infinity tool(latest here) to find the file, it's probably biffed in to an archive file called .bif the old version of this game used to read stuff when we had 16 MBs of ram to use, instead of todays 1028x amounts when the whole game fits to one 4th of your total RAM. Sounds a bit like old coding going bad. Reference is from here:

On 3/1/2022 at 7:16 PM, CamDawg said:

Also, source size checks aren't needed any more regardless. Before we had stuff like IF_EXISTS we had to specify files on an ALLOW_MISSING list, which WeiDU treated as existent, 0-byte files. The SOURCE_SIZE check was meant to skip those files in a C_E(_R), not as any kind of real validity check.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola
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Ok, let's find out where that file is from, so we can check if it's supposed to be empty or not. I don't get any hits on g3 or shs github nor the original games, so you'll have to do the searching.

You can try to do a regular file search in your game install for aminota.baf (not bcs).

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27 minutes ago, Jarno Mikkola said:

Thing is, like said, you need to use the Near Infinity tool(latest here) to find the file, it's probably biffed in to an archive file called .bif the old version of this game used to read stuff when we had 16 MBs of ram to use, instead of todays 1028x amounts when the whole game fits to one 4th of your total RAM. Sounds a bit like old coding going bad.

That might be it, I had to manually install some of the mods because BWS is out of date and I can't find the versions it wants of those files. I selected RoT to BIFF not knowing what that meant and assuming it was necessary. I'm attempting to uninstall that component now and see what changes (assuming it still can)

*edit RoT not NEJ

Edited by reallyhairydave
correction
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28 minutes ago, lynx said:

Ok, let's find out where that file is from, so we can check if it's supposed to be empty or not. I don't get any hits on g3 or shs github nor the original games, so you'll have to do the searching.

You can try to do a regular file search in your game install for aminota.baf (not bcs).

Turns out I was looking at the .baf not .bcs before, that's the only file that I could find with the search query "aminota"

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12 minutes ago, lynx said:

That's good as well. You can then run:

weidu --change-log path\to\aminota.bcs

That will tell you where the file is from. Well, unless you already know it's from NeJ?

[weidu] WeiDU version 24600
[.\CHITIN.KEY] 444 BIFFs, 77761 resources
[.\dialog.tlk] 212003 string entries

FATAL ERROR: Sys_error("SETUP-IWDITEMPACK.TP2: No such file or directory")

 

Does this mean anything to you? That's what I got when running that line in cmd in the BG2 folder. Also it was RoT not NeJ, I corrected it but you probably need to refresh the page to see that. I couldn't see any obvious places in RoT's directory for a similar named file or biff, there's a large folder of BAFs but nothing stood out there either

25 minutes ago, reallyhairydave said:

That might be it, I had to manually install some of the mods because BWS is out of date and I can't find the versions it wants of those files. I selected RoT to BIFF not knowing what that meant and assuming it was necessary. I'm attempting to uninstall that component now and see what changes (assuming it still can)

*edit RoT not NEJ

Unsurprisingly it didn't like uninstalling that component. I've backed up the entire game folder and might try a fresh install without BIFFING, I'm aware trying so many mods at once is part of the problem here but I might be able to help you to get a better idea of what works and what doesn't if I can get past the installation :p 

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10 minutes ago, reallyhairydave said:

[weidu] WeiDU version 24600
[.\CHITIN.KEY] 444 BIFFs, 77761 resources
[.\dialog.tlk] 212003 string entries

FATAL ERROR: Sys_error("SETUP-IWDITEMPACK.TP2: No such file or directory")

 

Does this mean anything to you? That's what I got when running that line in cmd in the BG2 folder. Also it was RoT not NeJ, I corrected it but you probably need to refresh the page to see that

Nevermind, figured it out, there were a few .tp2 files that had .dlt added to the end for some reason, removing that got it working. This is the result:
 

G:\Games\GOG Galaxy\Games\Baldurs Gate 2>weidu --change-log path\to\aminota.bcs
[weidu] WeiDU version 24600
[.\CHITIN.KEY] 444 BIFFs, 77761 resources
[.\dialog.tlk] 212003 string entries

Mods affecting PATH\TO\AMINOTA.BCS:

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25 minutes ago, reallyhairydave said:

I've backed up the entire game folder and might try a fresh install without BIFFING, I'm aware trying so many mods at once is part of the problem here but I might be able to help you to get a better idea of what works and what doesn't if I can get past the installation :p 

On that note I am almost ready to start a fresh install, just wanted to check whether removing all BIFF mods is a good idea or not. I spotted Generalized Biffing in the folder and found BWS does some as well. It claims the game will run smoother with it but it was written a long time ago when computers were a lot less beefy

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you need to change the path to point to the actual file ... but since you know it's RoT, there's no point.

We were trying to figure out if it's intentionally empty or not. You're saying it's empty from the get go. So just delete the file and 10pp won't barf on it.

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