change portrait by script…??

[lefreut]

If I remember correctly, it's not possible to automatically change the portrait of a character with LUA.

[subtledoctor]

Damn, I could have sworn I solved this issue last year, but now it is happening again in my current game, and when I searched and found this thread...no solution!

It's the damnedest thing. I played through the BG1 and SoD campaigns with Jaheira and Minsc and Imoen using custom portraits... but upon starting the BG2 campaign, they revert to their vanilla BG2 portraits. And no matter what changes I make, a couple seconds later my change is undone.

[subtledoctor]

Welp, I cannot access my savegame to see if there are any repeating effects on Jaheira or Minsc, but I edited the K#PORJAH.SPL and K#PORMIN.SPL files to remove any effects that could change portraits; then I transferred the altered spells to my iPad. Upon firing up the game... no difference. Standing around in Waukeen's Promenade, I change Jaheira's portrait to something else, then leave the record screen. As long as the game clock is not running, the portrait remains. But as soon as I let the game clock run, her portrait reverts to the vanilla one within about 1-2 seconds.

Which makes me thing this has to be the result of some script. Party AI is off, so it cannot be the DPLAYER_ scripts; and it happened on both levels of Chateau Irenicus and in the exterior Waukeen's Promenade area. So it does not seem to be in an area script. Which means it must be in BALDUR.BCS or in the NPCs' override scripts. I already looked at those, and didn't see anything obvious... but BALDUR.BCS is very large so maybe I missed something. I did a search for "jahei" and "mins" to find any references to them and did not see much. This is the ONLY script block targeting Minsc in BALDUR.BCS:

IF
	Global("MinscByeBye","GLOBAL",1)
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		ActionOverride("Minsc",EscapeArea())
END

IF
	Global("MinscByeBye","GLOBAL",2)
THEN
	RESPONSE #100
		MoveGlobal("AR0400","Minsc",[519.529])  // Minsc
END

That does not appear to have anything to do with his portrait!

It's possible the portrait thing doesn't target Minsc directly, but Player3 or something like that... but I can change Yoshimo's portrait with no problem!  And I could change Minsc's portrait with no problem through BG1 and SoD, during chapters 1-12.  Looking at CAMPAIGN.2DA, the general game script for both the BG1 and BG2 campaigns is the same: BALDUR.BCS. So if it is the main game script, the difference in behavior must be gated behind a Chapter() trigger, or something like that. Or else it must not be in that script at all, and in some other script that is only activated in BG2/chapter 13.

Sigh. I'll keep poking around I guess.

(And for those who want to know why I don't just leave the portraits as they are: it's because I am using IWD-style full-body portraits. So some of my party members end up with small people in their portraits, while Minsc and Jaheira are giant disembodied heads next to them. It is really annoying.)

Edited November 19 by subtledoctor

[lynx]

What action can even do this?

[mickabouille]

Maybe PPE/ portraits portraits everywhere? It seems to alter the EETTweaks portrait handling...

[argent77]

K#PORJAH.SPL, K#PORMIN.SPL (as well as K#POREDW.SPL, K#PORIMO.SPL, and K#PORVIC.SPL) use the wrong timing modes for applying the portrait changes (timing 9 instead of 1), which results in a persistent op107 effect on the characters. That spell is applied together with other actions that update the characters to their BG2 state.

[subtledoctor]

Huh. it looks like that might be the issue! I did not think a spell timing problem would manifest so like a scripting problem. I removed the op107 effects from those spells and loaded the current game: changed portraits would still revert after a few seconds. So it is not a case of those spells being repeatedly cast. 

But I loaded a save from before the SoD-SoA transition, and this time the portraits never changed to the vanilla ones, and I could change them and the changes would stick. 

Mystery solved! And an easy fix. Thanks folks. 

[lynx]

You can just remove the effect from characters in the save game itself, no need to go back in time.

[subtledoctor]

Heh heh, Near Infinity cannot open my savegame. 

[lynx]

Then just apply a spell with #321 (0x141) Removal: Effects specified by Resource.

[subtledoctor]

Ah, that’s a good idea. 

But this game is on hold anyway, as I am about to 1) create a mod for SoD; 2) graft said mod onto my existing install; and 3) replay all of SoD with this party. So I will be repeating the SoD-SoA transition anyway.