Just Some Insane Questions....

[Samalander]

Okay, so I understand that GemRB can be run under *NIX systems and OSX.

 

I can understand desiring to play IE games under Linux. I don't, however, currently have a Linux box running (as I am wont to do, from time to time), mostly because I am a full time student and too busy to mess around with stuff.

 

So now the Insane Questions:

 

Can I run GemRB under Windows 2k, or is that just stupid?

 

Is GemRB an engine which runs the games each as a sort of module? In other words, do I start GemRB and point it towards my install directory of X IE game, and it simply (ab)uses the data there to run it?

 

If this is the case, is it possible to run PST in the IWD2 interface (which is quite nice) and avoid the stupid right-click menu of PST and instead use the nice customizable gui of IWD2?

 

Would that also mean that instead of in PST where text phrases simply appear over peoples' heads and then disappear, the text would appear in a dialogue box and be readable for more than 5 seconds?

 

Now, those are my insane and greedy questions. I like making AI scripts and editing stores and items and spells in IE games. That said, however, my programming skills are limited, and my familiarity even more so. I would like to help, but I'm worried that I wouldn't be much help without guidance, and the overhead-cost of the guidance would not be worth my assistance.

 

Of course, if I could just get started, I might really get into it. Bear in mind I couldn't get any AI scripts to work in IWD2.

 

Oh, and thanks in advance for any generous answers to my ridiculous questions!

[Avenger]

1. yes, gemrb runs on everything, even on a mobil phone. (if they ported sdl/openal and got sufficient memory). Actually, when i compile test it for msvc7 i run it on a win2k.

 

2. right, GemRB (ab)uses an original game install. Of course, it is possible to create an own dataset with an own installer. But right now, GemRB plays original games (and mods, like Glory of Istar).

 

3. this might be possible. But you need to change the gui. One obvious difference is that PST creatures got different inventory slots. (Different from each other and from any other games). GemRB fully supports creating hibrid games. You can freely mix most of the original games' features.

[Samalander]

1. yes, gemrb runs on everything, ...when i compile test it for msvc7 i run it on a win2k.

 

Thanks for the reply!

 

I dowloaded and installed OpenAL, SDL.dll, (also got the devel package for SDL), Python 2.5, and Zlib, like in your FAQ.

 

However, I only need these to compile GemRB myself, right? It seems kind of silly because you included them in....:

 

I downloaded GemRB 0.2.6 as a windows binary. I placed the gemrb folder from the .zip at c:\gemrb but when I run gemrb.exe I get an error with the chitin.key importer...

 

[KEYImporter]: Opening e:/torment/\chitin.key...[ERROR]

[KEYImporter]: Cannot open Chitin.key [ERROR]

Cannot Load Chitin.key

Termination in Progress

 

So then I edited the file GemRB.cfg.pst and replaced all the paths with ones actually for the game on my computer.... I don't actually use the e: designation on this computer....

 

And it says the exact same thing... I'll keep playing but if you can help me, please do!

 

3. this might be possible. But you need to change the gui. One obvious difference is that PST creatures got different inventory slots. (Different from each other and from any other games). GemRB fully supports creating hibrid games. You can freely mix most of the original games' features.

 

I'd actually be interested in doing this... if I can get GemRB to run at all, I'll do my best =)

[Samalander]

Wow I'm dumb...

 

Had to edit GemRB.cfg and not GemRB.cfg.pst

 

I assume why each of the IE games has their own appended gemrb.cfg.xxx file so that you can simply copy it over the generic file to select which game to play.

[Avenger]

Yep, those are my own cfg files, kept in the distribution to give some idea what to do with the cfg file.