Question About Creating Pack Items and thier Pics.

[Melisah]

If I wanted to create a new item or character avatar for BG or BG2, how do I do it?  How do I create the item, what program do I use and how do I make it appear in the inventory?  Also, how do I create an item description page to add to a game?

Keep in mind I am a complete novice and have no experience (other than creating portraits) with the tecnical side of modding.  I'm telling you, I need all the help I can get.

[cliffette]

That's a big question if you're a novice!

The short answer is that you should look around the tutorials at http://tutorials.teambg.net. Also, when you can speak the basic language of Weidu, look at the way item importation is done in other WeiDU mods.

Then there's the long answer:

Ok, items are mainly made up of their .itm (the actual Item) and .bam (pictures of how they appear in-game) files.

To make the .itm file, you need IEEP (Infinity Engine Editor Pro) from  http://teambg.net/?page=tools/basiccustomizing
and a good tutorial.

A good basic item making tutorial was written by Sim and you'll find it here
http://tutorials.teambg.net/index.php?page=opentut&tutID=30
The only change I would make to that tutorial is in the Chapter 6. Instead of entering your item name and description, I always leave that bit blank, because you later use WeiDU to assign the item name and descriptions. (An expert can correct me if I'm wrong here!)

When it comes to the .bam files, you'll see they've been mentioned in Sim's tute. Essentially they're the little pictures of the item (such as how they appear in your inventory, the image of the item when you drop it on the ground, and the image that appears when you click on the description of the item).

You can just recycle the images that are already in the game (especially for dropped items), but you may also make your own, in which case the following tutorial will be helpful.
http://tutorials.teambg.net/index.php?page=opentut&tutID=49
(You'll have to have your images premade. The tutorial just allows you to import the pictures to .bam format).

If you want to use in-game images, I usually use the magical program Near Infinity (NI) to browse through the .bam files available (http://www.idi.ntnu.no/%7Ejoh/ni/). I'd highly recommend this program anyway, because it allows you to look at any file within the game. When you're a pro, you can edit using NI as well.

You may also export items as .itm files using NI, open them in IEEP, then check out the values in each field to see how each item was made.

To get your item into the game, you can CLUAConsole them as Sim says in his tutorial. This is good for testing them (except for the item description part). When you go to make a WeiDU installation package however, you'd import your item using this command. This is where the item name and descriptions get added.

COPY   ~folder_where_item_is\Your_Item.itm~  ~Override\Your_Item.itm~   
SAY NAME1 ~Name of item~
SAY NAME2 ~Name of item~
SAY UNIDENTIFIED_DESC ~Generic description goes here~ SAY IDENTIFIED_DESC ~Identified Description just as it appears in the game~



Finally, for custom avatars, this is the tutorial... but you'll go insane.
http://www.teambg.com/iesdp/General/AvaGraph.htm


It all just takes time, effort, persistence, exploration of how it's done in established mods (that being the most important step in my opinion) and a healthy dose of google . Good luck!

[Melisah]

Thank you so much Cliffette.    Your advice really helped. 

You know I tried reading those WeiDu tutorials and it was like Greek to me.  Even the WeiDu tutorial for dummies went way over my head.   It's written in a way that you have to know some of the technical aspects of this and I know nothing.  I am however slowly starting to figure it out (with the help of people like you of course  ) so maybe when I'm done finally getting it, I'll write a tutorial for complete idiots. (like me)

Thanks again Cliffette, this should help a lot and if for some reason I do get stuck, well, there's always this thread.

[cliffette]

WeiDU is not for the faint-hearted Especially the Weidu-readme! That thing is straight from hell (except for the tutorials). When you get WeiDUing, the best thing to do is look at how other mods did it. I figured it out eventually by comparing and contrasting Valen, Kelsey and Flirtpack code (those being the three big major available ones at the time). The little mymod.tp2 that ships with WeiDU itself is also a gem. But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here 

Generally, if you push blindly through the discouragement, you will succeed in the end. Or at least produce part of a larger mod that will bug you to the end of your days 

[neriana]

I recommend you start with Ghareth. Kelsey looks terribly complicated unless you already have an idea what's going on, and his SoA code is mostly dated. Valen's better but there's not much there, IMO.

Once you start understanding WeiDu, it's really not that hard. Pester people with enough questions and everything will begin to make sense.

[Melisah]

I've actually been commisioned to create an "item" using BAM editing.  I all ready created the look of said item using Adobe photoshop.  I created the way the item will look in the description, in the pack and when you pick up the item to move it around in your pack. (apparently this item doesn't appear on the ground and is not droppable) so could I send someone the pics of item and have them just convert the file or do I have to start from scratch using the BAM editor tool in order to use it in a mod? 

EDIT: This item has no special abilities, (it doesn't heal, slash, talk, fling, or anything else for that matter) it just has to be there as a visual.

[Domi]

Melisah, you can send the pictures to me, I can integrate it into the item  And thank you for taking on the drawing challenge!

[Melisah]

Melisah, you can send the pictures to me, I can integrate it into the item  And thank you for taking on the drawing challenge!

You know what Domi, I thought I all ready did.  I was wondering why you didn't get back to me.  LOL 

Doh'!

Homer J has nothing on me, I swear. 

[Domi]

Uhm, nope, I am pretty sure I did not recieve anything up to now. May be we can touch base tomorrow night on MSN?

[Aristothenes]

Just a general question, going out to anyone that understands IEEP here:
What's the MAXIMUM number of 'Equipping Effects' that you can place on an object?
(Equipping Effects is different from Extension headers and Item effects, you can have only 3 of both types, least that's what I read)
2. Is there a BAM-listing somewhere? I would like the ability to see what animation type is associated with filename (i.e. dagger gets bam x, bam y and bam z)
Thanks in advance.