new tutu addon : map notes

[g.linder]

Hi all,

I have just finished a little mod (my first mod ) which add names to all areas on the worldmap (take a look), so the player can have the same feedback he had with BG1 : unexplored areas are blue, explored areas are white and known but unreachable areas are grey. Available only in french for now but as I am using WeiDU and .tra files, there should not be problems to add new languages

The mod (7z SFX archive) and the readme (in french too) are available at http://athanatos.free.fr/BG1TUTU/MapNotes/

There are three components (in the order where setup ask to install them) :
1) areas names, which patch worldmap.wmp and add the names in dialog.tlk
2) show only big towns, which hide the Ulgoth's Beard and Nashkel's Festival/Mines from the initial map : as the player does not know them at the beginning, he must reveal these areas himself
3) mark all areas as reachable: I used it to check the names, but this is of course undesirable in a game installation

The mod detects TOSC by checking the presence of two files, FW0500.ARE (Durlag's Tower) and FW1000.ARE (Ulgoth's Beard). I have disabled the names of Baldur's Gate city areas, because the names were displayed under the icons Is there a workaround to fix this ? Another annoying bug : during the prologue (and only during the prologue), the shield who represents the group on the map is displayed in the topleft corner of the map, instead of being under Candlekeep.

I wonder also if this mod can be added to the fixpack. I (and other people) find the map very more intuitive with this feature

And congratulations for this great thing known as Tutu, I love it

[Ghreyfain]

I have just finished a little mod (my first mod ) which add names to all areas on the worldmap (take a look), so the player can have the same feedback he had with BG1

Did they all have names in BG1?  I didn't think they did.

unexplored areas are blue, explored areas are white and known but unreachable areas are grey.

Awesome!  This was something on our to-do list to make Tutu as authentic as possible.

Available only in french for now but as I am using WeiDU and .tra files, there should not be problems to add new languages

Do you plan on doing the translation yourself, or should I find someone (there are a few folks who do french translations regularly, so it should be no trouble).  Or, heck, if there's not too much text, I could probably translate it.

1) areas names, which patch worldmap.wmp and add the names in dialog.tlk

Is this the one that adds the blue/white/grey icons?

3) mark all areas as reachable: I used it to check the names, but this is of course undesirable in a game installation

Good for bugtesting, though.

I wonder also if this mod can be added to the fixpack. I (and other people) find the map very more intuitive with this feature

That'd be awesome, yeah.  I can't speak for the others, but I'm fairly sure what we'd like to do is have the blue/white/grey icons as part of the core pack, and the other features optional.  I'd rather stick with the few named areas that BG1 has, myself.

And congratulations for this great thing known as Tutu, I love it

Me too.  I just hope more people start making mods like this for it.

[g.linder]

Did they all have names in BG1?  I didn't think they did.

You're right, only some areas had names (and they are correctly handled by the converter). I used the "totems" in some areas to give their own names like "Lion's Way" or "Sword Coast", but for some I had to search myself (and choose a transparent name like "Plains" or "Roads" for some generic aeras where place for the text were limited, not so much).

Do you plan on doing the translation yourself, or should I find someone (there are a few folks who do french translations regularly, so it should be no trouble).  Or, heck, if there's not too much text, I could probably translate it.

Well, the only texts that should be translated are the names of areas (52 strings) and components (3 strings), so I think this can be done in five or ten minutes. To be not too confusing, I choose the number of the area as identifier of the string (e.g, @2600 = FW2600 = Candlekeep). I do not know all the english names of areas, so I think it should be better than you do it. Or I can do it with the help of an english site on Baldur's Gate, too. As you wish

Oh, and the readme should be translated, too I'll do this one, at least.

Is this the one that adds the blue/white/grey icons?

Well, yes and no... I have found no way of changing these icons (that was the first thing I tried), but (and this is why I gave all areas a name), BG2 engine handles the status of areas and display their names accordingly (blue, grey or white). Little trick, impressive effect

[SimDing0™]

One of the key problems we've been looking into is that the transparency doesn't work properly in BG2. Below is a comparison of BG1 and Tutu worldmap icons, with original BG1 on the left. It'd be nice to be able to fix this issue, but I really don't have a clue how to go about it. Do you have any idea?

[g.linder]

This would be a great feature indeed, but I do not know very well the engine internals... The only thing I see at my level is to create new icons from a BG1 map screenshot, without transparency (but that would not fix the areas grey/blue/black colors, of course... how does BG2 handle them, by the way ? maybe you can do like him)

[SimDing0™]

BG2 mapicons.bam gives each icon sequence 38 frames which display the different stages of fade on the icon. Thus, to make it work, we'd have to manually modify each icon 38 times to make it work, unless there's a simple way of doing it quickly.

[g.linder]

I see... If we take the 52 icons from a BG1's worldmap screenshot as a base, maybe an automated procedure can be used to generate all appropriate stages for each icon ? I saw numbers of programs that do this for color-to-grey fades, why not for others colors

Or (probably better) : is it 38 frames allowed or 38 frames required ? Maybe you can use only four (grey, black, blue and red)

[SimDing0™]

I'd imagine however many are there is the requirement rather than the maximum.

[Ashara]

Could you guys take names from Dudley's Walkthrough map for an English version? They are rather decent and reflect well the main features of the area and well, I am used to them (OK, that's not the best argument...). The map is here, and a name pops up whenever you point on a area icon

http://www.dudleyville.com/bg1/index.htm

 

[SimDing0™]

I don't want to take names from anywhere, personally. I think it looks messy to have all the random wilderness areas named, so I'd rather concentrate on fixing fade and transparency. g.linder's done a good job making the area names flash, so we need to consider working from there.

[jester]

Ulead Gif Animator can be used to make transitions IIRC, though I must say that IESDP has not left me with the slightest idea of how to get the gifs together as a BAM

The transparency index is calculated thus: it's the first occurence of  rgb(0,255,0) (it can occur twice) and if that color isn't present in the palette than the color at index 0 is the transparency color

from: http://iesdp.gibberlings3.net/ieformats/bam_v1.htm

I also think that everything that has a possible name should be named. Mutamin's garden sounds much nicer than Area 51.

[Ashara]

Well, I sort of liked to have all maps named to help discussing them. Because something like 'the map twice north from Beregost' usually makes me ask for an area number, and I'd rather ask for an Area name from our brave adventurers. It would make RP sense to me that guys on the road will name places on their maps. I have done so myself when being in the field schools and mapping on blank topographical base. But I digress. 

[SimDing0™]

Real maps aren't divided into areas. You don't name each square kilometre of forest.

[Ashara]

You do when it's notable (ravine, waterfall, peak, cave, questa, creek, what have you) and you need a reference point and start with a blank map. Trust me on that. 

[g.linder]

I prefer names too, but as all tweaks I think this should stay an optional feature.

Dudley's names seem pretty good, although few of them are too long or inappropriate (some areas he names have another name in the game) and so, may need changes. I'll work on it tonight, expect an english release soon

[Ashara]

I cheer you on and I am looking forward to this one I would caution you from using some tags from the poles in the game - the most notable example I can think of is the Sword Coast; iirc it refers pretty much to the whole area covered by BG1 and beyond, not just a fraction of the BG1 map that have the post there.

[Reverendratbastard]

Real maps aren't divided into areas. You don't name each square kilometre of forest.

 
  i agree on the surface (so to speak), but really, the only areas i found relatively indistinct from each other were, oddly enough, the most-named wilderness areas (the 'Peldvale'/surrounding foresty region) - there are certainly distinguishing features in most of the southern ARs.
  but agreed, the transparency issue seems a higher priority.

[g.linder]

English version in done and based from Dudley's walktrough. I had to change some areas positions on the map, but I find it pretty nicer like it (take a look)

Download it. Do not forget to check the readme also, and correct me if I made (and sure I have) some english faults

[Andyr]

I believe the area called Dryad's Falls is actually the Cloudpeak Mountains. I think the Dryad is referred to as Dryad of the Cloudpeaks and there's a stone map marker which says Cloudpeaks too.

[g.linder]

You are right, but the Cloudpeaks are a very wide moutains chain (look at a Faerun map). At least the areas "fireleaf forest" and "gibberling moutains" are from Cloudpeaks too, but I think it's better for find his way to have unique names on areas

[Xaos_Bob]

Is the transparency issue resolved? If not, a possible PaintShopPro (and maybe Photoshop) workaround may be:

1) Put the parchment texture as a background layer
2) Put the grey map icon as a second layer with the "Multiply" blend mode
3) Merge the layers
4) Replace the parchment texture with an off color for setting transparency in...BAMWorkshop. Do we even use that anymore, or do we use DLTCEP?

It may work with the other colors, too, if needed. I haven't installed or tried Tutu yet, so I haven't checked for myself.

[roshan]

What about changing the font on the maps? Bg1 had an authentic medieval looking font, in baldurs gate 2 the font looks too modern.

[Salk]

Would be nice if g.linder could come back and post here about his progress....

[roshan]

Um, sorry to post about this a second time, but how hard is it to change the font in the map back to the one in baldurs gate? Is it even possible?

[Ghreyfain]

You'd need to change the font file, which could be Normal.bam, Realms.bam, or something else entirely.