Larian Banner: Baldur's Gate Patch 9
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 2 of 2 1 2
Joined: Jun 2017
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Jun 2017
Quote
Flash is an industry standard technology for game UIs. Scaleform GFx, which is Flash-based UI middleware, is used in all Unreal Engine games, all CryEngine games, all Gamebryo games, and so on. If you want to modify the UI for any game, you'll need to put in a lot more work than changing a few files. Look at the SkyUI project for Skyrim and Skyrim SE; those modders had to decompile and reverse engineer Skyrim's UI layer and SWF files. That's the way it goes. Welcome to modding!

Comparing Skyrim modding community with Divinity makes no sense. Skyrim has been around for almost 8 years, had tos of versions, and its one of the biggest and most active communities online.
I remember one thing I thought during the early access: The easier you make your game to be moddeable, the longer it's life will be, and the higher it's sales. Skyrim is one example (any Bethesda game, actually) But look to GTAV or Minecraft. If you give options, ways, possibilities then people will try to do things. And cool mods will appear. If you make the system limited and hardcoded from the start that doesn't make it appealing for no one to work on a mod that really changes things.

Quote
Basically it starts to feel like you need to become a full fledged developer. At one point I wanted to become one, then I realized how much I would not enjoy it. So anything I want to mod, if it feels like it's not modding anymore but instead developing, I stop right away. Leave it to the guys who already have long careers doing that stuff.


That's exactly what I mean. If it's almost impossible for the middle guys to do something, the community doesn't move, it doesn't make things. Or what about the "More than 4 players mod" that we all have been asking for? Is someone working on it? Or maybe the system limits that part so hard, that it would be so difficult to make that...no one is even trying?

Idea/Issue 18) For some levels it would be very helpful to have an option for NOT rendering (or cover with a black plane only visible from inside) what's outside the cameralock, sometimes you place one and even with that applied you can see some stuff that you shouldn't (floating stuff, level borders, etc.


Last edited by Noctro; 07/10/17 10:44 AM.
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: USA
F
enthusiast
Offline
enthusiast
F
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: USA
Originally Posted by Noctro
Comparing Skyrim modding community with Divinity makes no sense. Skyrim has been around for almost 8 years, had tos of versions, and its one of the biggest and most active communities online.

I wasn't comparing the two. I was giving an example of what modders have to do to work with Flash UIs, which again is standard for modders and developers. Larian is not going to retrofit the game with a non-Flash-based UI. That's not going to happen, ever.

However, what you might want to ask about is whether they'll release the FLA source files or a limited UI SDK, so you can use Flash to modify and recompile the UI, assuming they're not using Scaleform or some other middleware. (Middleware has licensing restrictions.) European studios tend to be less reluctant to entertain those requests, whereas American studios would rule those possibilities out.

Originally Posted by Noctro
Or what about the "More than 4 players mod" that we all have been asking for? Is someone working on it? Or maybe the system limits that part so hard, that it would be so difficult to make that...no one is even trying?

You haven't seen this mod and this guide? Also, Larian patched the UI to improve the experience when that mod is installed: "Scrolling through more than four characters in the character-sheet UI now looks good and understandable."


Joined: Jun 2017
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Jun 2017
Originally Posted by fireundubh

You haven't seen this mod and this guide? Also, Larian patched the UI to improve the experience when that mod is installed: "Scrolling through more than four characters in the character-sheet UI now looks good and understandable."

Yes, I saw it, and we were talking about players in custom campaigns, with a GM. Not the main story. So 5 players playing the main campaign and 1 of them has to be a henchmen is the same workaround the modders did in the first divinity. But in Larian they programmed 2 more player slots (with their correspondant UIs, character creations and stuff) so expanding the player limit size for custom campaigns CAN be done. And I'm not the only one that finds this frustrating, in the first game it didn't matter, because you could only play custom scripted campaigns, but now we have a GM mode...but not enough room to play with our friends, and that's a huge problem for everyone, you can browse the forums, LOTS of people are asking for expand the player limit for GM campaigns.

Joined: Jan 2010
Location: USA
F
enthusiast
Offline
enthusiast
F
Joined: Jan 2010
Location: USA
Originally Posted by Noctro
not enough room to play with our friends, and that's a huge problem for everyone, you can browse the forums, LOTS of people are asking for expand the player limit for GM campaigns.

You're a good advocate, but you're preaching to the choir. Not everything is an argument...

Joined: Jun 2017
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Jun 2017
My apologies fireundubh, i was just trying to address limitations with hope it rings the proper bells at Larian, or someone at the modding community makes a step forward to solve things like that

Joined: Jun 2017
apprentice
Offline
apprentice
Joined: Jun 2017
Originally Posted by Larian_KVN



FBX is not a holy grail. We have our reasons for using a different format. But that format perfectly supports custom models etc. as well. We are going to make the exporters we use for max/maya available so you can export straight from there to Granny. And similar to our Guides On Custom Items, specifically the Weapons Section our artists, once they are available and able, will also provide a guide and example files for characters.




Hi Kevin,

- Could you plz tell us why you have chosen to work with different formats (GR2) over fbx for your games? I have been using fbx for engines like Unity, UE and Cry Engine. Would be nice to know which flaws/cons you found with fbx to not work with. This is my first experience using gr2.

- My second question is about the link you posted for asset creation; http://docs.larian.game/My_first:_Item_-_Weapons

For those using other softwares like myself (modo, blender, etc). Will we be able to use the new export tools with these softwares, or this is just limited to max/maya?

Thank you for answering all our questions, really appreciated.

/wave,
ISVRaDa

Last edited by Rada Torment; 08/10/17 08:10 PM.
Joined: Jun 2014
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jun 2014
I assume because of licensing costs and familiarity?

Joined: Jun 2014
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jun 2014
18) items and skills don't support multi-damage. I can't make a wand/skill that inflicts piercing damage and a, say, +5 of poison

Joined: Jun 2014
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jun 2014
Issue 18) Likely not possible to add new voicesets, as I could not find any file for "custom campaign" voices

Issue 19) Could not determine whether Audio system will allow "palette" audio or not, ala Skyrim

Joined: Sep 2017
Location: Belgium, Ghent
addict
Offline
addict
Joined: Sep 2017
Location: Belgium, Ghent
Hey Dark_Ansem,

some updates on your newly added issues:

Quote
items and skills don't support multi-damage. I can't make a wand/skill that inflicts piercing damage and a, say, +5 of poison


From our stats people:
Quote

For skills it's possible through statuses that it sets
For items too
He'll need to make some dummy statuses that deal damage on application, like poisoned food does
Then apply them when skill is used
For weapons they can either also set status, or just get a weapon damage boost
In Boosts column


Quote
Issue 18) Likely not possible to add new voicesets, as I could not find any file for "custom campaign" voices
Issue 19) Could not determine whether Audio system will allow "palette" audio or not, ala Skyrim


Modding audio, by importing custom wwise sound banks, currently indeed not possible. I myself am want to see this happening too smile We are aware of this shortcoming and know it's one of the more highly wanted improvements. Do realize, this is a big one and not just a quick fix smile

Sincerely,
Kevin


CTRL+K the elf
Joined: Jun 2014
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jun 2014
Thanks Kevin.
Is there anything you can share about how Audio Modding will work?

I would like to expand upon the current game-supported elements and the unused ones: would there be any way for you to unlock the latest ones?

If I were to, say, rename the "poison" element to something else, would that show?

How would I be able to use the existing element framework to add new ones?

EDIT: are you quite certain that you will never allow talent mods?

Joined: Jul 2014
Location: East Coast
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Jul 2014
Location: East Coast
Saving you some headache Dark_Ansem. While statuses can deal damage, they cannot crit nor can they scale with a primary attribute. They will only scale with the Ability of the provided damage type.

Also, I am not sure if weapons are on a different damage table from skills, but if they are then these damage statuses will be as well since damage statuses use the weapon table.

Last edited by Sinistralis; 24/10/17 08:21 PM.
Joined: Jun 2014
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jun 2014
Thank you. More disappointment.

Joined: Jan 2017
D
stranger
Offline
stranger
D
Joined: Jan 2017
Id be pretty happy with tool tips in the stat editor that told you what every category did and what your options where within them.

Example : Open stats editor. projects>shared>stats>armor.

https://imgur.com/LEmJgNK

The top line beside Name. all the way to the end. some are pretty self explanatory, while others you have no idea without multiple testing runs and still sometimes cant figure them out. All im asking for is tool tips when i mouse over each area, like when i mouse over the word "Itemgroup" i get a popup that explains what it does, and if i can add values there like "shockImmune" it gives me a few examples.


Thx!

Joined: Jul 2014
Location: East Coast
journeyman
Offline
journeyman
Joined: Jul 2014
Location: East Coast
Dark_Ansem,

Check out https://github.com/Sinistralis-DOS2-Mods/Ascension to see how I get around it. It's hacky as hell, but it works for the most part. I need to clean up the code drastically, and it's not foolproof, but it's good enough in most cases.

I am working on a ridiculously large post detailing shortcomings I have encountered with the Engine, and this is one of them. Feel free to look for it in a few hours once I finish writing it : p

Last edited by Sinistralis; 24/10/17 10:17 PM.
Joined: Jun 2014
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jun 2014
Originally Posted by Sinistralis
Dark_Ansem,

Check out https://github.com/Sinistralis-DOS2-Mods/Ascension to see how I get around it. It's hacky as hell, but it works for the most part. I need to clean up the code drastically, and it's not foolproof, but it's good enough in most cases.

I am working on a ridiculously large post detailing shortcomings I have encountered with the Engine, and this is one of them. Feel free to look for it in a few hours once I finish writing it : p


I will definitely have to do so, thanks smile

Joined: Jun 2014
veteran
OP Offline
veteran
Joined: Jun 2014
Kevin, do you also have an estimate for when you will release a guide related to importing custom assets?

Page 2 of 2 1 2

Moderated by  Larian_KVN 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5