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Help a noob browsing the dialogue files?


annaturaldisaster

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Hello there,

 

As many of you know, forums are crowded with people who register only to make one stupid question they could just have googled easily and then disappear forever. I may disappear forever but I assure you that I've been extensively surfing the web in search of an answer, but I couldn't find one and all roads seem to bring me here.

 

So, considering I'm a complete modding (and programming) illiterate, and I've recently entered Baldur's Gate Hell, is there a way to open the dialog files and read them? Do you need some variation of notepad to open the .tkl or .d extensions or is it better to get some basic Infinity Engine modding tool even if I have no intention on editing the files? You know, I'm just starting BG2 at this time and I'm very hungry for the thousands banters and dialogues I've missed. If I could just read them, I'd be the happiest noob ever.

 

Thank you a lot in advance! ;)

 

PS. Of course I got the BG1NPC mod installed, among many others.

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The tool you need is Near Infinity - http://www.shsforums.net/topic/45358-nearinfinity/

Unless you open (non-traified) d files in the game folders itself, this is hard to do.

Using near infinity you can see all the text a single NPC has in one of (a number of) dialogue files, but you do not see the responses or interactions from others involved in the dialogue.

You cannot just read complete dialogues in context.

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The tool you need is Near Infinity - http://www.shsforums.net/topic/45358-nearinfinity/

Unless you open (non-traified) d files in the game folders itself, this is hard to do.

Using near infinity you can see all the text a single NPC has in one of (a number of) dialogue files, but you do not see the responses or interactions from others involved in the dialogue.

You cannot just read complete dialogues in context.

 

I get what you mean, as little as I know about programming: dialogues work with functions and variables and not as a single item. Anyway, it's just that I've read people commenting on fanfic or fanart saying that they got this or that banter via 'browsing dialogues', and I guessed that, even if you can't get the whole extension of the game dialogue, there was a way to, at least, approach a certain amount of dialogues from NPCs you never recruit in scenarios you never get.

 

Thank you. ^^

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The tool you need is Near Infinity - http://www.shsforums.net/topic/45358-nearinfinity/

Unless you open (non-traified) d files in the game folders itself, this is hard to do.

Using near infinity you can see all the text a single NPC has in one of (a number of) dialogue files, but you do not see the responses or interactions from others involved in the dialogue.

You cannot just read complete dialogues in context.

 

I get what you mean, as little as I know about programming: dialogues work with functions and variables and not as a single item. Anyway, it's just that I've read people commenting on fanfic or fanart saying that they got this or that banter via 'browsing dialogues', and I guessed that, even if you can't get the whole extension of the game dialogue, there was a way to, at least, approach a certain amount of dialogues from NPCs you never recruit in scenarios you never get.

 

Thank you. ^^

 

This is what Near Infinity would provide - it is just you cannot read it like a book.

 

And - there is a lot of misleading information spread around by people who were 'browsing dialogues' and drawng conclusions from it while not seeing the conditions and interactions for certain lines...

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Unless you open (non-traified) d files in the game folders itself, this is hard to do.

Using near infinity you can see all the text a single NPC has in one of (a number of) dialogue files, but you do not see the responses or interactions from others involved in the dialogue.

You cannot just read complete dialogues in context.

Hello.

 

But Bear Infinity can preform a search by 'interactions' . Is it so? So you can use this option to the dialogue?

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Unless you open (non-traified) d files in the game folders itself, this is hard to do.

Using near infinity you can see all the text a single NPC has in one of (a number of) dialogue files, but you do not see the responses or interactions from others involved in the dialogue.

You cannot just read complete dialogues in context.

Hello.

 

But Bear Infinity can preform a search by 'interactions' . Is it so? So you can use this option to the dialogue?

 

You can use the tree view of Near Infinity, it is a mire technical view on how dialogues are constructed. NI is after all a technical tool for analysis not something to use instead of the game - which is the way to enjoy those dialogues (unless you search for bugs).

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FYI, Near Infinity provides the same tree view for dialog files as the long abandoned Infinity Explorer.

You might yes know it does, and I think I saw it somewhere, but where is it actually ? In NI...

 

 

Start up NI, select dialog file in resource tree on the left and click on the rightmost tab labeled "Tree". (See screenshot)

 

post-3876-0-40061800-1455030841.png

(I know, a proper manual or wiki for NI is long overdue.)

 

 

 

post-3876-0-40061800-1455030841_thumb.png

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Looks pretty horrible, yeah, hence I mentioned that I created all those (ten? twelve? more?) mods using Infinity Explorer all the way. If Near Infinity looks a nightmare to you as it does to me, there's an alternative. Also, did someone just FYI me?

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Looks pretty horrible, yeah, hence ...

FYI, what would you change ? In the above screen, I am sure that if argent77 would get more input on how to people like to see the stuff, it could be better ... it's insane to recreate the exact InfExp, but I am sure it too could need a few IMProvements too, so I am just asking.

Yep, if you are slow, you might thing the above is bad expression.. it's a joke.

:p

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Looks pretty horrible, yeah, hence I mentioned that I created all those (ten? twelve? more?) mods using Infinity Explorer all the way. If Near Infinity looks a nightmare to you as it does to me, there's an alternative. Also, did someone just FYI me?

 

 

 

Looks pretty horrible, yeah, hence ...

FYI, what would you change ? In the above screen, I am sure that if argent77 would get more input on how to people like to see the stuff, it could be better ... it's insane to recreate the exact InfExp, but I am sure it too could need a few IMProvements too, so I am just asking.

Yep, if you are slow, you might thing the above is bad expression.. it's a joke.

:p

 

Those are tools to analyse bugs or do expert work on the mods or translate them.

Those dialogues are not something to read for your entertainment, those dialogues were written as part of the game. If you want to know about a mod, install it and play it in the game where it belongs,

I have seen loads and loads of comments from people about mods they never played in the game, just based on *I have read the dialogue files*.

All these words belong into the setting, the situation etc they were written for, otherwise the author would have published a novel to be read, Why support this misuse of other people's work by tweaking tools for that purpose?

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