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"Vista" BG/BGII installation procedure, with Big World Setup instructions


Guest RaZor HeaD

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Guest RaZor HeaD

After several weeks of trial and error, these are the specific instructions I've come up with to install BG, TotSC, SoA & ToB when using a Vista operating system. I've also included the basic procedures for using the Big World Setup to install/edit the mod's. I'm sure all of this is included here and there around these forums, and I only include them in this post to save the uninitiated modder the trouble of finding everything for themselves.

 

Please notice that almost all of the following instructions are critical to creating an installation that works, and therefore none of them should be skipped. However, it does appear that if you're using Vista without a 64 bit processor chip you can skip using <Safe> mode where indicated. My laptop has a non-64 bit chip with Vista and installed OK without using Safe, but my Dell 64 bit PC wouldn't even run the installation programs for BG, TotSC or the BGTalesUS5512 patch without Safe mode, and on a second attempt wouldn't run the installer for ToB without Safe.

 

In conclusion, I hope this is somewhat helpful to most of you.

And much thanks to Gibberlings3 for their long dedication to providing us with the invaluable resources which can be found on their site.

Good gaming to all, and I'll see you at the Gate.

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<Safe> Note:

- Use the computers "Safe mode" when running this (keep hitting F8 when re-booting to get into Safe mode).

 

<Admin> Note:

- Use the "Run as administrator" function when running this (right mouse click).

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(1) Remove all old BG/BGII installations:

- Uninstall the programs using the computers Control Panel/Uninstall Program function.

- If you can't run the uninstall program, then manually delete all BG/BGII folders. Next, go to Program Files(x86)/InstallShield Installation Information (this is a hidden directory), and delete the folder labeled {B8C3B479-1716-11D5-968A-0050BA84F5F7}.

__________________________________________

 

(2A) <Safe> Full install of Baldur's Gate:

- <Admin> Open up Baldur's Gate C:\CD and run the Setup.exe program.

- Install into a "non-Program Files" folder named C:\Black Isle\Baldur's Gate

- Select the "Custom" install and select all 17 components.

- When the question screen pops up saying there's not enough space on destination drive, press Yes to continue anyway.

 

(2B) <Safe> Full install of Tales of the Sword Coast:

- <Admin> Open up TotSC C:\CD and run the Setup.exe program.

- Installer will automatically find the proper directory to install into.

- Select the "Custom" install and select all 5 components.

- Do not install the DirectX 6.? drivers.

 

(3) <Safe> <Admin> Install official BioWare patch:

- Only use the BGTalesUS5512 patch.

 

(4) Run/save game:

- Import or create a new character.

- Save game under a new file (do not Quick Save it).

___________________________________________

 

(5A) Full install of Baldur's Gate II, Shadows of Amn:

- <Admin> Open up SoA C:\CD and run the Setup.exe program.

- Install into a "non-Program Files" folder named C:\Black Isle\BGII - SoA

- Select the "Full" install.

 

(5A) <Safe> Full install of Throne of Bhall:

- <Admin> Open up ToB C:\CD and run the Setup.exe program.

- Installer will automatically find the proper directory to install into.

- Select the "Full Install".

 

(6) <Safe> <Admin> Install official BioWare patch:

- Only use the BGII-ThroneofBhaal_Patch_26498_ENGLISH patch.

 

(7) Run/save both games:

- Create a character in SoA.

- Wait until game auto-saves then exit.

- Create a character in ToB.

- Save game under a new file (do not Quick Save it).

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(Optional) Create a backup folder:

Save the following into a separate folder.

- dialog.tlk

- chitin.key

- baldur.ini

- bgmain.exe

- the entire override folder

 

In order to restore the game to an original clean install, copy contents of this backup folder into the BGII - SoA directory.

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(8) Install/run The Big World Setup:

- Run the BiG_World_Setup_v8.2 program.

- Select C:\Black Isle\BGII - SoA to extract the BWS files into.

- Click Automatic updating when Big World opens.

 

- Make sure the Baldur's Gate directory is set to C:\Black Isle\Baldur's Gate

- Make sure the BGII- SoA directory is set to C:\Black Isle\BGII - SoA

- Click the "Further customization" box

 

- Click the "Backup" button (your backup is saved into the "BiG World Clean Install" folder).

 

- After selecting which mod's you want to use, click "Options/Export selection to file" to save your choices.

 

- Click "Test availability of the downloads".

 

- Remove any Cd's from the drive and BW will then download all of the mods into the BiG World Downloads folder.

- Next, it will extract (open) the mods into the C:\...BGII - SoA directory.

 

- During extraction there may be a problem with as many as 20+ Internet Explorer windows opening up. This shouldn't happen, but if it does just try to Minimize/Close Group them as they pop up.

 

- If you want to edit any of the components of the mod's being installed, close the black DOS window that appears named "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe". Only use Ctrl/Break to close the window (do not use the X button).

- If you don't want to edit the components, then skip to step 10 below.

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(9) Editing the mod components:

- Right click/Edit the "BiG World Install.bat" file in the C:\...BGII - SoA directory.

- Edit/Find the word I N S T A L L A T I O N to reach the mod component section.

- Edit, add or delete any components using the "BiGWorld users manual" as a guide.

- File/Save As/Save as type/All files/BiG World Install.bat to save your changes.

 

(10) Installing the mods:

- <Admin> Run the BiG World Install.bat file.

- In the DOS window, select (B)GT, e(X)pert.

Note: When the BWI.bat program starts to install WeiDU, if you've failed to properly set the Baldur's Gate directory to C:\Black Isle\Baldur's Gate, it will think the default directory for BG is somewhere else. It will then stop running and you'll have to type the above path into the DOS window and hit enter for it to continue.

 

- Depending on how fast your computer is, the BWI.bat program can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or more to run. On my 64 bit, quad-core, 2.4 GHz gaming PC, it finishes in a little over 2 hours (and that's with biffing as well).

 

- The program is completed when it says the following...

Installation complete

With the Big World Clean-Up.bat you can delete etc.

 

(11) Finished:

- Use baldur.exe in the BGII - SoA directory to run any of the 3 the games (BG, SoA or ToB).

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(11) Finished:

- Use baldur.exe in the BGII - SoA directory to run any of the 3 the games (BG, SoA or ToB).

Wrong, use the BGMain.exe to run the game... or even better use the TobExLauncher.exe if you have the [bG2:ToB] ToB Extender (Beta 0001) installed.

 

Run the BiG_World_Setup_v8.2 program.
Run the BiG_World_Setup.exe, extract it to the game folder and it will then automatically run the "BiG World Setup.vbs" .

 

:p

PS: you forgot to include a link to the BWS.

And you should really log in to be able to edit the post...

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Yarno, this TOB ex launcher looks very interesting.

Does it also have the nocd thing in there? My minilaptop does not have a DVD input so I can currently only play from home with my external DVD-drive and not when I am on the road. :p

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Jarno, this TOB ex launcher looks very interesting.

Does it also have the nocd thing in there? My minilaptop does not have a DVD input so I can currently only play from home with my external DVD-drive and not when I am on the road. :p

No, but you could use a CD-image to simulate the data, Nero+DAEMON tools... use the Lite Editions, as they are free. :down:

 

Or there might be a remote possibility to utilize a 1Gb USB stick to have the ToB data on it and so use it to simulate the CD.

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Guest mixomatozis

Hi, i installed Big World Project several times, always with different result. Which mean that i never can use my saves on new installation. Now i have huge 30gb instalation of STANDART Big World Project. Perfectly working. I would like to move it to some independent directory and just copy to other computer with no instalation and the other bwp troubles... Could someone help me how i can do it? How i can apply nocd, extract needed registry etc... I have the oldest 4cd bg2 instalation and 5cd bg1 and both datadiscs and i dont want to install it anymore... Just to have the backup on the hdd... Thanx for advise.

m1xo

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