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Question to PVRZ, TIS, and TBC format


jastey

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For Lure of Sirine's Call, the "Extended Lighthouse Area" component lead to crashes for BG:EE and EET.

 

I have a fixed tis now in PVRZ format. The mod currently expects a TBC (to be used with HANDLE_TILECONV). Since the fixed area is not the only .tbc in there, I'd like to keep the format (also, because it would mean littlest effort in terms of restructuring the tp2).

 

How do I transform my PVRZ into TBC? Is that even useful (in terms of "black lines in EE-area graphics")?

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For Lure of Sirine's Call, the "Extended Lighthouse Area" component lead to crashes for BG:EE and EET.

 

I have a fixed tis now in PVRZ format. The mod currently expects a TBC (to be used with HANDLE_TILECONV). Since the fixed area is not the only .tbc in there, I'd like to keep the format (also, because it would mean littlest effort in terms of restructuring the tp2).

 

How do I transform my PVRZ into TBC? Is that even useful (in terms of "black lines in EE-area graphics")?

Without touching much of the mod as it is, I would simply do this

Put the Tis+PVRZ files in an extra subfolder.

Run the tileconv only for non-EE games

For EE games just copy the subfolder to game/override (IF_GAME_IS......ELSE....)

 

This may not be very elegant, but we talk about a small mod here, all but the main area (Tis+~20PVRZ's) consist of the Tis+ 1 single PVRZ). Keep it simple.

 

PS - I would argue that in the year 2018, some 8mb extra size for the mod is not really an issue anymore.

Edited by Roxanne
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TileConv was my first attempt to create a tool for reducing TIS/MOS file size. It is basically a more efficient counterpart of tispack/tisunpack. It supports only input files in the palette-based TIS or MOS format though.

The successor tile2ee is more practical. It allows you to include files in the mod that can be used by EE games out of the box, while HANDLE_TILE2EE is required to convert the files for the classic games.

 

I would recommend to use tile2ee over tileconv if possible, since tileconv doesn't really fix the black lines issue in EE games. Convert all your tilesets into the PVRZ-based TIS format with Near Infinity and include them in your mod. Use tile2ee to convert them into the palette-based format when a classic game is detected. HANDLE_TILE2EE takes care of the whole conversion process.

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Thank you for your answers.

Roxanne: You suggestion is what I coded firstly, EDIT: reading again, I think you are suggesting the same thing as argent77

but then realized that this way, the mod size was doubled to what it was before (30 MB to 16 MB). And also, if using the tis directly for bgt/tutu, the files are too big for weidu to copy+rename the tis.

 

argent77: Thank you for clearifying, because I was confused as to what which tool is able to do. I guess your approach is the one with the littlest download size. Unfortunately, Lure of Sirine's Call tp2 tis-handling was structured in a way that I only understand half of what it does. I'll have to do it from scratch, unfortunately.

Edited by jastey
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Size...I did not think of that. Aside from the naming issue.

 

1. Leave the mod as it is but with GAME_IS for the graphic optional component for classic game only.

2. Make a separate patch mod for EE/EET with the alternate graphic component

Edited by Roxanne
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When using the PVRZ -> tis -> rename approach for Tutu or BGT, I get the following error message: has size 24627224: TOO BIG FOR WEIDU (max. 16777211)

 

So, I could use the conversion, but I can't rename and move the tis...

 

If I put in the TBC for the tutu/bgt games, the mod has 40 MB. It's doable, but it's difficult to understand why a mod with a mini quest and a small change in game area would be that big...

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When using the PVRZ -> tis -> rename approach for Tutu or BGT, I get the following error message: has size 24627224: TOO BIG FOR WEIDU (max. 16777211)

 

So, I could use the conversion, but I can't rename and move the tis...

 

If I put in the TBC for the tutu/bgt games, the mod has 40 MB. It's doable, but it's difficult to understand why a mod with a mini quest and a small change in game area would be that big...

Does this work?

COPY_LARGE ~override/oldname~ ~override/newname~

 

Only Tis needs renaming, right?

Edited by Roxanne
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The main issue for this mod appears to be tis2bg2, which requires TIS files to be present in palette-based format. Not only does it force you to convert tilesets to palette-based format and back to pvrz-based format for EE games, but using tile2ee won't necessarily remove the black lines issue. The second option, adding premade BG2 tilesets to the mod, comes with a hefty increase in the mod archive size (from 20 to 35 MB).

 

I would still prefer the second option. Splitting the mod into EE and non-EE version doesn't really help, since tis2bg2 is still required to make the mod compatible with EET. Although, splitting it into a BG1/BGEE version and a Tutu/BGT/EET version might work though.

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The main issue for this mod appears to be tis2bg2, which requires TIS files to be present in palette-based format. Not only does it force you to convert tilesets to palette-based format and back to pvrz-based format for EE games, but using tile2ee won't necessarily remove the black lines issue. The second option, adding premade BG2 tilesets to the mod, comes with a hefty increase in the mod archive size (from 20 to 35 MB).

 

I would still prefer the second option. Splitting the mod into EE and non-EE version doesn't really help, since tis2bg2 is still required to make the mod compatible with EET. Although, splitting it into a BG1/BGEE version and a Tutu/BGT/EET version might work though.

 

Just from a player's point of view -

I had this mod in all my EET games just skipping the component "Extended Lighthouse area". It is not that there is a big loss here. Is it really worth all this effort? The game and the mod is playable without any loss with skipping the component.

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I got it to work on BGT, BG:EE, EET, and BG1:TotSC. Tutu crashes (as it did in v14), although I think I did all the naming conventions right.

But yes, it's not worth anymore effort, it took too long already. Folder size is 38 MB.

Thank you very much for the discussion!

Edited by jastey
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