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EET on a tablet!


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... is not (yet) a reality. Sorry. But I'm working on it!

Mods can now be installed onto the mobile versions of the games, with no jailbreak. Here are posts on my progress:

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/66644/how-to-install-mods-on-ios-devices-no-jailbreak#latest

To recap what I've learned so far:

- The UI doesn't quite work. It seems very similar to the issues with the UI on MacOS that I described here a few months ago, and which were fixed. It might be because the iPad screen resolution is lower than what EET uses for its UI. Or it might be because parts of the EET UI are biffed and the iPad cannot handle biffed resources. See below.

- EET on its own, using about 12 smallish BG1 mods on the BGEE portion of the EET-compatible modlist in this forum, puts 13,000 files in the override folder. That's too many to easily create a zip file, at least using zip methods easily and cheaply available on a Mac.

- EET biffs some resources, which means the /data folder would have to be sent to the iPad, along with the chitin.key file that is keyed to it. This is not supported by the mobile versions of the game... it might be possible to hack these files in, but I'm not sure it works. An alternative would be for EET to not buff anything, and just put all resources in /override. But, I'm not sure how much that would increase the number of files there.

- The mobile versions of the game do not support the .pvrz format for area files. I think this is probably what EET uses for all the BGEE and SoD areas...? If so, to make this work we would need a version of EET that uses a format compatible with the mobile games. (Argent77 describes how to do this in the linked thread, though it's over my head.)

And of course any mods that add areas would be subject to the same issue.

I will say that the mobile version of the game is a great way to play it. Being able to pick up a tablet and play anywhere is super convenient, and the touch interface works very well (with one notable exception being party orientation). We're now st the point where most Weidu mods can be used with the mobile apps... just not ones that add new areas or biff stuff. It would be fantastic to get to the point where most or all mods worked on iPads.

 

EDIT, early 2020 - So this is largely working okay now. Follow the linked instructions. Don’t be put off by Luke’s warnings, if you don’t have access to .ipa files you can just mod the desktop version of the game and then transfer the required folders to the iPad. (I think, anyway.) I’ve tested EET as far as starting a game from BG1 and from SoD. Someone can test playing the whole game through. The main menu is a but screwy but you can still navigate it. So, go crazy. 

Edited by subtledoctor
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Continued from this post: http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27741&p=257368

 

 

I've made a small WeiDU mod that automates the texture conversion process for PVRZ files. It converts all PVRZ files of the game and places the converted files (back) into the override folder. Depending on the selected texture format and your hardware the conversion process may take a looong time. I think "PVRTC 4bpp" is the preferred texture format for iOS devices.

 

Download: A7-TextureConvert-mod.7z

Got an error on MacOS:

 

ERROR: COPY ~B100050.PVRZ~ ~A7-TextureConvert/temp/in/B100050.PVRZ~ FAILED: cannot open target

Stopping installation because of error.

Stopping installation because of error.

Stopping installation because of error.

 

ERROR Installing [Convert PVRZ files -> Texture format: PVRTC 4bpp], rolling back to previous state

WARNING: Unable to write tlk-path uninstall info to [A7-TextureConvert/backup/1/TLKPATH.1]: Sys_error("A7-TextureConvert/backup/1/TLKPATH.1: Too many open files")

Will uninstall 0 files for [A7-TEXTURECONVERT/SETUP-A7-TEXTURECONVERT.TP2] component 1.

Uninstalled 0 files for [A7-TEXTURECONVERT/SETUP-A7-TEXTURECONVERT.TP2] component 1.

ERROR: Sys_error("A7-TextureConvert/temp/in/B100050.PVRZ: Too many open files")

 

The error message suggests a platform-specific problem with the COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP line.

 

Could you try out this test mod: A7-CopyTest-mod.zip ?

 

It simply copies all PVRZ files into a temporary folder and deletes them afterwards.

 

Edit: This test mod uses a different method for mass copying files: A7-CopyTest2-mod.zip. Could you try it out as well?

Edited by argent77
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Sure, I'll try them out when I can.

 

Jarno, get your penis out of my thread! I am working on getting EET onto tablets, it deserves a thread for discussion and testing.

 

I mean, in this day and age when so many men are being outed for sexual predation, such overt harassment is shocking. I do declare!

Edited by subtledoctor
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Jarno, get your penis out of my thread! I am working on getting EET onto tablets, it

Yeah, and I will keep it as long as you keep the title as is !

As it's WRONG ! I warned about this already... it's as misconceiving as (a lots!).

And just so that it can't be avoided, you should know that when you go and edit the first post, you can at the same time edit the topic title, when you go into Use Full Editor mode.

 

Is it so hard to retitle the thread as "Let's try to get the EET to run on a tablet!" ?

Edited by Jarno Mikkola
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Why? It's a thread about TRYING to getting EET on a tablet.

I am not sure you understand the difference between news that "this works" and news that "let's try to get this work", but I'll guess you need to see more anatomy ...

[bad Imp! Bad!]

Edited by CamDawg
Medical knowledge removed
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The error message suggests a platform-specific problem with the COPY_EXISTING_REGEXP line.

 

Could you try out this test mod: A7-CopyTest-mod.zip ?

 

It simply copies all PVRZ files into a temporary folder and deletes them afterwards.

 

Edit: This test mod uses a different method for mass copying files: A7-CopyTest2-mod.zip. Could you try it out as well?

No go. Results of Copy Test 1:

DEBUG: COPYing PVRZ files into temp folder...

Copying 7185 files ...

ERROR: COPY ~B070000.PVRZ~ ~A7-CopyTest/temp/in/B070000.PVRZ~ FAILED: cannot open target

Stopping installation because of error.

 

ERROR Installing [Mass copy test], rolling back to previous state

WARNING: Unable to write tlk-path uninstall info to [A7-CopyTest/backup/0/TLKPATH.0]: Sys_error("A7-CopyTest/backup/0/TLKPATH.0: Too many open files")

Will uninstall 0 files for [A7-COPYTEST/SETUP-A7-COPYTEST.TP2] component 0.

Uninstalled 0 files for [A7-COPYTEST/SETUP-A7-COPYTEST.TP2] component 0.

ERROR: Sys_error("A7-CopyTest/temp/in/B070000.PVRZ: Too many open files")

Results of Copy Test 2:

Creating 1 directory

Copying and patching 7185 files ...

ERROR: BIFF [./DATA/EETBG06.BIF] cannot be loaded: Unix.Unix_error(15, "open", "./DATA/EETBG06.BIF")

 

ERROR locating resource for 'COPY'

Resource [b060000.PVRZ] not found in KEY file:

[./chitin.key]

Stopping installation because of error.

 

ERROR Installing [Mass copy test], rolling back to previous state

WARNING: Unable to write tlk-path uninstall info to [A7-CopyTest2/backup/0/TLKPATH.0]: Sys_error("A7-CopyTest2/backup/0/TLKPATH.0: Too many open files")

Will uninstall 0 files for [A7-COPYTEST2/SETUP-A7-COPYTEST2.TP2] component 0.

Uninstalled 0 files for [A7-COPYTEST2/SETUP-A7-COPYTEST2.TP2] component 0.

ERROR: Failure("resource [b060000.PVRZ] not found for 'COPY'")

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Sigh. I'm not terribly surprised. Mac OS updates have seemed less and less useful ever since Mountain Lion in ~2012 (which I maintain is the best consumer operating system ever made). When I try to make a .zip archive of the contents of my override folder, MacOS sits there thinking for an hour and never gets it done. But if I drop the folder into a virtualized (!) Win7 partition, it zips 17,000 files in a few seconds. SAD.

 

I blame this ancient, crufty piece of junk they call the Finder.

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Please, @subtledoctor and @argent77, the "to many open files" error can be fixed on MacOS and any other unix-based operating system very easily.Just google the error message or read about the ulimit command. Sadly, the "how to raise the limit" on MacOS is release dependent.

 

As an example, please see https://www.chrissearle.org/2016/10/01/too-many-open-files-on-osx-macos/

 

Regarding your unzp problem: Use 7z instead of the MacOS zip.

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Am I reading this right ?

Regarding your unzp problem: Use the 7z program instead of the MacOS zip to unpack the .zip archive.

But the issue was to actually to package a folder as a .zip archive, was it not ? WinRAR can package files as .zip's too... but I woudn't assume that MacOS has the same thing... but can the 7z on Mac do similar stuff, never utilized the program on Windows, so I wouldn't be able to pretend to know.

 

Again, one probably should write the words, and not assume or hide the linked thoughs. Which was my original objection that still stands on the subject title. There's no picture ... but avenging though is still there.

Edited by Jarno Mikkola
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Am I reading this right ?

Regarding your unzp problem: Use the 7z program instead of the MacOS zip to unpack the .zip archive.

But the issue was to actually to package a folder as a .zip archive, was it not ? WinRAR can package files as .zip's too... but I woudn't assume that MacOS has the same thing... but can the 7z on Mac do similar stuff, never utilized the program on Windows, so I wouldn't be able to pretend to know.

 

Again, one probably should write the words, and not assume or hide the linked thoughs. Which was my original objection that still stands on the subject title. There's no picture ... but avenging though is still there.

 

 

OK, your setence is much clearer than mine. I give you that.

 

In my mind I was taking to @subtledoctor and @agent77 expecting them to have no problem with my lingo.

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OK, your setence is much clearer than mine. I give you that.

In my mind I was taking to @subtledoctor and @agent77 expecting them to have no problem with my lingo.

You give me what ? No answer to my indirect question of: How should they package their files ? As that was the origin of their comments.
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OK, your setence is much clearer than mine. I give you that.

In my mind I was taking to @subtledoctor and @agent77 expecting them to have no problem with my lingo.

You give me what ? No answer to my indirect question of: How should they package their files ? As that was the origin of their comments.

 

 

How should their package their files? Most modders use zip archives. That's okay for windows. Compressed tar files for linux and macos because extended file attributes (e.g execution bits) are only part of tar archives if and only if one uses the operating system specific tar command.

 

This discussion needs a complete other thread than "EET on a tablet".

Edited by StefanO
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