8 replies to this topic

[5th_horseman]

I,ve always had problems installing BG2, (4 cd edition) and had to perform a minimun install and then fake it. (re."BioWare Baldur's Gate II Known Issues for Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal.htm" at the Bioware site)

Quote

How to "fake" a larger install from a Minimum install (Back to Known Issues list)

    Minimum to Recommended Install

    1. Do a Minimum install.

    2. Edit your "baldur.ini" file. Change the line "Install Type=1" to "Install Type=2"

    3. Copy the following files from CD2 to your BG2 directory, where [cddrive] is the letter of your CD-ROM drive and [BG2] is the location of your BG2 install

    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\CREAnim.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CREAnim.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\CREAnim1.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CREAnim1.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\GUIMosc.bif ===> [BG2]\data\GUIMosc.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\MovHD0.bif ===> [BG2]\data\MovHD0.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\NPCSoCD3.bif ===> [BG2]\data\NPCSoCD3.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\NPCSound.bif ===> [BG2]\data\NPCSound.bif

    4. Copy the following files from CD3 to your BG2 directory

    [cddrive]\CD3\Data\CD3CreA2.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD3CreA2.bif
    [cddrive]\CD3\Data\CD3CreAn.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD3CreAn.bif
    [cddrive]\CD3\Data\CDCreAni.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CDCreAni.bif

    5. Copy the following files from CD4 to your BG2 directory

    [cddrive]\CD4\Data\CD4CreA2.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD4CreA2.bif
    [cddrive]\CD4\Data\CD4CreA3.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD4CreA3.bif
    [cddrive]\CD4\Data\CD4CreAn.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD4CreAn.bif

    You now have a Recommended install.

    Minimum to Full Install

    1. Do a Minimum install.

    2. Edit your "baldur.ini" file. Change the line "Install Type=1" to "Install Type=3". Also, you will need to edit the [Alias] section. Make the following changes where [BG2] is the location of your BG2 install

    [Alias]
    HD0=[BG2]
    CD1=[BG2]\CD1
    CD2=[BG2]\CD2
    CD3=[BG2]\CD3
    CD4=[BG2]\CD4

    3. Copy the following directories (and all their contents) from the BG2 CDs to your BG2 install folder, where [cddrive] is the letter of your CD-ROM drive and [BG2] is the location of your BG2 install

    CD2
    [cddrive]\CD2 ===> [BG2]\CD2

    CD3
    [cddrive]\CD3 ===> [BG2]\CD3

    CD4
    [cddrive]\CD4 ===> [BG2]\CD4

    You now have a Full install.

I've found that when I copy the all the cd's including ToB to using the cd_name as the sub-directory names, then installing BG2_SoA as minimum install from the copied cd's. (I still require the first cd on hand to finish the installation.) Editing the baldur.ini as per the faking instructions for "Full Install" using the path to the cd as the [BG2] section. Then running gameconfig to set whatever setting you use.

If you use ToB install this now using minimum install. Check and edit if needed the baldur.ini so that "CD5" entry points to the copy of ToB cd. Now run the Bioware patches for SoA or ToB depending on what you have installed.

So what you have is a directory containing the 5 cd's in my case (I have this on a different drive for extra speed)and a patched minimum install. I simplily copy this install to a new directory with a different name, just add mod# to the orginal directory name, # being the nunber of the copy of the install. Then edit the baldur.ini so that "HD0=[BG2]" point to the new directory. Add a shortcut to the desktop for BGmain.exe name it the same as the directory and use this to start your game.

I then install whatever mods I want in the copy using the new directory as the root directory to unzipp the mods to, then install them. I have had as many as 5 copies of the minimum install, each with different sets of mods without any problems. Please note that I never mod the orginal minimum install. I have burned a copy of the minimum install to dvd and used this as a master to copy from, but it is required that you change the read/write access from readonly on all the files copied otherwise mods will not be able to patch files that are in the override directory. I have used this method sucessfully with Tutu and Easy Tutu, but have attempted it with BGT

To edit saved games using ShadowKeeper you have to change the installation directory in ShadowKeeper to the directory of whichever copy you are playing, exit and restart ShadowKeeper. DLTCEP also requires you to change the setting. Gamesetting can only be changed from whitin the game and only apply to the copy that you are playing, you are not able to use the confg editor.

There may be a way to further reduce the size of the minimum install, I have not tested this but it may be worth trying. I would suggest testing this with the orginal directory before making any copies as it will save you over 600mb space per copy.

Copy the "data" directory from the root directory to the directory that the cd's copies are in, delete the contents of the "data" in the root do not delete the directory itself as it will be required if any file biffing is performed, then edit baldur.ini so

HD0=[BG2a];[BG2b]

BG2a points to the root directory and BG2b points to the copy "data" directory with the cd copies. If this did not work copy the contents of the "data" directory back and delete ;[BG2b] from your baldur.ini

Edited by 5th_horseman, 28 June 2006 - 04:22 PM.

[igi]

Quote

There may be a way to further reduce the size of the minimum install, I have not tested this but it may be worth trying. I would suggest testing this with the orginal directory before making any copies as it will save you over 600mb space per copy.

Copy the "data" directory from the root directory to the directory that the cd's copies are in, delete the contents of the "data" in the root do not delete the directory itself as it will be required if any file biffing is performed, then edit baldur.ini so

HD0=[BG2a];[BG2b]

BG2a points to the root directory and BG2b points to the copy "data" directory with the cd copies. If this did not work copy the contents of the "data" directory back and delete ;[BG2b] from your baldur.ini

I've never been able to get this to work. Has anyone else?

[Azazello]

I'm using an ISO image of BG2-ToB, virtually mounted as Drive M:. I realized it doesn't make sense to use this image and have a data directory filled with redundant biffs - if the game needs to access a default biff, it should read it from M:, not \baldur\data.

Although I have not yet tried this, one day I will test by doing a minimum install of both BG2 and ToB (doesn't ToB have an annoying habit of copy some of the BG2 biffs to data folder?), then edit the drive references in baldur.ini to point to M:.

UPDATE and OBSERVATIONS:

* Installing ToB forces your build into a Recommended Install

* As noted above, HD0=[BG2a];[BG2b] does not work -- the game will not read past HD0=[BG2a], where [BG2a] is the data folder on the harddrive. Perhaps hardcoded behavior?

*Also tried removing BIFs from the data folder, to see what were the minumum number required. I discovered that six could be removed for the game to start and run, presuming that you use an virtual mount of all the BG2/ToB CDs.

**Despite this knowledge, I did not go thru an entire BG2-ToB run-thru to confirm that there would be no problems. Also, only 208 Mb are "saved" by not using these BIFs. In this day of computing, this is a neglible amount of storage space. Perhaps if someone is interested in running the game from an USB or similar drive, this would be a relevant issue.

* The six BIFs were
creanim.bif
creanim1.bif
guimosc.bif
movhd0.bif
npcsocd3.bif
npcsound.bif

After some further experimenting, I did find one setting that decreased the load time of game locations -- the cache setting.

BG's logic is that if a file (BIF) is not found in the cache folder, it searches for it from the approriate locations given under the [Alias] list in baldur.ini, then copies the file to the cache folder. Ideally BG should just read/use the file wherever it is located, but this is not the case: it will still copy it to the cache folder.

The smaller the cache size (set in baldur.ini under [Config] with setting CacheSize=) the more often BG will have to copy BIFs to the cache folder.

I have discovered that no matter how low the setting is made, with ToB installed the cache size is a minimum of approx. 256Mb. I tested with values 80, 100, 128.

Thus, to "speed up" cache reading -- i.e. reduce the number of file-copies to the cache folder -- make the size larger then 256. I currently have it set to 900 [2007], and have had significantly faster load times. Perhaps I will try 1024 (or 999, if there is a 3-digit/byte limitation to the number) in the future.

Edited by Azazello, 20 May 2007 - 08:09 AM.

[Daulmakan]

This worked for me.

[Miloch]

You could try adding Disable Autosave=1 somewhere in baldur.ini but I've no idea if that'll work.