The Big New Portrait Pack for ToEE/Co8 v8.x -- a player's mod

This modpack is not a Co8 modpack -- don't blame them for it!

Blame me.



The Big New Portrait Pack 0.5b for ToEE/Co8 v8.x:thumbsup:

First the legal stuff: This portrait pack is a personal use software distributed under the Fair Use guidelines. The graphics in this pack were obtained freely over the World Wide Web, modified for use in ToEE/Co8 v8.x using Gaear's Portraits Made Easy modpack. This portrait pack is being shared for personal use only. None of the graphics within this modpack may be sold or distributed in a commercial product, or otherwise exchanged for any compensation. This portrait modpack may be shared freely.

A very big thank you to all the modders and players of this incredible game. This portrait pack is my way of giving back to the gaming community that has supported this game. Their efforts have made a great but unplayably buggy game playable. Exceeding that, the Circle of Eight team has added an immense amount of new content that has taken the game to new and better levels. You guys are fantastic! Thank you.

Requirements: ToEE/Co8 v8.x, Gaer's Portait Made Easy Pack

Install Gaear's Portraits Made Easy Pack as normal, then unzip the files in The Big New Portrait Pack 0.5b archive into the ..\Temple of Elemental Evil\data\art\interface\portraits folder. Overwrite all the files. If you want to save any, back the folder up. However, you can always get the default portraits back by reinstalling the portrait Made Easy pack.

That's it. Once again: install the Portraits Made Easy Pack then unzip The Big New Portrait Pack 0.5b into your game's portrait folder, overwriting the default files.

The Big New Portrait Pack 0.5b includes 119 new portraits. That's right! All the default portraits have been replaced (their filenames retained so portrait.mes was not changed), as well as an additional 35 new portraits added. The male-female balance has been evened out a bit -- with a few default male portraits now being female. The diversity index has been increased with more character classes portrayed for more character races. This may cause some of the pre-generated PCs to be a little, uh, off. But then, if you want to use a pre-generated PC whose portrait no longer matches the description (class, sex, whatever), you can always replace the offending portrait with the default one.

If you are like me you create a rich roleplay in your imagination as you play the game. For me, the portraits are a central part of the story -- and once I create a memorable story in-game with a portrait, that portrait retains for me the identity of the PC it represented. After a while I need new portraits to pick from if I want to create new characters. That was the impetus for starting this portrait pack. Once I started I decided that I should finish the job and give it as a gift to this gaming community. This 0.5b version is a first release. I am not happy with how some of the portraits get rendered in-game, and will fix or change those. As well, I have not tested many of portraits in game situations. All have been tested in the Character Creation Screen, and some have been tested in and about Hommlet. Now that the pack is finished, and a new version of both ToEE/Co8 and KotB have been released . . . it is time for me to start a new game!

I hope you will enjoy this portrait pack. Please let me know of any problems. I will correct them ASAP. My internet access is spotty at best, but I usually visit this forum on a daily basis.

The portraits include a variety of different art/graphic forms and photographs. The photos include cosplay and TV/movie characters. Have fun and enjoy! All of the graphics were heavily modified by me for inclusion in this pack. None of them are the same image that was downloaded from the Web.

The Big New Portrait Pack 0.5b is hosted at Bitcasa because the file size is a touch too large (>5MB) for this forum. You can download it by clicking this sentence.

 

Problem #1

Co8 modpack v8.1.0 does not recognize Portraits Made Easy . . . nothing is ever easy regarding ToEE.

OK, I installed Portraits Made easy and The Big New Portrait Pack into Co8 v8.0.1 . . . and then copied all the files in that portrait folder into my Co8 v8.1.0 portrait folder in a new and seperate install of v8.1.0. The new portraits showed up in the character creation screen for v8.1.0 seemingly without problems,

So . . . that's a workaround until Portraits Made Easy is recognized by the new Co8 modpack.

IMPORTANT: This may (most definitely) break something somewhere in the modpack as there are more files in the new modpack then were in the old one. I haven't checked portraits.mes yet (my game computer and the public internet computer are in two different buildings . . . don't ask, I'm in Downeast Maine), or done anything else, but what might work is to keep the v.8.1 portraits.mes. The 35 "custom" portraits of this new pack won't be referenced . . . but the other 84 will . . . I think.

Well, I'm off to try . . . sorry about the immediate problem. Perhaps it is best to wait until the Co8 team helps out here.

Help!

 

Well, scooter my daisyheads.

I merged the two portrait.mes files -- replacing the PC listing with the listing from Portraits Made Easy, and copied my portrait files over and all seems well.

I installed Portraits Made Easy on top of a fresh install of 8.1.0 -- and TFX couldn't find it. Really all I did with my portrait pack is use your Portraits Made Easy pack. It's just that after I finished with the 35 custom portraits I found I had a few more I wanted to add . . . so I replaced a few default ones I never use . . . and one thing led to another and all the default ones were changed but no filenames changed. So it's just a Portraits Made Easy pack . . . basically.

Anyways, if you can point me to the instructs on making a .tpp file, I'd appreciate it. I'll check the PME instructs when I get back to my computer. Maybe I took a shortcut -- I forget. :dizzy:

BTW: I like the new Welkwood map so far. Much better.

Also, on topic of graphics, the main trouble I am having is that ToEE renders everything so washed out and bright. Most of the graphics I worked with had to be so dark at the last stage that i couldn't see any fine details in my graphic program -- but once in the game it's like the gamma setting is exponentionally higher. It's not that way with all of them, however -- so there's a trick in there I'm missing. Mayhap you can also point me in the direction of that query's resolution?

Thanks!

 

Yeah, probably a monitor issue -- and an old eyes issue. I couldn't use the Royo pack because it was so washed out it hurt my eyes. Actually, I have the gamma set to 0 in-game, and never put it above mid-way. I'll have to go back and get some screenshots, but I am thinking it is a monitor/video card issue (both old) or ToEE has a special pallette.

 

Ok, yeah, well, bummer. It was both my monitor and my eyes. I have a computer of cobbled together discarded parts and switched to another monitor -- what a difference! OK, probably gotta re-do all the portraits . . . but first, a little playtime.

Speaking of which . . . I llike to push the game to it's limits in all directions, and was feeling particularly chaotic so I rolled up a one-roll band of chaotic neutral thieves guild dropouts to try v8.1 with. With these guys, up to now, it was all Rainbow rock . . . Moathouse? Bandits? Who do you think we are? Where's that Meadow, yo? Get those muskrats or badgers or whatever they call themselves to go after the bandits. We want treasure!

So, OK, how do five 1st level rogues take on Emridy Meadows and Rainbow Rock? Well, we take Fernok along -- for the first time I'm going to give Furnok a shot to stay the whole game with me -- but he's not near enough muscle . . . a couple aborted trys at the treasure made it quite clear there was no way to beat these undead with this party at this level. Hmm. Can I steal the treasure? Yes! I sent the best PC sneak up alone, leaving the rest about two combat moves away. Grabbed the treasure, rolled the rock back, undead appear, undead priest casts desecrate, rogue hightails up and around a rock that blocks hopefully LOS, undead priest casts sound burst, rogue saves, runs straight away and joins the party, combat ends! We got the treasure of Rainbow Rock at first level -- and then you know exactly what we did next, right? We stole the giant's treasure for good measure! First level and both treasures ours! Wait, what? Thieves Guild dropouts?

 

I'm interested in trying this out. Just for clarification, have you resolved the issue discussed above, or does it still need some tweaking to fit tidily into a fresh install of 8.1? Thx

 

Still needs a little put-together to be fully compatible w/ 8.1.0 NC. I'm having a bit of trouble turning it into a .tpp file -- it installs but ends with an error message saying it didn't install fine -- but it seems to be fine. I'm going to re-work it today with a fresh install of everything and see what happens.

You can use what I have posted, if you care to fiddle with the install -- install Portraits Made Easy for 8.1.0 NC, then copy the portrait files from my pack into the game's portrait folder. Then, take the PC section of portraits.mes from my pack and overwrite the PC part of the PME portrait.mes and use that one. It's easier than it sounds.

 

OK, The Big New Portrait Pack 0.6b for Co8 v8.1.0 New Content is ready. You can download it at this Bitcasa link: http://l.bitcasa.com/OTXtgU0Q

I haven't made an installer yet so you need to put this .tpp file in your TOEE "..\addons\Circle of Eight Modpack 8.1.0 New Content\" folder like so:

..\Temple of Elemental Evil\addons\Circle of Eight Modpack 8.1.0 New Content\TBNPP-06b.tpp

If you install any of the other Portrait Packs they will make the appropriate folders for you, and you just have to plop TBNPP-06b.tpp into the Co8 8.1 NC folder, as above.

The Big New Portrait Pack should then be ready to install via TFE-X as a normal portrait pack.

I tested it out on a fresh install of TOEE/Co8 v8.1.0 New Content and everything worked A-OK.

TBNPP-05b has been deleted and is no longer available.

TBNPP-06b still needs some work on the portraits, as they were all made with a substandard monitor (and pair of eyes). Also, some just don't render well in-game and I have other graphics to replace them. Let me know if you have any problems.

 

Works great. Thanks for this. Portraits has always been a nagging issue for me. I love what you guys have done to this game.

 

Indeed, +1 thanks with <3

 

Glad you guys like it! Let me know if you have any issues with them -- video related, game-related or selection-diversity-related.

 

Hi all,

I am having some problems. The place where i think there should be a link for Ed's mod isn't a link, and when I look to download Gaear's Portraits Made Easy, I get a 404 error...Is this stuff gone now?

 

Well, i found the link for Ed, but still no Portraits made easy :no:

:edit: So, after opening my eyes, i actually found things that make all of my posts invalid here!! Sorry to bother!