Tchos' portrait mod for Planescape: Torment
by Tchos
Purpose
To replace the 3D character portraits in the game with high-quality hand-painted portraits, as other Infinity Engine games used, such as Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale, which are more aesthetically pleasing than the 3D character portraits in PS:T. These replacements occur where they appear in the PC/NPC section of the journal, in the stat screens, and the inventory paperdolls. Ideally, future releases of this mod will include replacements for the portraits at the bottom of the gameplay screen, as well as replacements for the rest of the recruitable party members, and perhaps more general NPCs.
Screenshots
Inventory paperdoll example -- The Nameless One, before and after
Stat screen example -- Fall-From-Grace, before and after
Journal portrait example -- Annah, before and after Installation
This mod comes with a WeiDU installer. To install, copy all of the files into your PS:T "override" folder, located wherever you installed Planescape: Torment, run the file Setup-Tchos-PST-portrait-mod.exe, and follow the prompts. To uninstall, run the file again.
Most of the files are in .bmp format, which can easily be viewed so that you can preview the portraits, and perhaps remove any you don't like.
Notes
I've tried to find portraits that adhered as closely as possible to a certain style (leaning toward realism) and a high level of quality, and so there are a couple of party members who are not replaced here. Although I did find art of some of those characters, they fell too far outside my criteria for this mod. This may seem too arbitrary, especially since some of the official concept art I used strays pretty far from realism, but I'd like to leave the door open for future version releases of this mod to include good replacements for them, if suitable art becomes available in the future.
Of course, this mod could not exist without the permission graciously given by the artists whose work appears in it. I encourage users of this mod to voice your appreciation to those artists, where they may be found in the credits to follow.
Credits for original art, used with permission:
The Nameless One:
Artist: Samizé
Fall-From-Grace:
Artist: Eleni Tsami (Eilidh)
Annah:
Artist: Michele Chang
Misc. NPCs
Fell (and general Dabus), male and female tieflings.
Artist: Phaere (Lisette W.)
- http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=User.EntriesListing&id=15745
- [Web site and Deviant Art accounts are defunct]
Her comments posted on her mod resource submissions collection repeatedly give permission to use any of the portraits in mods:
"You can change the portrait as you see fit." "If you wish to use any other portrait you can, so long as you credit me." "I only want my name mentioned if it in a module for public use. Other than that; use any picture you'd like."
Official concept art used:
- The Nameless One (cover art, used for stat screen)
- Deionarra
- Vhailor
- Wererat
- Various creatures
Revision history
- Version 0.90
- Released 2011-04-08
- Replaces journal portraits of: The Nameless One, Annah, Fall-From-Grace, Vhailor, Deionarra, Fell/Dabus, male and female tieflings, wererat, larval worm.
- Replaces stat screen portraits of: The Nameless One, Annah, Fall-From-Grace, Vhailor, Morte
- Replaces inventory screen paperdolls of: The Nameless One, Annah, Fall-From-Grace, Vhailor, Morte
- Version 0.91
- Released 2011-04-09
- WeiDU installer kindly provided by GhostDog
Update News
2011-04-09: Updated file to 0.91, incorporating a WeiDU installer, kindly provided by GhostDog.
2011-04-08: I wasn't able to get the animated portraits done for this release using BAM Workshop II. The portraits just didn't work. I'll try later if I can find a better BAM editor. In the meantime, here is release v0.90. Do not link directly to the download page, because updated versions will require a different link. Link instead to this blog post, which I will keep updated with the latest information.
Closing remarks
As I plan to update this mod as I am able, please inform me if you want to host this mod elsewhere, so I can be sure to keep them all up to date. I can be contacted through my blog at http://tchosgames.blogspot.com
Most excellent. The portrait of Grace especially always bugged me.
ReplyDeleteIf I'm midway through a game, will this work with my existing savegames? I had to redo most of the Hive after installing the various bug fix and content restoration mods. I like your portraits, but worry about having to start over again.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
This mod doesn't change any game settings or data files, and is made entirely of a series of .BMP files, which are simple image files. You don't actually need to use the installer, but it's provided for convenience. You can just drop the .BMP files into the override folder manually. The game won't know the difference, and will function normally no matter how often you add or remove them to a game in progress. I added and removed them many times to games in progress while I was making and testing them.
ReplyDeleteAs such, it also won't matter in what order you install this mod relative to other mods, unless those other mods also happen to change the portraits. I don't know of any that do, including Ghostdog's UI mod, which I also use.
Thanks for doing this, it makes the game look so much better.
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, and thank you for commenting!
DeleteAwesome, will check these out ASAP. :D
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, I'm using Michele Changs Annah for the Fade mod in BG2.
ReplyDeleteGood work! The only missing things are the bam files for the lower ui portaits. It would be great and finish the mod! By the way I guess after more then 3 years since last update we should stop hoping for a new update, right?
ReplyDeleteI tried doing the lower UI portraits, but I was getting some very poor results, and sometimes crashes, so I decided it wasn't worth the effort, but another user recently contacted me about that, and I sent him my work files for that part of the interface, and he successfully completed it. However, he said it could not be published because he didn't obtain permission for the art he used for it. I'd be happy to share the same work files I shared with him, though, if anyone else is interested in doing the same thing.
DeleteHow can I contact you (or him, for private sharing/clarification on how the work was done)? I've search a mail through the blog but I haven't been able to find it! Btw my mail address is paraffine[then there's the at]gmail[guesswhat?a dot!]com
Deletep.s. I've wronly replied the whole thread insted of your own answer, I guess you could delete the wrong answer and keep this one
p.p.s. you replied really fast, that's awesome! thank you! :D
By your request, I removed the duplicate response. I'll forward your email address and your request to the other modder, and also send you the same info I sent him.
DeleteGreetings! I just want to ask, could we expect to get adopted version of your great mod to PT:EE?
ReplyDeleteHm, a good question. I don't own a copy of the Enhanced Edition, and don't know if or how they've changed the structure for mods. I assume there must have been some change, since you're asking, but perhaps it's just a matter of doing a manual installation instead of using the WeiDU installer. Try putting the .BMP files into the game's "override" folder manually, assuming it has one, and see if that works.
DeleteYes, I tried to do manual install (through "override" folder). It is working now for translations, but not for portraits unfortunately. Probably portrait names has been changed or their location. Could I help you with this somehow?
DeleteWell, if the engine behaves basically the same way, then the location won't matter, and all we'd need is to find the new file names, if they've been changed. Since it was built on the Infinity Engine, I recall from the structure of Baldur's Gate portraits that there were three different resolutions, with letters added to the end to differentiate them. Since I expect the enhanced edition is higher resolution, they've probably added a fourth, larger resolution for portraits, with a new letter on the end. If you can find out if that's the case, and what the filename would be for any of them, as well as the resolution of that new size, I can probably make a set of those.
DeleteAlso, they may have changed the file format of the portraits as well to a more currently standard format. Perhaps it's looking for a PNG or a JPEG rather than a BMP as in the original. I would need to know that.
DeleteJust tried to unpack game resources with new InfinitExplorer called NearInfinity. So that's I found. In BMP folder (archive? I do not know, there is no any things with such name in "data" folder. It's seems to be mixed in various .bif's) I found all of images with same name as in your mod with .bmp extension. If I add files from your mod to override directory, then NearInfinity uses (to show in preview) modded pictures instead of original (could be switched by "ignore Overrides" option in program settings to original) but in the same time there would be original images within the game. So, seems to be there should be 1 more thing to push the game use "Override" images instead of standard. That's end. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMaybe you will give me your Steam account, I will gift it to you, and you will research and update it for all your fans? :3
DeleteA useful info I've found about PST:EE is that for some other mods the portraits/mods of portraits load only when you first enter an area in the game and then stay the same for that playthrough no matter what you do. (This is, for example, why the Conversation Portraits mod recommends that it should be installed early.) So it could be that the .bmp files are entirely correctly formatted and all and NearInfinity sees the correct files in the Override, but the game has already loaded the originals and won't check for portraits again until the next playthrough. If that's the case, a new playthrough should theoretically fix the problem.
DeleteThis thread goes a lot more in-depth about why portraits may not show up, so perhaps someone who knows more about Infinity Engine modding could glean something useful from it:
https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/64382/mod-journal-portrait-conversations-for-pstee
Will there be update for PS:T EE ?
ReplyDeleteI second the request for an EE update. These are much prettier than the 3d originals.
ReplyDelete