Overhaul Portraits

This section specifically means portraits in portraits.2da that are not tied to a particular creature appearance. Those are usually found with the creature themselves.

The base game ones will get a 4x upscale (or reuse the _H one as a lower sized one) and any new (generic, non-specific-creature-appearance) ones will be listed here.

portraits.txi

This file must be included and be blanked so that the mipmaps of DDS files on portraits doesn't ruin the quality at high resolutions and high scaling values (eg; x3 or x4). It otherwise takes some weird cross section of the file when resizing it or viewing them at distance.

Methodology

This is from the 4x project.

Crunch Options

All portraits won't have alpha so forcing -DTX1 on nwn_crunch is the key to lower file sizes.

New Approach

After some testing of the below (renaming some files, copying others) it is actually beneficial instead to use the mipmaps of the 4x option.

Edited - this is the new approach, just use crunch to generate all the sizes with the rescale option.

# Make duplicates of the PNG files

# Find all files
$source = Get-ChildItem "in\*h.png" -Recurse

$itemcount = $source.count
$itempercent = $source.count*100
$progress = 0

foreach ($sourcefile in $source)
{
    # Progress bar
    $progress++
    Write-Progress -Activity "Copying _H files to the other sizes. Current item: $sourcefile" -Status "Progress: $progress of $itemcount" -PercentComplete (100 * $progress/$itemcount)

    
    # Get the source filename - needs a space at the start too
    $filename = Split-Path -Path $sourcefile -Leaf
    # Take off last letter
    $filename_short = $filename.substring(0, $filename.length - 5)

    $l_file = "in\" + $filename_short + "l.png"
    $m_file = "in\" + $filename_short + "m.png"
    $s_file = "in\" + $filename_short + "s.png"
    $t_file = "in\" + $filename_short + "t.png"

    # Copy to the other names
    If(!(Test-Path "$l_file")) { Copy-Item $sourcefile -Destination "$l_file" }
    If(!(Test-Path "$m_file")) { Copy-Item $sourcefile -Destination "$m_file" }
    If(!(Test-Path "$s_file")) { Copy-Item $sourcefile -Destination "$s_file" }
    If(!(Test-Path "$t_file")) { Copy-Item $sourcefile -Destination "$t_file" }
}

Write-Output "Generating _h DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*h.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet
Write-Output "Generating _l DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*l.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet -rescale 512 1024
Write-Output "Generating _m DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*m.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet -rescale 256 512
Write-Output "Generating _s DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*s.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet -rescale 128 256
Write-Output "Generating _t DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*t.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet -rescale 64 128

Write-Output "Done"

# This is an awful way of doing things but hey, whatever
# Make duplicates of the PNG files

# Find all files
$source = Get-ChildItem "in\*m.png" -Recurse

$itemcount = $source.count
$itempercent = $source.count*100
$progress = 0

foreach ($sourcefile in $source)
{
    # Progress bar
    $progress++
    Write-Progress -Activity "Copying _m files to the other sizes. Current item: $sourcefile" -Status "Progress: $progress of $itemcount" -PercentComplete (100 * $progress/$itemcount)

    
    # Get the source filename - needs a space at the start too
    $filename = Split-Path -Path $sourcefile -Leaf
    # Take off last letter
    $filename_short = $filename.substring(0, $filename.length - 5)

    $s_file = "in\" + $filename_short + "s.png"
    $t_file = "in\" + $filename_short + "t.png"

    # Copy to the other names
    If(!(Test-Path "$s_file")) { Copy-Item $sourcefile -Destination "$s_file" }
    If(!(Test-Path "$t_file")) { Copy-Item $sourcefile -Destination "$t_file" }
}

Write-Output "Generating _m DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*m.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet -rescale 256 512
Write-Output "Generating _s DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*s.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet -rescale 128 256
Write-Output "Generating _t DDS"
.\nwn_crunch.exe -file -i "in\*t.png" -outdir "out" -fileformat dds -DXT1 -yflip -quiet -rescale 64 128

Write-Output "Done"

Creatures

We just rescale H down to the other sizes as above.

For placeables since they lack H and L (mostly! there are 1 or 2 that have them, perhaps since the portraits are reused on creatures for some reason).

Oddities for the different options below:

• po_plc_rainbw_h - Placeable but has h and l versions
• po_plc_bbl_sm_m - This one has ONLY the medium one for some reason
• po_msc_ - several placeable ones not marked "po_plc_" for some reason
• po_levelup - only file, used in the top right for levelup (Equivalent I think to "m")
• po_gi_x0horse_m - I think a placeable one, has only m/s/t
• po_door01_m - placeable or door but not named po_plc_ so has only m/s/t
• po_pause - solo file like levelup that has just the "m" sized variant
• po_timestop - solo file like levelup that just has the "m" sized variant
• po_unknownpc - Not sure if used...?
• There's also a few default portrait files not prefixed po_ likely used in some cases

Can remove:

• po_plc_x0_syt_s and po_plc_x0_tyt_t are the same item, no "m" version, and thus misnamed or the only ones. Neither appear in portraits.2da (syt/tyt). Looks to be a destroyed version of po_plc_x0_myt_m.
• Unused due to odd names not sure why they're even there:
  • po_pwc_mage_001_
  • po_pwc_post_001_
  • po_pwc_rubl_001_
  • po_pwc_rubl_002_
  • po_pwc_rubl_003_
  • po_pwc_sand_001_, po_pwc_sand_002_, po_pwc_sand_003_ and po_pwc_sand_004_
  • po_pwc_sieg_001_, po_pwc_sieg_002_, po_pwc_sieg_003
  • po_pwc_skull_01__
  • po_pwc_tabl_001_, po_pwc_tabl_002_
  • po_pwc_torc_001_

Unused Game Portraits

These are complete portraits unused in the portraits.2da file and can either be left out of the project or be included as new lines.

Missing Portraits

The portraits.2da file sometimes has a valid line with no files found. They should be dummied out properly.

Original Portraits Upscaled

To follow. Need to pick out which ones are appearance.2da related.

New Portraits

To follow.

Naming convention would be: po_op_XXX_t.dds (where T would be the appropriate size ID) if a generic "thing" else follow race conventions for Dwarfs, Elves etc.. XXX can be 9 characters long. This is because of portraits.2da limitations (you are forced to use po_ as a prefix!)

Portraits Based off HD Models

CatPerson Fimbul K has done a portrait based off the HD models (with an added hat):

This looks pretty good, need to see about trying this out with some techniques. To look similar to Bioware's;

• Background colours + stuff going on, borders around the model perhaps
• Lighting: Sort an in-game studio with a rough greenscreen
• Painting technique; ask CatPerson for some help here