Portrait problems?

[Robert Mcelroy]

I know that this question has probably been asked a thousand times in the forum but please bear with me.

I've downloaded some custom portraits ( portrait portal rules )and unzipped them into my portrait folder but don't seem to be able to access them. Never tried this before so I just need to know what am I doing wrong?

Thanx gang!!

[Desuma Malevois]

1. Do the pictures have "L" and "S" at the end of their names, and are the names of the small and large pictures identical except for the last letter? (Since they come from Portrait Portal I assume this is so)

2. When you try to access them do you click on the "Custom" button at the portrait selection screen?

[Vedran]

I don't think that the names MUST be identical, nor that L and S must be there, it is just a naming convention.
Are the files in .BMP format? 24-bit, IIRC.
And the should be restarted for changes to take place.

If it doesn't work (there is a question mark instead of the picture) try applying them using ShadowKeeper.

[LennonCook]

The filenames cannot be more than 8 characters, if they are any longer than that the game doesn`t recognise them.

[Robert Mcelroy]

Thanx for the prompt response guys(girls too,can't remember who replied).

Ok I got them to show up in the custom part of appearence choices menu ,
BUT there is always just a question mark instead of a portrait.

There has got to be a way to insert them without using shadowkeeper, or maybe every body uses SK ?

Once again , thanx for the help. I've played through the game a bunch of times and
can you believe this is the first time I've tried to use custom portraits!

[Robert Mcelroy]

Whoops! nevermind, tried some of the other portraits and they worked fine

My ben stiller thief portrait must be corupted. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Great portraits though. I wish it was easier to change the npc portraits. being a computer dunce I doubt I could accomplish it.........or could I? The Angelina Jolie portraits makes me quiver all over, would look good on jaheira , or Virconia ,the naughty little drow.

Thanks again for the patience of the forum.

One with the universe,nothing else matter. (exert from the great guru, Rama agishe)

[Olorin]

To change the NPC portraits there are two methods.

1) edit your saved game with SK and change the portraits (very simple)

2) rename the large and small portrait files to the names of the NPCs you want them to be--in BG1 this was simply the NPC name (or 7 letters) then the L or S. BG2 has quite a few NPCs that are repeated, so they named _all_ the BG2 NPC portraits NxxxxxxL.bmp to avoid conflicts with their original portraits. So if you wanted to replace Aerie's pic, you would name the new pics NAerieL.bmp and NAerieS.bmp. You might have to experiment with upper vs. lowercase and for long names, with the six letters they shortened the name to. (If you're not sure, rename multiple pics with all the variations on the name, and see which one gets used)

Method 1 will change the portrait only in the saved game you modified, while method 2 will apply to all games.

Don't worry if the tiny pic on the load game screen is unaffected...that is set when the NPC first joins the party, and saved in the saved game folder.

[ezekill]

Make the portraits exactly the same size as the others, ie open a small portrait and a large portrait that work and you dont want, then paste the portrait you want into it, and then the portrait will be just the right size,
i downloaded the Cameron Diaz elf portrait (damn she makes a sexy elf, she should have been galadrielle in Lord of the Rings, not f*ckin Cate Blanchett) and it was a pixel too small on the right side and the bottom, so i assume yours will be too

[Luvian]

They need to be bmp, too.