DLC Builder ~~~~~~~~~~~ Version: 4.2 Author: Argent77 Download: https://github.com/Argent77/A7-DlcBuilder/releases/latest Discussion: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/59766/mod-dlc-builder-for-enhanced-edition-v2-x-games Overview ~~~~~~~~ Enhanced Edition games of version 2.0 or higher provide the feature of installing expansions in the form of DLCs. The best know example is the Siege of Dragonspear expansion which comes as a DLC package on GOG and Steam platforms. But this feature can be used for modding as well. This mod allows you turn your modded games into DLC archives. That way you don't have to go through the time- consuming and error-prone process of installing one mod after another if you simply want to reuse a known mod configuration. It can also be used to quickly synchronize multiple game installations so that they can be used for multiplayer sessions. Important notes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Patch version 2.5.16.6 of BG2:EE is broken and doesn't load DLC content. Other patch versions (older and newer) are not affected. On Windows you can fix this issue by using Bubb's DLC fixer. Download from here: https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/comment/1124231/#Comment_1124231 Since patch version 2.5 DLC archives must contain the string "dlc" (case-sensitive!) somewhere in their name to be recognized by the game. The mod automatically fixes the filename if needed. EEex requires extra steps to ensure that modifications run correctly on the target system. More details can be found down below in the "Note about EEex" section. Installation ~~~~~~~~~~~~ This mod doesn't install anything on the system. Instead it simply creates a DLC file from the current modding configuration of the game. You can repeat the process as many times and at any time you want. Simply start setup-DlcBuilder.exe (on Windows) or setup-DlcBuilder.command (on Mac OS X) and follow the instruction. When prompted enter the filename of the desired DLC. Components ~~~~~~~~~~ This mod allows you to create the DLC in one of several locations supported by the game. The resulting filename of the DLC depending on the selected location. 1. Install the DLC in the "workshop" subfolder of the game's installation directory. This is the recommended location as it is scanned last by the game and therefore reduces the chance that another DLC may override one or more resources of this DLC. Supported file extension: ".mod". 2. Install the DLC in the "dlc" subfolder of the game's installation directory. This location is also used by the Siege of Dragonspear DLC when you install it on Steam. Supported file extension: ".zip". 3. Install the DLC in the game's root folder. This location is used by the Siege of Dragonspear DLC when you install it on GOG. Supported file extension: ".zip". 4. Install the DLC in the game's documents folder. This folder is recommended for systems which don't allow to install files into the game's installation folder. Supported file extension: ".zip". 5. Activate expert mode which allows more control over the DLC building process. The resulting DLC package can be easily installed on any clean game installation. Simply drop it into one of the supported DLC locations and you are done. IMPORTANT: The game version of the target installation should match the version of the game where the DLC package has been created or you may encounter missing string references or outdated lines of text. NOTES ABOUT EEEX: EEex installs several files that are expected to be found directly on the filesystem. These files must be transferred manually to the target system along with the DLC archive created by this mod. The following files are required: 1. In the root folder of the game: - InfinityLoader.exe - InfinityLoader.db - any DLL files except "decrypt.dll" - any INI files 2. In the "override" folder of the game: - M___EEex.lua - any LUA files starting with "B3" - any LUA files starting with "EEex_" NOTES: This mod can only detect new or updated files in extra folders (such as movies, music or scripts) that have been added by the WeiDU installer of the mod. Files that have been added manually or by platform-dependent batch or shell scripts must be registered manually to the mod. Create the folder "working" in "DlcBuilder" if it doesn't yet exist and create a simple text file with .txt extension (name of the file doesn't matter) where you list every file that has been installed in a non-standard way. The path to the file must be relative to the game's installation directory. Example, assuming a mod installed "movies/mymovie.wbm" and "scripts/myscript.bs" to the game: 1. Create the file "mymod1.txt" in "DlcBuilder/working" 2. Add the following lines to the text file: movies/mymovie.wbm scripts/myscript.bs For technical reasons the file size of DLC archives cannot exceed 2 GB. This mod will automatically create multiple DLC archives if needed to keep file size safely below 2 GB. Each additional archive uses a simple numeric suffix to the given file name. (Example: my-dlc.zip, my-dlc-01.zip, my-dlc-02.zip, ...) The DLC creation process requires a lot of free space temporarily. You should make sure to have at least twice as much free space as the game resources to convert into a DLC, which includes biffed files and data in the override folder as well as various extra folders. The DLC generation process may take a some time to complete, especially if many mod components are involved. Copyright Notice ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The mod "DLC Builder" is licensed under the "Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License" (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). History ~~~~~~~ 4.2 - Added support for PsT:EE - Greatly improved processing speed - Modernized code - Outsourced working directories to keep mod folder immutable - Added component labels and PI metadata - Updated internally used binaries 4.1 - Added information about DLC restrictions on more recent game patch versions to the readme - Ensures that string "dlc" is part of the resulting DLC filename - Updated WeiDU binaries to v246 - Updated macOS 7za binary 4.0 - Completely overhauled DLC creation process - Added code to include mod-addded BIFF files into the DLCs - Added support of check for extra folders in game's language directory - Improved check for modified files in extra folders - Added more file existence checks to prevent errors because of missing files - Properly take care of engine.lua if it has been modified - Updated 7zip binary to fix compatibility issues with macOS Sierra - Removed centralfix binary since 7zip should already create compatible archives by itself - Updated WeiDU binaries to v242 3.0 - Creates multiple DLC archives if needed to keep archive file size below 2 GB 2.3 - Removed a couple of checks because WeiDU fails to work correctly with files of over 1 GB size - Added code to prevent WeiDU from creating unneeded backups of processed data on the harddisk 2.2 - Fixed: DLC building process could fail when dialog.tlk exceeded certain file size limit 2.1 - Added expert mode which provides more control over the DLC packaging process 2.0 - Modded files from extra folders (such as movies, music or scripts) are automatically added to the DLC archive 1.0 - Initial release