Help! Tons of questions about BGT! Options

[Salk]

Hello! I am pretty new to the forum and have no knowledge of modding so I ask your help with some questions. To what I had understood, both BG1 TuTu and BGT let the player play the whole saga using the BG2 (or ToB perhaps ?) engine for Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. The difference that makes me want to play BGT is that it would let me give a marvellous sense of completition by merging the two stories and the two worlds into a single experience. Here I come with questions: is BGT enough bug-free to play the game without major problems ? Would you recommend installing it ? I think I have understood BGT is a TeamBG production and that their website has been down for a long time. Can you tell me why and what happened to the main coder of this great project ? What are the main differences between BGT and the mods BP-BGT / BP-BGT-DSOTSC which are hosted in Forgotten Wars ? Do they include more stable versions of BGT ? Are Wei-Du mods all compatible with BGT ? What are the system requirements for BGT ? Is there any valid documentation on the net which explains in the details how BGT works (installation and configuration) ? Can I take advantage of Dudleyville's fixes for Baldur's Gate 1 if I install BGT (or BP-BGT / BP-BGT-DSOTSC) even if they're not written in Wei-Du (they are installed in the Override folder of BG1) ? Please help me if you can. I am really interested in opening new horizions for Baldur's Gate and BGT seems what I do need to have the best experience possible. Thanks!

[SimDing0]

There is also another small thing that may have a certain relevance (at least according to my point of view): I think that the engine conversion that was made first had been a great example for the group/person that developed the other. I have special admiration for whom comes up with an original idea thanks to talent and pioneeristic sense. Such persons would deserve great respect even from people that later accomplish the same in a better way.

Absolutely I don't mean to praise one side and not the other with this (I don't even know if BGT came out before BG1 TuTu or viceversa nor if the first-comer took after another similar project for other games...). I just say: it's easier to follow the step when there is already a path to help. Big admiration for all modders, all the community that provides such great service to us simple users. You all guys (and girls ) are great.

Work on Tutu picked up somewhat as we looked at BGT and thought "that's not the best way of doing it". It's based on the IWG2 source code, so it's Weimer's pioneering here which made it possible. If anything, I imagine it might also take influence from an earlier conversion project that predates BGT but never saw the light of day.

BGT may be as slow and cumbersome as an elephant but I do believe there is space for improving it. As there is for BG1 TuTu. If only the latter could let me play all through the game with my same party. Well...Then the magnificent sense of completition would no longer be a great exclusivity of BGT! My dreams would be to see the two groups combine their effort for the creation of the ultimate engine conversion! After all, both projects aim to the same goal, right ? Will it always be just a dream ? 

The project goals are pretty different, actually. It was a conscious decision while developing BG1Tutu that it should not allow players to continue on into BG2 after defeating Sarevok. The team didn't feel that creating an acceptable transition would be a light or desirable undertaking, and I don't believe BGT achieves this either. Tutu also aims to retain the original style and balance of BG1 to the greatest extent possible, while BGT's mandate is one of "improvement", by which assorted plot changes are freely thrown into the core package.