Infinity Engine Talk Table Editor Options

[Baronius]

INFINITY ENGINE TALK TABLE EDITOR

WEBSITE: http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/Tools/tlkeditor.php

I finished its development a few months ago, but could not release it so far. Now I have made the documentation, so TLKEditor is ready to work with your dialog.tlk-s.
Please inform me if you encounter any problem/bug while using this program.

• This program is based on BWL's Talk Table Viewer. It contains all of TLKViewer's functions, but also offers services related to talk table editing.
  Works with all of the IE games (BG1, PST, IWD, BG2, IWD2), including all of their official expansions and unofficial mods
• Can view and edit talk table (TLK) files. You can edit already existing strings and create new ones. You can edit the sound resource references as well.
• TLKAssistant gives access to the editor functions. Every function can also be activated by using hotkeys. You can undo your changes on each string separately. You can also truncate the TLK file.
• Customisable browser window to display the string (font, font color & size, background color), displays the offset, length, type, sound reference, volume variance and pitch variance of the string
• Fast and powerful search engine with several settings (complex search with multiple search terms, highlight results, case sensitivity, whole words, length-oriented and absolute search method, search from a certain string, theoretically unlimited number of results, search is interruptable by user)
• Technical statistics of your TLK file (average string length, longest string, number of strings by type, number of strings by their size, size map and string size graphs)
• Text statistics of your TLK file (occurances of user-defined words/expressions)
• TLK to TXT export (instant raw export, guided export with various settings)
• Configuration (your last used settings are stored and remembered when the program is run next time, auto-load last opened file when the program starts, button to load last opened file)

[Vlad]

Great! Thank you Baronius!

[Baronius]

I hope you (and everyone who will use it) will be satisfied . Remember, its the initial version and might contain bugs.

[Vlad]

There is a very minor issue in the editor. When you create a new string, then write/type, and then save the dialogue, the program leaves many blank lines between the written lines inside the string.

Attached File(s)

 screen1.jpg ( 137.65k ) Number of downloads: 54

 

[Baronius]

I have found the problem. BG2 (and possibly other IE games) doesn't interpret the CR/LF (carriege return/linefeed) characters in the usual way when reading from the talk table file. I'll alter the relevant functions.

I didn't notice this when developing TLKEditor because I made my tests with BG1 and it doesn't seem to have any problems in this respect.

I will release a newer version of TLKEditor as soon as possible. Thanks a lot for your report, Vlad!

[Baronius]

Version 1.03 has been released. Only an old bug was fixed. (Advanced search refused to work after changes were saved to TLK, it was required to restart TLK Editor.)

[Ulicus]

Thanks for this, Baronius, it's great! Just the sort of easy-to-use editing system I was looking for.

There's one slight problem that I've noticed, however. Whenever I edit a block of text that contains "<CHARNAME>", the game seems to get confused and - instead of displaying my character's name - it will actually display "<CHARNAME>" in the in-game text. Is there any way around this? Am I just being an idiot?

Ah well, even if there's nothing that can be done, thanks for the editor once more!

[Baronius]

Glad to read you're satisfied with this small tool!

There's one slight problem that I've noticed, however. Whenever I edit a block of text that contains "<CHARNAME>", the game seems to get confused and - instead of displaying my character's name - it will actually display "<CHARNAME>" in the in-game text. Is there any way around this? Am I just being an idiot?

If it happens, it has a reason which isn't your mistake. Hopefully, we will find the source of the problem.

First of all, I suppose you meant it displays "<CHARNAME>" in the game but without the quotes (i.e. you used quotes in your post to enclose <CHARNAME> but they don't actually appear in the game).

Did you copy & paste text from somewhere, e.g. from another editor (such as Microsoft Word) into the text box of IE Talk Table Editor? Did the pasted text contain <CHARNAME> (if the question makes sense)? Did the entry include <CHARNAME> in advance and you edited other parts of it, or did you type CHARNAME manually, i.e. added it to an entry that didn't contain it?

Could you tell the exact scenario? For example, "I open the TLK file, edit the string with <CHARNAME>, and then I press F5". What other steps do you do meanwhile? I guess you can easily reproduce the bug (does it happen always when you edit such an entry)?

[Ulicus]

Thanks for the quick response.

Glad to read you're satisfied with this small tool!

Most satisfied.

I'm pleased I've finally been able to rewrite Jaheira's biography, for one thing. The one BioWare wrote (with her birth placed during the Tethyrian civil war) meant she was in her early twenties... which was odd.

First of all, I suppose you meant it displays "<CHARNAME>" in the game but without the quotes (i.e. you used quotes in your post to enclose <CHARNAME> but they don't actually appear in the game).

Aye, that's what I meant.

Did you copy & paste text from somewhere, e.g. from another editor (such as Microsoft Word) into the text box of IE Talk Table Editor? Did the pasted text contain <CHARNAME> (if the question makes sense)?

Nope, no copying and pasting.

Did the entry include <CHARNAME> in advance and you edited other parts of it, or did you type CHARNAME manually, i.e. added it to an entry that didn't contain it?

The problem occurs in either situation.

I first noticed it when I edited other parts of an entry that already included CHARNAME, however. Then started to experiment. (Inserting my own CHARNAME, etc)

Could you tell the exact scenario? For example, "I open the TLK file, edit the string with <CHARNAME>, and then I press F5". What other steps do you do meanwhile? I guess you can easily reproduce the bug (does it happen always when you edit such an entry)?

Yeah, it has happened every time so far.

Here's exactly what I do in the format you requested:

"I open the TLK file, edit a string that contains <CHARNAME>, and then I press F5. From this point foward, the game displays that string's instance of <CHARNAME> as '<CHARNAME>', instead of 'John Doe/Whoever' "

[Baronius]

It might be some character conversion problem.

What operating system do you have?

I suppose it's a too big request, but could you send me your dialog.tlk?

This post has been edited by Baronius: Mar 23 2008, 03:04 AM

[Ulicus]

Ah, I've sorted it out now.

I had the "BG2-specific StrRefs" box unchecked.

It was just me being an idiot after all! Sorry for wasting your time. (I'll go and, uh, hide under a rock....)

[Baronius]

It was just me being an idiot after all! Sorry for wasting your time. (I'll go and, uh, hide under a rock....)

If it happens, it has a reason which isn't your mistake.

IE Talk Table Editor should automatically set that flag to true (i.e. tick the checkbox) when it detects it's a BG2 TLK. If it's a usual BG2 dialog.tlk, the detection should always be successful when you open the file. But for some reason, it was not ticked for you. Perhaps you removed the tick, I don't know. Nonetheless, it's still not your mistake, because IE Talk Table Editor could also consider all StrRefs BG2-specific (because as far as I know, none of the IE games are unhappy if they have to read StrRefs of type seven -- these are BG2's usual StrRefs).

Nevermind, it's now solved. Don't hesitate to return if you need any more assistance, Ulicus.