This tool was originally developed for the testing and debugging purposes of BG2 add-on CZ TC - Dalelands: Nemesis of the Black Knight. However, I've decided to put it public because it can be useful for other modders/players.
I know that other tools such as DLTCEP or Near Infinity can manage all the stuff what Variable checker does. But none of these tools can do it in compact, direct and fast way as Variable Checker does - it was the reason why I've developed it, for fast and comfortable check and edit all game variables. I hope that I've managed to fulfill that goal with this piece of my work.
Features
Variable checker can load and edit all game variables from saved games. It can handle variables from baldur.gam file (GLOBAL variables and LOCALS variables of characters stored in baldur.gam - mostly the characters that are/can be in party) and baldur.sav file (AREA variables and LOCALS variables of NPCs).
It is possible to edit the value of the varible - change of the name, creating of new variable or discarding of existing variable is not possible (at least now
.Variable checker remembers the last opened save game, so you have fast and direct access to your testing save game position.
Opened files are immediately saved with .bak extension after their loading in Variable Checker. If any problems occur (corrupting the files or just undesired changing of values), you will have the possibility to restore original files.
The area NPCs have displayed their "Actor's Name" as is in IESDP called the 32-byte character array on the offset 0x0 of each actor in actor's section in .are file. It seems that in this array is really stored some "description" or "name" of the area actor - but in normal .are. In .are files stored in .sav it looks like the death variable of the actor is stored in this field. As we know, many creatures have set their death variable to NONE what is quite confusing for browsing. Because of that, I've implemented the possibility to switch NPC list to the mode where are displayed actors' .cre resources - .cre resource explains the creature generally better than death variable. To switch the mod of displaying NPCs check the checkbox in Setting menu or just press ALT+C.
Installation
First of all, you have to have Java Runtime Environment (JRE) installed. It doesn't matter whether the latest 1.5 version or older 1.4.2 (or even 1.4.1 should work).
You can get JRE here: http://www.java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
If you are not sure whether you have JRE installed, you can test your PC for Java compatibility on the page mentioned above.
Then just extract varchecker.zip archive to desired directory (as you've probably already did
and keep the directory structure. No other actions are necessary.Don't try to extract varchecker.jar file - yes, it is really archive but not designed to extracting, it is Java executable file and must remain compressed.
To run Variable checker, double-click to varchecker.jar file.
Where to get
English Homepage: http://www.blackwyrmlair.net/Tools/varchecker.php
Download: http://downloads.blackwyrmlair.net/Varchecker/varchecker.zip
Note: I've originally developed Varibale Checker in defiance of other IE games - it was really meant just for BG2. However, when I decided to put it public, I've had the idea to support all IE games in one of next releases. However, we've found that it works for BG1 too - I've not been sure about that because of different version of the .gam file in BG2.
The only difference in versions of .gam, .sav, .are, .cre and .eff files (all of them are included in some way in saved game) of BG1 and BG2 version of the engine is in the .gam file. However the essential offsets remain same in both versions of the .gam file so Variable Checker can be used for BG1 as well...