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Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate II remain cult classics not only among D&D fans, but cRPG gamers in general. With countless hours of gameplay, captivating stories, colorful characters, and many memorable locations they're one of the most intense and extensive role-playing experiences you can get while sitting in front of your PC. But to say that they didn't age at all might be a bit of a stretch. That's why some people would go a great distance modding and upgrading both those titles to combine them into one, seamless, visually updated game--an enhanced edition, if you will.

We're well aware of a commercial project aiming to achieve that goal. Originally, actually, that was scheduled to release today. That didn't happen, unfortunately, but that does give us a great reason to tell you how to make your own enhanced edition of Baldur's Gate. It's very nearly hassle-free and (especially with the sale going on) it won't cost you much at all. There's one catch, though: you need copies of both Baldur's Gate and Baldur's Gate 2 in order to enhance your game. Let's see how! One of our users, GoJays2025, committed his time to write a comprehensive guide on the topic. We know not all of you dare to venture into our forums, so we thought that sharing this guide here, might be a good idea!

So, are you ready to enhance your GOG.com edition of Baldur's Gate saga and play both games as one, seamless adventure with the visually superior BG2 version of the engine and its updated mechanics, and with high-res graphics better suited for your modern wide-screen display? Here's how you do it, according to GoJays2025!

1. Fully install Baldur's Gate: The Original Saga
2. Fully install Baldur's Gate II Complete.
3. Download Baldur's Gate II Fixpack (Download links are on the left side) and extract it to your Baldur's Gate II directory.
4. Run the newly extracted setup-bg2fixpack.exe (if not automatically started).
5. It is safe to select yes for all the optional fixes, but if you want to learn about each in detail, consult the readme file that comes with the fixpack.
6. Download BGT-WeiDU and extract it in your Baldur's Gate II directory.
7. Run the newly extracted Setup-BGT.exe and follow the instructions. You may need to run it in administrative mode in Windows Vista/7.
8. Enter Baldur's Gate I's directory when asked (if not already provided)
9. Wait for BGT-WeiDU to finish installing.
10. OPTIONAL: Download and install Baldur's Gate 1 Unfinished Business as well as BG 2 Unfinished Business. These mods restore things that were previously cut from the released product, so while you don't need them, and they do add new content, they're pretty nice to have, especially if this is not your first time.
11. OPTIONAL: Download and install any user-created material (banter packs, expansion mods, new NPCs, etc.)
12. Go to your Baldur's Gate II directory, then find and run the file Setup-BGTMusic.exe and select 'Hybrid Baldur’s Gate/Shadows of Amn/Throne of Bhaal music'. This makes it possible to hear the original Baldur's Gate music when playing Baldur's Gate I.
13. OPTIONAL: (for more experienced users) Download Baldur's Gate II Tweak Pack (if this link doesn't work, please try the emergency mirror site) and apply it in the same way as the fixpack. Consult the readme file for details of each tweak - too many to list here. If you don't know what a tweak does even after consulting the readme, just skip it.
14. OPTIONAL: Download and install the Bigger Fonts for BGII mod if you plan to play in really high-res and don't want to strain your eyes reading tiny text.
15. Download the widescreen mod and apply it in the same manner as the fixpack. This makes it possible to play the game in high resolutions and in widescreen format.
16. Remove the Baldur's Gate I installation if you wish - it's done its job!

Now you should be able to play the game all the way from Baldur's Gate I to the end of Throne of Bhaal in one continuous game! Enjoy!

Note: If you're on Windows 7 you might want to install the games in a directory other than C:Program Files or C:Program Files (x86) to avoid potential problems. C:Games should work.

The original forum thread, that also includes some other installation options, can be found here:
Baldur's Gate saga essential mods by GoJays2025
I cannot access the gibberlings3 links to get the patches/mods. Is the site down? If so where else can I download the mods?
When clicking the download link for the BGT-WeiDU file, it looks like the domain name has expired - anyone know of another place to pick up the 1.18 (or whatever is the latest) version?
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mbritton: When clicking the download link for the BGT-WeiDU file, it looks like the domain name has expired - anyone know of another place to pick up the 1.18 (or whatever is the latest) version?
http://www.spellholdstudios.net/

Try their other site.

Also keep an eye on the gibberlings three forums, as they will probably either update the status on Spellhold or provide alternate mirrors if Spellhold is going down, as they were quite tight with the Team BG (the team that run Spellhold).

http://gibberlings3.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=27600
Post edited October 06, 2015 by wolfsrain
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mbritton: When clicking the download link for the BGT-WeiDU file, it looks like the domain name has expired - anyone know of another place to pick up the 1.18 (or whatever is the latest) version?
Along with woflsrain's suggestion you can also use the Internet Archive. Just post the link in the Archive's web search and off ya go! The link is www.archive.org if you didn't know it already.
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mbritton: When clicking the download link for the BGT-WeiDU file, it looks like the domain name has expired - anyone know of another place to pick up the 1.18 (or whatever is the latest) version?
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NoNewTaleToTell: Along with woflsrain's suggestion you can also use the Internet Archive. Just post the link in the Archive's web search and off ya go! The link is www.archive.org if you didn't know it already.
Good suggestion, I was able to grab the file from the archive. The other site suggested by wolfsrain had download links but they all went back to the shsforums site.

Thanks NoNewTaleToTell!
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NoNewTaleToTell: Along with woflsrain's suggestion you can also use the Internet Archive. Just post the link in the Archive's web search and off ya go! The link is www.archive.org if you didn't know it already.
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mbritton: Good suggestion, I was able to grab the file from the archive. The other site suggested by wolfsrain had download links but they all went back to the shsforums site.

Thanks NoNewTaleToTell!
Glad to help, have fun!
If you install the game currently using GOG Galaxy, I notice the install size is much larger than the install through the GOG.com website. Does the current install include all the enhancements listed and linked in this thread, or do we still need to go through and download and install the added content manually? Thanks!
by buying enhanced edition!!! :*D
Balls. I didn't know I could buy "enhanced" editions. Are they better than the patched originals?
Also wondering if the enhanced editions are worth the buy. Been hearing mixed messages.
Post edited November 14, 2015 by yukithekitty
Mixed messages are all you will hear, as many people are very fond of the enhanced edition, like I am and others are not and will stay unenthusiastic. The enthusiasm for the enhanced edtions are well noticable by visiting the Beamdog forum. There's been a rekindling of the community, the UI is much improved, modders got hired for testing and coding by Beamdog, lots of new mods get made. Still there's people who say all that is done by Beamdog can be done by modding the original game, for instance with the Tutu mod.

Having been a big fan of Tutu, I can say it's not true. Tutu is a far clunkier game UI-wise than the enhanced edition. For instance the text is far easier readable on the EE games (with Tutu, on a widescreen monitor a line of dialogue is spread out across the whole length of the bottom of the screen, which doesn't improve readability). a very fine enhancement is the icons showing which action is qued next for the characters in your party, there's the ability to zoom (though the original models got lost, so there was no way to improve the avatars on screen and they look pixelated when zoomed in).

On the downside of the enhanced editions, not all old mods are still being maintained, so some you just can't use on the enhanced edition. But the enhanced editions make for a much more fluid gameplay due to better UI and it really rekindled BG for me. Do use the NPC1 Project though with the first game for banter for the original NPC's, or they will stand out as being silent compared to the 3 new NPC's.

A final comment: some say Beamdog did a money grab, but if you actually put some effort into getting to know the company and it's people, you'll notice that they're all huge fans of the original game, some are creators of the original game, they know the game in and out and want to future-proof Baldur's Gate by enhancing the engine and porting it to mobile OS's.
Post edited November 14, 2015 by DubConqueror
I could not find this anywhere, and I may be an oddball for desiring this, but is there a way to get the enhanced movies/cutscenes to replace the cutscenes/movies in the original saga?

I love the original saga, but actually like the enhanced movies (although some are missing).

Is this possible? I've searched all over, but most people want the original movies when playing the enhanced version. I'm opposite in wanting the enhanced movies in the original saga.

Thanks for your response.
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GOG.com: 14. OPTIONAL: Download and install the Bigger Fonts for BGII mod if you plan to play in really high-res and don't want to strain your eyes reading tiny text.
You can generate your own fonts via http://www.shsforums.net/topic/41417-fonts-for-pt-pl/

My German version looks nicely with following fonts (use the java-font-generator from the link and use something like this as your generate-font.bat to speed up the process):
java -jar font-bam-generator-1.0.jar -charset cp1250 -font "arial narrow bold 14" -out normal.bam -useAA true -drawShadow true

java -jar font-bam-generator-1.0.jar -charset cp1250 -font "arial narrow bold 12" -out floattxt.bam -useAA true -drawShadow true

java -jar font-bam-generator-1.0.jar -charset cp1250 -font "arial narrow bold 11" -out toolfont.bam -useAA true -drawShadow true

copy normal.bam d:\games\bg2\override
copy floattxt.bam d:\games\bg2\override
copy toolfont.bam d:\games\bg2\override
My game won't launch anymore.
Is there any way to integrate Siege of Dragonspear in this setup?