Custom Portraits Not Showing

[VipersKiss]

The small version of portraits (i.e. on the main screen where it shows your party) doesn't show for custom portraits. I've tried all the different guides and nothing works. Obviously this isn't critical to playing the game but it is annoying since I know they used to work a couple years ago (and the only thing changed are patches).

[Julius Borisov]

After 2.0, you need M and L (not S) files for portraits, and even one M file can be fine.

Try to name your portraits like e1M.bmp and tell me if it works for you.

[VipersKiss]

Originally posted by Julius Borisov:

After 2.0, you need M and L (not S) files for portraits, and even one M file can be fine.

Try to name your portraits like e1M.bmp and tell me if it works for you.

I tried that; it still didn't work. I'm going to try validating my game files, just in case something is going oddly (but I'm fairly certain I did so recently).

[Julius Borisov]

It should be a 24-bit bmp. if you can't make it shown, please, link me to the image file and I'll look what is wrong.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by VipersKiss:

I tried that; it still didn't work.

It certainly works. Give some more details about your image files, their names, where you place them and whether you quit the game and restart it afterwards before selecting a portrait.

[WASPelite]

I'm having the same issues myself. File meets 210x330 Pixels, 24bit BMP format for windows on windows pc, and names are no more than 8 characters long. Attempted making file ending in M and also matched the yanner1a type of formatting with my own letter after. Using Win 10 on 2.5.17 version of game.

[Longhaul]

Originally posted by WASPelite:

I'm having the same issues myself. File meets 210x330 Pixels, 24bit BMP format for windows on windows pc, and names are no more than 8 characters long. Attempted making file ending in M and also matched the yanner1a type of formatting with my own letter after. Using Win 10 on 2.5.17 version of game.

No idea why... I have 30+ custom portraits installed and working fine.

Win8.

[Julius Borisov]

Originally posted by WASPelite:

I'm having the same issues myself. File meets 210x330 Pixels, 24bit BMP format for windows on windows pc, and names are no more than 8 characters long. Attempted making file ending in M and also matched the yanner1a type of formatting with my own letter after. Using Win 10 on 2.5.17 version of game.

Please make sure you're following all the steps exactly.

https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/7461/how-to-use-custom-portraits-bg1-bg-ee-bg2-bg2-ee-iwd-iwd-ee-iwd2

[Longhaul]

Weird... i already have a bunch of portraits ingame that work fine. Today i made up some more, and there are a few that work for the large picture but the side smaller pictures don't work.... any ideas why that would happen?

[Julius Borisov]

The requirements for portrait names changed with the 2.0 patch. So what you're experiencing might be related to old portraits. Please check out the linked thread.

[Pizzaheart]

(A very old post but it came up first in search so I thought I'd provide my solution. I had the same issue. I used GIMP to re-export the BMP file for the portrait and during the save when it pops up options for the BMP format, I selected the 24-bit mode. It had originally defaulted to 32bit and for some reason the portrait doesn't show up on the sidebar if you use the 32bit mode. Saving it in 24bit fixed the issue.

[EmotionallyBroken]

Originally posted by Julius Borisov:

The requirements for portrait names changed with the 2.0 patch. So what you're experiencing might be related to old portraits. Please check out the linked thread.

That sounds like it would introduce compatibility breaks..... What benefit does this change make, and would it make things easier in the long run to change it back to the original naming reference?

Im genuinely curious. It seems like a pointless change on the surface.

Consider particularly with the difficulty it shall produce for people trying to manage old files later down the road when the forums are less active and no one is updating information files.


Thanks for your involved and proactive help to the players :)