yeah I noticed that problem too with all the downloaded portraits I have downloaded from from workshop but I'm not going to fix all those myself but it has something to do with how you name each one not the format. and if you can figure that out could you post here for everyone.

The file format is here:
https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Portraits.2da

It's just a text file so any text editor will do.

To obtain the file, use nwnexplorer:
https://github.com/virusman/nwnexplorer/releases

Using the big Open button, open the .key file in the data subfolder of your EE program installation.

This gives access to all the official files - portraits.2da appears under Game Data.

Originally posted by Proleric:

The file format is here:
https://nwn.fandom.com/wiki/Portraits.2da

It's just a text file so any text editor will do.

To obtain the file, use nwnexplorer:
https://github.com/virusman/nwnexplorer/releases

Using the big Open button, open the .key file in the data subfolder of your EE program installation.

This gives access to all the official files - portraits.2da appears under Game Data.

Thank you for your reply. Will the different files override each other? I am asking in terms of packaging my own separate portret packs to be published on workshops.

So say i make a pack of female elf portraits, modify portrait.d2a and throw it into override folder and then i make a similar mod but for dwarf males, wouldnt the portrait.d2a conflict and override each other?

You're right, this is an issue which needs to be managed.

Windows won't allow you to create two files called portraits.2da in the same folder.

If a player subscribes to multiple workshop items, each with a different portraits.2da in override, the game will load only one (maybe another author's, maybe one of yours).

Also, fan-made modules frequently have their own portraits.2da in a hak, which will trump anything in override anyway.

So, you can use portraits.2da for your private amusement, but when publishing to players on Steam Workshop, it's better to simply include the portrait images with no 2da. Bear in mind that anything you put in override can break other mods, though in the case of images the only risk is duplicate portrait names.

If you want to publish to builders, that's easier. You can put multiple portrait packs on Neverwinter Vault, each with its own portraits.2da (preferably just the new lines, not the whole file). Builders will take your lines, renumber them, and merge them into their own 2da. Savvy players know how to do this, too.

For your own purposes, you need one portraits.2da, which has one line for every portrait you might ever want to use.

@Proleric, thank you for the detailed and very informative reply. I suspected as much as it seems the choice is either to make your own portrait packs compatible with each other but not work with other portrait mods or not have any sorting at all. Here is hoping that @juliusborisov sees it and maybe beamdog can consider solving this by something like allowing to add prefix into the name for the race/gender filter