Hi guys, quick question. Me and my friend are playing multiplayer. We tried using custom portraits. I can see both mine and theirs but on their screen we both just show up as the question mark silhouette thing. I know we are using the same files as I sent them through skype directly from my portraits folder. Any ideas?

What version of the game, and where is it (the game) installed on their system?

The original, and C:/gog/bg2

BG2 is not the original, BG1 is. But I get what you mean. If they have a correctly named 'portraits' folder inside C:\gog\bg2, then the portraits must be either the wrong proportions, wrong bitmap mode, or corrupt -- or **named incorrectly. Ask them to open the portraits in a paint program and re-save them.

** Note that the names must be eight letters or less, and must end in 'L' for the large image, 'M' for the medium image, and 'S' for the small image, like so:
LargeL.bmp -- (210 x 330)
MediumM.bmp -- (110 x 170)
SmallS.bmp -- (38 x 60)

I think there's only L and S. I've never heard of a medium before. I can see their portrait on my screen just fine, both the tiny one on the right side of the screen and the large one on the character sheet page. And they can select the portraits from the custom portraits menu, so they're in the right place and all. For some reason it's just showing up as blank portraits only to them. I had them open the pictures in paint and resave them, it didn't work.

In BG2 the 'M' portraits are what used to be the 'L' portraits in BG1, which had 'G', 'L', 'S'. The game is looking for 'M' suffixes for the middle size pictures. You should have 3: one for the character sheet (L), one for the in-game portrait (M), and the small one (S) for dialogs.

Are you sure about that? There's only 2 lists in the custom portraits menu, so I don't even know how I would go about selecting 3 files. I've been using just S and L and the portraits show up just fine for me.

Actually I select a S and L in the menu. Still doesn't really explain why the pictures show up okay for me but not for my friend.

Still you argue -- the S and L in the menu are for the sake of convenience and player understanding. The *actual* files are like so (these are *real* game files, and custom portraits should follow the format):

[Aerie]
NARIEL.BMP
NARIEM.BMP
NARIES.BMP

[Imoen]
NIMOENL.BMP
NIMOENM.BMP
NIMOENS.BMP

[Jaheira]
NJAHEIRL.BMP
NJAHEIRM.BMP
NJAHEIRS.BMP

I'm not going to argue with you any more. Do, or don't do. I'm done.

Any reason why do they start with N? Just curious

It's just to distinguish them from the older BG1 portraits -- lots of BG1 content is still evident in BG2. The prefix just stands for 'New'.

I wasn't aware that I was arguing. I selected S and L in the menu, so that's what I stated that I did. And I still don't have any suggestions as to how to fix the problem (aside from resaving the pictures, which didn't work). I can have my friend make an M file, but it doesn't make sense then that I can see both of our pictures perfectly with just S and L files.

Are you both using the same OS? Have their files been renamed, particularly regarding letter case? Can you get a screenshot of their 'portraits' folder to confirm they really have what's necessary?

I'll try. Every guide I'm looking at says there's just an S and L. The only ones that mention an M are guides for doing it on the enhanced edition. But I'll try to get a screenshot of their folder.