Beamdog's Infinity Engine and Neverwinter Nights console ports

[Butter]

Did anyone ever bother making a mod that removes all of Beamdog's oc trash from BG 1 and 2?

http://www.shsforums.net/topic/58322-mod-disable-enhanced-edition-npcs/

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

Did anyone ever bother making a mod that removes all of Beamdog's oc trash from BG 1 and 2?

http://www.shsforums.net/topic/58322-mod-disable-enhanced-edition-npcs/

It doesn't remove new cutscenes, kits and mechanics added to BG from BG 2. Waste of time, you better just mod originals.

 

[Cael]

Scratch the IE itch. Play IWD2.

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.beamdog.com/news/beamdog-update-july-2019/

Beamdog Update: July 2019

Hi folks,

Luke Rideout here.

We decided to change up the blog format this month, as the question-and-answer posts kept getting repeats of similar items, or queries we can’t really talk about yet. So, I wanted to go a little more free-form and talk a bit about what’s been going on in Beamdog-land over the last couple of months.

UPCOMING CONSOLE RELEASES
As you are all probably aware by now, we’ve partnered up with Skybound on releasing all of our Enhanced Editions for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and XBox One (check out the full announcement here) - they’re coming along very nicely, and dare I say (as a 20-year fan of Baldur’s Gate and the rest of our games) feel pretty fresh played with a controller. We’re deep in the process of finaling the games now, and we’re really excited to see everyone’s reactions when they come out in the Fall. The whole team has been ultra-focused on making it work on a platform many said couldn’t work, and I’m like a proud father when I think about how well the team’s done.

For an overview of how the game works with a controller, I’ll point you to our Q&A from April (Question 9), but text alone doesn’t really do justice to how great it feels. We got some fantastic, very positive feedback when we demoed Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition at PAX East, and smoothed out a few more rough edges since then, so I’m confident that you’ll enjoy it when you try it out.

THE 2.6 PATCH FOR BALDUR'S GATE AND ICEWIND DALE
Some more news on the Infinity Engine games front: Remember the 2.6 update? Without going into gory detail, it’s taken quite a while to get it ready for primetime, due to the necessity of updating to 64-bit on a few platforms, some build issues requiring us to change how we compile Android, and the situation regarding the voice & portrait packs, so we haven’t been able to deliver it into your hands yet, but it should be on its way to you in short order.

Some highlights on 2.6, since I’m sure you’re wondering what to expect: We’ve identified and fixed a number of performance problems, and believe we’ve also found a working solution to some particularly nasty pathfinding code that was causing rapid, nigh-infinite calls to our pathfinding system in large fights. Coupled with improvements to our pathfinding system (that we are in the process of verifying won’t break multiplayer - one of our major concerns when evaluating the pathfinding code) - and related fixes to character bumping, we have made positive strides to solving some of the more well-documented long-term issues. The squeaky wheel finally got the kick, if you will.

THE GOOGLE PLAY FIX
With the 2.6 update, our Android players will also be happy to hear that we’ve finally resolved our issues on Google Play, so you’ll be back online with 2.6, as soon as we can finish verifying the stability of the builds.

There were some questions about what exactly happened with Google Play, so let me shed some light on the situation. The short version is, what caused the issue was that we included a crash reporting tool in our games that would basically send emergency error reports to us in the event of app crashes so that we could gather telemetry and hopefully fix problems even without crash reports.

Unfortunately, that crash reporting software gathered this data using a Google Play Service called AdvertisingID, which tracks information about your phone’s hardware specs - really valuable in crash reporting, but unfortunately also subject to Google’s new policy on disclosure of data gathering, which meant we had to implement a message in-game describing basically what I just wrote above, or take it out. We did some evaluation, and decided to remove it in its entirety, so that’s all gone now.

That work was fairly trivial, but what unfortunately wasn’t trivial was that the build pipeline we used for all of the IE games on Google Play since we released 2.5 was deprecated, and we had to basically rebuild the project for our IE titles on Android entirely before we would be able to even resubmit. There used to be 3 ways to build for Android - all Google-approved, but the one we were using lost out when they decided to switch over, and now everything has to go through Android Studio. The silver lining being that thanks to this update, we’ve also updated to 64-bit and API level 26, which was necessary to stay listed on Google Play when it eventually removes support for 32-bit apps. We’re almost at the end of that road, and once we’ve verified that everything’s in good shape, we can QA it, and hopefully get it to you within the next few weeks.

Sorry for the time it took to get that all to you - but now that we’re both compliant with Google’s data collection rules, and updated to 64-bit, we shouldn’t run into any further issues when Google stops supporting 32-bit apps later this year (fingers crossed).

TL;DR: 2.6 is coming out on Google Play posthaste, including the re-release of Baldur’s Gate II: Enhanced Edition and Icewind Dale: Enhanced Edition on Android. Other platforms also inbound. Shouldn’t be too long.

That’s all I’ve got for this Beamblog - Next time, I hope to have something interesting to share about the new Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Renderer!

Cheers!

Luke Rideout

Lead Producer & Project Director

https://www.beamdog.com/news/happy-10th-birthday-beamdog/

Happy 10th Birthday, Beamdog!

Today is Beamdog's 10th Birthday!

Thank you to our friends, fans, and partners, but most of all to the amazing Beamdog team members (past and present). We couldn't have made it to 10 years without you!

To mark the occasion, our Marketing and PR Lead Sarah Dawson sat down with Beamdog Co-founder Cameron Tofer to discuss a decade of Beamdog!

AN INTERVIEW WITH CAMERON TOFER
SD: How did Beamdog begin?

CT: Trent [Oster] and I always said we’d work together someday. We were both at Bioware, but we kept ending up on different projects or teams— we never really got to team up back then.

Almost right after Trent left Bioware, I got the fateful call from him: “It’s time.” We cooked up a plan and co-founded Beamdog on July 9th, 2009.

SD: Tell us about starting up shop.

CT: It was really easy to say, “Sure, let’s go for it!” But we were game developers who wanted to run a business, and the main challenge was everything except the actual game development.

Our first office was cozy, nestled between other small businesses on the east side of Edmonton’s Whyte avenue. We were starting over fresh, and it was quite humbling to be honest.

We had a lot of passion going for us, but we also had to talk about the realities. We were starting up right after the 2008 financial crash, and games had been hit hard. Crunch (overtime) was also on our minds and we wanted to structure our studio to produce games on a 9-5 schedule. Back when we first got into game development in the 90’s, it felt like a secret club. But by 2009, there were so many talented developers making really great games.

Our initial plan was to become both a distributor and developer of games. Later, we got the idea to make an updated version of Baldur’s Gate when we realized it wasn’t really available for modern platforms. We’d worked on this fantastic game along with other incredibly talented developers, and saw the opportunity to revive it for original fans and new audiences.

SD: What are some moments or highlights that stick out to you from the last 10 years?

CT: The first sale on our website was a major milestone for us. It happened within minutes of the site going live. We had added our webstore URL to the site “Stumble Upon” and that was where the first customer came from. It was very exciting!

Another highlight was when we first teased BaldursGate.com. The outpouring of love from people around the world telling us how much Baldur’s Gate had touched their lives - that was incredible. The moment was particularly surreal for me, because Baldur’s Gate was based on a tabletop D&D campaign that I played in with my high school friends. James Ohlen was the Dungeon Master, and my character was a ranger named Minsc who was eventually allowed to get a companion animal: Boo the miniature giant space hamster! I never imagined that this kooky story from a group of Alberta kids could have such far-reaching effects.

Another strange moment was when we launched Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition on the Beamdog website with a 10% pre-order discount. I got an email from an angry customer complaining that he wanted to pay full price to support this release. I wasn’t expecting that.

Overall the highlights for me have been the human connections we made while developing games and building a community. Whenever I show up at conferences wearing a Baldur’s Gate shirt I’m lucky enough to meet passionate fans and other developers who are eager to talk about how important the game was to them— and the conversations are always so much deeper than just talking points and pitches.

SD: You worked alongside the original development teams for Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Did anything surprise you about adapting these games for modern platforms?

CT: We had a lot of assumptions going in. We were intimately familiar with all the working aspects of the game, but we also underestimated the monumental task ahead of us. There were so many moving parts and so much more code that had to be re-written than we anticipated.

We had many of the original developers working on the enhanced edition, and I don’t really know who else could have done the job we faced. You’d have to have some familiarity with the original code and team to make sense of a lot of it. In addition to our stellar team, we were lucky to get a lot of support from passionate and knowledgeable community members who wanted the project to succeed. We definitely couldn’t have done the work without the commitment and support of all these people.

SD: Has your approach to game development changed over the years?

CT: Yes, absolutely.

There was a period of time when I’d play games because it was part of my job to know about them, not because I was playing for entertainment. And when you’re making enhanced editions for these huge properties, it’s almost like being a museum curator because you want to protect and honor the games.

But gaming with my daughters has changed my outlook. I find I’m re-discovering games as pure fun. There’s a whole new generation of kids who consume entertainment in a completely different way than I did. So much is changing, and I’m coming back to games with this perspective of pure fun, and I think that is what will lead the development of future products.

SD: What’s next for Beamdog?

CT: Right now we’re focused on bringing our D&D Enhanced Editions to Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The team has done incredible work and I can’t wait to show it all off.

Our Axis & Allies title is also on the horizon, which is a new kind of game for us. We’re digging into the strategy, teamwork, and rivalry that made the original board game great, so I’m hopeful the release will be a hit with veteran Axis & Allies players— and with new players too. We’ve created introductory tutorials, plus all the setup and rules are automated, so it’s a great way to learn the classic game.

As for the future, we’re fully committed to supporting our existing games across all platforms, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have plans for something new. We’re still in the early stages, but the “pure fun” I talked about before will be central to our future development plans. We’re not ready to share details, so Beamdog fans will just have to stay tuned for updates.

SD: Do you have any final reflections on 10 years of Beamdog?

CT: I’m having flashbacks to the many characters who built Beamdog— the ones in our games, and the ones working with the company over the years. In games, apathy can kill you, and we’ve been fortunate to have an abundance of passion surrounding us.

A decade of work has confirmed that people are the most important part of Beamdog— that includes team members, partners, family, friends and community members. We owe enormous thanks to all of them.

I’m extremely proud of everything we’ve created together and excited for Beamdog’s future.

 

[Tigranes]

Ten years?!

Ten fucking years, not a single fully original product to prove that they are a real company that deserves to exist.

Meanwhile Troika never got ten fucking years.

Fucking hell.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Ten years?!

Ten fucking years, not a single fully original product to prove that they are a real company that deserves to exist.

Meanwhile Troika never got ten fucking years.

Fucking hell.

SoD is pretty fun tbh

 

[JBro]

At least we got a tranny and a Gamergate reference in Baldur's Gate.

Th-thanks...

 

[Rahdulan]

And when you’re making enhanced editions for these huge properties, it’s almost like being a museum curator because you want to protect and honor the games.

What universe is this guy from?

 

[Cael]

And when you’re making enhanced editions for these huge properties, it’s almost like being a museum curator because you want to protect and honor the games.

What universe is this guy from?

Cuckdog's...

 

[Lilura]

Cataclysmic decline.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

And when you’re making enhanced editions for these huge properties, it’s almost like being a museum curator because you want to protect and honor the games.

What universe is this guy from?

OG BG had truly awful companions. Dreadful in the fullest sense of the word.

Beamdog's ability to sink even lower should inspire us all to live the best lives we can. Don't give up, becaue you can always do worse!

 

[mindfields]

I honestly don't get the intense hatred Beamdog gets here, if anything it's good that the IE games and NWN are assured to have indefinite support for bug fixing and for future Windows versions. Just look at IWD2, the only IE game not to get an EE, it's a real pain to get working on Windows 10, the game doesn't even run unless you get rid of some dll file, and even then the fog of war is fucked and I have not found a single fix that works (sprite dithering does not fix it).

The fact is, Bdog has the source codes, so despite their faults their Enhanced Editions are always gonna be superior to fan mods because they can change pretty much anything while mods are always reliant on hacks and other shit.

Also Neera is a pretty good waifu.

 

[Cael]

I honestly don't get the intense hatred Beamdog gets here...

1. No original IP but leeching off others' but passing it like their own.
2. Shit programmers that introduce more bugs than they solve.
3. "Hi! I'm a tranny!"

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Behead those who insult neera

 

[mindfields]

People who insult the new companions don't seem to remember just how trash some of the originals were.

 

[mindfields]

1. No original IP but leeching off others' but passing it like their own.

Is there any examples of Bdog actually removing Bioware's name from the game/credits?

2. Shit programmers that introduce more bugs than they solve.

Was true maybe in the first 8 months sure when they were new to the IE codebase and didn't know what they were doing, but now the enhanced editions are actually better in every way to the originals and fix more bugs than any third-party mods do.

 

[Cael]

1. No original IP but leeching off others' but passing it like their own.

Is there any examples of Bdog actually removing Bioware's name from the game/credits?

2. Shit programmers that introduce more bugs than they solve.

Was true maybe in the first 8 months sure when they were new to the IE codebase and didn't know what they were doing, but now the enhanced editions are actually better in every way to the originals and fix more bugs than any third-party mods do.

Are you done shilling? Because it won't work here. Fuck off, Trent.

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Was true maybe in the first 8 months sure when they were new to the IE codebase and didn't know what they were doing, but now the enhanced editions are actually better in every way to the originals and fix more bugs than any third-party mods do.

8 months is way less time than it takes them to make a single patch for a single game, that will introduce new bugs of course.

 

[Mexi]

Does this mean they're going to make the PC versions full controller support? Not reading the entire thread to find out.

 

[Cryomancer]

Does this mean they're going to make the PC versions full controller support? Not reading the entire thread to find out.

I don't know. But why you wanna play with controller support an game that was designed to be played on M&K&?

I purchased NWN1:EE for my Android and could't play. Touch screen is awful.

 

[zapotec]

I honestly don't get the intense hatred Beamdog gets here, if anything it's good that the IE games and NWN are assured to have indefinite support for bug fixing and for future Windows versions. Just look at IWD2, the only IE game not to get an EE, it's a real pain to get working on Windows 10, the game doesn't even run unless you get rid of some dll file, and even then the fog of war is fucked and I have not found a single fix that works (sprite dithering does not fix it).

The fact is, Bdog has the source codes, so despite their faults their Enhanced Editions are always gonna be superior to fan mods because they can change pretty much anything while mods are always reliant on hacks and other shit.

Also Neera is a pretty good waifu.

The GOG version of Icewindale 2 runs perfeclty on windows 10

 

[Eisenheinrich]

People here are way to bitter about minor stuff. You all must live pretty shitty lifes in your eastern european shithole countries.

 

[RaptorRex888]

Nintendrones should be lined up against a wall and shot. Its a disgrace they are even allowed to touch these masterpieces, even if it is for the brief 5 minutes before confusion sets in and their subhuman, underdeveloped, manchild, fanboy brains go back to the soothing, familiar sounds of "Bing, Bing Wahoo!" touted by their childhood (and still) idol before mommy calls them down for dinner and to be asked for the 100th time that year why they haven't found a job and if they plan on moving out anytime soon.

Fucking scum.

 

[Cael]

Nintendrones should be lined up against a wall and shot. Its a disgrace they are even allowed to touch these masterpieces, even if it is for the brief 5 minutes before confusion sets in and their subhuman, underdeveloped, manchild, fanboy brains go back to the soothing, familiar sounds of "Bing, Bing Wahoo!" touted by their childhood (and still) idol before mommy calls them down for dinner and to be asked for the 100th time that year why they haven't found a job and if they plan on moving out anytime soon.

Fucking scum.

What do you recommend we do with the idiots that enable these Nintendrones like the fuckers who rape a franchise by porting it to Nintendo?

 

[RaptorRex888]

What do you recommend we do with the idiots that enable these Nintendrones like the fuckers who rape a franchise by porting it to Nintendo?

A stern lecture.