NWN Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition - Beamdog's final enhancement - now with new premium modules

[gurugeorge]

(I only really caught the fever for NWN2, which I gather isn't quite as good to build with, or had more headroom but people didn't take it up or something. But the graphics in NWN are just on the cusp of "too unbearably old" for me.)

NWN2's toolset lets you do more than NWN1 but it's significantly slower and harder to work with. It's really fast to bang out a rough area in NWN1 and start testing shit for example while in NWN2 you'll spend hours just setting up a rough area, let alone populating it. You might take the not entirely unreasonable line of thought that "More complexity means it takes longer but the end results are better" except that a lot of people liked making NWN1 modules in their free time on the weekends and shit, and one person working on a module for a month or two (Or more) can produce a fine adventure at the end with NWN1, while NWN2 requires MUCH more time and dedication and makes it not really worthwhile for someone doing it for fun. And it's also true that there are a lot of trash NWN1 modules but there are so many MORE modules for NWN1 than 2 that it still has far more quality than 2 ever did.

It's one of the biggest things that chaps my ass about NWN1 is that we're likely never to get another toolset for a game that hits the perfect sweet spot of complexity and depth. Sacrifices were definitely made for it (Looking at you, tilesets (And yes Bethesda games use Lego-brick snap together tilesets for dungeons and interiors and shit too but even those aren't as smooth and fast as NWN1)) but you can quite reasonably make small one-off adventures or even whole campaigns with NWN just fine, and the scripting lets you do even weirder shit if you want. The scripting's another good point, NWscript's decent enough to let you do a lot but the in-editor wizard means even people with no scripting/programming inclination at all could still keep themselves covered for most common cases. Then they even expanded it, since at one point I did a whole bullshit system to spit out a unique item based on the end-state of one module that could be destroyed at the start of the next module and adjust things accordingly for C&C and the rat bastards added a system so you could do all that behind the scenes anyway which is just as well because I got the next module mostly completed and then abandoned it because I got too wrapped up fucking around with cutscene scripting.

Don Peste, were those screenshots above yours, did you get it running?

For what it's worth I had the toon shader working on the beta patch just fine. Haven't fired it up after it went live, I'll do so now.
Yeah, booted up fine.

Hmm, that cel shading could go some way to making the antediluvian graphics tolerable, might give it a shot.

 

[Lacrymas]

There is nothing wrong with NWN's graphics.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

• AOE Indicator | Spells and spell-like abilities now display a targeting indicator displaying their range and, if appropriate, their AOE shape and size

This is what used to separate the men from the boys.

I still remember fondly how this mental woman would constantly shit up the PW which I played on's IRC with accusations of cheating, because I used to intentionally single her out from crowds, both friendly and hostile, with spells like Isaac's Greater Missile Storm and Horrid Witling. She was entirely convinced that I was cheating.

I am in agreement. I think the targeting indicator should be part a feat gated by Wisdom/Perception. Precision fireballs were something earned. I could place them surgically, and on the PW I was on it lent me further clout as the resident archmage, rather than just the highest level wizard. Friendly-fire with no indicators in a RT environment meant you picked your wizards selectively.

On a related note, I once lagged quite a bit and accidentally cast combustion on a party member deep inside a large dungeon. My DC was so high that it took a dozen turns to save. Keeping him alive became the new quest practically. The DM gave me so much shit for it in private messages. It was hilarious. Trying to brush that off in character (RP server) was a lot of fun.

 

[Fedora Master]

• AOE Indicator | Spells and spell-like abilities now display a targeting indicator displaying their range and, if appropriate, their AOE shape and size

This is what used to separate the men from the boys.

I still remember fondly how this mental woman would constantly shit up the PW which I played on's IRC with accusations of cheating, because I used to intentionally single her out from crowds, both friendly and hostile, with spells like Isaac's Greater Missile Storm and Horrid Witling. She was entirely convinced that I was cheating.

I am in agreement. I think the targeting indicator should be part a feat gated by Wisdom/Perception. Precision fireballs were something earned. I could place them surgically, and on the PW I was on it lent me further clout as the resident archmage, rather than just the highest level wizard. Friendly-fire with no indicators in a RT environment meant you picked your wizards selectively.

On a related note, I once lagged quite a bit and accidentally cast combustion on a party member deep inside a large dungeon. My DC was so high that it took a dozen turns to save. Keeping him alive became the new quest practically. The DM gave me so much shit for it in private messages. It was hilarious. Trying to brush that off in character (RP server) was a lot of fun.

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

Hmm, that cel shading could go some way to making the antediluvian graphics tolerable, might give it a shot.

You could also (Or perhaps, rather) slap on the HD fuckery patch. I personally don't care for the toon shader enough to use it myself (Though it does give you options and sliders to fuck around with it and adjust to taste) but this may help make NWN1 slightly more palatable to you too. https://neverwintervault.org/projec...l-hakpak/beamdogs-hd-art-pack-community-fixes

After firing the game up yesterday to check on the toon shader I started a SoU campaign on a whim and got sucked in. Been a hideously long time since I've played SoU or HotU so I'm curious to see what I think of them now. I had forgotten that you could whip your dick out at everyone in SoU for example, and now I'm curious if everyone's telling me to fuck off because I'm a 6CHA chaotic evil half orc barbarian or if it's just baked in. Would assume it's baked in since I can't expect Bioware (Though IIRC SoU wasn't made by Bioware) to have fade to black sex scenes where you get jerked off for helping the town but then again I'd forgotten you can let a baby be killed by a kobold in it too.

 

[anvi]

I think one sequel was meh and one was pretty good. I liked the one with Deekin.

 

[Lacrymas]

Both have Deekin in them.

 

[anvi]

Those graphics look really good! I am gonna play through this again.

 

[Gargaune]

Yes, my screenshots. It works for me. I think I have one or two small mods, just that.
I checked on Google (I can't believe how much it sucks) and Steam and couldn't find anything relevant.
Maybe try asking on the Neverwinter Vault Discord? https://discord.gg/pWVqMRX
Don't give up!

Okay, a clean reinstall did the trick. Copied my userspace files back in place and everything appears to be working fine at first glance. If I were to speculate, I'd guess the delta patch was built on the beta branch and someone forgot something on the public side. Otherwise, I'd never screwed with its shader files prior, so I can't imagine why they'd fail to compile post update.

Also, I was wrong about the Toon shader being buried in the config file, there's a toggle in Graphics, I was just going off the patch notes. It's an interesting feature, though way too strong in its default configuration. Needs fiddling, but it might work well to cater to those who are put off by 2002 graphics.


P.S. If anyone's confused about not getting the spell target indicator on an existing save, it looks like it needs starting a new game, it's probably tied in to a .2da.

Though IIRC SoU wasn't made by Bioware

Yeah, it was made by Neurath's Floodgate Entertainment.

 

[Jack Of Owls]

So, does A Dance With Rogues work fine on NWN:EE?

The original author went all out and did a "remaster" of ADwR specifically for NWN:EE. She used some of the models from the Beamdog HD pack (I think, though it could be community assets) which means much nicer boobs on your player character (no one likes low-polygon, blocky boobs). Unfortunately, if she used Beamdog's HD pack, I'm sure it runs like shit on even the most powerful rigs because that HD format for the models is just not ideal or optimized for any system. I found the microstutter using the Beamdog HD pack quite unacceptable and immediately uninstalled it. I played a few minutes of the ADwR remaster but it was mostly cut-scenes. It looks great but stutters terribly of course.

 

[Gargaune]

Just had a play with the Toon shader, tried to customise it down to a very light variant (depth 0.25, colour 1.30, hardness 0.99). It's... interesting.

A low Colour Edge Threshold will give you a more flat, cartoony look, but it also mutes some of the VFX and darkens the scene something terrible, you'd probably wanna up the general brightness to compensate. This config I'm messing with also doesn't make much of a difference in low-light outdoors scenes. Might try reducing hardness just a bit, but don't wanna go overboard or it cramps the characters. And either way, the effect hits the world map really hard.

Anyway, not sold on it, didn't have that much of an issue with NWN graphics to begin with, but it's something to toy with.

 

[anvi]

For me that character graphics mod makes them have no legs. Upper half looked great though.

 

[Sacibengala]

For me that character graphics mod makes them have no legs. Upper half looked great though.

They're up to date with WOTC politics, then.

 

[Lacrymas]

Just had a play with the Toon shader, tried to customise it down to a very light variant (depth 0.25, colour 1.30, hardness 0.99). It's... interesting.

 

[Modron]

That is pretty generous to the original NWN release since it wasn't an attractive game even for its day but yeah that's the correct sentiment.

 

[Gargaune]

That is pretty generous to the original NWN release since it wasn't an attractive game even for its day but yeah that's the correct sentiment.

Hey, I'm just curious whether it could help, together with a static DOF-like effect, to ape Pathfinder's aesthetic:

You know, sort of. While I'm at it, here's another comparison between default (well, with Vibrance, High Contrast etc.) and that light Toon config from earlier, it seems it makes a bigger difference in strongly lit environments:

And, just for shits and giggles, this is what happens if you go batcrap with it - colour edge threshold down to 0.25, then tuning the gamma, vibrance and high contrast to make up for the loss of brightness:

It's, um... It's something!

 

[gurugeorge]

I think a bit of light trooning, I mean tooning, is fine Gives it a particular flavour that kind of suits it and makes up for the shitty graphics. (As someone said, they weren't exactly pretty in their day either.)

Jack Of Owls
The Beamdog HD pack as it is now seems to be quite a bit less offensive stutter-wise. There's some minor stutter here and there still, but not enough to spoil the fun. And it does look pretty good.

 

[d1nolore]

Just looks like everything has a black outline

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

If there's one thing NWN needed it was to look more like... Borderlands?

 

[anvi]

Is the EE version easier than the original? Seems easier to me. I used to miss with my crossbow most of the time, and spells were weak. Familiar was slow, etc. This time my familiar is sneak attacking everything to death really fast, I land big hits with my bow often, and the spells doing decent damage.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

Is the EE version easier than the original? Seems easier to me. I used to miss with my crossbow most of the time, and spells were weak. Familiar was slow, etc. This time my familiar is sneak attacking everything to death really fast, I land big hits with my bow often, and the spells doing decent damage.

It could be that it's easier or maybe it's because they've been fine tuning a lot of stuff that was broken in the original. For all the shit they got, it really feels like NWN was the only game where the "enhancement" part was sincere.

 

[Gargaune]

Right, screwed around with some more... Naysay all you want, but there is a feasible idea here. The idea would be to (retroactively) "future proof" the visuals by channeling a stylised, "semi-painterly" visual direction like you see in PFKM. And it's doable, but it needs a bit more work.

The best results so far: turn Depth Edge Threshold and Hardness all the way up to 1.00 and 0.99, respectively, so you get the slightest soft edge around geometry, and only focus on Colour Edge Threshold to get that "2D cartoon" effect to surfaces. The default 1.00 setting here works well enough, taking it down will increase the effect but below 0.80 it practically drowns characters in ink blots and darkens the scene too much, so no go. The big problem, however, is the discrepancy between lit and dark scenes - with these settings, bright scenes are altogether transformed, whereas at night time or in dim interiors, the effect is practically invisible.

So... Beamdog or respective Vault members, if you're reading this (c'mon, guys, there's gotta be one of you lurking around here), good start, but please consider:

1) An adaptive component to Toon Colour Edge Threshold: a toggle or slider to read the current scene luminosity and automatically lower the value (thus increasing the impact) of Colour Edge Threshold in dark scenes (might also need to adjust exposure to make up for the resulting darkening) and increase it in bright scenes;

2) A static blur: just an extra setting in the Dof Focus Type dropdown to apply DoF blur non-dynamically to everything, the same configured value regardless of angle or distance, since it will help take the "edge" off of NWN's visuals.

 

[Lacrymas]

Right, screwed around with some more... Naysay all you want, but there is a feasible idea here. The idea would be to (retroactively) "future proof" the visuals by channeling a stylised, "semi-painterly" visual direction like you see in PFKM. And it's doable, but it needs a bit more work.

No, it's just outright bad. Super blurry on top of that too.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Is the EE version easier than the original? Seems easier to me. I used to miss with my crossbow most of the time, and spells were weak. Familiar was slow, etc. This time my familiar is sneak attacking everything to death really fast, I land big hits with my bow often, and the spells doing decent damage.

If you want misses, and plenty of them, then Swordflight is the mod for you!

 

[Gargaune]

One of my favorite D&D videogames is still getting beefy updates after 21 years​

By Ted Litchfield
published 2 days ago

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition just got some QoL tweaks, new modding goodies, and an optional graphical overhaul.

[...]

Choice quotes:

Ever since talking to prolific Neverwinter Nights module builder Luke Scull, I've been on a Neverwinter Nights kick, working through some of the huge backlog of high-quality user-made campaigns for Bioware's 2002 RPG. While playing Swordflight, a standout hardcore, ambitious mod [...]

If you want to talk about a "forever game," Neverwinter Nights is it.

Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer.

Two articles about NWN in quick succession, I'm impressed by such a prestigious showing from PC Gamer!




P.S. rogueknight333, you've got a magazine mention too, see above.