Neverwinter Nights

Template:Infobox Neverwinter Nights is a game set in the Dungeons and Dragons universe by BioWare. A sequel, Neverwinter Nights 2 was released in 2006.

Windows

Issues And Fixes

Crash on Start

If NWN won't start for some reason, or will crash shortly hereafter, try the following, as suggested on the game banshee forums:

1. Create a shortcut to nwmain.exe located in the NWN install folder.
2. In the "Destination"/"Target" line, add: +TestNewModule "123456"
3. Check the Line, it should fully read (if C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\ is your install folder):

C:\NeverwinterNights\NWN\nwmain.exe +TestNewModule "123456"

This was tried and tested on XP/Win7.

Multiplayer on the GoG.com Version

When you initially download Neverwinter Nights Diamond from GoG.com, it does not initially support multiplayer as it does not come with a valid multiplayer CD key. You can request a valid serial key from GoG support here. Select "multiplayer key request" from the "I have a problem with:" dropdown menu and submit your support ticked. GoG support staff should reply with a valid CD key within a few days.

This will remove the "Premium modules" which come as part of the Diamond Edition. To reinstall these you must download the "premium modules re-installer" from the bonus content downloads section of GoG.

General Fixes for Poor Performance on Modern Systems

Neverwinter Nights does not run well on modern hardware and systems, and you may experience crashes or stuttering without properly preparing your game. Here are a list of fixes you may want to try. These were all tested on Windows 7 64-bit but may work for other systems.

Errors or crashes when starting game

1. Make sure that NWN is not in the C:\Program Files (x86) folder as there may be a problem with permissions. Instead try installing it to its own folder, like C:\Games\NWN.
2. You may have to set the compatibility setting of nwmain.exe to Windows XP SP2 or SP3. While you're there, check the box for disabling desktop composition.

Videos don't play, or you can only hear sound

1. Open nwn.ini in your main nwn folder. Locate "SafeMovie=0" and change the value to 1 so it reads "SafeMovie=1".
2. If that doesn't work, you might try this (for ATI cards only). Download this dll. Open your nwn folder. Rename the file binkw32.dll that is in your nwn folder to binkw32_ati.dll (don't just append .BAK or something because the new dll makes a call for this dll). Place the newly downloaded binkw32.dll from mediafire in the folder. This might not work. Source: 1 2

Dual-core or multi-core processors

1. NWN was not meant to run with more than one core. If you have a multi-core system, you can set the game to run on only one core. To do this, open Task Manager with NWN open, rightclick nwmain.exe, and click Set Affinity. If it gives you an error, click the button "Show Processes from All Users" at the bottom. In the Affinity window, make sure only one CPU is checked. You can experiment to see which core gives you the best performance.
2. To avoid having to do this every time you play the game, open nwnplayer.ini in the main NWN folder. Locate "Client CPU Affinity" and change the value to 1 (or whatever other core you determined gave you the best performance in the first step).

For NVidia cards

1. For some reason there may be an issue rendering cloaks and bowstrings that causes low framerates. To disable cloak graphics, open nwnplayer.ini in your main NWN folder and locate Visible Cloaks. Change the value from 1 to 0. To disable bowstrings, google for a patch

For ATI cards

1. You may find increased performance by disabling the Catalyst AI in your catalyst control panel's 3d settings. For some reason this may make your character disappear. To make your character reappear, go into the ingame video options and disable Environment Mapping on Creatures.

Windowed mode

1. Running the game in Windowed Mode may make the game work significantly better. To do this, open nwn.ini in your main nwn folder. Locate "FullScreen=1." Change the value to 0 so it reads "FullScreen=0." After that should be a line that says "AllowedWindowedMode=0." Change the value to 1 so it reads "AllowedWindowedMode=1." If this line doesn't exist, add it. The game will now start windowed, and you can go back and forth between windowed and fullscreen ingame by hitting alt-enter. Note that this causes weird things to happen if you do it while you are in the game engine and not just the menus.
2. To avoid clipping the edges now that you are running in windowed mode, you can change the game resolution by opening nwconfig.exe and clicking Change. You can check if you are clipping the edges by looking for the small actionbar on the bottom of the game window.
3. This guy purports to have a way to play the game in a borderless "windowed fullscreen" mode, to get all the performance benefits of windowed mode while looking like fullscreen. It may or may not work.

Patches

1. You may want to install the 1.69 Critical Rebuild patch. As far as I know, though the GOG version is 1.69, the Critical Rebuild files are not included. The patch is available here. Make sure to follow the instructions based on which expansions you have installed.
2. The Community Enhancement Patch may or may not improve your performance. I recommend reading up on it before blindly installing it. It says it improves performance but I noticed little difference. As of this writing (6/1/2012) the latest version was 2.4 and is available here.

Other general performance issues

1. Disable "Shiny Water" from the video settings in game, should definitely increase performance.
2. NWN may have issues with sound. Disabling sound outright may significantly reduce stuttering. You can disable sound completely in nwconfig.exe. If you don't want to go that far, experiment with the sound providers in the ingame options. In particular I found the software sound providers to give better performance.
3. For most modern computers, the options in the video settings have negligible effect on performance. A high level of Dynamic Lighting, though, may lag your system when many dynamic lights are created (many magic spells create dynamic lights).
4. I have personally found that increasing the process's priority positively effects framerates. You can do this by opening Task Manager, right clicking nwmain.exe, and setting Priority to at least Above Normal.