Neverwinter Nights

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Neverwinter Nights

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Developers
	BioWare
Publishers
	Infogrames
Engines
	Aurora
Release dates
Windows	June 18, 2002
macOS (OS X)	August 5, 2003
Linux	June 20, 2003

Warnings

The Mac OS X version of this game does not work on Mac OS X Lion (version 10.7) or later due to the removal of support for PowerPC apps.

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Neverwinter Nights
Subseries of Dungeons & Dragons
Neverwinter Nights (1991)	1991
Neverwinter Nights	2002
Neverwinter Nights 2	2006
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition	2018

General information

GOG.com Forums for game series

Improvements

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.

Game data

Save game cloud syncing

No save game cloud syncing information; you can edit this page to add it.

Video settings

Windowed

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 "AllowWindowedMode=0." Change the value to 1 so it reads "AllowWindowedMode=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.

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. The 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 the My Games page.

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.

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. If you've changed SafeMovie, open nwn.ini and make sure SafeMovie is set to 0. 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).
3. If you have a problem with a stuttering audio when playing video cut-scenes, it can be cured with setting your "CPU affinity" to "All cores". To do so, you'll have to set the nwnplayer.ini setting for "Client CPU Affinity" to "-2". Source: 1

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.

Other general performance issues

• Right click nwmain.exe and go to Compatibility. You should be running the game in an XP compatibility mode and with Disable Desktop Composition checked. Disable Visual Themes might be helpful as well.
• Disable "Shiny Water" from the video settings in game, should definitely increase performance.

1. 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.
2. 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).
3. 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.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, ME, 2000 SP2, XP
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD)	1.2 GB	2.0 GB
Video card (GPU)	16 MB TNT2-class OpenGL 1.2 compliant video card	NVIDIA GeForce 2/ATI Radeon