I’m an absolute freak for BioWare’s 2002 D&D RPG Neverwinter Nights, and by some means this unkillable recreation simply retains chugging alongside: Beamdog simply put out a brand new, official replace for its 2018 enhanced version re-release that was assembled by members of Neverwinter Nights’ still-active mod scene—if that sounds acquainted to you, this is not the primary neighborhood replace that is been formally christened by Beamdog.
“This launch was developed for private enjoyment and out of goodwill for our fellow gamers and creators by unpaid software program engineers from the NWN neighborhood,” the replace reads, with the “unpaid software program engineers” in query going by the handles clippy, Daz, Jasperre, niv, shadguy, Soren, tinygiant, and virusman. The topline options of the brand new patch embrace:
- Built-in assist for multisample anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering.
- A built-in evaluation instrument for gamers and multiplayer server admins.
- “Major” networking code and efficiency enhancements.
- New scripting capabilities and enhancements.
- QoL changes to NWN’s Aurora toolset stage editor.
Most of those appear focused at these nonetheless working multiplayer servers or constructing customized campaigns for Neverwinter Nights, although a number of of them will likely be felt player-side. The new graphics choices are good, and I’m curious in regards to the replace’s “main” efficiency enhancements. That might seem to be an absurd change for an RPG from 2002, however NWN was constructed for single-core CPUs, that means it fails to take full benefit of recent multi-core processors, and I’ve had it actually chug even on an Alder Lake i5 when sure mods become involved.
As for why this issues, there’s nonetheless an viewers for NWN’s persistent worlds—basically miniature, player-run MMOs constructed with the Aurora toolset like Arelith. Meanwhile, I’m extra of a singleplayer man: I’ve bought a giant comfortable spot for NWN’s official campaigns, and there is additionally an enormous again catalogue of player-made adventures for it. Some are self-contained “modules” like Darkness Over Daggerford or Crimson Tides of Tethyr, whereas others are sprawling, multipart RPG epics like The Aielund Saga or Swordflight.
