Sep 20, 2018

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8180

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We're now shipping Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8180.

This build is a potential release candidate for 1.77.

Features

We added three new player-selectable portraits; Heavyline, Skandii, and Lanteri.
Toolset: The script editor now shows variables and constant declarations on double click.
Toolset: The recent modules list has been expanded to 10 entries.
Toolset: The compiler include limit has been bumped to 128.

Fix-tures

The game now asks you for a CD key, instead of erroring with a confusing message, when Steam CD key retrieval fails for any reason.
HW Mouse is now the default on Linux, as to avoid WindowManager-related mouse click point offset issues resulting from UI scaling.

Fixes

We fixed certain armour pads (specifically, belts and shoulder pads) disappearing when re-equipping a item.
Server resource management on Linux in certain memory configurations has been fixed.
We fixed a floating point inaccuracy that made the player character skew aside ever so slightly when WASDing.
The conversation UI has been fixed to not shift off screen when using UI scaling and having the Inventory/Char sheet open at the same time.
We fixed held equipment not becoming transparent when the character model did so (for example, when casting Invisibility.)
Toolset: Area ambient sounds and music has been brought back to life.
Toolset: We removed the requirement that the mouse be over an object to translate it on the Z-axis (with Alt+Left Mouse Button).
Toolset: The tile properties light select color UI is no longer truncated when using windows-native screen scaling.
We fixed a double-free in the PLT system, which has lead to crashes when multiple objects with the same texture would show.
A crash when reloading LTRs was fixed.
Crashes in nwscript functions resulting from bad parameters have been addressed: CopyItemAndModify, GetNearestCreatureToLocation
Linux only: Database names are now case-insensitive, so DestroyCampaignDatabase() now works as expected.

Known Issues

The macOS dedicated server is missing a packaged libGalaxy.dylib. This can be worked around by copying the one from the client .app bundle (nwmain.app/Contents/MacOS/libGalaxy.dylib) into the same directory as the server binary.

Jul 11, 2018

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition 1.76

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The next stable patch for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is live! If you have been following the Development branch announcements, you know what’s coming!

This patch focuses on stabilisation and addresses issues found since the previous update shipped. In particular, the patch includes fixes for the majority of Intel-GPU related crashes.

The full list of changes since v1.75 (Build 8176) is:

Client Changes

Features

We added a new experimental full screen shader effect: Sharpen. It’s disabled by default, so you have to go into Options, Advanced Effects to try it out.
MacOS now defaults to “Desktop” style fullscreen mode (Borderless Fullscreen). This allows you to switch spaces. To make use of it on existing setups, set FullScreenDesktopMode=1 in nwn.ini.
The name generator tables for all races (including custom) are now configurable in racialtypes.2da.
We turned Depth Of Field off by default (only for new installs). This will be re-enabled once it works better in conversations.
The SSAO FBO has been updated to use 25% fewer GPU cycles.

Fixes

We addressed one of the major crashes people were seeing on Intel GPUs. Matters should now be much improved for some players, however we are continuing to work on Intel-related issues.
The high contrast shader has been tweaked so that the fog colour is not impacted anymore.
Issues with playing Premium Modules in multiplayer have been addressed.
We fixed a resource management issue when entering areas; resulting in crashes on area load screens.
Loading save games now works with encrypted premium module saves.
We fixed where object visual transforms would not apply immediately when spawning or loading objects into an area.
Text bubbles now move alongside any applied visual transforms.
Some people were seeing “Could not translate address” when attempting to connect to servers, especially when attempting to connect via icon shortcuts. This has been fixed.
Area Transitions clickable state is now sent to clients indiscriminately, which previously resulted in them turning into the wrong colour, hiding them from DMs, and making transitioning harder.
We’re making it so that door boxes now again don’t have a highlight when mousing over them. (This was a very sneaky regression introduced by making the script call SetTransitionTarget work).
We fixed a crash when area of effect VFXes would attempt to animate in an area that was just unloaded on the client.
We fixed a game crash that happened in updating a creature without a valid animation base.
The chat window sizes now load properly for all users.
We allow server admins to disable relay functionality if they so desire. (nwnplayer.ini: “Network Relays Enabled”)
We fixed a game crash while updating the appearance of a creature without a valid body appearance.
The game client doesn’t hang or crash anymore when receiving a very large data packet; such as character files, area data, or DM palettes.
We fixed the game hanging or lagging when no audio device is available.
We fixed a crash when a dedicated server would save a game, where a logged-out player was in Defensive Stance mode.
We fixed a crash when exiting from a module with HAKs loaded.
The UI scale for Dialogues with scroll bars has been fixed.
We excluded localhost (127.0.0.1) from ever being relayed in order to fix a confusing error message for users.

Content Creation Changes

Fixes

Script Compiler: We now allow escaping backslashes (“\\”).

Jul 6, 2018

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8179

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Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8179 is now available.

This build is a release candidate for 1.76. Thank you all for your assistance in hunting down bugs and testing these development builds.

Fixes

We addressed the majority of Intel-GPU related crashes. However, we will not rest until all of them are resolved.

Details

This patch is tiny as far as the log goes, as it specifically addresses the Intel crash issue.

Some players on very specific and hard to reproduce Intel GPU and driver combinations, were seeing severe crashing on area load screens and many situations with heavy NPC activity.

Unfortunately, this is not a complete fix for the issue, but it has shown to be a great improvement for the majority of players.

We are aware of a separate, though much less frequently occurring, crash that we are still chasing down. We are also very much aware of related performance issues on some Intel setups (stuttering when loading into heavy activity).

However, finding and fixing these will take more time than this patch cycle allowed, as we wanted to get this fix out as soon as feasible.

A Fix For 8176

To ease pain on the current stable patch, we've prepared a binary for players to plug into existing install that contains the backported crash fix. This is not shipped to everyone automatically, so if you are seeing crashes on Intel hardware, you will have to apply the patch by hand until the next official release.

Instructions:

Download the zip file here.
Extract the contained .exe into your game install, bin/win32 directory. On Steam, you can find this via "Browse Local Files" when going into the game properties. On the Beamdog Client, you can find it by clicking "Open Game Location" under game options.
When extracting, make sure to overwrite the existing nwmain.exe.
Please note that both Steam and Beamdog Client will revert to the non-fixed binary if you run a Verify.

Jun 15, 2018

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8177

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Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8177 is now available.

The full list of changes since v1.75 (Build 8176) is:

Known issues that will be addressed in a future patch

We continue to work with Intel engineers to track down the crash and performance issues we’re seeing on Intel HD GPUs.
On Linux, mouse clicks are offset from the cursor location when using UI scaling. Edit nwn.ini and set “Enable HardwareMouse=1” to work around this.
The game will hang when NPCs bump into a creature with a PERSPACE value of 0 in appearance.2da (For example, the CEP Armor Stand Dummy).
The game might crash when exiting a server with haks.
Object Visual Transforms don't always apply immediately on spawned objects.
The mouseover/tab text bubble is offset when using Object Visual Transforms.

Features

The SSAO FBO has been updated to use 25% fewer GPU cycles.
The high contrast shader has been tweaked so that the fog colour is not impacted anymore.
The name generator tables for all races (including custom) are now configurable in racialtypes.2da.
We added more shader uniforms to support upcoming Depth Of Field changes.

Fixes

Connecting to a dedicated server hosting a premium module resulted in the resource image being reopened after loading character data, which made ResMan then read freed memory on resources loaded for character generation/select. This hopefully fixes some of the Infinite Dungeon multiplayer issues that were seen.
We fixed a resource management issue when entering areas; resulting in crashes on area load screens.
Area Transitions clickable state is now sent to clients indiscriminately, which previously resulted in them turning into the wrong colour, hiding them from DMs, and making transitioning harder.
Script Compiler: We now allow escaping backslashes (“\\”).
We’re making it so that door boxes now again don’t have a highlight when mousing over them. (This was a very sneaky regression introduced by making the script call SetTransitionTarget work).
We fixed a crash when area of effect VFXes would attempt to animate in an area that was just unloaded on the client.
We fixed a game crash that happened in updating a creature without a valid animation base.
We turned Depth Of Field off by default (only for new installs). This will be re-enabled once it works better in conversations.
The chat window sizes now load properly for all users.
We allow server admins to disable relay functionality if they so desire. (nwnplayer.ini: “Network Relays Enabled”)
We fixed a game crash while updating the appearance of a creature without a valid body appearance.
Loading save games now works with encrypted premium module saves.
The game client doesn’t hang or crash anymore when receiving a very large data packet; such as character files, area data, or DM palettes.
We fixed the game hanging or lagging when no audio device is available.
We fixed a crash when a dedicated server would save a game, where a logged-out player was in Defensive Stance mode.
Some people were seeing “Could not translate address” when attempting to connect to servers, especially when attempting to connect via icon shortcuts.

Jun 1, 2018

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition 1.75

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We're shipping the next stable patch for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition. If you have been following the Development branch and it's announcements, you will know what to expect!

The full list of changes since v1.74 (Build 8166) is:

Server Changes

Features

The player cap for a single server has been increased to 255 (from 96).(Hint: You can still reserve DM slots by setting a lower limit.)
Increased the maximum player name length from 32 characters to 127.

Fixes

NWScript: Fixed a crash in GetAreaSize() when it was called with the module as the area.
We added some basic protection against packet flooding that was seen recently.
Player name checks are now case-insensitive for purposes of locking names to public keys.
Translations/LocStrings: We’ve made it so that when looking up translated strings (for example, in object descriptions), we first consider the opposite gender before falling back to english.
Networking: We fixed some issues with masterserver DNS resolving that would, in rare circumstances, drop servers from the master list.
The Whirlwind attack feat has been fixed.
We fixed an issue with some creatures not spawning lootable corpses.
We fixed the following script events for player characters: OnDamaged, OnSpellCastAt, OnMeleeAttacked, OnPerception, and OnCombatRoundEnd.
We fixed a crash where ActionTakeItem would fail to deposit an item in a full inventory.
We fixed the server time getting stuck if the module had many areas.
We fixed a very rare crash when removing many areas via DestroyArea() in one script.
We fixed SetTransitionTarget() not propagating to clients in all cases.
Doors can now once again initiate conversations with players (via nw_g0_conversat).
Also, the game engine does not assign this script to doors, placeables and creatures with no script set anymore, instead just defaulting to it as a temporary override.

Client Changes

Features

The race selection UI in character generation is now a list (instead of pre-defined buttons) just like class selection.
Races can now have an icon; defined in the new “Icon” column in racialtypes.2da. This is up to custom content, as we do not currently ship icons for the builtin races.
New dynamic contrast shader by Søren Møller (Zarathustra217).
New SSAO shader by Søren Møller (Zarathustra217).
New Depth Of Field shader by Søren Møller (Zarathustra217).
Materials: .mtr files can now specify “renderhint”; mesh-specific definitions overrides this.
Materials: Meshes don’t require a texture if a .mtr was set.
Materials: In the mesh definition, “bitmap”/”texture0” can be used to define the material instead of “materialname”.
The Chat Log and Combat Log UI now remember their size between play sessions (in the .ini); they also remember split mode/combined mode.
UI: All-metallic colours are now animated in the character creation colour picker UI.
NWN:EE can now accept cyrillic key input again; and display as well, if a suitable (community-made) font override is provided. This is a stopgap measure to support our russian friends while we work on proper UTF-8 support.
Linux Fullscreen Mode is now properly supported.

Fixes

SDL has been updated.
A crash when joining a server with haks was fixed.
The multiplayer server browser UI has been fixed to work properly on 1080x2.
The multiplayer server browser now default-sorts by player count, descending.
Steam Workshop now logs to the player log for activity (like progress).
Movie playback on case-sensitive file systems (Linux) and languages with mismatching case movie files has been fixed.
Garbled sound issues have been fixed.
We fixed stopping/resuming audio playback when a audio device is (re)connected.
UI: We fixed the flickering text on loading screens.
Saving and loading ShadowGuard premium module savegames has been fixed.
UI: We fixed Escape not working on some main menu panels.
Renderer: We fixed rendering animated meshes without animations as static (for example, seen as disappearing water on tno01_v20_02).
Death Attack now shows properly in feat messages in the combat log.
Incorrectly rendered armour part colours in character generation have been fixed.
We added a workaround for an issue where servers would get confused by multiple clients behind NAT on on the same port.
Crash handlers have been improved to address issues with people not seeing the crash message, or not finding the right files to attach to a report.
We’re now applying FBOs (full-screen post processing effects) in a predefined order to avoid visual corruption when un/checking them in the UI.
We fixed the Connect button on the Server Details pane not working properly.
We also fixed the Previous/Next buttons not greying out the Connect button as required.
HAK and TLK preloading is now checked immediately upon connection; not after character creation. This fixes an issue where players would attempt to join a server with missing haks, only to be kicked after character creation.
The polish high-res font has been amended to include all needed special characters.
We fixed a crash in the 2D sound system.
We fixed an issue in the 3D sound system that would sometimes stutter or hang the game.
A client crash that would happen when the server sent a visual effect while the client was on a loading screen was addressed.
A client crash that would happen when the server sent a invalid placeable update was fixed.
We fixed inventory PLT icons sometimes displaying the wrong colours.
We addressed some issues with the builtin texture cache sometimes returning the wrong or no image, resulting in visual corruption on layered textures.
We fixed a crash issue with saving games when the thumbnail could not be generated.
We fixed the game crashing while exiting a module/game with a floating popup bubble active.

Content Creation Changes

Features

Object Visual Transformations: You can now scale, translate, rotate the following game objects: Creatures (including players), Items (including held/wielded), Placeables (dynamic only), Doors. You can also adjust the animation speed independently from object scale. This transformation is visual only and has no effect on walkmesh or personal space. (See Scripting Commands below.)
Materials: We’ve added script calls that allow overriding shader uniforms on materials.
Double quotes (“) can now be escaped in nwscript (\”).
The toolset can now open unpacked modules: You need to have it unpacked in a directory the same name as the .mod file (without the .mod extension).
Toolset: You can now move objects along the Z axis by holding down the Alt key and moving the mouse.
We added the livestream contest winner portrait (po_exornova).

Fixes

A crash in the script compiler has been fixed when many includes were nested.
Utils: We’ve re-added nwhak.exe and gffeditor.exe to the torrent. nwhak.exe now understands all new res types (like .mtr).
An issue where custom content tiles could not be laid down in the toolset (notably, Seasonal Forest) was fixed.
We fixed “Stereo WAV in 3D Positional Sound” popping up erroneously in the toolset.
We fixed the toolset not displaying spells or feats on character sheets.
We fixed "sqrt DOMAIN error" showing up on binary models without valid tangent data.

New Scripting Commands

int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_SCALE = 10; int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_ROTATE_X = 21; int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_ROTATE_Y = 22; int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_ROTATE_Z = 23; int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_TRANSLATE_X = 31; int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_TRANSLATE_Y = 32; int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_TRANSLATE_Z = 33; int OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_ANIMATION_SPEED = 40; // Gets a visual transform on the given object. // - oObject can be any valid Creature, Placeable, Item or Door. // - nTransform is one of OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_* // Returns the current (or default) value. float GetObjectVisualTransform(object oObject, int nTransform); // Sets a visual transform on the given object. // - oObject can be any valid Creature, Placeable, Item or Door. // - nTransform is one of OBJECT_VISUAL_TRANSFORM_* // - fValue depends on the transformation to apply. // Returns the old/previous value. float SetObjectVisualTransform(object oObject, int nTransform, float fValue); // Sets an integer material shader uniform override. // - sMaterial needs to be a material on that object. // - sParam needs to be a valid shader parameter already defined on the material. void SetMaterialShaderUniformInt(object oObject, string sMaterial, string sParam, int nValue); // Sets a vec4 material shader uniform override. // - sMaterial needs to be a material on that object. // - sParam needs to be a valid shader parameter already defined on the material. // - You can specify a single float value to set just a float, instead of a vec4. void SetMaterialShaderUniformVec4(object oObject, string sMaterial, string sParam, float fValue1, float fValue2 = 0.0, float fValue3 = 0.0, float fValue4 = 0.0); // Resets material shader parameters on the given object: // - Supply a material to only reset shader uniforms for meshes with that material. // - Supply a parameter to only reset shader uniforms of that name. // - Supply both to only reset shader uniforms of that name on meshes with that material. void ResetMaterialShaderUniforms(object oObject, string sMaterial = "", string sParam = "");

Build 8176

v1.75 carries build 8176, which has not been shipped to Development. However, to keep you in the loop, the following changes were made since 8175:

Fixes

We fixed mainhand weapon visual effects not updating correctly.
We disabled audio hotplugging on Mac, as that resulted in severe audio stuttering. We also reduced the reinitialisation interval to 3 seconds, in case other platforms/systems are affected by this. Audio hotplugging on Mac will be re-enabled once we have time to properly develop and test a fix.

Build 8166

We added a Steam branch called "oldstable", which still contains Build 8166. If you have multiplayer servers that are still on 8166, you can stick to that branch and keep playing until they upgrade.

May 30, 2018

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8175 [RC2]

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Development build 8175 for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is here.

This build is the new and likely last release candidate for 1.75! We very much appreciate any feedback that comes in from the community.

Please try to break this build, and if you are adventurous, even update your server. Let us know if you run into any issues on the usual channels.

Known Issues

We continue to work with Intel engineers to track down the crash and performance issues we’re seeing on Intel HD GPUs. The moment we have a solution or workaround, we will ship a hotfix.
We are aware of some premium modules not working properly in multiplayer, and are looking into that.

Fixes

A crash in the sound system, most noticeable in the UI when clicking buttons. This may also fix 3d audio sources stuttering and hanging the game client.
We fixed an issue where the server time could become stuck when the module has many areas.
We fixed a very rare potential crash when removing many areas via DestroyArea() in the same script.
The SetTransitionTarget() script call did not always propagate changes to clients.
The “sqrt DOMAIN error” happening in the Toolset on compiled models without tangent data should finally be fixed.
A client crash was fixed when the server was attempting to add a visual effect while the client did not have an area loaded.
A client crash was fixed when the server was attempting to update a placeable the client did not know about.
An issue was fixed where doors would not be able to initiate conversations was fixed. The same change also fixes that the game would auto-assign a script to object events, instead of just overriding a empty one.
We fixed inventory PLT icons sometimes displaying the wrong colours.
We fixed an issue where the texture cache would sometimes pull the wrong image, potentially resulting in visual corruption on PLT textures.
We fixed a saving a game crashing when the thumbnail image could not be created.
The DOF shader has seen minor improvements to the blurring algorithm used.
The SSAO shader has seen minor improvements to improve visual accuracy.
We fixed the game crashing while exiting a module/game with a floating popup bubble active.
Beamdog credits have been updated.

May 25, 2018

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition Development Build 8174

Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition - niv

Development build 8174 for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is now available.

This build is the release candidate for 1.75! We would appreciate any and all testing you can give it.

If all goes well, we will ship this build as 1.75. This will give NWNX:EE time to prepare ahead of time, and also allow server admins to test and migrate over the coming days.

We'll make sure to keep everyone appraised on timing!

Known Issues

We are working with Intel engineers to track down the crash and performance issues we’re seeing on Intel HD GPUs.
We are aware of some premium modules not working properly in multiplayer, and are looking into that.

Features

We’ve added a new, more dynamic depth of field shader kindly provided by Søren Møller.
We added the livestream contest winner portrait (po_exornova).

Fixes

Regression: We fixed the New Game server settings UI not being interactable.
Regression: We fixed the New Game server settings UI disappearing after backing out from character selection.
The Polish high-res font has been amended to include all needed special characters.
HAK and TLK preloading is now checked immediately upon connection; not after character creation. This fixes an issue where players would attempt to join a server with missing haks, only to be kicked after character creation.
We fixed the Connect button on the Server Details pane not working properly.
We also fixed the Previous/Next buttons not greying out the Connect button as required. We fixed a crash where ActionTakeItem would fail to deposit an item in a full inventory.
We fixed OnMeleeAttacked and OnDamaged not firing on creatures.
We fixed the character creation model viewer crashing for racial type appearances without a valid model.
We fixed the racial selection screen title having the class selection title.
We fixed Linux Fullscreen mode.
We fixed “Stereo WAV in 3D Positional Sound” popping up erroneously in the toolset.
We fixed the toolset not displaying spells or feats on character sheets.
We’re now applying FBOs (full-screen post processing effects) in a predefined order to avoid visual corruption when un/checking them in the UI.