Neverwinter Nights Tidbits

WWWWolf writes "The fine folks at Bioware have opened a new For Developers section, aimed for people who make external tools for the game. At the moment they have a forum and description of one of the crucial file formats, used for packaging data in the game, with more coming." This looks pretty cool. It's been several months since I loaded up the Aurora Toolset. I might have to get back into it again. In related news, Apostata writes "It seems there's even more steam under the lid of the NWN Linux community now: the Linux client won't be shipping with any ability to play the narrative cutaway movies between chapters, due to licensing/porting problems with Bink. Many are outraged, as this obviously makes for an incomprehensible game." Apostata also notes that the Aurora toolset also won't be ported.

Comments

Bink

[andrew_dupont]

From what I can piece together, "licensing/porting problems" means
(a) There is no Bink codec for Linux, and
(b) Bink's license w/ NWN forbids BioWare from converting the cinematics to any other format.

While this sucks, it should be said in BioWare's defense that a Linux port was not originally planned. Bink was a fine choice at the time--it's not BioWare's fault that they're pioneers in the Linux retail gaming market. Instead, fault Bink for not having their shit together.

Re:Bink

[MrResistor]

As has already been pointed out in other responses, the Linux port was planned and promised long ago. It is quite justifiable to fault BioWare for:

(a) Using a proprietary codec which doesn't support Linux, and
(b) Signing such a dumb-assed contract that allows a third party to prevent them from fulfilling their promise to their customers.

Bink may not have their shit together, but it was BioWare who allowed Bink to be a show-stopper. As Obi Wan said, "who is more foolish; the fool, or the fool who follows him?"

Closed vs Open

[jsse]

the Linux client won't be shipping with any ability to play the narrative cutaway movies between chapters, due to licensing/porting problems with Bink

So much for adopting proprietary movie format while they had choices. 'Vendor-locked' is a curse for many existing legacy system nowaday and whenever we design a system we put openness in high priority(next to budget :), that rules out a lot of proprietary, vendor-locked solutions.

Just as I speak we ruled out acrobat for our electronic form submission project and seek some pure Java solutions.

One thing to remember is to...

[VisorGuy]

Keep cool.

If we blow our collective tops about this, what do you think that will accomplish?
I seriously doubt it'll encourage them to develop for Linux when they are planning the next game.

I hope they have learned a lot from this and will realise that the proper way to go about multi-platform support is to do so from the beginning.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics...

[eviltypeguy]

I understood the lack of the toolset. I understood the beta being so late. However, I am extremely hacked off at the fact that the client is still incomplete. Movie playback is missing because of their choice to use Bink instead of a non-proprietary format, and they don't have the guts to port Bink themselves or pay someone like icculus to do it.

I really want to know how Bioware could possibly claim they were going to provide a native Linux port, when it's very obvious they were using non-portable libraries like Miles and Bink. How did they expect things to work at all? Were they just hyping things hoping that community good will would help sell their game better because they were going to have a Linux port? Bah.

The point is, I demand a full client. They said it was going to be there, and it's very close, but it's not quite there. They have done so well, and it's absolutely shameful that they've decided to do this.

As it is, they might as well call the Linux port the "Neverwinter Nights Multiplayer Special Edition", since it doesn't include a toolset, and without movie playback the Single Player experience has been greatly diminished.

Re:Lies, damn lies, and statistics...

[eviltypeguy]

"You don't get to demand shit. They owe you nothing. You should be grateful they put any effort at all into porting to Linux-- it's not like they're going to make any money doing it."

Many of us bought the game because they promised that a Linux client would be released. So they do "owe me shit" as you put it. I might have never purchased the game if they hadn't said they were going to release a Linux client. I followed this game for a long time because of it. It would be one thing if they hadn't been saying for a year or so before the game came out that they were going to have a Linux port, but they did. It's their responsibility to live up to their words.

Untrue

[eviltypeguy]

"While this sucks, it should be said in BioWare's defense that a Linux port was not originally planned. Bink was a fine choice at the time--it's not BioWare's fault that they're pioneers in the Linux retail gaming market. Instead, fault Bink for not having their shit together."

This is completely untrue. They had mentioned and "planned" a Linux port, years before the client came out. Look here:

http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?Art ic leID=2195

They mentioned it as early as 2001!!!

Linux Installer

[termos]

The Linux client at Bioware's webpage requires you to first install the files with the windows installer and replace some files, not sure which ones.
If you don't bother all this you can download a graphical GTK+ installer from here, make sure you have support for Joilet.

Keep it in perspective

[josephgrossberg]

"Many are outraged, as this obviously makes for an incomprehensible game"

Sure, there's a places for cut-scenes, storylines and cinematics. But, believe it or not, some of us don't care about the story line; we'd rent a DVD if we wanted that.

Some of us have always enjoyed exploring interesting dungeons, killing cool monsters, collecting useful treasures, going on challenging quests and upgrading our characters without pondering the deeper meaning of *why* our character does this.

I mean, does anyone really read the storybooks that come with the game? I'd be surprised if 10% of gamers even bothered.

Plus, it's interesting for D&D fans to see the 3rd Edition rules engine applied to a video game format.

Considering how popular Nethack is, I don't think a game-only version of NWN for Linux would have any problems with popularity.

Please quit your bitching for one minute -- NWN is a top-flight game and now Linux users can enjoy it.

Re:Keep it in perspective

[ddilling]

But, believe it or not, some of us don't care about the story line; we'd rent a DVD if we wanted that.

You mean like Metal Gear Solid 2?