Six years after its debut, Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Version, the Beamdog-buffed replace of BioWare’s famed 2002 D&D RPG, has acquired a giant new patch that includes enhancements to the UI, higher HDR-bloom post-processing results, greater than 100 bugfixes, and “important efficiency enhancements throughout the board.”
The patch was first introduced in early December 2023 however solely went dwell yesterday, after a pair months of testing. Apparently, it wasn’t developed by Beamdog: The patch notes (by way of GamingOnLinux) say the replace “was developed for private enjoyment and out of goodwill for our fellow gamers and creators by unpaid software program engineers from the NWN neighborhood: clippy, Daz, Jasperre, Liareth, niv, shadguy, Soren, Squatting Monk, tinygiant, virusman.”
Highlights of the brand new patch embody:
- New HDR-bloom postprocessing impact accumulates overlapping results extra naturally and makes intense colours bleed into the encircling pixels.
- Enhancements to the gameplay UI, reminiscent of toggling object spotlight by double-pressing TAB.
- Vital efficiency enhancements throughout the board, each on servers and shoppers.
- Many new and improved scripting features, together with assist for synchronised audio playback and enhancements to the scriptable UI.
- Over 100 bugfixes, together with a number of infamous 20-year-old bugs, reminiscent of space objects generally displaying up too late.
- Script compiler is now open supply and obtainable as a standalone device at https://github.com/niv/neverwinter.nim.
Regardless of its age, this is not the primary large fan-made patch to return to Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Version. Most of the builders of this replace rolled out an analogous “beefy replace” in 2023 with quality-of-life tweaks, new modding choices, and an optionally available graphical overhaul.
To some extent, I really feel like this stage of ongoing fan assist displays BioWare’s aspirations for Neverwinter Nights when it first got here out. The included singleplayer marketing campaign is unremarkable, nevertheless it additionally shipped with a toolset enabling customers to create and share their very own customized modules for it. That target player-supported content material helped foster a neighborhood that persists to this present day: The decidedly old-timey Neverwinter Vault has lively boards and a wealth of content material, a few of it fairly present. Need to add Baldur’s Gate 3 character portraits to NWN? The gang’s all there.
The participant base on Steam is impressively resilient too, with a median concurrent participant depend persistently hovering round 700 for nearly the previous 4 years. These aren’t big numbers, nevertheless it’s uncommon to see a participant graph keep fairly this straight for fairly this lengthy:
And despite the fact that Beamdog is not answerable for making this patch, it is good to see the studio supporting it:
The Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Version 88.8193.36-11 patch, because it’s formally recognized, is dwell now. Full patch notes can be found at beamdog.internet.
