Beamdog aren't stopping with the updates to Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, with some graphical improvements on the way. While it's a good game, with tons of content to play through for RPG fans one thing about it is clear, graphically it does show its age.
Announcing what's to come on Twitter, they said they've been working on a new "shader pipeline" that will "eventually debut in the new renderer". When probed a little further by me, they confirmed it will work across platforms (like Linux—just so we're sure). You can see more information on it here, while it's a demo right now it should make the game look quite a bit more modern when officially added in.
An example of how it could look with these added in:
I do have to say, it does look rather nice and shiny!
Additionally, if you want to work in the games industry with a developer that works on Linux games, Beamdog is currently hiring so it might be a good opportunity.
You can pick up Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition from GOG and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
11 comments
I do have to say, it does look rather nice and shiny!
But on casual inspection, it doesn't look out of place. Which is a real risk when doing these things in older games.
So many hours of gaming to go until I'm ready for this one. :D
5 Likes, Who?
Neverwinter Nights is one of those games that I thought about getting many years ago (there was a Linux version a long time ago, when there weren't Linux versions of very many games), but never did. Recently, I picked up the Enhanced Edition on sale, but I haven't started playing it yet (I have many games in my backlog these days). I do plan on finally getting to it relatively soon, though. Right now, I'm playing Overload and Torchlight II.*
*(I started Torchlight II a long time ago on my old computer, but considering how little time I had in that game, how long it's been, and that it would probably be a pain to transfer the save from my old hard drive, I decided to just start it over. Of course, I could get sidetracked by real life again (I have too many hobbies as well), but I've already gotten further than before.)
*(I started Torchlight II a long time ago on my old computer, but considering how little time I had in that game, how long it's been, and that it would probably be a pain to transfer the save from my old hard drive, I decided to just start it over. Of course, I could get sidetracked by real life again (I have too many hobbies as well), but I've already gotten further than before.)
1 Likes, Who?
slaapliedje Jan 30, 2019
Maybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)
Would be cool if they could figure out how to add real time ray tracing for those that have cards that support such things.
It looks beautiful in Quake 2.
Would be cool if they could figure out how to add real time ray tracing for those that have cards that support such things.
It looks beautiful in Quake 2.
2 Likes, Who?
LordDaveTheKind Jan 30, 2019
Remembering the time when I was young, playing in the NWN Shards and lurking websites such as the NWN Vault... :'(
2 Likes, Who?
Ooo, I'm really happy to see this. I think I'll have to continue my questing!
Maybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)Hmm, I might look into this. :)
2 Likes, Who?
Maybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)
Would be cool if they could figure out how to add real time ray tracing for those that have cards that support such things.
It looks beautiful in Quake 2.
They are building a new renderer eventually, so they might include ray casting/tracing. At the moment they are more focussed on adding the texture layers they need to make a new renderer worthwhile; without normal mapping, displacement mapping, and additional material properties, ray tracing wouldn't help much except to improve shadows.
They look to have done a good job improving the static assets where the low-poly geometry doesn't matter, but the characters/monsters now look a bit out of place. Maybe they can use tesselation to automatically add extra character-smoothing geometry.
I think I might have to take a closer look at their plans...
Last edited by etonbears on 30 January 2019 at 9:44 pm UTC
0 Likes
slaapliedje Feb 1, 2019
I'm hoping they hire someone to specifically look at making the toolset cross platform finally. I think that would help get the hacker ultra nerd people that tend to flock toward Linux to build modules. Of course maybe I'm dreaming and most Linux users these days aren't the weird cyber-dwellers they used to be :PMaybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)
Would be cool if they could figure out how to add real time ray tracing for those that have cards that support such things.
It looks beautiful in Quake 2.
They are building a new renderer eventually, so they might include ray casting/tracing. At the moment they are more focussed on adding the texture layers they need to make a new renderer worthwhile; without normal mapping, displacement mapping, and additional material properties, ray tracing wouldn't help much except to improve shadows.
They look to have done a good job improving the static assets where the low-poly geometry doesn't matter, but the characters/monsters now look a bit out of place. Maybe they can use tesselation to automatically add extra character-smoothing geometry.
I think I might have to take a closer look at their plans...
1 Likes, Who?
I'm hoping they hire someone to specifically look at making the toolset cross platform finally. I think that would help get the hacker ultra nerd people that tend to flock toward Linux to build modules. Of course maybe I'm dreaming and most Linux users these days aren't the weird cyber-dwellers they used to be :PMaybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)
Would be cool if they could figure out how to add real time ray tracing for those that have cards that support such things.
It looks beautiful in Quake 2.
They are building a new renderer eventually, so they might include ray casting/tracing. At the moment they are more focussed on adding the texture layers they need to make a new renderer worthwhile; without normal mapping, displacement mapping, and additional material properties, ray tracing wouldn't help much except to improve shadows.
They look to have done a good job improving the static assets where the low-poly geometry doesn't matter, but the characters/monsters now look a bit out of place. Maybe they can use tesselation to automatically add extra character-smoothing geometry.
I think I might have to take a closer look at their plans...
I expect the toolset works pretty well under wine, given how old it is. I think a new toolset may eventually be required if they change a lot of the underlying tech. As long as the data formats are published ( and I'm sure they will be ) a Linux hacker ultra nerd could build their own toolkit :D
0 Likes
slaapliedje Feb 1, 2019
I'm hoping they hire someone to specifically look at making the toolset cross platform finally. I think that would help get the hacker ultra nerd people that tend to flock toward Linux to build modules. Of course maybe I'm dreaming and most Linux users these days aren't the weird cyber-dwellers they used to be :PMaybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)
Would be cool if they could figure out how to add real time ray tracing for those that have cards that support such things.
It looks beautiful in Quake 2.
They are building a new renderer eventually, so they might include ray casting/tracing. At the moment they are more focussed on adding the texture layers they need to make a new renderer worthwhile; without normal mapping, displacement mapping, and additional material properties, ray tracing wouldn't help much except to improve shadows.
They look to have done a good job improving the static assets where the low-poly geometry doesn't matter, but the characters/monsters now look a bit out of place. Maybe they can use tesselation to automatically add extra character-smoothing geometry.
I think I might have to take a closer look at their plans...
I expect the toolset works pretty well under wine, given how old it is. I think a new toolset may eventually be required if they change a lot of the underlying tech. As long as the data formats are published ( and I'm sure they will be ) a Linux hacker ultra nerd could build their own toolkit :D
There was at least one (I think probably two or three) projects to build toolkits, but they ended up in open source limbo.
It's been a while of course, but last time I got the toolkit working in Wine it was unstable and slow. Kind of like the GURPS Character Assistant. It works, it's just slow and a bit buggy (like windows don't update like they should).
0 Likes
slaapliedje Feb 1, 2019
Ooo, I'm really happy to see this. I think I'll have to continue my questing!
Maybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)Hmm, I might look into this. :)
That'd rock. I'd do it myself, but I don't have time to maintain it, design it, etc. Would love to play though.
0 Likes
I'm hoping they hire someone to specifically look at making the toolset cross platform finally. I think that would help get the hacker ultra nerd people that tend to flock toward Linux to build modules. Of course maybe I'm dreaming and most Linux users these days aren't the weird cyber-dwellers they used to be :PMaybe NWN is another game we should get a persistent world set up for Gaming On Linux users. :)
Would be cool if they could figure out how to add real time ray tracing for those that have cards that support such things.
It looks beautiful in Quake 2.
They are building a new renderer eventually, so they might include ray casting/tracing. At the moment they are more focussed on adding the texture layers they need to make a new renderer worthwhile; without normal mapping, displacement mapping, and additional material properties, ray tracing wouldn't help much except to improve shadows.
They look to have done a good job improving the static assets where the low-poly geometry doesn't matter, but the characters/monsters now look a bit out of place. Maybe they can use tesselation to automatically add extra character-smoothing geometry.
I think I might have to take a closer look at their plans...
I expect the toolset works pretty well under wine, given how old it is. I think a new toolset may eventually be required if they change a lot of the underlying tech. As long as the data formats are published ( and I'm sure they will be ) a Linux hacker ultra nerd could build their own toolkit :D
There was at least one (I think probably two or three) projects to build toolkits, but they ended up in open source limbo.
It's been a while of course, but last time I got the toolkit working in Wine it was unstable and slow. Kind of like the GURPS Character Assistant. It works, it's just slow and a bit buggy (like windows don't update like they should).
Well, it's a fair amount of work to build a toolset, even after the data definitions are locked down. I might take a look, though, once they get a bit more information out about what they are aiming for.
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me