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GemRB is a game engine remake of Infinity Engine used in games like Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment, Icewind Dale, Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn and Icewind Dale 2.

The developers behind this open source community project just released GemRB 0.9.4 noting that "It brings two exciting major developments. First, for the first time ever, one is now able to play Icewind Dale 2 from start to end. That marks the last original game to reach this status. BG2EE support has been experimental and is not yet ready for wide use, but as of this release it is now playable enough to welcome testers and power users to bug hunting adventures (manually set GameType to bg2ee). Besides that the release features several improvements to pathfinding, audio and ease-of-use for other projects."


Pictured - Icewind Dale 2, Credit: GOG

Changelog:

GemRB v0.9.4 (2025-01-11):
New features:
- iwd2 is now fully completable!
- iwd2 turn undead, hybrid damage types, Heal Party on Rest
- traditional bg2ee GUI is usable and the shaman class works
- option to highlight learnable scrolls, draw empty containers gray
- option to more easily use GemRB as a library
- animfps.2da to set per-animation drawing speed

Improved features:
- text encoding, drawing speed, drawing, (stereo) audio, GUI internals
- feats, animations
- scripting, projectiles, effects, movement speed, pathfinding
- bugfixes

You do need the game data which for Icewind Dale 2 you can find on GOG.com.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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6 comments Subscribe

hardpenguin 8 hours ago
This is very impressive. Icewind Dale 2 is the only game from the original Inifinity Engine games that I haven't played yet. I am likely to use GemRB to play it now!
Uso 7 hours ago
Icewind Dale 2 code source was lost, and it's the reason why we never got an Enhanced Edition of it.

So having gemRB supporting it is incredible.

Also, the prologue of Icewind dale 2 is one of the best RPG prologue I've played.

Trying to prepare the defence of Targos, from a big goblin invasion, while doing a drinking contest in the city tavern, and socially manipulate some ghost to steal a sword she hides, is really all I ask for a game introduction.
brokkr 5 hours ago
I checked the homepage and part of the feature set is scalable ui and touch support. To me this is probably the greatest appeal: Move the PC game files to an android tablet and - along with scummvm - you have PC gaming even more portable than a steam deck.

(I know the EE versions were also ported to Android but - I suspect - with Google Play Store DRM, and the versions I have are GOG and Steam)
ToddL 5 hours ago
(I know the EE versions were also ported to Android but - I suspect - with Google Play Store DRM, and the versions I have are GOG and Steam)
@brokkr
Have you tried using something like Winlator? This program attempts to run Windows games on Android and it might work with your GOG copy of the game. Here's the link: https://winlator.org/


Last edited by ToddL on 13 Jan 2025 at 2:41 pm UTC
R Daneel Olivaw 3 hours ago
so this is like openmw it seems. Love it! I never played the IWD games. I don't know why, because I did play the BG games, but somehow just totally missed the IWD ones. I might give this a try!
akselmo 2 hours ago
I really liked the first Icewind Dale but never played through the second. Should try it again with this engine.
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