Review: Neverwinter Nights Linux Client

Game by Bioware

July 21, 2003 -- Review by A.T. Hun

Last summer (has it been that long already?) I bought Bioware's Neverwinter Nights. I had been looking for a quality RPG based on the Dungeons and Dragons third edition rules. I played Diablo II and loved it. I tried to get into the Baldur's Gate series, but controlling so many characters was more than I cared to do. Clearly, though, Baldur's Gate had depth that Diablo II was missing. Neverwinter Nights (NWN) seemed to have the best of both worlds with a true 3D engine to boot.

What really sold me was Bioware's promise of a native Linux client. I didn't know at the time that I would be removing Windows from my box entirely and running Linux full-time, but I figured I was heading in that direction eventually. The Linux client was supposed to be out when the game was released. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. I bought NWN in July of 2002, about a month after it came out. The first beta client didn't come out until March of 2003. The final 1.29 release didn't come out until June 2003, almost exactly a full year after the game hit shelves.

Naturally, there were some folks who were not in the least bit pleased that it took this long. I can't say that I blame them, especially if they pre-ordered the game with the understanding that the Linux client would come with it. You can go back in the NWN forums if you want to read all the ranting and raving. I suggest you don't. While it may have taken awhile, as the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait. The NWN Linux client was worth the wait.

Installation

There are three ways to install NWN in Linux. All of them require a visit to the NWN Linux client page for the client and/or patches.

Install the game in a Windows partition and copy it over. This is the way I did it initially. After I removed Windows from my box, I installed NWN on my kids' computer and pulled it over the network. After that, I downloaded the 1.29 client (5.3M) and the 1.29-1.30 patch (39M) and untarred them in the directory I installed NWN into. The NWN Linux client page has more details on this installation option.
Download the 1.29 client, 1.29-1.30 patch, and the Linux client resources (1.12G. Yes you read that correctly, 1.12 gigabytes. Modemers need not apply.). I've never installed the game this way because I see no need to download all that stuff when I've got the CDs. To install this way, basically all you have to do is untar everything. Once again, the NWN Linux client page has more information, should you be so inclined.
The last (and, in my opinion, best) way of installing the game is a way that is not officially supported by Bioware. Head over to icculus.org and grab ravage's NWN installer (20M). This handy program installs the game directly from the CDs. The only catch is that it requires a working version of WINE or WineX. Why? The installer uses WINE to extract the game files from the InstallShield cab files. That's also why it's not officially supported by Bioware. Apparently the InstallShield folks get a little uptight about this. Beyond this, all you will need is the 1.29-1.30 patch. If you get stuck, ravage has kindly supplied a FAQ.

If you have any problems with any of these installation options, check out Dana Olson's NWN Linux FAQ. The most common problems seem to be using installation #1 or #2 and not running ./fixinstall afterward, or not having write permission in the directory you are trying to run the game in.

The only other issue with installation is where to put it. If you have the space and just want to install it in your /home directory, you can skip ahead to the paragraph that starts "Unfortunately, NWN . . ." I don't have a spare 1.7G in my /home partition, so I installed it into /usr/local/games/nwn. After that, I fired up KUser and created the "games" group and added myself to it. Then I issued these two commands as root:

chown root:games /usr/local/games/nwn -R chmod g+w /usr/local/games/nwn -R

The first command gives ownership of everything in the nwn directory to root and the group "games." The second command gives the group write permission for everything in the nwn directory.

Unfortunately, NWN stores all its data in the directory it was installed in, not in a $HOME/.nwn directory. That's a minor annoyance for me, since I'm really the only one who plays the game in my household anyway. I've heard rumblings about a script that uses some sort of hack to use a $HOME/.nwn directory, but I've never tried it.

Gameplay

I've found that the game runs every bit as well in Linux as it did in Windows. I've tried every beta that has been released and have been using the final client since it came out. I've played the single-player game from beginning to end in Linux and there were no weird bugs or crashes. Zero. Very impressive. I also like the fact that I don't have to have the CD in the drive to play the game (I cannot begin to tell you how much that annoys me). While I would have liked to have seen the client out more quickly, I much prefer "no bugs" to "quick."

There are those who have complained about the single-player campaign in NWN. I like it a lot and have played parts of it over and over. Your mileage may vary. If you don't like it, you can visit the Neverwinter Vault and download any of the over 2,600 user-made modules. That'll keep you busy for a long time.

I haven't played the game much online or on a LAN, so I really can't comment on the netcode or multiplayer capabilities. If I get the chance, I'll investigate further. I haven't seen many complaints on the NWN Linux forum, so I assume that no news is good news.

The movies for NWN come in BINK format. There is a Linux version of BINK in the works. For now, you can't watch the movies with the Linux client. If you've seen them in Windows, you know they're not a terrible loss. Who knows if movie playback might be added in the future. I wouldn't bet on it, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong. If you really want to see the movies and don't mind jumping through some serious hoops to do it, visit this page. Once you've done that, there's even a clever hack to view the movies from within the game.

The only caveats I'd mention about the gameplay is that you need to make sure that your desktop in XFree86 uses 24-bit color depth. If you use anything less, the game will run very slowly. Also, there is a bug in the current version of SDL that doesn't like to play nice with XFree86 4.3. If you play fullscreen, you need to have your desktop set at the same resolution as you play the game, otherwise your monitor refresh rate will go wonky (on my box, it drops down to 60Hz aka major seizure territory). You can just use ctrl/alt/- or ctrl/alt/+ to change your desktop to whatever resolution you play the game at before starting. That's true of Unreal Tournament 2003 and any other SDL game for that matter. It's not a NWN-specific issue. Hopefully the next version of SDL will squash this bug once and for all.

The Future

Even though the Linux client was late, it comes just in time for the Shadows of Undrentide (SoU) expansion pack. That's right, kids, SoU works in Linux right out of the box! (Side note: unfortunately the installer script is screwed up, but all you have to do is unzip four zip files to install it--much easier.) Similarly the next expansion, Hordes of the Underdark, should work with Linux right out of the box too, but precious little is known about it at this point. Combine that with the ever-growing number of user-made modules and you've got enough RPGing to last a long, long time.

A Personal Note

I would personally like to thank the Powers That Be at Bioware for releasing a Linux client for NWN. Yes it was late, but there was really no financial incentive for them to do this. I'd also like to thank Bioware's Derek French, Andrew Gardner, and Jay Watamaniuk for patiently answering questions (even when no answers could really be given), enduring the flames, and helping the community out on the NWN Linux forum. If only more gaming companies would show the same kind of commitment to native Linux gaming that Bioware, Epic, and id have! I want to buy the NWN expansions anyway, but I'd probably buy them just on general principle to support Bioware's efforts.

Final Score

Since this is mainly a review of the game's Linux capabilities and not a review of the game per se, scoring is rather difficult. Based on Linux-ness alone, I'd give it a nine out of ten, with one point deducted for the lack of a supported installer, no $HOME/.nwn support for configuration files, and for taking so darn long to get the thing done! Yes, I'm picking nits.

My System

My system has an Iwill XP333 motherboard (ALi MAGiK1 chipset), Athlon XP 1800+, 512M PC2100, GeForce3 Ti200 (with the NVIDIA 1.0-4363 drivers), Sound Blaster Audigy, 40G Western Digital hard drive. Currently I'm running Slackware Linux 9.0, but I have also run the client successfully under Mandrake 9.0 and 9.1.

Resources

For more information, check out some of these fine resources: