Check out this guest article by Bernhard Stöckner, Senior Programmer at BeamdogThe latest update for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is big— probably the biggest the game has seen since its launch in 2018.Originally released by BioWare in 2002, and recently enhanced for modern platforms by
developers at Beamdog, the classic Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game has won plenty of accolades over the years for its immersive fantasy gameplay, multiplayer experiences, and the vast amount of community content keeping gamers enthralled for hours upon hours.
Neverwinter Nights was a pioneer in the field of fantasy RPGs, but although its epic adventures and content creation tools have stood the test of time, its 2002 graphics haven’t aged quite as well. The 2D retro look is enjoying a resurgence in modern games, but there tends to be less love for the 3D aesthetic of the early 2000s video games.
Beamdog’s latest patch to
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition aims to step the game’s graphics into a modern direction. Developers have added a brand new lighting engine that refreshes the visuals in this RPG classic— they’ve also added dozens of bug fixes and some exciting new assets for the Aurora Toolset. Read on for a rundown of what to expect in this week’s patch.
Enhanced Lighting Engine
Beamdog’s latest patch for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition adds a newly enhanced lighting engine governed by the same principles seen in modern games. While the 3D graphics remain “retro” by today’s standards, the patch moves the game towards more lifelike textures, adding realism to the lighting, reflections, and shadows. In addition to significantly enhancing the visual quality of the game, this update lays the groundwork for a few more improvements planned for future patches.
The patch sets players up with the new lighting engine by default, but players can turn it off from the Options menu if they choose. The new engine demands a bit more from a computer’s Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), so the update allows players to adjust various lighting effects within the engine to their liking— although the default settings are recommended for the cleanest look and to ensure uniform content presentation.
Elements of the Lighting Engine added in this week’s patch:
Full Dynamic Lighting: The game now supports up to 32 dynamic light sources, instead of only 6.
Pixel Precision: Lighting now illuminates each pixel, instead of each vertex of the environment and characters.
Tone Mapping: The game now corrects for color distortions caused by bright light sources.
Physically Based Rendering (PBR): PBR creates a more natural look, emulating how light reflects off different surface types.
New Water Rendering
There are some epic nautical, coastal, and watery adventures to be found in the Neverwinter Nights catalog of campaigns and premium modules. Luckily, the new lighting engine significantly improves the look of ocean waves, placid lakes, and delicate streams.
Water now renders with full dynamic light reflections— including the sun and moon. The renderer even shows wave displacement based on an area’s wind sources— this means water reacts to events like explosions much more realistically than in the previous version. There are, however, configuration options in the User Interface to turn this feature off.
Grass Rendering
When adventuring across the frontiers of the Forgotten Realms, you’re going to encounter some untamed wilderness and off-road exploration. To improve the realism of grasslands in Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, grass now renders based on distance from the player. The update fixes transparency issues in grasses, making them appear denser and more natural. With that said, grass graphics have been heavily optimized so they should no longer pose a performance consideration— even in scenes with meadows full of it!
Premium Assets added to the Aurora Toolset
The Windows version of
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition gives players access to the Aurora Toolset and Dungeon Master Client. With the toolset, players can build their own worlds full of monsters, environments, traps, and encounters, then share their creations with the community. The Dungeon Master Client lets you run a game for other players by controlling the monsters, NPCs, and environments of your created world.
The latest patch imports dozens of new assets for players to use in their own campaigns and creations— including content from the Ossian premium modules Tyrants of the Moonsea and Darkness Over Daggerford. In addition, this patch includes hundreds of improvements to existing art and models that resolve visual artifacts and crashes.
New Toolset Content Includes
Enhancements to existing Forest and Rural Winter tilesets (These enhancements are available as new tilesets for custom content and are now enabled in the original campaign and official DLCs.)
All blueprints and palettes from Ossian premium modules: Items, Creatures, Placeables
Tilesets, Microsets, & Additions:
- Castle Exterior
- Lizardfolk Interior
- Medieval City
- Medieval Rural
- Mountain Snow
- Seaships
- Docking Ship Groups
Items:
- Wand of Orcus
- 3 New Shield Types
- Brass Candlestick “Torch”
Soundsets:
- 42 Ambient Music Soundsets
- 25 Ambient Sounds
- 5 Creature Soundsets
Doorway Tiles:
- Crypts
- City Interiors
New Skybox Texture: Icy, Clear Sky
476 Assorted Placeables
One of the richest elements of Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is the content created by community members, so it will be exciting to see what new adventures fans create with the toolset update.
Improvements and Bug Fixes
The patch is packed with many more features and fixes, including a notable improvement to pathfinding in areas with multiple creatures/placeables, and some long-requested features for modders.
If you’re interested in reading the full patch notes, you can find them on
Beamdog’s website.
Get the Update!
The update to
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition is now available when you buy the game on GOG.COM.
