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Author Topic: Dear NWN  (Read 2347 times)

Acacea

Dear NWN
« on: June 20, 2010, 11:19:09 am »
Dear Neverwinter Nights,

I never actually finished your official campaign (any of them), and most of even my favorite modules were left off around 95% completion. No more than a handful of areas from the module project I started were ever done, even though building was the only reason I went PW surfing to begin with. I am a poor modeler and have not given you any shiny new toys like other people have over the years, as with my most valiant efforts I am generally just translating the work of others to work for us. I rarely finish stories, and my scripting in any language is akin to the tourist that greets natives with "the cat is black" and says his farewells as "the cheese is stinky".

I only dabbled with your sequel, and even when I poked my head into another PW I didn't speak with another soul. I bought that nice premium module that I heard was very good, but like other very good modules I only got halfway through it, along with that expansion. Expansions. I've found that the things I love most about your sequel are the models that got ripped from it and given to you. Enjoy!

I did not get you a card, because I hate cards, and also I don't care for wrapping paper, bows, and in general anyone bothering me, and also I am officially 2 days late. But I thought I would say it anyway.

Happy 8th Birthday, NWN!

Eight years later you are getting some of the best content since your release. Here are just a few examples of the continued labors of love on your behalf, to cheer you and make up for my own lack of contribution. I did not even count the last patch they labored on for you, and the premium modules that were cancelled but given to the community, or any of the older content that is still in the top ranks!

NWShader (Ignore them when they say adding bloom to NWN is like putting lipstick on a pig - they should have said gilding a lily. The possibilities cannot be measured!)
NWNCQ
NWN Enhanced
sixesthrice's pretty tilesets
CTP Babylon
CEP 2.3 (the new DM tools are crazy!)
Senemenelas' Underdark Tileset
KotoR Heads
SciFi Placeables
Worms Fantasy Interiors
Sen's Seasonal Workshop (remember when we were trying to make the seasons change dynamically with worms, NWN? That was silly. This is easy.)
Community Music Pack

Lastly, while I do not have anything of my own that is anything of note, and have not in general added to your lifespan with so much as a font, you must understand that with your kind I am a fickle creature. Drawn to shiny and ever dissatisfied with its empty reflection, I move on and on and on from "games," leaving a trail of open manuals and dusty boxes behind me, bouncing from latest and greatest back to Betrayal at Krondor, Mario, and King's Quest, and, more recently, Lemmings. Forget all the others. You are the only one I have been (semi-)faithful to, and with you are the only characters (singular) I've made that have lasted any significant length of time, even when we are called silly for still caring about a game nearing a decade-old and wanting to do good things for it. Did I say a decade? No, no, you are closer to 5 than 10. Forget all that.

So thank you for the toolset, and thank you for Acacea, and happy birthday!

Filatus

Re: Dear NWN
« Reply #1 on: June 20, 2010, 11:52:18 am »
Happy Birthday! (NWN better hit the thanks button, it's customary for birthday threads) :P
 

Chazzler

Re: Dear NWN
« Reply #2 on: June 20, 2010, 12:14:42 pm »
I love the NWShader and NWNCQ!!

Thanks for letting me and us know!
 

Acacea

Re: Dear NWN
« Reply #3 on: June 20, 2010, 12:43:24 pm »
PS: I do not mean to detract from your birthday well-wishes, but I feel it is imperative that I explain to you, NWN, what something like NWShader will do for you, even in its current alpha state. Laugh at bloom and SSAO all you like, but you must understand that users can make their own shaders... and that peachykeen has made them accessible via NWScript. For you, he has made a reality the possibility of taking the same old quest area and adding a moody red shader to all player clients for some abyss. All you need is a player with NWShader... and of course, a moody red shader to begin with. It doesn't even crash those who don't have it, which is something of a miracle for you. Ignore that.

Here we are testing the theory of "If he builds it, they will come," and hoping for ourselves to become more shader-savvy for modding, and for those who already are to unleash a host of goodies for it.

He also has material shaders working, as you can see with the glorious mithril golems, and chico was drafted into CEP and is working on his own set of shaders for his override project NWNCQ in addition to the textures he has already released. Material shaders and NWscript means you can set shaders on a specific material at will.

In case I have not explained to you fully this newest and most wonderful of presents, please be directed to youtube for hints of what might be done with it. These are not even new :)

YouTube - NWShader: Scripting
YouTube - NWShader: Normal mapping
YouTube - NWShader: Velvet
YouTube - NWShader: Material Shaders
YouTube - NWShader: Xyr & area shaders

All this, and Bahamut, the current release, is an alpha. I didn't even need a critical rebuild after it, like I thought I did for Asgorath. You are loved!
 

peachykeen

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    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #4 on: June 26, 2010, 07:14:34 pm »
    Quote from: Acacea
    For you, he has made a reality the possibility of taking the same old quest area and adding a moody red shader to all player clients for some abyss. All you need is a player with NWShader... and of course, a moody red shader to begin with.


    ;)

    Code: [Select]

    // Abyssal Plane Shader
    // Red-map and horiz-jag

    sampler2D lastShader = sampler_state {
    generateMipMap = true;
    minFilter = LinearMipMapLinear;
    magFilter = Linear;
        WrapS = Mirror;
        WrapT = Mirror;
    };

    sampler2D lastFrame = sampler_state {
    generateMipMap = true;
    minFilter = LinearMipMapLinear;
    magFilter = Linear;
        WrapS = Mirror;
        WrapT = Mirror;
    };

    float3 black = { 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 };
    float3 white = { 1.00, 0.75, 0.10 };

    float shader_flags = 0x0001; // off by default
    float rand;
    float time;

    float2 viewport = { 1/1024, 1/768 };

    float3 lumContrib = { 0.33, 0.61, 0.16 };

    float getLum(float3 input)
    {
    float3 adj = input * lumContrib;
    return ( adj.r + adj.g + adj.b );
    }

    float4 xyr_abyssal_func(float2 uv : TEXCOORD) : COLOR
    {
    float4 color = tex2D(lastShader, uv);
    float value = getLum(color.rgb);
    int timeD = time;
    //timeD = timeD % 100;
    timeD = abs( (float)( timeD % 100 ) - 50);

    float4 temp = tex2D(lastShader, float2(uv.x - (viewport.x * ( 1 + rand * value ) ), uv.y));
    temp += tex2D(lastShader, float2(uv.x + (viewport.x * ( 1 + rand * value ) ), uv.y));
    temp += tex2D(lastShader, float2(uv.x - (viewport.x * ( 1 + rand * value ) ), uv.y));
    temp += tex2D(lastShader, float2(uv.x + (viewport.x * ( 1 + rand * value ) ), uv.y));
    temp /= 4;
    value += getLum(temp.rgb);
    value /= 2;

    color.rgb = lerp(black, white, value + ( timeD / 5000 ) );
    color.g *= color.g;

    return color;
    }


    technique xyr_abyssal
    {
    pass
    {
    FragmentProgram =
    compile latest xyr_abyssal_func();
    }
    }

    (save as something .cgfx)

    Quote
    Here we are testing the theory of "If he builds it, they will come," and hoping for ourselves to become more shader-savvy for modding, and for those who already are to unleash a host of goodies for it.

    I hope so. I'll be making what I can, too.

    YouTube - NWShader: Infinite view

    (hope you all don't mind me dropping in, I occasionally Google for mentions and caught yours this time 'round. Cheers. :) )
     

    Makashi

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #5 on: June 27, 2010, 09:11:32 am »
    Quick question, does the seasonal tileset work/being used on layonara?
     

    Acacea

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #6 on: June 27, 2010, 01:43:59 pm »
    Certainly. We have a lot of areas made with it, but it is not updated to the latest version. The others in the list were done more recently, though ;)

    It's the tileset with all the little twisted trees... Alindor, black ice, Blackford, Silkwood, etc.
     

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #7 on: June 28, 2010, 07:16:31 pm »
    Here is a teaser of the NWNCQ screenshot taken at Near Bay of Carocsa. Using the full extended plus version of the override with the 1.22 patch. And the best part, now that I have a older video card (min died last Monday) I still have no lag on full graphics!!


    Filatus

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #8 on: June 28, 2010, 07:51:24 pm »
    I think I might check it out.. does it require pixelshader 2.0?
     

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #9 on: June 28, 2010, 08:07:17 pm »
    No, and in fact I suggest that unless you have a "new" video card, you not us nwshader I have to do a complete reinstall  of nwn because of it :mad: NWNCQ works like a charm though.

    Chazzler

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #10 on: June 29, 2010, 08:01:06 am »
    Just a FYI, you should be aware that if you use the Plus version files (ie: copy them from the .../nwn/override/plusversionwhatchamacallit folder to /nwn/override , some places are VERY crowded with trees and shrubs you can pass through. Making it a bit hard to navigate.
    One place of such is the entrance to the swamps outside of miritrix (sharawoods), and another is just north from Hilm Castle.

    So if you use nwncq, I'd suggest you not to copy these files to the override.

    The basic plus version does not use these files automatically though.
     

    Chazzler

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #11 on: June 29, 2010, 08:05:47 am »
    Oh, and as said by HB above there, NWShader could be tough for older graphic cards to handle, since it gives the Bloom effect and uses prettier (newer) shaders.
    His card (ATI 1600 something) was not able to handle the NWShader, but cards around and above the performance of say Geforce 8800X and so on should be able to handle the stuff with ease.

    If you have trouble with the NWShader, simply run the HookRemover.exe, and remove the files that you copied to /nwn/

    Here's a list of the files (the ones that are in the .rar)
    /nwshader/ (folder), cg.dll, cgGL.dll, DevlL.dll, dinput.dll, EasyHook32.dll, glew32dll, Hook Remover.exe
     

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #12 on: June 29, 2010, 06:59:38 pm »
    The hookremover doesn't replace the .exe though so you will have to replace it manually with a back up you did. This was one of the problem I was having with it.

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #13 on: June 29, 2010, 07:00:37 pm »
    An other screeny of the NWNCQ mod. Port Hempstead



    Too bad that it doesn't do the corners, I wonder if someone *hint hint at scriptwreck :P * would be able to fix that.

    Fort Wayfare



    The inside of the basic guilds which are based on the city interior. This might be where i find that this mod is a bit short. Some of the overlay seemed too drawn but still, it's a really nice mod.

    Entrance


    Room to the right of the entrance


    Room to the left of the entrance

    Chazzler

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #14 on: June 30, 2010, 04:06:40 am »
    Actually the nwmain.exe remains untouched by the NWShader as far as I can tell.
    We tried the .exe replacement and it didn't do any good for you at the first place :)
    After we removed the last bit of the .dll files (dynamic link library), namely the dinput.dll which by it's name I'd say links to the other .dll's of NWShader, your NWN started working again?


    Quote from: Hellblazer
    The hookremover doesn't replace the .exe though so you will have to replace it manually with a back up you did. This was one of the problem I was having with it.
     

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #15 on: June 30, 2010, 05:10:05 am »
    Yeah because I realized later that there was still one of it's added file. But when you read the Hookremover.exe when it's asking you for the okay to proceed, you clearly read that "Hookremover will now replace the nwnmain.exe by a backup that was previously made."

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #16 on: July 01, 2010, 07:07:43 am »
    Well for some reason the forum wont let me upload pictures today, says the image is being processed. skips the screen where it asks you to make sure this is the image and where you can add the title and comment, to your image has been processed, but no image appearing in the gallery so hmmm.. Anyhow

    Here is KRANDOR! I love the rustic feel NWNCQ gives it



    And to give a better idea here is the non NWNCQ krandor notice the houses



    And here is the NWNCQ version of about the same shot.



    It's unfortunate that the video card I have now doesn't process the shiny water *shakes fists at Radeon* but eh.

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #17 on: July 01, 2010, 07:23:15 am »
    Quote from: Acacea
    Certainly. We have a lot of areas made with it, but it is not updated to the latest version. The others in the list were done more recently, though ;)

    It's the tileset with all the little twisted trees... Alindor, black ice, Blackford, Silkwood, etc.


    Dapplegreen :)

    Hellblazer

    Re: Dear NWN
    « Reply #18 on: July 01, 2010, 10:40:05 pm »
    I guess I'm an screenshot addict.

    The wandering dune caves.


    peachykeen

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      Re: Dear NWN
      « Reply #19 on: July 08, 2010, 12:19:17 pm »
      As far as the removing NWShader/nwshader can break your game discussion...

      An older version of NWShader did patch the NWMain.exe file. A lot of people didn't like that, so I took some time and research and found a different way to hook it in. The hook remover tool is only included for people who used the old version (Asgorath) and need to remove that.
      For the later versions, you can just remove/rename dinput.dll (that's the core of NWShader) and NWN won't try to load it. So, with the latest version, there's no installation and removing it is just moving that file. Pretty simple, I think. :)

      Those screens look great, though.

      And I'm working on a new shiny water for ATis, so hopefully that'll be together soon. :)