Neverwinter Nights 2 Forum

Hi -

So I followed K. E. Munroe's instructions - the only exception being to use abeta's trick with a regedit to get the updater to work properly - and installed NWN2 (patched to 1.23) followed by MotB (patched to 1.23).

Now I run it and I get:

(1) White screen

followed by

(2) Black screen, with white strip across the top, and the NWN2 pointer

If I <Alt+Enter> it drops me to a window with the NWN2 opening menu.

Then if I click through to create a new character I have problem number 3: the character avatar seems somewhat oversaturated in colour with almost metallic reflections/tinting to the skin. This is definitely odd - and not what I see if I run nwn2 in vmware fusion on the same mac (new MBP, NVIDIA 9600M GT).

I'm new to Mac, and new to COG... but does anyone have any ideas?

EDIT:

A bit more info:

(1) this is my first experience with MotB installed - could that be something to do with it (ie vs. NWN2 pre xp1 or 2)?

(2) I think it has something to do with shadows - if I drop to 'Low' then the problem seems to resolve, although it remains an issue with the portraits. With character shadows on I get a shadow ghosting of the active character (looks a bit like a shadowy haze; the effect is like putting a shadow under a picture in e.g. Powerpoint) - the 'soft shadows' option, which is just unusable.

So the question now is what's wrong with 'character shadows' and is it a NWN:MotB issue, or a COG issue, or a 'my installation' issue???

UPDATE: playing with the shadows seems to make the character playable once leaving Daegun's (sp?) house , but DOESN'T resolve the issue in the character generator (which seems to set the portraits). It you want to get a sense of what it looks light, think pretty harsh lighting, overly contrasty image.

So if anyone has any ideas about the graphical glitch, I'm more than willing to listen...

Oh, and the toolset doesn't work for toffee - big problems getting anything other than a white screen - minimising and returning to full size lets me see the menus, but that's about as far as it goes.

The Toolset won't work because COG doesn't fully support .NET 2.0, which the Toolset requires.

I occasionally notice a problem similar to yours with shadows above "low." I think it is a COG issue. As for the harsh lighting issue, this only happens for me when there is rain falling in the area, at which point the entire screen gets washed out. I haven't noticed the same problem with the portraits.

It's possible you will get some positive results with abeta's additional regedit steps:

"
Run Regedit (Programs -> Run Command -> Browse -> windows -> Regedit and Select your bottle) and install/change the following keys:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]

DirectDrawRenderer=opengl
UseGLSL=Enabled
VideoMemorySize=512
OffScreenRenderingMode=fbo
"

Most likely the Direct3D key doesn't exist; you can create it in that location and then add the strings. The OffScreenRenderingMode in particular appears to be an Nvidia-specific tweak, since on ATI cards changing the OffScreenRenderingMode causes considerable skybox tearing. If I'm not mistaken the other three strings are already set by default within COG, but it couldn't hurt to add them.

Another couple suggestions:

• See if you notice any difference if you set the game to full screen vs. windowed mode.
• Try setting the NWN2 bottle to use a virtual desktop (in winecfg, I think), with a resolution matching the game resolution, with the game set to full screen (to fill the virtual desktop, not necessarily the whole screen)

Going full screen in one form or another (with or without the virtual desktop) may make COG do graphics rendering differently, at least enough to resolve some of the graphical glitches.

Thanks for the suggestions, but nothing makes a difference.

Exploring further, while twiddling the shadows works for the external areas, nothing seems to have an impact inside. So I'm guessing there are actually two issues here, and the major issue is something to do with the way lighting effects are applied in the internal areas - which would explain why it is also the same in the character generation/level-up screen. Just need some way to dial down the contrast...

Nick Newton-Fisher wrote:

Thanks for the suggestions, but nothing makes a difference.

Exploring further, while twiddling the shadows works for the
external areas, nothing seems to have an impact inside. So I'm
guessing there are actually two issues here, and the major issue is
something to do with the way lighting effects are applied in the
internal areas - which would explain why it is also the same in the
character generation/level-up screen. Just need some way to dial
down the contrast...

Ok, so using the directions I wrote I have my normal bottle. I exported it to my business MacBook Pro which has the Nvidia 9400/9600 video card.

If I DON'T have any Direct3D entries or UseGLSL=disabled I get the "metallic" look.

I put in these registry entries:

DirectDrawRenderer=gdi
UseGLSL=Enabled
VideoMemorySize=256 <=== MacBook Pro only has 256MB
OffScreenRenderingMode=fbo

That fixes the "metallic" look for me on the Nvidia. I went through character creation and started SoZ and got to the deck of the ship and checked the maps, character screen (looked fine).

I also went in an turned off all of the "Quality" buttons inside of NWN2.

Thanks for the suggestions, this thing is driving me nuts - knowing that you all have this working, and I'm still trying to figure out the problem.

For the record, the white/black screen thing has gone away since starting the game in full screen (a brief white screen before the logo start rolling is acceptable!)

re. the 'metallic' look - nothing seems to make a blind bit of difference. UseGLSL=Enabled or Disabled. DirectDrawRenderer=gdi or opengl, VideoMemory set to 256 or 512 (9600M GT has 512 according to my system) in game graphic options all max'd, or all min'd - as soon as I get to the character creation screen, the harsh lighting / metallic effect is present. I can change the texture quality and that shows up in the character creator, but I can't shake the lighting effect.

The only thing I haven't done is install the dll files that abeta lists - not sure about downloading system files from a random website??

One other thing comes to mind - you've all installed SoZ; I'm just on MotB. Could that have something to do with it???

[EDIT] Now it's spontaneous developed a R6034 runtime error. Looks like I'll have to start again from scratch. Only takes me 5hrs to patch to 1.23 twice... Aaarrrgghhhh.....

Nick Newton-Fisher wrote:

The only thing I haven't done is install the dll files that abeta
lists - not sure about downloading system files from a random
website??

I'm not sure MotB or SoZ matters here as I can make mine behave like you describe by tweaking the registry.

There's a fairly common DLL site or you can pull it from a working Windows system that you have access. You have a newer MacBook Pro than I do as I have only 256MB on my 9600GT but I know the newer ones have more.

As far as the R6034 runtime error goes, I think you can just reinstall the C++ runtime.

If you're going to pull the DLLs I'd suggest following my directions as well. I'm pretty sure I tried different ordering of steps without any luck.

ie, I had similar problems which were driving me crazy too as all of the instructions I found didn't work for me hence my specific directions. It seemed to be the only combination that I tripped across that worked for me.

I absolutely understand Caron's request for How-Tos and your frustration. There's nothing like seeing everyone else having it run and the instructions not working for you.

Still no joy. Did a new installation, just of NWN (no MotB), following abeta's instructions (although no copy of d3dx9_36 in my windows installation, so couldn't add that!). Exactly the same problem - harsh lighting and the consequent 'metallic' appearance.

Editing the registry doesn't seem to make a difference so perhaps the Direct3D key isn't being recognised or is being ignored (although how that could happen I have no idea) or maybe there's a driver issue if my MBP has a different driver from yours? What I find doubly annoying is that NWN2 runs fine (if slower, with much lower graphics settings) via vmware fusion on the same MBP!

I'm out of ideas.

I don't think the DLLs are an issue at this point as the DLLs would prevent it from running for me.

Differences are MotB and SoZ and you have a newer 9600GT which could be drivers I guess.

I would think the MotB and SoZ uses the same engine?

I could believe your 9600GT uses a different driver...but no idea how to test that.

While I realize this isn't actually helpful, I think I know where the problem is. There is a switch in the Toolset that turns directional lighting on/off in interiors. This switch doesn't exist for exteriors (which use a different mechanism). As far as lighting goes, that's the only significant difference between interior and exterior areas. I suspect, therefore, that you will not encounter the metallic lighting problem if you enter an interior that doesn't have directional lighting on (such as a crypt, which would most likely be kept dark).

Since I think you have the same problem that I have during rain (exteriors with rain seem to use the same lighting switch, at least in part), if I find a solution to my problem it may well be a solution to yours as well. So we'll keep our fingers crossed on both ends!

Nick Newton-Fisher wrote:

What I find doubly annoying is that NWN2 runs fine (if slower, with
much lower graphics settings) via vmware fusion on the same MBP!

Which Fusion are you running? When I went from 2 to 3 I found that NWN2 got a lot peppier, and I can use settings close to what I use in COG. (I set Fusion to appear in a window, but set the game to use fullscreen 1280x800 or somesuch, so it fills the Fusion window.)

As for taking 5 hours to update. . . part of the reason I chose to go with the manual update method was to avoid having to re-download the files every time. My suggestion would be to download and store the manual patch files somewhere, and use the manual patcher, if you find yourself reinstalling the game. It takes significantly less time over the long run.

Last ditch ideas, gleaned from http://www.tweakguides.com/NWN2_7.html and http://www.tweakguides.com/NWN2_8.html

• try the ATIWorkAroundForPointLightShadows=0 setting
• try the rain 0 console command (you never know)
• try gfxoptions console command

Well....since this was bugging and I had the long weekend...I have good news and bad news.

Good news is you're not crazy. It isn't something different between MotB and SoZ as I went through and installed only to MotB and I can reproduce your exact problem where it looks like it doesn't recognize any of the registry keys and is always metallic looking.

Bad news is I have no idea how to fix it.

Soo...if I go through the steps on my work MacBook Pro with the Nvidia 9400/9600M it will always be metallic. If I go through the steps listed on my MacBook Pro with the ATI card and EXPORT an archive to my Nvidia MacBook Pro and change the registry keys, I don't have this problem.

If it was the drivers, I would think that simply exporting a bottle made on my ATI MacBook and importing it into the Nvidia MacBook would have the same problem.

I'm guessing its something in some installation with the Nvidia card that is causing the problem. ie. It seems the Nvidia card and does something different than on the ATI. I don't know if its NWN2 or one of the VC runtimes, etc.

That said...I have no idea how to workaround this particular problem 😥

Good to know I'm not seeing things - and for the record this seems to be in addition to the 'washed out' look when it rains. Now all I have to do is buy another mac with an ATI card... this'll be an expensive game!! Given that I'm not going to do that, seems I'm stuck. You wouldn't feel like running up a support ticket, given that you can reproduce the issue?

It must be COG issue (even if it's the temperamental NWN2 interacting with COG), given that it doesn't seem to occur running NWN2 under vmware fusion on the MBP with 9400/9600 - i.e. not a graphics card issue per se.

I have a ticket open at this time and I've been given some ideas to try, nothing with success yet.

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/tickets/browse/?ticket_id=774341;layout=user_tickets;sort%5Bstatus%5D=ASC

I don't think its the graphics card per se either or I wouldn't be able to import a bottle either but not sure where the interaction is failing.

It might be when NWN2 is installing and going down a different code path where it sees a different video card. So I could believe its something NWN2 as well but not sure.

Translate that as I'm willing to believe anything right now 😋