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Bioware Releases Neverwinter Nights Linux Client Beta 335

Posted by timothy from the but-it's-only-spring-first dept.
valedaemon writes "Well, I thought that the world would end before this day dawned, but Bioware has finally made good on its promise of a Linux client for Neverwinter Nights. You still need a Windows installation in order to copy the game data, but the good news is that the downloadable is only 4.4 MB. I could write more, but why? Go play!"
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Bioware Releases Neverwinter Nights Linux Client Beta More

Bioware Releases Neverwinter Nights Linux Client Beta

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  • Not all features represented (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:31PM (#5560939)
    Server browsing and chat are disabled in this beta.

    • Oh, great (Score:3, Funny)

      by Len ( 89493 )
      Someone just logged in and started slaughtering all the nurses and civilians.

      Looks like there's no difference between Linux and Windows users after all.

  • Woo Hoo! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by FPCat ( 646737 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:32PM (#5560943)
    Now I never have to boot Windows again!!!

  • Link (Score:5, Informative)

    by m0rph3us0 ( 549631 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:32PM (#5560951)
    if you dont want to login to their site. download direct from here [bioware.com]

    • W00...close call for me. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:53PM (#5561125)
      ROFLMAO!

      I entered the cave.
      *use lantern*

      The lantern lights a path and you see linuxNWN.tar.gz
      *download linuxNWN.tar.gz*

      You hath established connection and are downloading linuxNWN.tar.gz at 88KBps
      *wistle dixie*

      10% ... @80KBps

      *wistles*

      35% ... @65KBps

      *wistles faster*

      52% ... @40KBps

      *curse thy slashdot*

      You have cursed at the slashdot administrators.
      *grin*

      A firey elementa of CowboyNeal appears before you.
      *grovel*

      CowboyNeal demands, "Why hath though cursed me through these halls, lest though die from thy vile dead?"
      *kiss feet, explain the echoing of words on slashdot as being construed by the kobolds, trolls, and gnomes in the walls of this dungeon, and the stress from the occasional double post*

      CowboyNeal forgives, leaving warning: "You hath finish thy download at a mere 10KBps, and henceforth I will shut up further seeds from download of thy file by SLASHDOT AFFECT!"
      *praise cowboyneal for sparring thy download*

      99.999999% ... @10KBps
      *shake off tarantulas, swap file with *NULL, run through hall, jump over chasm, run away from ball*

      Phew, you are panting. You arrive at a lake; a strange man is sitting on a hydrofoil plane and is fishing...
      *play game*

      You die of a poison dart

  • Just downloaded it. (Score:3, Informative)

    by The_Dougster ( 308194 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:34PM (#5560959) Homepage
    And now the fun begins! I've been toying with it somewhat in WinDOS so far. If you liked Baldur's Gate et al then this is for you! (OpenGL required)

    • Success - Debian Woody / GeForce4MX (Score:5, Informative)

      by The_Dougster ( 308194 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @08:12PM (#5561287) Homepage
      Seems to work for me. I just followed the instructions and copied the files from my NTFS partition, extracted the tarball, ran the "fixnwn" script, and the dang thing works! Loaded my save game and everything.

      Neverwinter Nights works with:
      [X] Debian Woody 3.0
      • I have the same situation, I have NWN install on an NTFS partition. For me, it worked perfectly to symlink all the data files it would have me copy to the actual ones on the NTFS drive. As a result, the space occupied on my linux drive is only 13M.

        Why have redundant files when you don't need to? :]

  • Why? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Clockwurk ( 577966 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:34PM (#5560964) Homepage
    You still need a Windows installation in order to copy the game data, but the good news is that the downloadable is only 4.4 MB

    This begs the point, why even bother with a linux version at all? Its nice that Bioware did make the game playable on Linux, but shelling out for a copy of windows to be able to play it seems counter-productive. Second, why didn't Bioware make a linux installer for the game files. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to have a hard-drive based installer that looks to the CD for the data.

    At any rate, Bioware did make good on their promise to support Linux and Linux gamers should be grateful.

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by GweeDo ( 127172 )
      I believe that this had to do with some crappy copy protection scheme they used. Bioware made more than one screw up along the way with this multiplatform release. From day one they said we woudl get a linux client and then they repeatidly used technologies that weren't available for Linux...that is why it took them WAY past launch to even get this beta out the door.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Informative)

      by skt ( 248449 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:43PM (#5561040)
      They mention why on their website, there is no practical way to get the data out of the Windows InstallShield cabinet files under linux.

      • NWN linux installers (Score:5, Informative)

        by LDoggg_ ( 659725 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @08:39PM (#5561453) Homepage
        I made one a few days ago in preparation for this: http://members.cox.net/monteslu/nwn_data_installer .html ravage also made one : http://icculus.org/~ravage/nwn

        • So how is the patching up to 1.29 done?

          Are there any pages anywhere that give detailed instructions on how to install NWN using nothing but Linux and WineX, say?

          • aparently someone (not bioware) is working on a patch for the installer to make the 1.0 data 1.29 data. check out the forums, i'm sure it'll get posted when its up.
    • Its nice that Bioware did make the game playable on Linux, but shelling out for a copy of windows to be able to play it seems counter-productive.

      1. This is just the beta. Things will be different in the final release. They've previously announced that a download (a very large download) would be available for people who needed it.

      2. You can reasonably expect someone to put together an extractor.

      • Yeah, they are going to provide the data as a download. Presumably this is for Mac users who are by no means going to be able to access a Windows partition.

        You still need your cd-key which is an ungodly long unhackable looking thing.

  • Let this be a lesson... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by GweeDo ( 127172 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:36PM (#5560979) Homepage
    First of all, good work Bioware on finally get something into our hands. I hope that what they have gone through can serve as a lesson to others planning to release a game accross multiple platforms. Be sure that the tools you are using exist on each platform. *One* of the longest delays was due to the Video and Sound engine (I believe it was the Miles engine) not be supported in Linux (but then it finally was...it is a long story). This is why we need API's like OpenGL, OpenAL, SDL and the likes. It makes things a lot easier to release on a multiple platforms.

    I also hope Bioware has learned to keep their mouth shut if they don't know when something will be done. They lied to the community more than once about the state of the Linux client and that made many very mad...so...wise up!

    • Re:Let this be a lesson... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportlandNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:39PM (#5561003) Homepage Journal
      I wouldn't say they lied, There lack of experience in this area caused them to make some serious mistakes.
      • They said many times before the Windows client even came out that they had playable Linux clients. After the windows client was released THAT was when they started finding all these show stopping issues. They lied to the community.

      • Just the usual lies (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Len ( 89493 )
        They told the same lie as every other game company, namely that the game was finished when they shipped it. I stopped believing that one a few years ago, and "the Linux client is almost done" didn't sound much different to me.
        • They told the same lie as every other game company
          You know it! Marketing/PR folks tell you what you wish to hear. To them, that is not lying. It is either a means of making a sale, or getting you off their back. There are only truths and and half-truths in the marketing world. The sooner one realizes this, the better.

      • Re:Let this be a lesson... (Score:5, Informative)

        by dr00g911 ( 531736 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @08:58PM (#5561580)
        Try telling that to the scores of Mac users that have since cancelled preorders of the retail box.

        Bioware said specifically up until less than a month before the launch that the Win, Mac and Linux clients would be in the same box, when development of the Mac and Linux-side clients had ceased months before in order to rush the Win version out the door.

        That's not inexperience. That's a flat-out lie. Here we are, almost a year later, and there's still no Mac client, although it's reportedly in beta. Without the DM toolset. And I'm assuming that it's going to be priced as a "premium" game ($60ish).

        I have to say, I've got multiple PCs capable of running NWN under either Win or Linux, and I haven't bought the game out of general principle. When there's a forthcoming Mac version, I hold out in order to support the porters. It's that simple. I put my money where my mouth is.

        My mouth is saying that NWN without the toolset isn't worth the "premium" pricepoint, a year late. And I doubt that I'm alone.

        FWIW, that $60ish is probably going into Shadowbane instead of NWN now, as it really is going to ship hybrid at launch -- I can play with both my Mac-owning friends, *and* those unfortunate enough to be on a Wintel box.

        • $60ish is probably going into Shadowbane instead of NWN now, as it really is going to ship hybrid at launch

          I couldn't agree more. I was really hoping to play Neverwinter Nights with the rest of my gaming group, and also to create my own modules for them to play. It is now months later and I have yet to see even a beta of the MacOS client. Not only that, but they have also said that there will be NO toolset for MacOS. It's bad enough that they short Mac users, but they totally lied to us just about ri

    • First of all, good work Bioware on finally get something into our hands. . . . This is why we need API's like OpenGL, OpenAL, SDL and the likes. It makes things a lot easier to release on a multiple platforms.

      And yet there is no Mac client, which is a platform that not only has the wonderful open technologies you mention, but also has a larger and more captive desktop game market than Linux does. Seems to me that their Linux support is more of a cover-your-ass move than any intelligent development d

      • I wouldn't say that. Porting to Linux from Windows is a hell of a thing. Going from Linux to OSX ought to be a piece of cake.

        Really, OSX could have killed Linux. Remember A/UX? I almost bought a Quadro in '93 just to run A/UX. However, that year Linux popped out and I had my cheapie (compared to a Quadro) 386-40 cranking with DesqView and my BBS. When Debian popped up on the university via ftp I was on it like flies on shit. Unfortunately, my ultra-expensive EGA card (which I scrounged) didn't run X at all
  • Wow, never would have thought this would happen at all.

    Isn't this one of the signs of the Apocalypse?

  • Is a copy of Windows *really* necessary? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by bheerssen ( 534014 ) <bheerssen@gmail.com> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:37PM (#5560990)
    You still need a Windows installation in order to copy the game data, but the good news is that the downloadable is only 4.4 MB.

    Do you actually need to have windows installed, or can you just copy the files from some other installation, or maybe from the game CD? I no longer use unlicensed software, and I refuse to pay for Windows. That does limit my options somewhat.

  • I know what I will be doing this weekend... (Score:3, Funny)

    by absurdhero ( 614828 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:37PM (#5560993) Homepage
    Spending Friday night, Saturday morning and afternoon trying to get OpenGL hardware acceleration working. And all Sunday calling around to my Windows using friends begging for a copy of NWN :)

  • data 3x7r4[70rz (Score:4, Informative)

    by alienhazard ( 660628 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:38PM (#5561000)
    if u dont have a windows install, u can extract the data from ur cds with these toolz: http://icculus.org/~ravage/nwn/nwn_linux_installer .run http://members.cox.net/monteslu/nwn_data_installer .run their may be issues since the stuff extracted from the cds arent patched up to 1.29, but i cant say for sure. reply with info and/or tips if u have any

    • Re:data 3x7r4[70rz (Score:3, Informative)

      by StarTux ( 230379 )
      Indeed,

      Try manual patching, will get updater to 1.14, then I had to do a manual patch rebuild as it was having issues, then it worked and updated.

      StarTux
  • I paid for NWN, and was immensely disappointed.

    Gone were the tactical combats with different party members complementing each other, which I had so loved in Baldur's Gate and other titles.

    NWN is nothing more than a 3d diablo hack'n'slash clickfest as it stands now. The storyline isn't bad but the game as a whole is nothing I'll ever play again or buy sequels to.

    Why oh why did they give up the winning formula from the earlier titles!?

    • Re:Please port Baldur instead... (Score:5, Informative)

      by StarTux ( 230379 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:30PM (#5561828) Journal
      Played NWN and Baldurs Gate...And I am not sure why someone chose to mod up this opinion. NWN is nothing like D2, sure Chapter 1 kinda sucks, but then it really takes off.

      Although with these types of games save/load tends to help a lot in single player. Did like the Green Griffon challenge quite a bit though :). Although thats as far as I got with my Pally.

      Where this is likely to shine the most is with Multiplayer, the above poster obviously has not found a good DM to be with. NWN actually allows too for hack'n slash, but depending on DM and module it does allow for the closest RPG experience there is.

      Baldurs Gate; Great Single player games, no doubting that :). But it wasn't as close to pen and paper D&D...Nor was it 3rd edition as far as I recall.

      StarTux

  • Is it just me? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Mac Degger ( 576336 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:40PM (#5561015) Journal
    Or would this be so much more interesting if it read: "windows NWN install disks still required".

    Not to troll, and kudos to the dev for doing this, but I mean this still relies on someone having paid the MS tax to play the game.

  • WooHoo!! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Choronodon ( 660640 )
    Wonderful. Now the flame wars can really start. At least I'll be happily playing through the campaign again :-)

  • Installing the Linux Client (Score:5, Informative)

    by rossz ( 67331 ) <ogre@@@geekbiker...net> on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:52PM (#5561118) Journal
    Step 1. Install the windoze version on a windoze box.
    step 2. Update the windoze version to 1.29. 18meg download - and it's ssssllllloooowwwww.
    step 3. Copy a pile of files over to your linux box. It would have been nice for them to include a script to do this for me.

    e.g. 'getnwn /path/to/mounted/nwn/directory

    I'll write my own. Hmm, maybe I can just install the Linux client into the mounted windows directory and save me the trouble.

    step 4. Install SDL if you don't already have it.
    step 5. Install the NWN Linux client.
    step 6. Profit!

    Started this message when the update to 1.29 was at 8%. Finished this message at 58%. Damn slow.

  • Benchmarks? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by m0rph3us0 ( 549631 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:53PM (#5561124)
    Anyone have any benchmarks comparing the frame rate to the windows version? or even a it feels faster / slower?

  • Some people just can't do things right... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by aber ( 141743 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @07:54PM (#5561134)
    From the client download page (get the link from head post): You will need to get the Neverwinter Nights game resouces from an existing Windows installation of the 1.29 build of Neverwinter Nights. Why must it be this way, you ask? It is because there is no feasable way to get the game resources from the InstallShield cabinet files on the Windows version CDs.

    What a bunch of idiots... These retards take almost a full year after the release to come up with the Linux client (that they told everyone would be ready for shipping with the cds), and then this. Why should anyone put money in such a half-assed effort like this? Guess what, in the end few Linux users will buy this crap, and those morons will go: "told ya, shouldn't have invested time in the Linux market, Linux is not there yet."

    *sigh* bastards....

    • What a bunch of idiots... These retards take almost a full year after the release to come up with the Linux client (that they told everyone would be ready for shipping with the cds), and then this.

      Arrrgh. They actually shipped the Linux beta and people are still complaining about stuff they did in the past?

      You know. I just saw this thing run. Right from my WindowMaker desktop. No problems. Jesus.

      It is alive. All is forgiven. Not that I was angry in past, but all is forgiven anyway.

      Hey, the point i

  • B10\/\/4r3 are 1337 h4x0rz (Score:5, Funny)

    by Soko ( 17987 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @08:09PM (#5561269) Homepage
    From the Bioware page:

    You will have to purchase a copy of the game to get a valid Neverwinter Nights CD-Key. Of course, with this purchase you also get a lovely Neverwinter Nights mapkin, a spiral-bound game manual, and three plastic-coated aluminum-reinforced W1nd0z3 brand coasters.

    Heh. Think they know who thier audience is, or what?

    Soko

  • Laugh it up, fuzzball (Score:3, Insightful)

    by daVinci1980 ( 73174 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @08:23PM (#5561354) Homepage
    Well, I thought that the world would end before this day dawned


    Now that's the way to get more developers to release products for linux. Make fun of those that do.
  • Of course, it was shot already with the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, but there's always time before and after games.

    Any my wife will be away for the weekend, so there's nothing to worry about there.

    Oops, forgot I have to watch the kids. Oh well, they're 6 and 2 - that's old enough to fend for yourself, right?
  • Just played a little Pools of Radiance mod (my personal favorite mod) and it looks and works great for me. Stock Mandrake 9.1rc2 install, and I only had NWN version .27 not .29

  • Great! (Score:2)

    by fialar ( 1545 )
    Now all we have to do is convince Mythic [mythicentertainment.com] to make a Linux client for Dark Age of Camelot [darkageofcamelot.com] and I would never have to run Windows ever again!

  • MemeticAI Toolkit (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kilkonie ( 178841 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:31PM (#5561834)
    If you're just starting out using NeverwinterNights and you want to try playing with A-life or behavioral programming, I have a project that may be interesting to you:

    MemeitcAI Toolkit Website [summermeat.net]

    It's a rewrite of Bioware's AI architecture, to allow modular behaviors that can be reprioritized, transferred, preempted (and automatically resumed), as well as a host of other features. There is a Bioware board dedicated to the project with about 150 memebers, available here:

    MemeticAI Guild Site [bioware.com]

    There is also a PDF explaining in detail what can be done with the core scheduler and what is in-progress. This can be found here:

    MemeticToolkit PDF [summermeat.net]

  • Windows requires means this is a dud (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tom ( 822 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @09:37PM (#5561879) Homepage Journal
    Let me check. If I had a windows install, wouldn't I be playing that since last year and not care much about the Linux client?

  • The Reason (Score:5, Interesting)

    by RobertKozak ( 613503 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @10:00PM (#5562005) Homepage

    My guess is that they were waiting for some tools from Borland [borland.com] on the linux side.
    Bioware's engine was written with Borland C++ Builder [borland.com] on Windows and they needed to use Kylix 3 [borland.com] which allows them to compile C/C++ code as well as Delphi. [borland.com]
    Disclaimer: I worked on the first couple of versions of Kylix when I used to work at Borland. That said, I just want to say it really is a great development environment and you should check it out if you haven't yet. They have an Enterprise Trial and an Open Edition which can be downloaded here. [borland.com]
    --
    Karma: Positive --- Seems I haven't screwed up yet!

  • OMG Finally (Score:3, Funny)

    by boola-boola ( 586978 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @10:07PM (#5562045)
    It's finally here! It's finally here! It's finally here! /me runs around screaming like a little girl, then runs straight into a wall and passes out, forgetting that it all happened... only to wake up, obsessively check Slashdot, see the headline, and repeat the cycle...

    But seriously, wow, I've been waiting almost a year for this (okay, maybe more like 9 months or so). I'm pretty happy that it's here now, since this expands the number of games I can play in Linux without having to reboot back into Windows. w00t! Although, honestly, is there even a reason I should play it in Linux rather than Windows (other than me being too lazy to reboot)? Since it's a beta it's rather crippled, and at this rate, I'm not sure it'll EVER run "as well" as the Windows version. I'm not too convinced with my Linux Q3A and RtCW (Punkbuster and performance are not up to par in Linux compared to Windows). We shall see.

    /me goes to install the Linux client...

  • Not really late.. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by palp ( 90815 ) on Thursday March 20, 2003 @11:02PM (#5562331) Homepage
    Lots of people are complaining that this is too late, and that they should have released a linux client with the box, and so on, and so forth..

    But the fact is, the game wasn't done when it came out. You can hardly blame them for not having a linux client ready when nothing else was, either. It was very obviously pushed out the door incomplete.

    For instance, the HUGE faction bug was just fixed, last week. I bought the game the day it came out, and have barely played it due to this bug. Now that it's fixed (along with a host of other problems, and new content, like rats, that should have been in there from the beginning) the game is where it should have been when it was released.

    I'm not blaming the developers, of course, as that's the state of the industry. Games are pushed out before they're ready all the time. This is just another instance of that, and it's admirable that they're still working hard on a Linux client that they will probably see very few sales as a result of (most people who are going to play it on Linux probably already own it).

  • Linux NWN Client (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Netmonger ( 3253 )
    Wow!!!

    Its working great here! (my system stats: p4 2.0G 512Mb gentoo linux kernel 2.4.20-gentoo-r1, GeForce 4600TI, SB Live)

    I tested campaign, multi-player coop, ramped up the video options.. The only thing I DIDNT test was custom content..

    Its all working great! NWN in Linux!!

    Woo Hoo!!

    There is but a single bug I have found and that is with the mouse control.

    Im going to send in a bug report - its probally not a big deal to fix..

    Fantastic job BioWare!! You have seriously pushed forward into new ter
  • CAn anyone confirm whether it works fine under FreeBSD ?
    • I've tried to get it to work under FreeBSD, but the closest it comes is just crashing the X server. My configuration is:
      • FreeBSD 5-CURRENT
      • Dell Inspirion 8200
      • nVidia GeForce4 440 Go with nVidia drivers
      • linux_base port (RedHat 7.1)
      • linux_glx port
      I symlinked libGLU.so.3 to libGLU.so.1 to pacify the binary, but that may be part of the problem. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know!
  • Just wanted to point out to everyone (it's been mentioned before in some replys, but what the heck) that there are *TWO* unofficial Linux data installers available here [cox.net] and here [icculus.org]. All you need are your installation CDs. No Windows partition required.

    After installing the data, you're then going to need some form of Wine (the latest Wine worked for me). You then add the following to the end of ~/.wine/system.reg:

    [Software//Bioware//NWN//Neverwinter] 1048122278
    "Location"="X://nwn"

    With drive X (or what

  • Tried it, General Impressions (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Kenneth ( 43287 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @04:00AM (#5563155) Homepage
    After playing NWN under Windows for quite a while, here are my general impressions of the NWN Linux Client.

    • It's a bit slower than NWN for windows. I don't know if it's their inexpierence with Linux, or the more strict, orthagonality and greater number of layers to X. I suspect a combination of both.[1] On the other hand, it might be because I run a lot more on the Linux side of my machine, and killing a lot of those processes might help
    • It really needs a Linux installer. I suspect that getting the resources for Linux was some of the Legal issues mentioned on the NWN Linux site. For those without Windows partitions, find a friend with a burner and a windows machine. You might have to zip things, and massage the files because it's about 2gb, but it should work as long as you get everything back where it goes. On the other hand, if you have a windows machine on your network, install it there, update it, and transfer the files to your Linux box. I would be willing to bet that you could make it work even if it doesn't come close to the system requirments. After all, you just need the files, not to play it on that machine. Still, they need to find a way to get an installer.
    • You don't need the disk in to play. I found that out by accident. I had a different disk in, forgot it wasn't NWN, ran the game, and it worked.
    • It is still lacking. There isn't movie support (not that I could sit through the movies more than once anyway), and there is no toolkit. These should be added, although it looks like they won't be.

    I applaud Bioware for their effort. They have given an ok first showing. They could have and really should have done a lot better, but the incompetance I've seen there isn't any worse than I've seen anywhere else. I think both the bosses and the programmers at Bioware need to be forced to read and pass a comprehension test on The Mythical Man Month, since it appears that they made every classic mistake the book warns about, of course so does virtually every other company that has someone write software for any reason, so I can't condemn them too much.

    We want to play nice with anyone that tries to bring games to Linux. After all, it's a risk for them. Their marketers are telling them that Linux just doesn't have that much market share, so there's little reason to support it. If other companies are watching this, and believe me they are, whether or not they decide to support Linux will be determined by what happens to those that have gone before. If the expierence is negative, they will be less likely to support Linux in the long run.

    [1] It is handy to be able to export a display etc, but doesn't that add a whole lot ov overhead? It seems to me that it would give much better performance to have a local only X server, for the average desktop machine. Of course include the regular one, but why waste those system resoruces.

  • Answering some of the dumber flames. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Kenneth ( 43287 ) on Friday March 21, 2003 @06:41AM (#5563613) Homepage
    First off, there are features missing. Some will be enabled in future builds, as this is beta1. Don't sweat those.

    Second, you don't actually need windows installed, all you need is access to the game resources.

    From the instructions here [bioware.com]

    2. Copy the following files from a Windows installation of Neverwinter Nights (updated to 1.29) into a directory called, for example, 'nwn':

    ambient/*
    [snip long list of directories]
    dialog.tlk
    dialogF.tlk (French, German, Italian, and Spanish)

    If you are using ftp to transfer the files, be sure to transfer them in binary mode.

    Note the last statment in step 2. You don't need NWN installed on the windows partition of the machine you're using. It only needs to be installed on a machine you can get to. For that matter, I would bet that that machine doesn't even need to be anywhere near up to the task of running NWN. Install it, update it, and use ftp. Bioware is actually suggesting that you get them from another machine.

    Other options would include:
    Grabbing the files from someone who has them and a burner. You might have to get creative and use several cd's as well as creative use of zip, and then be careful to put things where they're supposed to be, but there is no reason it wouldn't work.

    Even an old machine with win95osr1 should be able to handle the install, and update scripts. The game doesn't actually have to work on that machine, it only has to install and update.

    Third, this is still a beta. From the old Linux update page [bioware.com] (Before the beta client was released):
    Neverwinter Nights Linux Client Installation:
    There are 2 things you will need for the Neverwinter Nights Linux Client, aside from the Linux Client executable:
    - the game resources
    - a CD-Key

    You will need to get the Neverwinter Nights game resouces from one of two locations. You can either get them from an existing Windows installation of the English 1.27 build of Neverwinter Nights, or from a Neverwinter Nights Linux Game Resource download that will be available from several mirror sites. Either way, instructions will be provided with the downloads. Why must it be this way, you ask? It is because there is no feasable way to get the game resources from the InstallShield cabinet files on the Windows version CDs.

    Read that carefully. There apparently will be resource files for download, they just don't appear to be ready yet. It does make me wonder though, if the Stand alone server can work for getting the resources. I tend to doubt it.

    This all said, it would be better to have some sort of installer. As others have posted that such things are possible, and some have claimed to have done it, I suspect that some of the legal issues may have surrounded this specifically, and the necessity to create a click through EULA that can't be bypassed, which would be nearly impossible to do given the nature of the tools available to Linux. Such things give IP Lawyers a terrific case of the vapors, and yes I know that such things are legally ambiguious at best. Don't tell me, tell the lawyer.

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