Neverwinter Nights 2

[Karroc]

I have a MacBook with Leopard and version 10.5.7
Processor: 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo
Can I run Neverwinter Nights 2 well on my computer?

[miiles]

It doesn't seem to have a Mac compatible version? But these are the minimum system requirements if you want to run it in Bootcamp:

Windows XP, Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or Athlon XP 2000 or equivalent
512 MB RAM
5.5 GB hard disk space
DirectX 9.0c
GeForce 6600 or Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card with PS 2.0 or better

http://atari.com/us/games/neverwinternights2/dvd_rom

[Karroc]

It doesn't seem to have a Mac compatible version? But these are the minimum system requirements if you want to run it in Bootcamp:



http://atari.com/us/games/neverwinternights2/dvd_rom

I think I does work on Mac, I am wondering about my computers graphics, etc.

[miiles]

I think I does work on Mac, I am wondering about my computers graphics, etc.

Weird, there are two games called NeverWinter Nights 2. One is by Atari (http://www.atari.com/nwn2/) and another by Aspyr (http://www.aspyr.com/product/info/84), sorry about that.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Operating System: 10.4.11 (Tiger), 10.5.1 (Leopard)
CPU Processor: Intel Chipset
CPU Speed: 2.0 GHz
Memory: 1 GB
Hard Disk Space: 6.5 GB Hard Drive Space
Video Card (ATI): Radeon X1600
Video Card (NVidia): Geforce 7600
Video Memory (VRam): 128 MB
Media Required: DVD Drive

You've got 1.83 GHz, and the minimum requirement is 2.0GHz so it probably wouldn't run too great.

[Karroc]

Weird, there are two games called NeverWinter Nights 2. One is by Atari (http://www.atari.com/nwn2/) and another by Aspyr (http://www.aspyr.com/product/info/84), sorry about that.



You've got 1.83 GHz, and the minimum requirement is 2.0GHz so it probably wouldn't run too great.

Ok...darn.....thanks anyway...

[ericvmazzone]

The Aspyr version might be the ported NWN2 for the Mac. That is what Aspyr does they port games from PC to Mac. If Aspyr has a title with the name NWN2 I'd imagine that is the Mac version. Check them out.

[OZMP]

The Aspyr version might be the ported NWN2 for the Mac. That is what Aspyr does they port games from PC to Mac. If Aspyr has a title with the name NWN2 I'd imagine that is the Mac version. Check them out.

correct

[Rodus]

The Aspyr version is the Mac port. I'm running it on a Core 2 2.0 Ghz with an x1600 and it's pretty slow, even with the graphics settings turned down. If you have a dedicated 3D card then it should run about the same, if you have integrated then it possibly won't even run.

[mags631]

It is frustratingly buggy on the Mac.

[Huntn]

It is frustratingly buggy on the Mac.

Always seems to be compromises with ports...

[txa1265]

My review is here (http://www.gamingwithchildren.com/2008-05-29/review-neverwinter-nights-2-mac/):

The next difference is in the graphics and performance. There is a clear progression in the look of recent Bioware and Obsidian games from Knights of the Old Republic to KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords, and now from Neverwinter Nights to Neverwinter Nights 2. Each game looks better than the last, but the performance suffers greatly. It isn’t just the absolute performance either - it’s the relative performance, or the way a game looks compared to how it runs on a computer that meets the recommended specifications. The original Neverwinter Nights looked and performed very well even on systems just passing the minimum system requirements. The sequel, however, is a pig. It is certainly better looking that the original - or even the more recent KOTOR 2: The Sith Lords, and the details and environments are nicely done. But even on systems exceeding the recommended system requirements, the performance is not very good, with frequent drops in frame rate. It is possible to get solid performance by tweaking your settings and figuring out your system bottlenecks and getting good performance, but for too many this game is just frustrating in terms of performance. Many PC gamers complained that NWN2 was just too demanding for them, and that as RPG gamers they had no interest in joining the annual ‘upgrade dance’ that FPS players are forced to endure. The Mac version takes this poor relative performance to a whole new level - from what I have experienced and seen on hte forums, if you don’t have a Mac that is sold by Apple either new or refurbished (in other words, either current or last generation), expect to struggle to get decent performance with even moderate visual quality. I started the game on a ‘first generation’ top of the line Intel MacBook Pro, and playing the game was a disaster. This computer could easily run the PC version with excellent performance under Apple’s ‘Bootcamp’ system running Windows XP, yet was very sluggish performing at lower resolution and with fewer graphical details on the Mac version. Installing the game on a brand new, fully decked out, top of the line Macbook Pro was much more satisfying … but makes gamers ask just how much it is worth to play this game.

[Huntn]

My review is here (http://www.gamingwithchildren.com/2008-05-29/review-neverwinter-nights-2-mac/):

I like your review. I've played NWN2 on my PC and I did not care for it. I really don't like worlds with invisible walls all over the place because it ruins immersion IMO. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is a much better choice for a solo RPG.

[txa1265]

I like your review. I've played NWN2 on my PC and I did not care for it. I really don't like worlds with invisible walls all over the place because it ruins immersion IMO. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is a much better choice for a solo RPG.

Ugh ... problem is - while it is fun, Oblivion is really not much of an RPG. You can simultaneously answer Yes and No in terms of choices, and aside from *one* quest there are no consequences.

But then they are very different sorts of games, really. NWN2 is a D&D-based hardcore PC-centric RPG. Oblivion is an action-centric, console-focused action-RPG. It is all abotu what you are looking for in a game.

[Huntn]

Ugh ... problem is - while it is fun, Oblivion is really not much of an RPG. You can simultaneously answer Yes and No in terms of choices, and aside from *one* quest there are no consequences.

But then they are very different sorts of games, really. NWN2 is a D&D-based hardcore PC-centric RPG. Oblivion is an action-centric, console-focused action-RPG. It is all abotu what you are looking for in a game.

There are a lot of factors that make up a game along with personal preference. Oblivion is far from perfect but it is very immersive. And it is the first game I played where if I saw an interesting mountain, I could go climb it or go out and wander just to see the sights. It's main short coming is that you could totally ignore the main quest and you are right, no consequences. But to get into the story you are kinda obligated to go do it and there is a conclusion. What is really funny is I don't care for Fallout3, Bethesda's follow on to Oblivion at all! I do have an eye on Borderlands, about another post apocalyptic world, which is supposed to come out this Fall.

[mags631]

Always seems to be compromises with ports...

True, but this brought a whole new level of disappointment for me. I expect the odd crashes, but encountering an issue which required me to restart the game from the very beginning, losing all previous progress, was unacceptable and I simply set the game aside at that point.

[Huntn]

True, but this brought a whole new level of disappointment for me. I expect the odd crashes, but encountering an issue which required me to restart the game from the very beginning, losing all previous progress, was unacceptable and I simply set the game aside at that point.

Absolutely unacceptable.

[Jeffrosproto]

Sadly, it seems that most, if not all mac ports of games are slower than their windows counterparts. Even The Sims 3 seems to be.

[txa1265]

Sadly, it seems that most, if not all mac ports of games are slower than their windows counterparts. Even The Sims 3 seems to be.

While that may be largely true, I have found NWN2 the absolute worst PC->Mac port I've ever played in terms of performance.

[Brad Oliver]

True, but this brought a whole new level of disappointment for me. I expect the odd crashes, but encountering an issue which required me to restart the game from the very beginning, losing all previous progress, was unacceptable and I simply set the game aside at that point.

If you have that busted saved game handy, e-mail it to me and I'll take a look: brad AT aspyr DOT com.

[Brad Oliver]

While that may be largely true, I have found NWN2 the absolute worst PC->Mac port I've ever played in terms of performance.

I did the bulk of my Mac NWN2 development on an iMac with an x1600 card. As part of that I did Boot Camp performance testing. Our framerate in the Mac port for that card was 75% of Boot Camp, which all told wasn't terrible given the differences in GL and D3D that NWN2 (ab)used.

With that said, I'm curious what parts of the game you felt performed the worst relative to Boot Camp. Because NWN2 doesn't have automated performance scripting, our tests involved basically loading up saved games from various portions of the game and comparing.

[txa1265]

As I said in my quoted review, my first run was with a 256MB x1900 card MBP ... and perhaps it was patch non-parity or something, because I was playing the Mac version on 'day of release' ... and I really found it very poor in terms of performance throughout. I mean, even in the opening tutorial contests and town battle ...

[Brad Oliver]

As I said in my quoted review, my first run was with a 256MB x1900 card MBP ... and perhaps it was patch non-parity or something, because I was playing the Mac version on 'day of release' ... and I really found it very poor in terms of performance throughout. I mean, even in the opening tutorial contests and town battle ...

Have you played it since then? We're prepping a 1.23 patch, and we've got a Mac-specific performance patch in the pipe after the 1.23 patch, so any feedback is appreciated.

[txa1265]

Have you played it since then? We're prepping a 1.23 patch, and we've got a Mac-specific performance patch in the pipe after the 1.23 patch, so any feedback is appreciated.

What is the current state of add-ons / expansions? I have a replay of 'Mask of the Betrayer' in my long gaming queue ... but if I cannot *ever* play MotB, Storm of Zehir or the Mysteries of Westgate on the Mac version ... it isn't a good thing.

[Rodus]

^^there is a way to get MotB onto the Mac NWN2 here (http://www.msykes.com/nwn/macnwn2x/).
Performance is pretty dire on an X1600, I'm amazed you didn't go insane Brad, I have to run it with pretty much all settings on minimum.

[txa1265]

^^there is a way to get MotB onto the Mac NWN2 here (http://www.msykes.com/nwn/macnwn2x/).
Performance is pretty dire on an X1600, I'm amazed you didn't go insane Brad, I have to run it with pretty much all settings on minimum.

Thanks for that ... I had tried the manual method using the dev-tools way back with little success, so I might give this a shot. I would still rather give Aspyr my $ for an official release.

[Brad Oliver]

^^there is a way to get MotB onto the Mac NWN2 here (http://www.msykes.com/nwn/macnwn2x/).
Performance is pretty dire on an X1600, I'm amazed you didn't go insane Brad, I have to run it with pretty much all settings on minimum.

In my defense, I left Aspyr for Apple right about the time we entered beta on NWN2, so perhaps something went horribly wrong afterwards? ;) At any rate, we'll be revisiting performance in the patch-after-next.

I know that during development, one of the key areas of performance degradation was shadow support. NWN2 uses some advanced D3D techniques that we couldn't easily do on the Mac without sending performance in the toilet.

[Rodus]

One problem with the X1600 (in my 17" iMac at any rate) is that it's very underclocked in OSX, I can overclock it heavily in Windows with no issues. A performance patch would be a godsend as it is a great fun game. Any news on the expansion packs or do you have to keep quiet on that Brad?

[Brad Oliver]

Any news on the expansion packs or do you have to keep quiet on that Brad?

Unless you've already seen us put out a press release announcing it, I can't add anything useful to the discussion. Sorry.

[Signal-11]

I like your review. I've played NWN2 on my PC and I did not care for it. I really don't like worlds with invisible walls all over the place because it ruins immersion IMO. Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion is a much better choice for a solo RPG.

Oblivion's great, except for that that asinine leveling system. I can't think of another game that actively disincentivizes leveling up like Oblivion does.

I try not to do this in general but any game with stats is going to have a little bit of meta-gaming. I think I was around level 4-5 when I realized that the key to kicking ass in this game was to continue to develop skills and NOT level up.

To me, this misses the entire point of kicking butt in an RPG, which is to get more stuff to kick more butt. Oh yeah, and that story stuff, too.

BTW, figuring out how to get some of these Oblivion mods to work under Cider was a pain in the butt, but well worth it.

[Huntn]

Oblivion's great, except for that that asinine leveling system. I can't think of another game that actively disincentivizes leveling up like Oblivion does.

I try not to do this in general but any game with stats is going to have a little bit of meta-gaming. I think I was around level 4-5 when I realized that the key to kicking ass in this game was to continue to develop skills and NOT level up.

To me, this misses the entire point of kicking butt in an RPG, which is to get more stuff to kick more butt. Oh yeah, and that story stuff, too.

BTW, figuring out how to get some of these Oblivion mods to work under Cider was a pain in the butt, but well worth it.

Many people have issues with Oblivion's leveling. Fortunately I, you and othere were able to work with it. A while back I posted the MacRumors Oblivion Guide (http://guides.macrumors.com/Elder_Scrolls_4:_Oblivion_Tips_and_Cheats) and section 13 Leveling the Right Way basically says what you just said. The first time through I reached a point were mobs were kicking my ass. I corrected this by when I was able to level, I made sure to fight my way through a couple more dungeons before actually choosing the level option. (I played it on my PC with WinXP, and my MBP under Bootcamp/Vista.)

[Bourhgen]

Just installed the game, friends did likewise. They're on PCs and the version number of the game is now 1.23 for them. Mac version is 1.11. I can't log in to games that they're running because it says that the client version numbers don't match. Is there any way I can log in to their servers from now until the update for the Mac version comes out?

[monkey86]

Oblivion is an action-centric, console-focused action-RPG. It is all abotu what you are looking for in a game.

wrong.

oblivion was around long before the xbox 360 and other consoles it was 'ported' to them by bethesda as they were so successful on the pc.

[txa1265]

wrong.

oblivion was around long before the xbox 360 and other consoles it was 'ported' to them by bethesda as they were so successful on the pc.

Um ... no.

Elder Scrolls III: Morowind fits the description you mention, but Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion had quick-buttons limited to console controller buttons, a UI made for a TV screen, and was launched in March/April 2006 for X360and PC .

[mags631]

If you have that busted saved game handy, e-mail it to me and I'll take a look: brad AT aspyr DOT com.

Hi Brad -- Thank you for the offer. It is appreciated. Unfortunately, it has been over a year and I've since moved to a new desktop.

[SebZen]

Can someone confirm that the PC version performance is much better? On the Mac version I get less than 15 frames in outside areas (well I only got outside the first house, where there was that fare) with all settings on minimum with 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM and 9600GT

[Venkman90]

Can someone confirm that the PC version performance is much better? On the Mac version I get less than 15 frames in outside areas (well I only got outside the first house, where there was that fare) with all settings on minimum with 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM and 9600GT

That's odd, I have heard it flys on the Pro, it runs ok on the 9400m for example, but you should be getting decent FPS on the 9600.

[acastic]

That's odd, I have heard it flys on the Pro, it runs ok on the 9400m for example, but you should be getting decent FPS on the 9600.

the mac version runs more than okay on my white macbook with the 9400m.

[SebZen]

Hmm that's really weird then. Because performance for me was total ****

[txa1265]

Hmm that's really weird then. Because performance for me was total ****

Have you patched up? I've not replayed on the Mac and really don't plan to reinstall any time soon. I know upon release the Mac performance was terrible, but I can't tell now based on patches if it has improved.

[lewdvig]

I rolled my own cider port using the guide on ibrain and it worked pretty good on my old MacBook unibody. I deleted it, but I want to try it on the 9600m GT.

[Keleko]

I had a cider port that I tried on my early 2008 MBP that worked okay, but it just wasn't smooth enough after playing directly on Windows with Bootcamp. I've stayed with the Windows native version after trying it in cider.

[Venkman90]

I tried the mac version on the 9400m, it ran ok, not good but not terrible.

I wanted to try it on Windows 7 but NWN 1 and 2 won't run on the current build