Neverwinter Nights Sound options

[Legacy_Massimo]

               

   Hello,

from the Neverwinter Nights first starting window, if the "Configure" button is pressed and after also the "Change" one, then the dialogue window titled "Options" appears, and for the "Sound" option (at the left-center quarter) there are the choices "Auto Detect", "Safe Mode" and "Disable" in the combo-box.

 

Now, about the choices "Auto Detect" and "Safe Mode":

1. What they exactly involve after selecting them ?

   
2. How do they exactly configure the audio ?

   
3. Once they are configured, do they stay fixed also for the next Neverwinter Nights launches, or will they be reset ?

 

Greetings and Thanks

Massimo

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_HipMaestro]

               

Auto-detect allows the game to select the most appropriate sound setting for your hardware from those available within the installation. In most cases, this is what you will use, but you can toggle through the various audio emulations if the sound quality seems poor or are effecting the FPS.

 

The sound configuration step sets audio volumes, 2d/3d software bias & toggles environmental FX.  All are listed in your current version of the nwn.ini and will stay that way until you change them manually under the game options menu or overwrite the ini with another one.  It's best not to edit the sound options via text editor unless you are sure you know the valid ranges and strings used to set the options.

 

Safe Mode was provided in the eventuality that sound incompatibility caused crashing or serious performance problems, mostly with older integrated sound systems.  Today, a player should not need to use this mode unless the game will not run with their sound hardware/driver.  Consider it a legacy setting.

 

Disable simply turns off audio processing.  In the nwn.ini, it is listed as DisableSound=, where 0=no and 1=yes (so this is an easy adjustment to make with a text editor). This does not equate to turning the volume off on your machine.  Rather, it causes the game to skip trying to send audio information to your system.  This is used mainly as one debugging method to determine the potential source(s) of incompatibility conflicts that might be causing poor performance or crashing.  Sound conflicts can sometimes be the cause of poor FPS, believe it or not.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Massimo]

               

   Hello,

well, I have just tried to set the "Sound" option to "Safe Mode" and then to run Nwn with a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE sound card.

 

This card has EAX effects and Nwn has support for them but the sound card is not in the EAX supported games Creative list since it seems the current card drivers can not provide playing for these effects.

 

For this Creative provides a tool named "ALchemy" that lets to play EAX effects on those games by some supported sound cards that have EAX. My Creative Audigy SE is NOT in that list so it does NOT play EAX effects by default, and I have found a tricking way to bypass this starting Nwn, then exiting by Win Key, then setting EAX on by Windows applet, and returning to Nwn by Win Key again.

 

To avoid the tricky way, I have set on in Nwn the "Safe Mode" "Sound" option, then in the in-game audio options menu I have set on the "use hardware" option with the "EAX" option that was already on, then the "2 speakers" option has come out on.

Even all this the EAX effects in Nwn game seem not playable.

 

Could another way be possible to play EAX effects with "Safe Mode" "Sound" option on, standing the situation depicted above ?

 

 

Greetings and Thanks

Massimo