Best graphics improvements and tileset overrides?

[Legacy_Sir Roderick]

               

Hello.


I recently installed Neverwinter Nights, I'm about halfway through the original campaign and I want to ask for advice about improving its graphics, especially about tileset overrides.


There are nice packages for individual aspects of the game's graphics: for patching, the 1.69 Critical Rebuild, the 1.71 Community Patch and the 1.72 beta, then the camera mod to unlock the camera angles and increase fog distance, the Tony K AI, the CCOH (Customize Character Override Hak), the Aenea GUI combo (with Generation 2 Spells and Scrolls to upgrade it further).


But with the tileset situation, things get confusing. The one most essential mod for improving the graphics of Neverwinter Nights is Project Q.

http://neverwinterva...bined/project-q

This is awesome. I suppose I was wary of installing it at first because it gives me several gigabytes of stuff that I will not necessarily be needing. But when I included it in my game the ogres and gargoyles started looking a million times better, and that alone was worth all the gigabytes. It's the best package for creature upgrades and also includes stuff like the Reforged weapons package and Alternate Combat Animations (ACP), so it removes the need to install that stuff separately. And it includes graphical overrides for a few of the default tilesets.


Currently the most convenient tileset upgrade package is the Zwerkules Facelift collection.

http://neverwinterva...s-facelift-haks

That improves five tilesets and placeables. This is just uninformed speculation on my part, but how about including those in the next release of Project Q, in addition to what is already in the q_!tilereskins hak, to form the basis for the most comprehensive and definitive collection of tileset overrides, include other override tilesets that represent the best work of the modding community - turn the whole thing into a new standard of quality for the basic look of Neverwinter Nights? (As someone who has just started playing this game and is getting confused by all the mod alternatives, I like "definitive" and I like "comprehensive", but there will always be variations, and the experienced users and modders will always be aware enough of all the alternatives and possibilities to understand that ultimately nothing is definitive or comprehensive.)


Then there is the Llyra Facelift compilation.

http://neverwinterva...ptional-content

But that one is very confusing. On the surface, it appears to be what I want: a broad collection of tileset overrides rather than extensions, including several of the tileset upgrades in Q, four of the six Zwerkules haks, and improvements included in neither of those. But a closer look inside the hak file reveals that it is missing the .set files at least. So using this hak by itself gives, for example, a rural tileset roughly equivalent to Zwerkules Biorural but without the custom grass. What is going on here? Does it mean that the best way to use this hak is to install it in addition to all of the content in the Q and Zwerkules packages, regardless of the redundancies, because that is the surest way to get all the content in all of these tileset packages?


The combination of the Zwerkules and Q packages already gives me an upgraded look to most of the environments I have so far encountered in my game (I'm no further than Chapter 2 of the OC), except for Sewers, City Exterior and Castle Interior.


For Sewers, I found a nice reskin in this EFUA compilation:

http://www.datafilehost.com/d/7491e503

If you click the link, uncheck that spam box. And the Sewer files in that collection are the ones starting with "tds". This is not perfect, but it does look more musty and dank and sewery than the default set, so I think I'll keep it in my game unless someone recommends something better.


As for City Exterior, the Llyra compilation includes a version of the TNO City Reskin by Sixesthrice:

http://nwnfoundation...er-city-tileset

It's very complete and very consistent, but perhaps not the best solution as a City override for the OC: the temple of Tyr looks entirely different from the outside than from the inside and the dirt roads don't seem to suit this particular city, especially with the cobblestone footstep sounds. This one is more of a compromise between the two looks:

http://neverwinterva...rde-city-reskin

So I currently have a bastardized city where the original is overriden by the reskin in the Llyra hak, which in turn is overriden by the Alte Erde City, with some manual shuffling in and out of individual texture files to make the whole look consistent. It will do, unless someone has a better recommendation.


And as for the Castle Interior, I've found nothing. So I'm open to suggestions here. Well, the floors are pretty. The orange furniture is hideous.


I've followed the hakpatch instructions that came with the Zwerkules set. Currently my nwnpatch.ini file contains the Project Q files in reverse alphabetical order, excluding q_!armoury and q_!vd_build, then the Zwerkules and Llyra haks, then a version of CCOH I've taken out of the Override folder and packed into a hak, then a very small custom hak that includes a version of visualeffects.2da extracted from q_!fightingsfx where I've edited the Stoneskin and Greater Stoneskin lines to look the same as in this override:

http://www.nexusmods...inter/mods/80/?

Could that stoneskin fix be included as part of CPP and/or Project Q? Is there anyone in the universe who wants to see that weird circling stone thing instead of the proper stoneskin effect?


Also, I assume these aspects of the game cannot be improved by any available mods?

- the tiny windows on modern monitors

- the senseless inventory system of six tiny pages and even tinier magic bags that turns half the gameplay into Inventory Tetris

- fog distance, which is increased by the camera mod but which still obscures half the screen if I zoom out and up for a bird's eye view


Anyway, thank you to all the modders who have made this game more playable.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jedijax]

               

 

 

Well, many threads like this have popped up over the years, and it seems like you got it better set than most other posters. Something I add in each of these, unfortunately, is it all boils down to a matter of taste and how much time and effort you're willing to invest. Unlike other games, NWN has a lot of custom content that isn't compatible in one way or another in-between, and large projects overlap each other, override the same things, don't work well together aesthetically, etc. The only sure-shot way to get what you want is to go through the content almost in a file-per-file manner, choosing what works best for you out of each offer. Seeing as this demands work from the end-user, I understand if people aren't willing to do so. In such a case, the mods you mentioned are a good/great combo. There are very few Castle Interior quality works, in my opinion, so we're pretty much on the same boat there. What I did was re-skin it using several textures from patch 1.69 and the roofed models from A Dungeon And Dragons. It's nothing fancy, but you may find doing the same improves the looks of it.

 

The tiny windows? You can change resolution... If you play in a small monitor, that may do the trick.

The inventory works on the same basis of most action rpgs of the time, and it can't be changed.

I think fog distance can be altered or at least smoothed with some module tricks, but not as a universal override.

Close

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gruftlord]

               I also think you got your overrides chosen very well. Not much else i could add i'm afraid.


The missing set file should improve compatibility with CEP i think.


And unfortunatelly i think there is not much in terms of UI modding the way you want it. It was never meant to be played at such high resolutions.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sir Roderick]

               

Thank you both for your patience in answering a...




Yeah, the missing .set files are no big deal... once you understand they're not there, you can shuffle them any way you like.


Just picture in your mind an inventory window twice as wide as the current one and three times as high, for example: all six inventory pages combined into one, no change in inventory size, but you could see your entire inventory at a glance and be able to make use of all the space you have without playing Tetris on each of the six pages separately. Of course what's easy to imagine is not easy to implement, and the window sizes, including the inventory window size, are undoubtedly hard-coded things, aspects of the game that would probably have been modded long ago if it was a simple matter. And some games have mods like pack mules or bottomless bags of holding to help with the inventory hassle. I guess modules can also vary a lot in how much strain they put on your inventory - the OC at least fills up the inventory with loot and quest items and henchman contracts and keys and magical reagents like gargoyle skulls and slaad tongues and and and...


I've actually found and used those roof haks from "A Dungeon and Dragons", but I'm likely to take them out of my nwnpatch file. Yes, they make corridors look more immersive. But those ceilings are often just vertically symmetric copies of the first floor projected up as a second floor, so that there are no arches or vaulted ceilings where the original environments suggest there are, and the large open spaces all have ceilings as low as the corridors even when the original graphics suggest much higher ceilings... So I think I'll be content with no ceilings in some tilesets, and many others have more carefully crafted ceilings already...


Yeah, I already took furniture textures from the Castle Interior 2 tileset and renamed them to override the Castle Interior 1 furniture textures (I got the idea from the EFUA compilation, which does the same thing). It doesn't do much, but it gets rid of the orange!


There is indeed a bizarre satisfaction in how easy it is to customize the look of the game, even for an absolute beginner like me. Shuffling texture files in or out or extracting and renaming them or altering a few lines in a text file and voilà, it's my city now or my forest now, and nobody else has a city or forest that looks exactly like mine. '>

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

I don't have Project Q stuff in my Patch HAK compilation. What do you mean about Project Q tileset stuff?

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sir Roderick]

               

Okay, I may be wrong, let's see. A look inside the hak files reveals that both your Llyra hak and q_!tilereskins.hak override the Crypt (TDC), Dungeon (TDE) and Desert (TTD) tilesets. I assumed the upgraded tilesets for these were the same in both haks, but in truth I'm not sure at all. If they are the same and you did not include Project Q stuff, then it's always possible that Project Q picked up the same tileset overrides in a later version. Or they may be different versions. That's as far as I can explain it.

 

Thanks for your combo hak, Henesua, and sorry for fussing about the set files here.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

no problem. but to be clear - I have not put any Project Q overrides in that facelift HAK. I had done work for project Q to extract their overriding content to a Patch HAK, but not closed the deal by creating a tool to automate the process. Since its known that I did that, I did not want it floating around that I was releasing Project Q content on the vault. I have not released anything from Project Q in that Patch HAK.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sir Roderick]

               

Indeed. Since both your hak and Project Q are broad collections of material by various modders I can easily see how content not originally created specifically for either collection could eventually end up in both.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

Look, I wrote out clearly what tilesets were in that facelift on the download page. You seem to have ignored that and made bad assumptions about the content. Please just pay attention next time. It'll serve you better to understand what it is you are playing with.

 

As for your comparison on what I did with Project Q... you couldn't be further from the truth. I indeed compiled other people's work with only a miniscule amount of my own work added in. Project Q on the other hand is primarily a collection of work made by Project Q team members for Project Q. That mission did shift gears in the recent update since the team is so much smaller now, yes, but if you look at what is in Project Q you'll see that its less of a community compilation and more of a collection of work by a team of artists.

 

Again, take the time to understand what these things are. There's a great deal of work and you are just scratching the surface here. For the most part overrides - which are what you seem to be interested in - are a very small aspect of this NWN hobby. The more interesting stuff is unique content that the community makes. Its worth it to take the time to understand the distinction and hopefully you'll get excited and start contributing as well.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Sir Roderick]

               

No, I haven't ignored your description of the hak content and I don't see why you would think I have. Also, no one has disputed your statement that you did not include Project Q material in your hak (as we assume that Q adopted it in a later update). You have made yourself clear and no one has disagreed with you.


You may, however, wish to reconsider that "Please just pay attention next time. It'll serve you better..." tone, depending on what kind of a message you want to send to someone new to the game who may be browsing this discussion now or two years from now and wondering whether to bother with this game or its mods.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Gruftlord]

               Hm, i thought zwerkules' stuff did get rid of the placable wood textures. Any chance you could post a screenshot of what you are still trying to replace? I could try to see if i have a replacement floating around and locate the source.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_henesua]

               

No, I haven't ignored your description of the hak content and I don't see why you would think I have.

I'll just write it off as miscommunication then.