Sprucing up ye olde NWN

[Sarmanos]

So, NWN is pretty old now. These days I've been trying to look for graphical overrides that will help give a new look to things to refresh the game a little. Here's a few I found and currently use, and I would like to see what else people find if anything. All of these work with NWN online(including Avlis) and none of them affect gameplay in any way. Just remember, what you see is only what you see.

Undead Redux - Gives most of the skeletal undead better textures and models. I love it.

Lord of Worms Creature Override Pack - Includes various undead, goblin, ogre, ettin, earth elemental, and orc overrides. The undead differ slightly from above so use personal preference in which to override to use. Earth Elemental is bugged still so don't use that model or texture (This may have changed, if someone wants to test let me know how it goes).

Ravenloft - POTM Override Skybox - Way better skybox set than Bioware's.

Bugbear Facelift with Mummies - Improves the bugbears and also gives the mummies a new look. Will override the other mummy override though so choose which one you like best.

Updated Werewolf Model - Not a drastic change from the original but I like the new look.

D&D Classic Elementals - I personally like this one but it also makes the models of some of the elementals bigger than what they originally were visually. In my experience, this hasn't really affected gameplay but if you are iffy about that don't get this. Doesn't override the elder models but if you want it to, make a copy of the ".mdl" files included and add on "eld" to the end of the ".mdl file names.

Aenea Transparent GUI Overhaul/Upgrade - I don't like every aspect of this overhaul but the transparent GUI and colored HP bars can really make a difference in NWN. Try to pick and choose what you like here.

Lord of Worms ~ Minotaurs - Better looking minotaur model. Don't use the appearance 2da included though.

Weapons Redux: Spears Maybe not many spear users around but if you want them to look different here you go.

Lord of Worms - Werewolves and Fire Giants Alright this one is a bit more complicated if you want to use it for an override. It is a fire giant and werewolf replacer. There are some caveats though. First, they replace the female fire giants with an alternate male model so you do not want to do that. For the fire giant, all you want to use from the mdls is c_gntfire.mdl for the male fire giant. For the werewolves, you'll have to outright rename models to get the one you want which I did not mess with at this time. I recommend it for the new fire giant though. You also need to export the files from the hak. You can use nwhak for this.

Creature Override Compilation - Honestly only recommending this one for the trolls. Much of the content in it is already covered above or in Avlis' haks as separate models or is in other overrides I have linked. You'll find the trolls in Creature_I.7z. Not responsible for the results of trying to use any other overrides included.

Bioware Rural Trees Override - Compatible with other tile overrides. This changes many of the skimpy default Bioware trees to be a bit more robust. There is also an override for the default placeable trees included to give them the same effect. Use bioware_rural_trees.zip, bioware_city_trees.zip, placeables_addon.zip, and enhanced_trees_placeables.zip.

Unofficial Avlis Custom Treecity Override - This is an in hak override I made myself to redo the Treecity tileset used on Le'Or's server. I'm a bit biased, but I recommend it. I went and handpicked the new textures and did the work to make them play nice visually so this in part represents my own personal vision of how I think Le'Or would look.

NWNCQ - Alright, a bit further into the thread you'll see this one discussed more. This override set is one I would recommend for advanced users only with time on their hands because there's more than likely aspects of it you'll want to remove after for whatever reason. However, if you REALLY want to give most of NWN's base tilesets a big change to give the game a new coat of paint, then give it a look.

Disclaimer: Overriding isn't terribly complicated but it can get to be trial and error if there's certain models and textures you don't like with any of these, so keep track of what you put in there. Otherwise, everything above just gets dropped into NWN's override folder. Bugs from improper or bad overrides can cause crashes and graphic glitches so be sure of what you are putting in and what you are doing before you do it.

[szabot]

[Jaybob]

yay! i can't wait to try these out. i have been wishing lately that there was a way to make NWN look a little fresher. Thanks!!

-J

[Sephira]

Opted out of the goblin (didn't want the PCs to look evil-ish too) and the skybox (slow computer) but looking forward to the look of the rest. Thanks Sarm!

[Darkfire]

Skybox is hawt.


*tests all of em but the gobbo one*


The Skeletons and ghouls are awesome lookin too.

[lanrik]

Those are nice. Downloaded and testing them out now.

The one I use and like is the World of Aenea Transparent UI.

The only thing I don't care for about it, is the custom screen they added at startup, advertising their world, but always just click fast past all those anyway.

[Grunt]

Those are nice. Downloaded and testing them out now.

The one I use and like is the World of Aenea Transparent UI.

The only thing I don't care for about it, is the custom screen they added at startup, advertising their world, but always just click fast past all those anyway.

Gorgon had a list of stuff to remove/change to eliminate the unwanted extras, might want to do a search or ping him about it.

New skies, I'll go for that I think.

[lanrik]

Thanks Grunt. Found the thread here: viewtopic.php?f=24&t=97403

[Jazz]

Interesting. But if I don't like it, how do I remove it? Just know what file it was and delete it from the override directory?

[Brayon]

Interesting. But if I don't like it, how do I remove it? Just know what file it was and delete it from the override directory?

Yuppers. That is the best thing about overides.

[lanrik]

I always just backup the override directory before adding something new. That way I can just delete that and rename the backup to revert.

[Jazz]

Interesting. But if I don't like it, how do I remove it? Just know what file it was and delete it from the override directory?

Yuppers. That is the best thing about overides.

Well... I currently have 1594 files in my override directory already (and that from like 2 or 3 overrides), so it's kinda hard to keep track

[Gorgon]

The gui override and icon ones (heavily edited) are a bunch of it for me. I don't use much else besides the old movements, hands, bowstrings and maybe a few others I forgot. I just keep backups of different versions instead of removing files every time. Like a version with the really old movement/no stealth crash fix one.

Can you tell I detest the Bioware walk and run animations HotU added?

Oh, I guess the fading forest, extra CEP hands and dynamic creature stuff counts, but those are all hak edits.

[Leertes]

Can you tell I detest the Bioware walk and run animations HotU added?

I don't suppose you know where to find a hak or override that reverts to the old style?

[KinX]

Can you tell I detest the Bioware walk and run animations HotU added?

I don't suppose you know where to find a hak or override that reverts to the old style?

I had that but got rid of it. Sorry I got no link for you, but i just searched the nwvault.

I personally think the old movement style is just unrealistic. I wouldn't swing my weapons like that if i was running.

[Hamlet]

Eclipse Development's City Override - Overrides the city tileset and makes it look more well........citylike.

Huh? Had no idea this made it as an override. Let's see ...


Edit: Tried, it's a nice idea but a remarkably low quality.

[Gorgon]

Can you tell I detest the Bioware walk and run animations HotU added?

I don't suppose you know where to find a hak or override that reverts to the old style?

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Ha ... 58&id=6953

A word of warning though. While the original version of these animations fixed the stealth crash bug, these are redone ones that don't. In fact I have a suspicion they cause it now. I could be wrong, but I think Bioware fixed that problem, and these are made from models before that fix. If I'm going somewhere that has lots of things attacking from stealth, I swap it to the really old version that makes new cloaks look stiff as a board, but removing it might help as well.

[Sephira]

Eclipse Development's City Override - Overrides the city tileset and makes it look more well........citylike.

Huh? Had no idea this made it as an override. Let's see ...


Edit: Tried, it's a nice idea but a remarkably low quality.

Aw, really? I thought it was really nice.

[Sarmanos]

Sometimes I'll take an improved atmosphere for an area over the graphics quality so I had no problem with it personally.

[Jaybob]

i agree with hamlet, i think it looks kind of crappy. that said, i'm not going to take it out because it doesn't look THAT crappy.

however, i took a spin through the crypts today, and MY GOD, the skeletons looked SO GOOD. even the zombies with their little half-heads. cool. big improvement.

-J

[Gorgon]

Can you tell I detest the Bioware walk and run animations HotU added?

I don't suppose you know where to find a hak or override that reverts to the old style?

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Ha ... 58&id=6953

A word of warning though. While the original version of these animations fixed the stealth crash bug, these are redone ones that don't. In fact I have a suspicion they cause it now. I could be wrong, but I think Bioware fixed that problem, and these are made from models before that fix. If I'm going somewhere that has lots of things attacking from stealth, I swap it to the really old version that makes new cloaks look stiff as a board, but removing it might help as well.

Quoting myself here, but it seems many people think the new version of this helps with stealth attack crashes. It doesn't. The old version is here:

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Ha ... ail&id=251

By old, I mean it is the stock animations used before HotU came out. They don't get along with the 1.68 cloaks since they make them stiff as a board, but they still fix that bloody bug. I keep a copy of my override folder with those in it for any major event that might cause those kind of crashes.

*Read the instructions. Why the author didn't just change the file to not have the a_ba_casts.mdl in it is beyond me, but you don't want to toss that in with the rest of them.

[Themicles]

Ravenloft - POTM Override Skybox - Way better skybox set than Bioware's. Not recommended if you have a ancient computer.

This is not entirely true. Horred has an ancient computer and uses this override, as well as a preview version of the Trav Main hak which has a new version of the Tairis skybox based on this very hak. He can probably comment better on it than me, but he reports no real noticeable difference, and he's using a PCI video card. Yes, PCI, not PCI Express...

[Korennya]

I have those skyboxes in my override on both my new and old machine. Old being built in 2002. There's been no difference in frame rate with the new boxes. Only thing i've noticed is a slight pause towards the end of the load screen as if it was reading out the override directory and applying the skybox. It's so slight it's not even worth worrying about.

Used on a 9700 pro agp card with a 1.4Ghz amd chip.

I find NPC loads during the game play far more annoying that anything the skybox might have caused.

[Gorgon]

I've played Avlis on older hard drives, and that can slow you down more than anything. If you are using an old system, investing in even a cheap new drive (externals work fine) can make a world of difference.

Mind you, my new 22" wide screen made me fall in love with the game again as well. I just need to keep spare towels handy for all the drool.

*edits* A defrag can also help quite a bit if you never do it.

[Cougar]

Yeah Gorgon, I just installed the DirectX 10 hak for XP, OMG my 8600GT looks even better than before.