Avlis on Snow Leopard

[Eponine]

I have been running the PC version of NWN but would like to move it to my MacBook. Is there a Mac version of NWN? If so does it run well with Snow Leopard or would I need to use bootcamp?

[Ronan]

Yes, there is a mac version of NWN. Several Arkaz players use it, and I'll ask them their experience and what version of the OS they're using. It's clearly working for them, anyway!

I actually use a mac, am running boot camp on it though as my copy of NWN is a windows one. When I bought the game (and this is likely still true) the mac versions lack the aurora toolset for mac. This means no editing or creating areas or levels. If all you want to do is play, that shouldn't be a problem.

[Darkfire]

Maxinion and Nihpronde are two #Avlisians that I recall that both use Macs. Can always hop on #Avlis if you need some real-time assistance or anything

[Nighthawk4]

I use the Windows version of NWN on my Mac with Crossover Games for Mac. I just copied the NWN folder from the PC and pointed Crossover at it. Works fine.

The Mac version is much more expensive and I don't think they released all of the expansions - or is that NWN2?

[whirlin_merlin]

The Mac version is much more expensive and I don't think they released all of the expansions - or is that NWN2?

That's NWN 2. HotU and SoU both run on Mac. I don't have any problems with NWN on Snow Leopard aside from no toolset.

[maxinion]

I would honestly recommend CrossOver instead of running the native mac client. It'll cost you half as much, and it will run twice as fast. The native mac version is PPC only, so it has to be run through Rosetta... the running is 100% straightforward and it works fine, but it doesn't actually perform very well at all (at least, not as well as it should for how good of a computer you have and how old a game it is). Crossover Games Mac 9.0 is really rather slick and straightforward to use, so I suggest using that and using your old Windows discs.

[Pat Briams]

Snow Leopard native client user here... No big problems, apart from crappy performance (never expected the Intel GMA 950 to do much in the first place), lack of the toolset and utils, and the occasional crashes. So yeah, Crossover Game would be a more viable option. But it's another US $40, so not for me...

[Aeveras]

It runs pretty well on Snow Leopard, but Max's advice is still the best. You'll get a lot more mileage out of Crossover Games than tracking down the Mac disc (which to my knowledge were all sold separately, and never bundled together).

[Calzier]

I use Crossover games as well. Had one or two crashes, but typically runs really well. Watch out for the auto-time-sync thing in Mac OS X. When OSX tries to sync its clock with the internet, NWN will go to a black screen - so disable this in settings.

Other thing to be aware of is that toolset doesn't work in Crossover games. There might be a Wine solution for this, but I don't have the time or interest to pursue it, so I run a whole second installation of NWN +haks in Windows, via VMWare Fusion. If you own a retail version of Windows you can port your whole installation across into Fusion, but you're out of luck if your version is OEM (most likely if you just bought PC with Windows installed).

[Nighthawk4]

I use Crossover games as well. Had one or two crashes, but typically runs really well. Watch out for the auto-time-sync thing in Mac OS X. When OSX tries to sync its clock with the internet, NWN will go to a black screen - so disable this in settings.

Other thing to be aware of is that toolset doesn't work in Crossover games. There might be a Wine solution for this, but I don't have the time or interest to pursue it, so I run a whole second installation of NWN +haks in Windows, via VMWare Fusion. If you own a retail version of Windows you can port your whole installation across into Fusion, but you're out of luck if your version is OEM (most likely if you just bought PC with Windows installed).

Is that what causes the blackscreens?

I will take a look at that - thanks

[PlasmaJohn]

Is that what causes the blackscreens?

It does this in Linux as well. ... bloody interns.

Code: Select all

sudo /etc/init.d/ntp stop

[Pat Briams]

When OSX tries to sync its clock with the internet, NWN will go to a black screen

Can you please link the source where this is confirmed? I can't seem to find any.

In my case I've only experienced black screen for one or two days in the past 8 months. Each time black screen occurred consistently every 30 minutes. However the output of the ntpdc -np command shows that my Mac syncs with the time server at an 8-minute interval. The frequencies don't add up? And for some reason each time I had black screens, a clean reinstall of NWN always solved the problem...

[Calzier]

When OSX tries to sync its clock with the internet, NWN will go to a black screen

Can you please link the source where this is confirmed? I can't seem to find any.

In my case I've only experienced black screen for one or two days in the past 8 months. Each time black screen occurred consistently every 30 minutes. However the output of the ntpdc -np command shows that my Mac syncs with the time server at an 8-minute interval. The frequencies don't add up? And for some reason each time I had black screens, a clean reinstall of NWN always solved the problem...

It was a tip I picked up from another player (Wemic PC, maybe??). All I know is that if I check the option to sync, I get the black screen, and if I un-check the option, I don't. Completely reproducible. By 'black screen', are we talking about the same thing? With me, it looks like the camera has been shifted a full screen up from the screen with the avatars (so showing nothing but black) - I sometimes get floaty text appearing behind the bottom of the interface, and the interface is still usable.

[whirlin_merlin]

Other thing to be aware of is that toolset doesn't work in Crossover games. There might be a Wine solution for this, but I don't have the time or interest to pursue it, so I run a whole second installation of NWN +haks in Windows, via VMWare Fusion.

Crossover is actually a modified version of Wine so I don't know that it would make a difference.

[Pat Briams]

All I know is that if I check the option to sync, I get the black screen, and if I un-check the option, I don't. Completely reproducible. By 'black screen', are we talking about the same thing? With me, it looks like the camera has been shifted a full screen up from the screen with the avatars (so showing nothing but black) - I sometimes get floaty text appearing behind the bottom of the interface, and the interface is still usable.

Actually I don't think we have the same problem. The symptoms are similar, but I can't reproduce them on my MacBook. Good thing it doesn't happen often.

There's an official FAQ entry on the black screen issue. Might try the “fix” next time :s

[S_N]

Leenux user here, and got toolset to work in wine, and remember reading on (bioware forums, or wine mailing list) that this depend solely on graphics driver capabilities now.

Crossover is a modified version of Wine so things might differ between them. Some two years ago there was big differences between even between different versions of Wine too, but at least for me (and the few games I run)it seems pretty stable these days.

[doh123]

I was getting back into playing some NWN again when I found out about Avlis... going to try it out... here really soon...

I'm also the creator of the Wineskin project (http://wineskin.doh123.com/) and I have a wrapper made that runs NWN very nicely... there are posts on the old official forums and FAQs as well as the new... it wont cost ya a thing, just lets you run the Windows version without having Windows, or needing to know anything about Wine, you just install it into the wrapper and it acts just like a Mac app.

here is a link to the Post on the new official NWN forums
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic ... ex/3167082

while I'm getting ready to check out Avlis in just the next few hours... I'm sure this should run it fine, but I'll find out for sure.

[Nighthawk4]

Are you the one who made STO work on the Mac? If so, thanks very much - great job


Edit - you actually got NWN2 to work like this? I have never managed to get NWN2 to work on my Mac, not even in Bootcamp. Also tried Crossover, Fusion and Parallels, but none of them worked.

[doh123]

Are you the one who made STO work on the Mac? If so, thanks very much - great job


Edit - you actually got NWN2 to work like this? I have never managed to get NWN2 to work on my Mac, not even in Bootcamp. Also tried Crossover, Fusion and Parallels, but none of them worked.

yep... STO, and NWN2 both work fine... not really with a stock wrapper, but my customized ones work.... NWN2 is using some files from MS DirectX and not all Wine native like the other two, so the graphics seem a bit laggier, and there are some ATI issues on 10.4 and 10.5, but most people say its running great on 10.6.

i can't seem to get Avlis to work though... it always says i'm missing the hak files, though they are all there... i tried the installer and downloading and installing everything manually... never have used hak files in nwn before though.... I thought I just had to put the haks in the hak folder and the tlk in the tlk folder, but it doesn't like it for some reason.

[Nighthawk4]

Those are the correct places for the Haks and Tlk. This works fine in Crossover, so I don't see why it shouldn't in Wineskin.

Dumb question - you did extract the Haks and Tlk and put those files in the folders, not the Zip or Rar files?

[PlasmaJohn]

i can't seem to get Avlis to work though... it always says i'm missing the hak files, though they are all there... i tried the installer and downloading and installing everything manually... never have used hak files in nwn before though.... I thought I just had to put the haks in the hak folder and the tlk in the tlk folder, but it doesn't like it for some reason.

Make sure the hak's filename matches the case the error message is complaining about.

[doh123]

i can't seem to get Avlis to work though... it always says i'm missing the hak files, though they are all there... i tried the installer and downloading and installing everything manually... never have used hak files in nwn before though.... I thought I just had to put the haks in the hak folder and the tlk in the tlk folder, but it doesn't like it for some reason.

Make sure the hak's filename matches the case the error message is complaining about.

i checked every one... the case looks identical with the same exact names... it just says it couldn't load them cuz they were missing, yet I go in the hak folder and every one it lists (all of them) are all there... so I'm stumped at the moment.

[Nighthawk4]

I am guessing that Avlis2 (with NWN2) will have the same issue?

[doh123]

I am guessing that Avlis2 (with NWN2) will have the same issue?

no idea.. it shouldn't be an issue at all... especially if it works in Crossover. It might be my old old NWN install i copy all over the place, its from a linux install, then moved around and junk.. it might just be screwy. I have my discs around somewhere, I can try reinstalling it from scratch later.

[PlasmaJohn]

i checked every one... the case looks identical with the same exact names... it just says it couldn't load them cuz they were missing, yet I go in the hak folder and every one it lists (all of them) are all there... so I'm stumped at the moment.

One of the .ini files (nwn.ini IIRC) has config options for various directories... is the hak one pointing at the right spot?