11/10/99 - Latest News

Bunches of things from NWN
Berendir @ 2:18 pm EST

The following news comes from the Neverwinter Nights vault.

If your curious about what kind of development tools are used in NWN, heres some info on that:

1) Art tools:
We are using 3DSMax 3.0 for the character / monster / tile modeling, UVW mapping and animating.
We are using our own plugin suite to export the max data into our game formats.
We use Adobe Photoshop 5.5 to paint all the textures and do all the other project art. Character textures will be saved in the Targa (.TGA) format.

2) Programming Tools
We are using Microsoft Visual C++ for our primary development environment. The game is programmed in C++.
Our primary Graphics API is Open GL. For sound (on the PC) we are using Direct Sound (as Cord quoted). We will support both A3D and EAX.



Heres some news on Scripting iteams:

At this point, it is unclear whether it will actually be possible to attach a script to an *item* (as items get transferred with the character from module to module, there is some serious potential for abuse). That said, you will definitely be able to script your *module* to respond to a given item in such and such a way. This allows you to do a whole bunch of neat, customized stuff (such as intelligent weapons or various plot-specific items) within your module while still maintaining its integrity and limiting abuse. If you want an item to do this over the course of a multi-module campaign, just be sure to copy and paste the relevant script into each module.

Your Flaming Halberd of Regeneration +2, +4 vs elves, that glows when in the presence of undead and applies a mirror image effect to you whenever you say the word "Parsnip" is perfectly portable between modules (though good luck checking it in to the Vault, I'm guessing... =). If you can honestly call that a generic item, I'll eat my keyboard, piece by crunchy piece.

The reason why such an item is transferable is because it is cobbled together from a wide variety of clearly delineated and pre-established effects within the Solstice Toolset. We can assign a value to it and that value will hold true. It's pretty open-ended but there are certain limits we place on the items to safeguard game balance.

The only limits placed on scripting, on the other hand, are those necessary to keep the game from crashing and going boom. Within your own module, game balance is yours to define. Beyond that horizon, however, it's someone else's domain.

If you are interested in helping out at NWN, then read this:

To be honest, one of the best ways to help might be to lend some of your programming and game experience to the various fan-based worlds that are springing up for NWN (check out the Neverwinter Worlds Webring, accessible from our Links page, if you want the grand tour). Ultimately, NWN's success will hinge on the quality of worlds like these, so by helping them, you're helping us. Talk to them, get a feel for what their needs will be, and dive right in. It will be a rare day when one of them refuses the assistance of a computer engineer.

Well if you are intersted in helping out, then maybe getting involved with Arda Nights would be a good idea. I'm sure when the time comes it'll be great to have all the world builders that can be mustered up, to help create a Middle Earth World. Check out Arda Nights at the playervault.