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Can't get NWN Diamond to run on my new computer. Raaagh! Help!

TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
in Off-Topic
Hey everyone. I am in the process of reinstalling all my games on my new computer. The second one on the list (after BG, of course) was NWN and it is really giving me trouble. If I start the game the normal way it hangs every few seconds which makes it completely unplayable. I tried running the game on windows XP service pack 2 and 3 to no avail. I tried running it as an admin. I tried changing the name of nwmain.exe. The only thing that seems to work a little is opening the toolset and running a test module. When I do that I notice almost no hanging in game but on the main menu it sometimes hangs every few minutes instead of every few seconds. I suppose I could play the game like this, but I would like to eliminate the hangs entirely if possible. Can anyone help me with this?

Note: I am not using the GOG version of the game. I have a disk of my own and I would prefer not to cave in and buy the GOG version, but I will if I have to.

I have a windows 7 64 bit duo core with an Nvidia Quadro 400.
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Comments

  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    Ugh! It affects the radial menu too! I'm doomed aren't I?
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    WOW! I Just got the GOG version and guess what? EXACT SAME PROBLEM!!!!! I have literally tried every solution that was suggested on the GOG forums all to no avail! Why do I always get the unsolvable problems?!
  • IsandirIsandir Member Posts: 458
    Do you have the 1.69 patch installed? If not, do that first. One possible solution can be found here and another here.
  • CuvCuv Member, Developer Posts: 2,535
    Sorry Tresset, I have the gog version and have no problems at 1920x1200 resolution, i5 and GeForce 660, also win7 64. I have an ssd and have the game actually installed on another drive besides C. You may not be doomed, may just be some win764 bit tweak you gotta do? Not sure if any of this information is helpful for you.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    edited July 2014
    Let me make the usual questions...

    Updated graphic drivers?

    Updated DirectX?

    If you're using a notebook is the game set to use the NVidia/AMD graphics chip instead of the onboard one?
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    I think I narrowed it down a bit... It has something to do with the sound, because if I disable the sound it seems to run just fine. What is the point of playing without the sound though? :/
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    I am starting to think I have to disable hardware sound for it to work but I have no idea how to do that.
  • IsandirIsandir Member Posts: 458
    Though it's hard to know exactly what will work in that case, here are the possible solutions I was able to track down:

    1 - Run settings, select "Change" and select "Auto Detect" for the sound option.
    2 - In the advanced sound options menu in the game, try selecting Miles 2D Positional Audio.

    Try each of those with and without compatibility mode. Additionally, many people seem to have luck with turning off "shiny water" under the advanced graphics menu.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    No luck yet with anyone's suggestions. I would like to try playing with the EAX and the Hardware Sound options in the menu but they are grayed out and unclickable for some reason. The research I have done seems to point to my Realtek sound card as the culprit behind this but I have no idea what to do about it...
  • IsandirIsandir Member Posts: 458
    I'll have to try installing my copy once I'm back home in that case. I vaguely recall running into a similar issue when I last played, but resolved it somehow.
  • elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,315
    edited July 2014
    Are you using surround sound (5.1) or something else? I've found with my sound card that having windows and my card set for surround sound instead of two speakers (+ base) can mess games up.

    The only other thing I would do is go into your sound cards control panel (I have a creative card so I'm not sure what realtek calls it) and disable EAX (or try enabling it if its already disabled).
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    Apparently my sound card doesn't support EAX so there is no option to switch in its control pannel. I have my speakers set up as "stereo" so that shouldn't be the problem...
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    Set the game to run only on one core and see if that helps.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    I did that already with nwnplayer.ini Not sure how to do it with my task manager but would it matter? I am pretty sure it is the audio card. The game doesn't actually ever crash on me. It just hangs every few seconds before recovering and hanging again. As I said disabling sound makes it work so it can't be the core or compatibility mode or renaming nwmain.exe. It runs just fine except the sound causes hangs.
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    Yeah I guess it must be the sound then.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    Hey everyone. I just decided to try to get this to work for me again and this time I had much more success in my internet research. It turns out that this has something to do with Microsoft cancelling support for OpenAL and EAX on Windows 7 (at least I think that is what it is... all the tech talk I read made my head spin) I was able to kinda solve the problem by getting this thing called "3D SoundBack Beta 0.1" which apparently added support for the game to my Realtek sound card. The game itself seems to be fixed now, but the movies still freeze from time to time for some reason. At least it isn't as bad as it was with the broken record style audio looping hang that was happening every few seconds...

    That said, I haven't actually left the main menu to start the game and I am not 100% sure that the problems are gone yet.
  • wubblewubble Member Posts: 3,156
    reminds me of trying to get the original starcraft to work on my old laptop. in the end i had to get a program called chaos launcher and run it through that.
  • SethDavisSethDavis Member Posts: 1,812
    I installed this a couple months ago and had similar problems, also on 7. The way I finally got around it was disabling User Account Control before installing and enabling it afterwards.
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    @SethDavis‌ I may have to try that eventually. Although the game seems to hang less, it still hangs often enough to be annoying. The NWNtoolset is especially bad for some reason.
  • BelanosBelanos Member Posts: 968
    edited December 2014
    Tresset said:


    Note: I am not using the GOG version of the game. I have a disk of my own and I would prefer not to cave in and buy the GOG version, but I will if I have to.

    I think you may have to bite the bullet there. I had problems with the game myself, trying to run it on Windows 7 64 bit, and finally got rid of my discs and got the GOG version. It really doesn't cost all that much, but it will run flawlessly.
    SethDavis said:

    The way I finally got around it was disabling User Account Control before installing and enabling it afterwards.

    That didn't help me at all, I don't even have UAC running on my system. And I had installed it outside the Program Files folder as well.

  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    Ok...

    So I have been playing NWN and enduring the maddening hangs for a few years now. I still have yet to find a way to fix this. Even getting a new computer fixed nothing. I thought I may try asking for help once more, just because. I don't expect to actually find a solution since the entire internet seems to either:
    a. Not know about the problem.
    b. Not have any idea how to fix it.

    I do have something new this time however. I hope against hope that someone will be able to look at this clue and tell me what it means:

    If I have debug mode active in the game and a hang happens, then some sort of error message will appear in the in-game log. I have taken a screenshot of one such error message:

    image

    The yellow text in the log window (bottom left corner) is what I am referring to. I do not know what most of it means, but I think at the very end where it says "Tag:" is referencing some kind of game object that appears in the game/module. The object that is tagged seems to be different for each individual hang. Does anyone know what this means or have any idea how to fix it?
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    @Tresset Do you have AI mods or other custom AI?
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    @FinneousPJ No nothing like that. I think all I have are various spell fixes and some modified 2da files so that I can add custom effects in the editor. The entire game hangs, including the main menu and the aurora toolset.
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    @Tresset The error message implies the AI script is not progressing properly. I don't know if that causes the game to hang, though. Does it hang immediately with the error?
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    @Tresset Is that a custom module or PW you're playing that might have custom AI?
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    FinneousPJ said:

    @Tresset The error message implies the AI script is not progressing properly. I don't know if that causes the game to hang, though. Does it hang immediately with the error?

    @FinneousPJ when the game hangs that appears in the log immediately upon its recovery (but only when debugmode is on). Like I said earlier in the thread, the frequency of the hangs is approximately once every 1-20 minutes and they last about 5-20 seconds each. You make a good point though; I am not sure if this error causes the hang or the hang causes the error.
    FinneousPJ said:

    @Tresset Is that a custom module or PW you're playing that might have custom AI?

    Not a custom module at all. That is the SoU interlude chapter. It has no custom AI that I know of.
  • mlnevesemlnevese Member, Moderator Posts: 10,214
    A custom AI could actually be the solution in this case as the normal AI is hanging.
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    @mlnevese That sounds like the AI script goes into an infinite loop which breaks only as the counter overflows. Try Tony K AI mod
  • TressetTresset Member, Moderator Posts: 8,264
    Well actually... I may be on to something finally. I talked about my setup with Troodon80 just now. I had the game starting in windowed mode because I think it helps the movies run better. Troodon suggested having the game start in fullscreen mode. I did that, and it seemed to help, but there was still a hang in one of the intro movies (the one where Lord Nasher kills Koth the minotaur). I then decided to try disabling the intro movies altogether because I remember reading somewhere that they tended to cause trouble on modern machines. This seems to have solved the problem with the hangs, but I have been fooled into thinking they were gone many times before. I guess I will just have to wait and see if this is really the solution...

    I am unsure if an AI fix is going to help. As far as I know, AI is not active on the main menu or in the toolset and both of those would hang just as much... But there are quite a few issues with the AI that would be nice to fix in addition to this... @FinneousPJ Thanks for the recommendation. I will try looking into it.
  • FinneousPJFinneousPJ Member Posts: 6,455
    @Tresset Have you disable multithreading in NWN? IIRC it can cause all sorts of wonky behaviour.
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