NWN isn't a new $20 game, though. It's a $50 game with two $30 expansions with a commensurate amount of graphic resources. Sure, they're dated, but you're looking at a significant amount of work to update these to the standards you want, in addition to such updating possibly breaking compatibility with older mods.
Maybe explain me how ANY of the techniques I mentioned would break compatibility with older mods. BTW I do own diamond edition, I ask what exactly in EE is worth spending 19$ ... now is there any person here which would address this question of potential customer?
I own the Diamond Edition and it doesn't work properly on my PC. NWN:EE will. So that by itself is worth it.
As far as the techniques you list, you should remember that there are two reasons they're not updating graphics. The other reason is cost.
I'm rather a singleplayer gamer. For me Neverwinter Nights was actually about graphics. Normally I do not even care much about graphics. But back then, back in the day, after Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 and Throne of Bhaal and Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights was THAT game that brought 3D to the Forgotten Realms. For me, I remember, that was HUGE back then.
As much as I find the graphics outdated today, I was thrilled and excited back then! Yes, because of the graphics. So for me Neverwinter Nights was about graphics because it was the first game that let me visually "truly" dive into my favorite gaming world. Something I hadn't experienced before.
I am also a single-player gamer. Exclusively.
But I see no need for a graphical update. While I like you, was very excited by the dynamism added by NWN's 3D environments and movable camera (compared to the Infinity Engine games), no subsequent games has offered any graphical advancement that was worth the investment. More modern games waste millions on more detailed models and higher-quality textures that simply don't improve the game. I have criticised BioWare, in particular, for ever moving beyond NWN's level of graphics.
Worse, higher quality graphics have encouraged the rise of non-interactive cinematics, which actively interfere with roleplaying.
No, not only do I not need a graphical improvement for NWN, I actively oppose such a thing for fear of the message it would send the market (that graphical advancements are good in and of themselves).
And as I mentioned before, it hasn’t worked on a Macintosh manufactured in the last 12 years. I know Windows people may roll their eyes, feel free. However, that’s another 10% to the user base, and OS X users tend to spend more discretionary income on software. (I’ll just say that I’ve seen the numbers, and it is surprising.)
"Where BG:EE is now compared to when it was released is miles away from what any modder could have done" so basically what exactly do you mean by that? Most hardcoded limitations (like songlist, dual class/ racial limitations, kit number etc.) were already removed by TOBEx ... and BG1 part of the game was running quite nicely in both TuTu and BGT. If you have valid argument then use it. If not... why bother posting?
Well, if nothing else, the moddable UI should be a huge change over EE 1.x But you can also count the new actions or effect opcodes
Well I did manage to run it ok so fixing it on new PCs and Win10 is possible and quite easy. I got only one problem and it is related to ALT-TAB (sometimes after switching to desktop it takes several retries to get back control in game). Other than that it runs perfectly. In fact not long ago I finished OC and HoU while trying out new build.
And that's why there are NEW games there with price tag around 20$ which looks way better than NWN ... guess those guys don't know how to earn money... or maybe they do
New games with new asset making pipelines do tend to look better. New games with new asset making pipelines also don't tend to need to go back through huge amounts of 15 year old art assets and try and bring them up to a modern standard. That said, if there's a new game with the same amount of assets, toolset and customization potential kicking around for $20 I'd probably be happy to buy it.
BTW I do own diamond edition, I ask what exactly in EE is worth spending 19$ ... now is there any person here which would address this question of potential customer?
Honestly, if all you want to do is play existing modules, play on 1.69 servers, don't mind fiddling about to get the game running happily on Windows 10 and are fine with chucking a load of mods and 3rd party shader injectors into the mix then EE probably doesn't offer you much right now. Save your cash.
Personally I'm in it for bugfixes, 64bit client, larger PW resource pool, better visuals without Reshade (or even better functionality with Reshade), modern shaders, nicer modding workflow, modern custom content tools and whatever other stuff they've got lined up. It's not there yet, not by a long shot, but these are early days and the road forward looks interesting.
Maybe think of it like a car.
Some people have an old car they love that they've tended, tweaked, resprayed and generally worked to keep up to date. There's no official service, but what the heck, it's worked this long and with there's plenty of aftermarket parts.
Some people don't have a car but might buy an old one cheaply and spend their time bringing it up to a place they're happy with. There's no official service with the car, but a good community of mechanics and fixers mean that if they're willing to invest time they can keep it going.
Some people don't have a car (or want a newer one) and don't mind paying a bit more for one that's had a factory refit with modern features that they can drive straight off the lot without any problems, plus a new warranty and the knowledge that any major new features in the car range will be retrofitted or available to buy as official spares and there's a large community of mechanics and modders about if they want to dabble in the aftermarket services.
Well I did manage to run it ok so fixing it on new PCs and Win10 is possible and quite easy. I got only one problem and it is related to ALT-TAB (sometimes after switching to desktop it takes several retries to get back control in game). Other than that it runs perfectly. In fact not long ago I finished OC and HoU while trying out new build.
I get a CTD whenever I try to adjust the screen resolution, but it works fine as long as I leave it at 800x600.
Well I did manage to run it ok so fixing it on new PCs and Win10 is possible and quite easy. I got only one problem and it is related to ALT-TAB (sometimes after switching to desktop it takes several retries to get back control in game). Other than that it runs perfectly. In fact not long ago I finished OC and HoU while trying out new build.
I think the point is, it's something that actually works out of the box from GoG, which is probably worse. People who're new have no idea where to look because GoG doesn't really point them to the forum. Searches tend to be overwhelming for them when it's a game that's over 15 years old. Old vets of NwN returning like myself, some of them don't have the time to search for community fixes on top of the haks that may or may not be there. And even then, some of those community fixes don't work for everyone due to hardware. Some of those community fixes you mention are quite old. They may work for you or myself, but they're not all that universal sadly.
And the 'multiplayer fix' wasn't much of a fix. It was more of a work around. There's no master authentication and servers have to actually script that in through OnEnter of the module. While that works- that's still a work around and sometimes complicated to maintain (if someone changes a CD Key with an old username for instance and the databases weren't cleared). Most people don't know about NWNCX, NWNList, or YourServerList when buying NwN. They don't know how to find the servers because it's not in the documentation of the game. Not to mention, most people don't know that there's a forum in GoG- that's for the most part unmoderated and riddled with misinformation. Add that with those that don't bother due to security concerns and I'm not even going to invalidate those people- especially with recent events.
So yes, you're right. Some people can fix 1.69- but it's the fact that the user has to fix something that should already work when it's still being sold digitally doesn't. Which is where Beamdog updating it to run without community fixes and add actual technical support is a big selling point for a lot of us. It works, it's maintained, and it's more secure. And I'm not trying to have a go at you, but I'm trying to explain to you what's going through some of these people's minds because I've helped people get their clients running with those exact issues and even then- it didn't always work. I wished it did. I truly wish it did. But I'm not about to invalidate these experiences with 1.69 seeing as I've seen them myself first hand.
Edit: Also hosting is another issue in which you have to do edits not just to your router, but your hosts file to even get listed on NWNList. While there are packages that can list, it doesn't always work- at least when I tried with NWNX. Most people get concerned when a file they have to edit is in the Sys32 folder, for obvious reasons.
don't forget those new 20$ games are most likely built in engines like unreal that are packaged with a huge amount of resources. Look at Marvel Heroes and xcom enemy unknown. 90% of the resources are "out of the unreal library".
Well I did manage to run it ok so fixing it on new PCs and Win10 is possible and quite easy. I got only one problem and it is related to ALT-TAB (sometimes after switching to desktop it takes several retries to get back control in game). Other than that it runs perfectly. In fact not long ago I finished OC and HoU while trying out new build.
Different PCs have different configurations and it may not run okay on all of them. It doesn't run okay on mine, and I've done everything I'm willing to do to try to make it run okay.
I'd rather just buy the EE, which is guaranteed to work without having to do all these things to make up for lack of compatibility.
Sorry for being a bit off topic here and trying to lighten the mood a bit, but every time I come to the forum and see this thread title, I keep hearing Threepio from the beginning of Star Wars Episode IV saying "There'll be no escape for the Princess this time."
Wildly off-topic: KOTOR:EE would be just as awesome as NWN:EE. How about it Beamdog? Put it on your back-burner?
Negotiations with the Mouse House... Beamdog would need at least a level 18 Arch-Lawyer...
I understand that Trent said it would be expensive to upgrade the graphics, but why not use already good work and improve it, such as "chico's quality tilesets" or zwerkules's facelifts.
I understand that Trent said it would be expensive to upgrade the graphics, but why not use already good work and improve it, such as "chico's quality tilesets" or zwerkules's facelifts.
Those things can't exist because the only way to update the graphics is to throw the GDP of a small nation at it. /s
It's not too much to ask for Baldur's Gate or similar level graphics. We don't need the latest 4K AAA title level graphics or noninteractive cinematics. NWN is based on tilesets, that's fine just up the pixels on those textures. It doesn't have to cost a mint, that's just an excuse for not doing it because you don't wanna spend a couple bucks.
It might not be the GDP of a small nation, but that doesn't mean it's still affordable. A Ferrari doesn't cost the GDP of a small nation, but it's still not worth the cost for me to buy one.
@BelleSorciere - I own 1050Ti, before that GTX960, before that HD7750, before that HD4670, before that HD2600, before that X850, before that 5500FX, before that 9250, before that 7500. And on all of those I managed to run it ok... windows xp, windows 7, windows 10 and all sorts of linux distributions. Processors Celeron Tualatin 1200, Athlon XP 2000+, Athlon64 X2 4400+, Athlon II X3, FX6300, R5 1400, Pentium G4400. As you see plenty of different configurations. Win7 x64 was big gamebreaker alone, hardware configuration has nothing to do with it. Most problems are caused by libraries used by NWN which aren't exactly compatible with new OS (or not part of the new OS therefore game crashes). And believe me when I say when this game came out I had to search for properly working ATI driver since some fixed other games but made NWN run at unplayable level (so slow!). So I guess I'm more experienced with overcoming issues.
The part with GDP is figure of speech, I don't suppose Trent has any real number in mind and even if he had he has no knowledge about GDP of small nations ... Iceland is a small nation (~400k ppl) and it's GDP for 2016 was 20 billion USD. So please stop repeating such nonsense, you take it literally while I just proved it to be wrong (on so many levels).
Just showed 2 GIFs with what CAN BE DONE with almost no work at all and without any incompatibility. And main counter argument is still "it's too costly, it's compatibility breaking".
As far as the video card goes, did you have any trouble with it or did it just display perfectly on the first try? What resolution do you play at?
So far nothing I've done other than running in 1360x768 has corrected the display issues, and it looks terrible at that resolution. Anything above that and things go to hell. I look forward to being able to play in 4k without any glitches when I buy the EE.
Apart from shiny water problem and catalyst 3.x-5.x series slowdowns I didn't encounter unintended behavior ... I play at 1920x1080 ATM, was playing 1280x1024 few years back. 1920x1080 is suboptimal due to the UI (and fonts) who seems rather small. See yourself
I can't seem to find a fix for one persistent problem, which moves the camera farther and farther to the bottom left as the resolution increases. The player character is somewhere off in the top right beyond the monitor border at 1920x1080.
The best I can manage is windowed, which properly centers the camera. Unfortunately that still leaves me with invisible cloaks and robes. That is somewhat tolerable, but really annoying. And sometimes the game randomly displays the cloaks and robes.
Okay, I see this goes into the direction of "modern day graphics are bad for video games in general".
If you do share that opinion, it makes sense that you would rather dislike an update of the graphics of NWN:EE.
On the other hand I imagine what would happen if all video games from now on would stop ever using graphics that were beyond NWN. Or at least, if all RPGs did that. Maybe Mass Effect and Dragon Age games (taking those games as examples) would have been far more successful if they had used the graphics of Neverwinter Nights instead. Maybe most of all the many problems in those games stem from the fact that they use better graphics than NWN. Maybe the same holds true for all other modern day RPGs.
I do have my doubts, while at the same time, I do see that the focus on graphics alone can hurt the depth of an RPG. It certainly can be a factor.
But Beamdog would not have changed the content of NWN if they had updated the graphics. So if NWN was fine the way it is from the content point of view, then there should be nothing wrong with updating the graphics, because that would not change the content. I think the reason that it would break mod compatibility is a far more valid one against updating the graphics, but that is just my personal opinion.
Once more I would like to reiterate that I never wished for modern day game graphics. For some reason, this assumption is being made over and over again. I would be fine with graphics on the level of Neverwinter Nights 2, which is from 2006. Those would be 11 years old graphics.
But according to your argument, maybe, NWN2 was already less successful than NWN because it used better graphics than its predecessor. Can very well be. Honestly, I do not know that.
One more point, I think some people, could even take your argument further and say that the depth of NWN as an RPG already suffered because they went 3D at the time. You should take into consideration that your argument can be taken even further than you might have intended.
your speech makes me laugh just because it shows how people are tied to the past ... ok the game should not be streaked in the plot for example, though..went to all those new players who want to buy the play, nowadays the graphics and the first thing a potential buyer looks at, if you place a game with 15 graphics, be sure that a new player who is approaching the game will not buy it by saying phrases like "la graphics suck, "" worse than Minecraft, "" the feet of the pg seem carved in wood. "
For me your phrase "modern day graphics are bad for video games in general" and silly and ridiculous, because it proves that not only tea but other people do not want to admit that you have little powerful pcs and do everything to make sure they do not touch anything in the compartment graphic, and then stop with these ridiculous talk about costs that is too difficult to change everything, are just apologies, your apologies admit it, so I start to be more sincere here and say most players do not have a latest computer generation, I have that and the door ... you can also go out and let them improve the game.
Apart from shiny water problem and catalyst 3.x-5.x series slowdowns I didn't encounter unintended behavior ... I play at 1920x1080 ATM, was playing 1280x1024 few years back. 1920x1080 is suboptimal due to the UI (and fonts) who seems rather small. See yourself
even on this ... but do you realize that the UI has to be changed? was not designed to support great resolutions, but see how icons are too small? it requires a different, more legible UI. because we continue to deny that we have to change, I NWN loved him for the infinite possibilities of personalization and character, from the aesthetic point of view and class building, but not for the radial system eg bars or bars, bars in NWN are stupid and horrible, say "but just do it" and a nice and big excuse, most of us (like me) are not programmers or video game developers, sorry but I do not mind change a game without knowing what to do, and for me it is complicated in many cases to change the smallest parts, but it takes time and effort to run a modd. We must therefore find a compromise between:
Veterans who do not want to change anything VS Veterans who do not want to change it (but want improvements) VS New players who want to modernize the game
Didn't encounter camera problem, on the other hand invisible cloaks are only in FHD (1680x1050 works ok for me), they do cast shadows and cover parts of the armor but are transparent otherwise. I admit that might be annoying but something like that is considered glitch and not an obstacle that won't let you enjoy the game and finish it. Not displaying movies (which I had few years back... ) was really annoying, game crashing at the start was annoying, ALT-TAB problem I described before is annoying (since I do switch apps really often). Now back to the main discussion That's work of 1(!!) guy 7(!!) yeas ago he did in spare time for no money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij1rSVdo_70 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CThbR3NZq8I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pC7IgFsti8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufQNSF7ao_c Now I don't expect Beamdog to hire artists, designers and shader programmers just because few guys expect that. But at least give opportunity to those talented, with spare time to make optional, improved content which can be efficiently implemented only by running on modified rendering engine. And since (I honestly believe) OpenGL3 is a requirement for EE all of those techniques are applicable. I mean... gather modders/PW creators and give them some sort of SDK after signing NDA. Isn't it reasonable?
Also the thing about fans doing things for no money is that it's a hobby for them. Companies can't hire artists and not pay them and expect to get any work done.
I don't really understand why backwards compatibility is that important over forwards compatibility. (For clarification's sake: Forwards compatibility means that files created in old versions (such as mods and saves) still work fine in new versions. Backwards compatibility means that files created in new versions still work fine in old versions.) Of course you want forwards compatibility, but backwards compatibility is going to cause severe restrictions.
I personally couldn't stomach the early days of 3D graphics, and was unhappy about each franchise that held my interest that switched from 2D to 3D. I personally much preferred the graphics of, say, BG over NWN, or Warcraft 2 over Warcraft 3. I personally didn't feel like computers were ready to properly display 3D of sufficient quality. I did get NWN1, but I stopped playing it very early on, as the graphics were pushing me away from the game.
For those people that did find the 3D graphics acceptable, and have been playing and loving the game ever since, this may be a good deal. 20 euros is nothing for a game you've been playing for well over a decade to get some proper support again.
For others, the 15 year old graphics may very well be a dealbreaker. 2D graphics age a LOT better than 3D graphics. Without a serious boost in graphic fidelity, this will be a no to those people, myself included. Would it be feasible to update the graphics?
There's a lot of arguments yelling "Don't do it, as it's going to break mod compatibility!" Honestly, I think those people are misinformed. If it's really so that any updates to textures and what not would break the compatibility, then the engine wouldn't be very moddable at all, and the contrary seems true. It should be possible to upgrade individual graphics without breaking mod compatibility.
The other argument is cost. Considering the huge size of the game (if you include all the expansions and modules), updating the fidelity of all the assets in the game would be a huge protect, potentially beyond the scope of what Beamdog is feasibly able to. Updated assets may net them more sales, or it may allow them to get away with a higher price ticket. But they probably made their expectations, did their math, and decided that upgrading the assets is not likely to return the investments made, and thus they're not doing it.
I personally aren't going to buy NWN:EE, as I'm not interested in 3D games from that era. I wasn't back then, and I'm certainly not now there are great looking 3D games out there that offer good gameplay as well. If the assets were upgraded considerably, I would reconsider, but I doubt that'll happen.
I'm still glad for Beamdog, for providing me with modern editions of BG, BGII and IWD (if only IWDII could be there), and a repopulated community of modders that both continue work on great mods from the past, and create new great mods. Perhaps they'll return to other titles I like more, perhaps they won't. Time will tell.
There's a lot of arguments yelling "Don't do it, as it's going to break mod compatibility!" Honestly, I think those people are misinformed. If it's really so that any updates to textures and what not would break the compatibility, then the engine wouldn't be very moddable at all, and the contrary seems true. It should be possible to upgrade individual graphics without breaking mod compatibility.
First, no one is yelling. Second, people aren't advancing arguments that it's going to break mod compatibility. That information comes from Trent Oster, who was design lead on Neverwinter Nights and is now CEO of Beamdog Entertainment. I think he knows whereof he speaks. People are simply quoting what he already stated in the first stream.
your speech makes me laugh just because it shows how people are tied to the past ... ok the game should not be streaked in the plot for example, though..went to all those new players who want to buy the play, nowadays the graphics and the first thing a potential buyer looks at, if you place a game with 15 graphics, be sure that a new player who is approaching the game will not buy it by saying phrases like "la graphics suck, "" worse than Minecraft, "" the feet of the pg seem carved in wood. "
For me your phrase "modern day graphics are bad for video games in general" and silly and ridiculous, because it proves that not only tea but other people do not want to admit that you have little powerful pcs and do everything to make sure they do not touch anything in the compartment graphic, and then stop with these ridiculous talk about costs that is too difficult to change everything, are just apologies, your apologies admit it, so I start to be more sincere here and say most players do not have a latest computer generation, I have that and the door ... you can also go out and let them improve the game.
As you can see from my post, I was quoting someone else. And my post was in reply to @Sylvius_the_Mad , who said that graphics beyond the level of NWN might generally be harmful to RPGs.
That is NOT my opinion.
@Sylvius_the_Mad seems to think that updating any RPG beyond the graphics of NWN might send a message out on the market that will herald the downfall of role playing games in general.
That is NOT my opinion either.
So read my post and his carefully again.
my mistake did not know you did not have to say those things, I strongly apologize to you.
Comments
As far as the techniques you list, you should remember that there are two reasons they're not updating graphics. The other reason is cost.
But I see no need for a graphical update. While I like you, was very excited by the dynamism added by NWN's 3D environments and movable camera (compared to the Infinity Engine games), no subsequent games has offered any graphical advancement that was worth the investment. More modern games waste millions on more detailed models and higher-quality textures that simply don't improve the game. I have criticised BioWare, in particular, for ever moving beyond NWN's level of graphics.
Worse, higher quality graphics have encouraged the rise of non-interactive cinematics, which actively interfere with roleplaying.
No, not only do I not need a graphical improvement for NWN, I actively oppose such a thing for fear of the message it would send the market (that graphical advancements are good in and of themselves).
But you can also count the new actions or effect opcodes
Honestly, if all you want to do is play existing modules, play on 1.69 servers, don't mind fiddling about to get the game running happily on Windows 10 and are fine with chucking a load of mods and 3rd party shader injectors into the mix then EE probably doesn't offer you much right now. Save your cash.
Personally I'm in it for bugfixes, 64bit client, larger PW resource pool, better visuals without Reshade (or even better functionality with Reshade), modern shaders, nicer modding workflow, modern custom content tools and whatever other stuff they've got lined up. It's not there yet, not by a long shot, but these are early days and the road forward looks interesting.
Maybe think of it like a car.
Some people have an old car they love that they've tended, tweaked, resprayed and generally worked to keep up to date. There's no official service, but what the heck, it's worked this long and with there's plenty of aftermarket parts.
Some people don't have a car but might buy an old one cheaply and spend their time bringing it up to a place they're happy with. There's no official service with the car, but a good community of mechanics and fixers mean that if they're willing to invest time they can keep it going.
Some people don't have a car (or want a newer one) and don't mind paying a bit more for one that's had a factory refit with modern features that they can drive straight off the lot without any problems, plus a new warranty and the knowledge that any major new features in the car range will be retrofitted or available to buy as official spares and there's a large community of mechanics and modders about if they want to dabble in the aftermarket services.
And the 'multiplayer fix' wasn't much of a fix. It was more of a work around. There's no master authentication and servers have to actually script that in through OnEnter of the module. While that works- that's still a work around and sometimes complicated to maintain (if someone changes a CD Key with an old username for instance and the databases weren't cleared). Most people don't know about NWNCX, NWNList, or YourServerList when buying NwN. They don't know how to find the servers because it's not in the documentation of the game. Not to mention, most people don't know that there's a forum in GoG- that's for the most part unmoderated and riddled with misinformation. Add that with those that don't bother due to security concerns and I'm not even going to invalidate those people- especially with recent events.
So yes, you're right. Some people can fix 1.69- but it's the fact that the user has to fix something that should already work when it's still being sold digitally doesn't. Which is where Beamdog updating it to run without community fixes and add actual technical support is a big selling point for a lot of us. It works, it's maintained, and it's more secure. And I'm not trying to have a go at you, but I'm trying to explain to you what's going through some of these people's minds because I've helped people get their clients running with those exact issues and even then- it didn't always work. I wished it did. I truly wish it did. But I'm not about to invalidate these experiences with 1.69 seeing as I've seen them myself first hand.
Edit: Also hosting is another issue in which you have to do edits not just to your router, but your hosts file to even get listed on NWNList. While there are packages that can list, it doesn't always work- at least when I tried with NWNX. Most people get concerned when a file they have to edit is in the Sys32 folder, for obvious reasons.
I'd rather just buy the EE, which is guaranteed to work without having to do all these things to make up for lack of compatibility.
It's not too much to ask for Baldur's Gate or similar level graphics. We don't need the latest 4K AAA title level graphics or noninteractive cinematics. NWN is based on tilesets, that's fine just up the pixels on those textures. It doesn't have to cost a mint, that's just an excuse for not doing it because you don't wanna spend a couple bucks.
My problems started when I installed a GeForce GTX 1080ti. Prior to that I had a 950 and the game worked fine.
The part with GDP is figure of speech, I don't suppose Trent has any real number in mind and even if he had he has no knowledge about GDP of small nations ... Iceland is a small nation (~400k ppl) and it's GDP for 2016 was 20 billion USD. So please stop repeating such nonsense, you take it literally while I just proved it to be wrong (on so many levels).
Just showed 2 GIFs with what CAN BE DONE with almost no work at all and without any incompatibility. And main counter argument is still "it's too costly, it's compatibility breaking".
So far nothing I've done other than running in 1360x768 has corrected the display issues, and it looks terrible at that resolution. Anything above that and things go to hell. I look forward to being able to play in 4k without any glitches when I buy the EE.
I can't seem to find a fix for one persistent problem, which moves the camera farther and farther to the bottom left as the resolution increases. The player character is somewhere off in the top right beyond the monitor border at 1920x1080.
The best I can manage is windowed, which properly centers the camera. Unfortunately that still leaves me with invisible cloaks and robes. That is somewhat tolerable, but really annoying. And sometimes the game randomly displays the cloaks and robes.
For me your phrase "modern day graphics are bad for video games in general" and silly and ridiculous, because it proves that not only tea but other people do not want to admit that you have little powerful pcs and do everything to make sure they do not touch anything in the compartment graphic, and then stop with these ridiculous talk about costs that is too difficult to change everything, are just apologies, your apologies admit it, so I start to be more sincere here and say most players do not have a latest computer generation, I have that and the door ... you can also go out and let them improve the game.
even on this ... but do you realize that the UI has to be changed? was not designed to support great resolutions, but see how icons are too small? it requires a different, more legible UI. because we continue to deny that we have to change, I NWN loved him for the infinite possibilities of personalization and character, from the aesthetic point of view and class building, but not for the radial system eg bars or bars, bars in NWN are stupid and horrible, say "but just do it" and a nice and big excuse, most of us (like me) are not programmers or video game developers, sorry but I do not mind change a game without knowing what to do, and for me it is complicated in many cases to change the smallest parts, but it takes time and effort to run a modd. We must therefore find a compromise between:
Veterans who do not want to change anything VS Veterans who do not want to change it (but want improvements) VS New players who want to modernize the game
Now back to the main discussion
That's work of 1(!!) guy 7(!!) yeas ago he did in spare time for no money:
Now I don't expect Beamdog to hire artists, designers and shader programmers just because few guys expect that. But at least give opportunity to those talented, with spare time to make optional, improved content which can be efficiently implemented only by running on modified rendering engine. And since (I honestly believe) OpenGL3 is a requirement for EE all of those techniques are applicable. I mean... gather modders/PW creators and give them some sort of SDK after signing NDA. Isn't it reasonable?
I personally couldn't stomach the early days of 3D graphics, and was unhappy about each franchise that held my interest that switched from 2D to 3D. I personally much preferred the graphics of, say, BG over NWN, or Warcraft 2 over Warcraft 3. I personally didn't feel like computers were ready to properly display 3D of sufficient quality. I did get NWN1, but I stopped playing it very early on, as the graphics were pushing me away from the game.
For those people that did find the 3D graphics acceptable, and have been playing and loving the game ever since, this may be a good deal. 20 euros is nothing for a game you've been playing for well over a decade to get some proper support again.
For others, the 15 year old graphics may very well be a dealbreaker. 2D graphics age a LOT better than 3D graphics. Without a serious boost in graphic fidelity, this will be a no to those people, myself included. Would it be feasible to update the graphics?
There's a lot of arguments yelling "Don't do it, as it's going to break mod compatibility!" Honestly, I think those people are misinformed. If it's really so that any updates to textures and what not would break the compatibility, then the engine wouldn't be very moddable at all, and the contrary seems true. It should be possible to upgrade individual graphics without breaking mod compatibility.
The other argument is cost. Considering the huge size of the game (if you include all the expansions and modules), updating the fidelity of all the assets in the game would be a huge protect, potentially beyond the scope of what Beamdog is feasibly able to. Updated assets may net them more sales, or it may allow them to get away with a higher price ticket. But they probably made their expectations, did their math, and decided that upgrading the assets is not likely to return the investments made, and thus they're not doing it.
I personally aren't going to buy NWN:EE, as I'm not interested in 3D games from that era. I wasn't back then, and I'm certainly not now there are great looking 3D games out there that offer good gameplay as well. If the assets were upgraded considerably, I would reconsider, but I doubt that'll happen.
I'm still glad for Beamdog, for providing me with modern editions of BG, BGII and IWD (if only IWDII could be there), and a repopulated community of modders that both continue work on great mods from the past, and create new great mods. Perhaps they'll return to other titles I like more, perhaps they won't. Time will tell.