NWN on Mac OS X (using Wineskin)

ScottyB · August 17, 2013, 07:36:08 AM

For a long while I had trouble running NWN on both Windows 7 and Windows 8. And then I got a Mac, but the Mac version of NWN was built for PowerPC, and booting into Windows still gave me the same stuttering issues I had on my other PCs. (In fact, I've now observed the issue while running virtual machines of Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and 8.)

Well, I've finally conquered NWN. And if there are any other Mac users who have been looking for a way to play without Boot Camp/virtual machines/secondary PCs, you can too!

Update: 12/16/2017 - for High Sierra, I've put my Wineskin wrapper on OneDrive. You'll need to right-click > Show Package Contents, and place your own NWN files in drive_c, and possibly also run the Wineskin app inside the package > Advanced, and point it at nwn.exe. I doubt I'll be making any further changes to this since the Enhanced Edition should be Soon^TM and Steam lists Mac and Linux support.

Old instructions:

I got NWN through GOG, and downloaded the stand-alone package. (Should be two .bin files and an .exe installer.) I'm not sure if you'll be able to use an existing PC installation of NWN with my method.
I also got Wineskin and created a blank wrapper. (You'll need to download at least one engine after starting up the Winery. I used WS9Wine1.6X.)
Ignore/skip anything about Gecko or Mono. If you install them they'll be about 250MB of useless frameworks. When the wrapper is created, view it in Finder. Launch it.
On first launch of the wrapper, choose Install Software and select the .exe from GOG. Let it do its thing. If you currently have an installation of NWN then I suppose you could choose to copy an existing folder, and then skip to choosing nwn.exe as the default executable. But don't launch NWN right away!
Close the installer. Choose nwn.exe as the default executable. In Finder, right-click or ctrl+click the wrapper and choose Show Package Contents, and navigate through the drive_c folder to Program Files\GOG\NWN (or wherever it is). Open nwn.ini in a text editor, change the line SafeMovie from 0 to 1, and add a line below it Disable Intro Movies=1
You should also put in your CD keys in the nwncdkey.ini file, don't leave them on the defaults if you'll be playing online.
And finally, change the video settings (like resolution) on the title screen after launching the game, rather than NWConfig from the splash menu.

That is what I did to be good to go!

Update: 6/26/2014: I worked on a Mac icon. Preview of 512 png:

Attached is the .icns file, in 7z. On Mac you can use something like Keka to unzip. To make it your icon for the Wineskin wrapper, rename the icon "Wineskin" and place it in the app package; right-click or ctrl+click the app and choose "Show Package Contents", then go into /Contents/Resources/ and replace Wineskin.icns.

Sternhund · August 17, 2013, 10:30:58 AM

ScottyB. :)

Ebok · August 18, 2013, 01:53:37 AM

I just made a partition on my mac and kept OS10.68 on that one for NWN.

However, I will probably want to talk to you more about this on irc sometime!

VengefulSeraphim · August 18, 2013, 02:27:07 AM

Before I got my newest laptop, I used to slum NWN on my MacBook using Wineskin. It works pretty well most of the time, except for brief cases where the camera acts up, and sadly the sound just doesn't work no matter what you do.

Oskar Maxon · August 21, 2013, 01:39:59 PM

I'm using playonmac for nwn, also on the principle of wine. How is it working so far, Scotty? Any glitches in particular?

Secutor · August 21, 2013, 05:40:57 PM

send me your wallpaper omg

ScottyB · August 22, 2013, 12:55:16 AM

Quote from: Oskar Maxon;350533I'm using playonmac for nwn, also on the principle of wine. How is it working so far, Scotty? Any glitches in particular?

I changed it to force the use of a window and emulated desktop at a fixed resolution, since I frequently switch between using my laptop on its own, as well as plugged into a display, and NWN was launching full-screen and having trouble if the resolution was different from the previous launch. Other than that, nothing Wine-specific.

Quote from: Secutor;350564send me your wallpaper omg

zpecter on DeviantArt

PanamaLane · August 22, 2013, 01:41:45 AM

For what it is worth, I run on mac 10.8.2 by using parallels 8 with XP. I can't say enough about how awesome parallels is. I had to buy it to run certain editing software on my system, but it works just fine for nwn. If you can afford it, I would say its totally worth the investment for anyone who wants to run windows programs on a mac seamlessly.

http://www.parallels.com/products/desktop/

ScottyB · August 22, 2013, 04:15:39 AM

That's what I use for my 2000, XP, Vista, and 8 virtual machines. Sadly, I just can't get genuine Windows to play nice with NWN. Just about every other Windows application, though, I run in one of my Parallels VMs (and usually works great).

KRUNTO · August 23, 2013, 01:35:02 AM

I just got a new laptop today, and Derf linked me to this. There may be a KRUNTO in your future....Thanks for posting this, Scotty.

Daemonic Daz · September 10, 2013, 10:31:34 AM

Sticky for the awesome tip and cool wallpaper.

Sternhund · October 18, 2013, 02:10:06 AM

Okay so I just installed NWN on my Macbook Air. The game runs fine, except for one glaring glitch. When the game starts after I hit the menu's "Play" button, I get a black screen. I can see the NWN styled cursor, and I can click where the "New" and "Load" buttons are and hear the buttons registering, but I can't see anything. If I play around with clicking all the buttons sometimes the screen will pop up and the game will work, but this is a huuuuge pain. Any ideas?

[EDIT] If it helps I can't get the screen to appear for "DM Client" but I can get the screen to appear for "Play". My big goal is to be able to DM on this laptop!

Oskar Maxon · October 20, 2013, 07:40:34 AM

I had that problem on my PC, I learned where the "load game" button is when it starts up, that one usually got the screen working.

The Holy Goat · February 22, 2014, 10:46:37 PM

So I need a little help.

On first launch of the wrapper I choose Install Software and select the .exe from GOG. Let it do its thing, and it asks me for the location of the .bin files (which are in the same file as the .exe and are the only things in the file). For some reason it is not recognizing the location and cancels the install. What have I done wrong? What can I do to make it work?

ScottyB · June 26, 2014, 08:30:34 PM

I only ran into the black screen once. Not sure why it happened. It also seems to take a long time to load now, although I have added almost 2 gigs of overrides and haks; it's probably mounting everything as a virtual drive for Wine and the myriad small files are bogging it down.

Also: updated the first post with a new icon for Mac!