Custom Content
From NWN1 Custom Content Guide
Contents |
Overview
Custom Content, in regards to Neverwinter Nights, is any content produced by anyone, sans official Bioware Neverwinter Nights relases. This can be anything that deals with NWN including, but not limited to: Modules, Scripts, 3D Models, 2D Art, and lots, and lots of other stuff...
Where to Get It
Where do you get custom content?
Well you can download custom content released by other community memebers at places like:
- The Neverwinter Vault (The best source of Community Content)
How to Make It
For even more fun and excitment, you can create your own. Places to learn to do this are:
- The Custom Content Guide, Version 4 (This is your best place to start.)
Adding Custom Content
This Page deals with the various means of adding custom content to the toolset and impliment it's use in game.
Hak Paks
A Hak Pak (a file with the extension .hak) is a package where you add custom files to either supplement or override standard Bioware content. Anybody who plays your module will need a copy of your hakpak so be sure to distribute it along with your module itself. You can use a hakpak to make Neverwinter’s standard goblin a different color (overriding standard content) or to add a new monster such as an Owlbear (adding new content).
Learn More
- See hakpak
- You can learn more about hakpak files, about what they are, and how to get them into the toolset and how they are use in game.
- See Hak Pak Editor
- You can learn more about the Hak Pak Editor, how to create, edit, merge, and even export resource files from hakpaks.
/overide
First, you can override Bioware content by dropping a file into the /override folder of your game directory. However, this approach is not recommended. Hakpaks are much cleaner – they can group many overridden files into one package and, more importantly, they are specific to a module.
Learn More
dialog.tlk
Neverwinter Nights includes a data file called dialog.tlk. This file contains a huge list of thousands of text resources: all of the names of all of the objects in the dialog from the game. This is a common technique used to make it easier to internationalize a game – with all of the text strings in one place, translation to multiple languages is much easier.
Each resource in dialog.tlk has a number assigned to it called the String Reference. Unfortunately, editing dialog.tlk is fraught with issues:
- It is a huge file (7 MB+) which makes for a big download.
- It is not something you can override through a hakpak. So for each module that you play with a new dialog.tlk file, you have to manually swap in the new dialog.tlk before loading the game.
- If you update NWN through the automatic updater, it will not work if you have changed dialog.tlk. You will have to restore the old version first, then update the game. Of course, any changes that Bioware makes to dialog.tlk for an update will break your version.
Learn More
- See dialog.tlk
- To learn more about the dialog.tlk file.
Official Patches
Official patches will not be in custom content released before the patch.
- To override some of the files, like the .2da files, you take a copy of the entire file and add your own modifications to it. There is a risk if Bioware issues an updated version of that file in a patch that you will not have those updates in your file. For example, I dutifully used NWN Explorer to export the baseitems.2da file from NWN Main Data, to add a new weapon. But my game installation has a more recent copy of baseitems.2da in the new NWN Override file already.
I'm on v1.30 of the game. - If I run a diff between the new version and the original one, there were two small changes (to the Heavy Crossbow and the Trapkit). Not good. Not surprising, in retrospect, but not good anyway. Why does this happen?
- Bioware originally used the /[[>override]] directory for its official version updates. As of version 1.28 it moved most of that content to patch.bif. NWN Explorer gets its data from either the original game or the new patches, depending on which part of the directory tree you go down. When I distribute an older version of a .2da file in a hakpak, Bioware’s changes disappear because my hakpak version takes precedence.
- Practically speaking what this means is that when you are going to modify a current NWN file (e.g., a .2da file), look in \source\2dasource.zip first, before you go and export a file you want from NWN Explorer. Only if Bioware hasn't updated that file recently would you use NWN Explorer to export a new version from the original game installation.
- If you don't follow these simple rules, you risk undoing Bioware's bug fixes when you distribute custom content. This same issue exists if Bioware distributes an update after you distribute your content but we let's not exacerbate the problem.
Learn More
- See ?
- To learn more about Official Bioware Patches.
