Play Neverwinter MMO on Linux

The short version:

– Download the game via torrent: http://nw.perfectworld.com/download/torrent
– Download & save this POL script: http://pastebin.com/RihAd2qz
– In POL, run the script as a local script. When asked select the setup.exe for Neverwinter.
– Proceed with the installation (don’t change install path & don’t automatically run the game).
– Check some of the notes below: “Running the game”.

The illustrated version:

– Download the game via torrent: http://nw.perfectworld.com/download/torrent

– Install POL if you don’t have it already. Instructions here: http://www.playonlinux.com/en/download.html
– Download & save this POL script somewhere (~/Downloads/nw.txt for example): http://pastebin.com/RihAd2qz
– In POL, select run a local script and then select the script you downloaded.

– Click through the prompts (Next/Agree/Next) and you will be ready to go.

– Wine will be downloaded if you don’t already have the version I specified in the script (you can change this afterwards in settings btw). You don’t need to install Mono when asked.

– Next step will install IE8, we need this for the launcher, sadly. The first step is in French (some of the devs of POL are French) but it’s just asking us what language we want for IE. Just select English.

– Select the options like I did (not that it matters much)



– DirectX will be installed as well but you won’t get any prompts there (hopefully). Eventually you should be asked to point to where you downloaded the game (setup.exe):

– Just select the setup.exe and the installer for the game will be loaded. As always when using POL, don’t change the installation path and when asked don’t automatically launch the game. You can do that manually afterwards via POL.





– Eventually the installer will finish and you’ll end up with a nice shortcut both in POL and on your desktop.

Running the game

Right if you got this far you want to run the game. The servers are frequently down though. Check https://twitter.com/neverwintergame when in doubt.

For example if you get something like this, it means their patch servers are down:

When the patch servers are up, you should get a launcher window. First thing to do is go to Options at the top.

Unselect everything and select Safe Mode and Disable On-Demand Patching. The first option will allow us to get past the initial loading screen (you can check later without this option if it works for you), the other option will download all the patches beforehand and not on-demand (when you first enter an area) which is less annoying. Now log in with your account (If you don’t have one, register here: https://register.perfectworld.com/nw_splash). The patches will download.

Once you’re fully patched, select the big Play button. You’ll get a prompt about video drivers. Just select use lowered settings. Don’t worry, once the game is loaded you can just set the settings to whatever you like.

Eventually the brightness calibration menu will be shown:

This will only be shown the first time. After this you can go to Options and select Fullscreen (or max windowed), change the graphic settings etc.

Unfortunately you’ll have to do this every time you load the game (including toggling the Safe Mode). For me at least, if I don’t do this, I get stuck at the loading screen.

If you want to see your FPS in-game: /showfps 1
If you want to check for FPS spikes (purple is bad): /fpsgraph 1
If you want to see your ping: /netgraph 1

I get around 30-50 FPS on Medium, it’s worse than running native, but it’s perfectly playable. Putting AA higher than 2x gives me a really bad performance hit as well.

BTW if you want to launch the game from commandline (script, openbox menu, etc) use this:
playonlinux --run "Dungeons and Dragons: Neverwinter"

Enjoy,

If you want to get in touch in game, I’m @teppec (on server Dragon).