Neverwinter Free MMO Guide

There are already a lot of Dungeons & Dragons games out there. From board games to card games and video games. The Lore of D&D is nothing new to most of us...
But I am excited to see Neverwinter appear as a Free game with the ability to use everything available in the game without having to spend a penny. The graphics are beautiful, the the world is huge, fight along side friends, customize your character and all the rest of the expected RPG qualities.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Neverwinter in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the downloadable version of Neverwinter. Steam and Arc versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Note: March 2017 Perfect World Entertainment ended support for Windows XP and Direct X 9. This guide no longer applies until we can pursue more testing in Wine.

Mint 17 64-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.8
Wine: 1.7.40

Wine Installation

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"

Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.40
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

Downloading Wine

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 1.7.40 is installed and you can close this window

Download the Neverwinter installer here:
http://download.perfectworld.com/nw/neverwinter_setup.exe

Save in a folder on your desktop

PlayOnLinux Setup

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install

Click "Install a non-listed program"

Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next

Name the virtual drive: neverwinter
Click Next

Check all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next

Select Wine 1.7.40
Click Next

Select "32 bits windows installation"
Click Next

Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows 7
Click Apply

Graphics Tab
Check "Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows"
Check "Emulate a virtual desktop"
Desktop size: 1024x768
Click OK

PlayOnLinux Packages (Libraries, Components, DLL's)

Check the following packages:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_d3dx9
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next

Note: All packages will automatically download and install

Installing Neverwinter

Click Browse

Navigate to the folder on your desktop
Select "neverwinter_setup.exe"
Click Open

Click Next again

Select language
Click OK

Click Next

Click "I Agree"

Click Next

Uncheck "Create a desktop icon"
Click Install

Uncheck "Launch Neverwinter"
Click Finish

PlayOnLinux Shortcut

Select "Neverwinter.exe"
Click Next

Name your shortcut: Neverwinter
Click Next

Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next

PlayOnLinux Configure

Select Neverwinter
Click Configure

General Tab
Wine version: 1.7.40

Note: Click the + to download other versions of Wine. Click the down-arrow to select other versions of Wine

Display Tab
Video memory size: Enter the amount of memory your video card/chip uses

Close Configure

Launching Neverwinter

Select Neverwinter
Click Run

Login with your account credentials

Neverwinter will begin downloading and patching
In total the game is about 13 Gigabytes

Note: This process can take several hours depending on your internet speed

When its done downloading click PLAY

Long Cryptic loading screen
At first launch, this Cryptic screen can literally take 15-20 minutes
Please be patient and take a break

Sometimes the login will fail and end up at this login screen
Enter your account credentials
Click LOGIN

Once in game, select your character
Click Enter World

Optimization

Click Options
Click Graphics Tab

Adjust resolution to match your Linux desktop

Adjust:

• Screen
• Detail
• Effects
• Lights

or

Use the Render Quality (Video Card) and Graphics Detail (CPU) sliders

Go to the Advanced tab for more settings
Click OK or Apply

Note: When in-game, settings will automatically change on the screen

Conclusion:
Neverwinter runs extremely well on my Geforce 550 Ti. I can turn almost all the graphical settings to high and still get a decent frame rate. This game is beautiful for an Online MMO and its best to play on a desktop with a modern graphics card.
Normally when I first Enter World, there is a bit of lag as the level loads.

Gameplay Video:

Screenshots:

 

I tested it. Really easy and fast to change the wine version with POL !

The result ? GSGL still disabled, the game is really fast (I will do a video to show you that, because perhaps not everyone will believe it), and the microlags seems to be a way less noticeable.


Maybe it's just "Coue Method" or auto persuasion, but it seems that there is a noticeable improvement.

Now I'll do another test, with GSGL enabled, and see what happens. Then, I'll come back here for results.

Finally, I'll do a video to show you.



EDIT : with GSGL, same lags when moving my character. I'll try a new test without GSGL.

 

I used the /showfps 1 command...Wich is not sensitive to auto persuasion

And I'm ashamed to say that I was a bit too enthusiast. No really improvement using wine 1.7, finally.

The game runs around 20-35fps (with an average or 28fps, I'd say) no matter the wine version (1.6 or 1.7), or GSGL enabled or disabled. Settings cursor to max, 1280x1024 resolution, vertical sync disabled.

But with GSGL enabled, the game suffers lags on my machine.

I need to test the FPS on the windows test drive to see how it performs.

 

Yes please do!!! Give us more!
If this is the Wine version to out-do all Wine versions, then I'll be spending the weekend testing multiple games.
Like Alan Wake and other games that just run slow need some optimization like this

 

Oh you only tried 1.7? The newest version is 1.7.1 with the Direct3D enhancements.
Maybe its not available in PlayOnLinux yet?

 

I tried 1.7.1. My bad

No performances improvements on this game, I'm afraid. At least with my hardware, and "default" settings (the ones from your own guide).

 

Ok, the notes claimed that "some" games will have performance boost and some would not

 

I also tried wine 1.7.1 with drakensang. I don't know the fps command, but visually (and this time, trying to be objective) no fps improvements clearly noticeable.

 

Yeah, no surprise there, Drakensang always runs well as long as you have fast internet.
The engine is a whole different machine... its fast, detailed and the content doesn't require gigs of downloads.
Try it with more AAA titles like EA games, Source games, etc.

 

I think I'll try with Path of exile, but first I have to reinstall it. I broke my installation last time I was searching for a solution for my font glitches problem (still not resolved by the way).

Big game...Maybe mechwarrior online. Needs huge specs on windows too.

I tried wine 1.7.1 with world of tanks : no improvement (same fps...a bit low on wine on my machine, and full screen problems).


Maybe something constructive sould be to create a dedicated topic for wine 1.7.1 testing results. Works better with some games ? Let's make a list of test maybe. What do you think of this idea ?

 

I'll try Crysis 2 tomorrow morning, and if Assassin's Creed II launches I'll try it also

 

Hi thanks for this great tutorial, but im having problems with installing games, there is no install button on any of the games on Arc...
is anyone else experiencing this?
Ive installed neverwinter before and it was working with the pop up window that asked me to install neverwinter, but could not install any other games.
Then i had to reinstall my ubuntu distro and now i cannot install any games

 

Yes, I've seen this problem too. There should be an automatic Pop-up window asking you to install the game. If it doesn't happen, try installing again. I've never figured out exactly why it doesn't pop-up, but I've read that its just behind the Arc window.

I checked the Star Trek Online forum and they imply that the installer is launching but is behind the Arc client.
Try this after launching Arc Client:

1. PlayOnLinux Configure
2. Wine tab
3. Task Manager
4. Right click Star Trek Online (Arc client)
5. Select minimize

Now can you see the launcher for installing Star Trek Online?
Note: You may have to start over with the entire process.

 

I cannot install any game with Arc too. Neverwinter is the only one, because the arc advertisement popup for this game worked.

 

Ok thanks guys! i will now try it, no problem installing it one more time. Ive installed it more than 20times with different settings one more time will be a walk in the park!! thanks guys!!

Well it did not work for me, ive minimized it several times with the taskmanager and some without, but no installer....

Is this a compatibility issue with IE8? will it help to install IE9 or 10?

 

Hmmmm, on Neverwinter I get Arc installed and it is on the screen where it says downloading and just sits there at 0%. At the time of this post it has been sitting there for 30 minutes without moving. Any ideas?

 

On Neverwinter forums in a post about people complaining about Arc I came across this, http://download.perfectworld.com/nw/neverwinter_setup.exe , and installed without Arc It is patching right now.

 

Check your Ethernet cable. Can your web browser go to other web sites? Maybe something is blocking wine internet access.

 

Internet was fine. I was surfing while I waited 30 minutes, but it just sat there. I installed it without Arc and it is patching right now. Already at 16%

 

Some of my fellow players on the STO and NW forums have said that their opinion of Arc is that Arc is crap and they use an old installer for the games.

 

Thats what that is in the link in post #56. The old installer before Arc. Still works.