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:

 

Thanks so much, downloading now.

 

Stuck at the screen calibration, screen.

 

Looks like we won't need to use IE8 any longer.
The new Arc Beta runs without it!

choose low quality.
I found that the optimal setting crashes the whole launcher

 

I might have to hit ya up on skype or maybe a google or hangout. I needs da help man!!! hahah

 

I'm on google chat all the time!
Normally when you launch Neverwinter and it wants an update, it can take a long time.
Then when you login to the client, it can take another 10 minutes before starting. Sometimes the login fails and I have to do it again.
But never select "Yes, with defaults settings" ... it always hangs.
You can select lower graphical settings and then adjust them in-game.

 

I installed the ATI driver and now it's crashing all the time.

 

Oh no, I didn't know you had ATI. That is a different world. Which card do you have?
It may be a good idea to start over with Neverwinter. You should be able to copy the program folder so you don't have to download the whole thing again.
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/neverwinter/drive_c/program files/
Cut-n-Paste to your desktop first.
Delete the neverwinter virtual drive
Then start over.
Once you get to a launching point with the neverwinter client, cut-n-paste the folder back to the same location in program files.
Then launch the client.

 

This guide no longer works as when you goto download it only has the acr option and that download link doesn’t work.

 

I got working with only a slight head ache. Your guide didn't work completely but it work mostly and then I figured out the rest. I will explain later when I get back.

 

Dang, you are right!
It downloads with the Arc client now just like Star Trek Online.
I'll Have to install again using Arc.
Thanks Steve

 

I just tried the Arc link and it didn't work. Might be refusing to download to Linux. Maybe we have to use Windows to download.

 

I just tried the Arc link and it didn't work. Might be refusing to download to Linux. Maybe we have to use Windows to download.

I just tried running Firefox on my Civ 5 VD and it the Arc download works. We just have to install and run Firefox first so, please update your guide to tell people to install Firefox first. They need to install Adobe Flashplayer too. Then they can run Firefox From the VD and get Arc.

 

If I got Star Trek to work with Arc I'll definitely get Neverwinter to work.
This weekend I'll try it and update my guide.

 

I just tried running Firefox on my Civ 5 VD and it the Arc download works. We just have to install and run Firefox first so, please update your guide to tell people to install Firefox first. They need to install Adobe Flashplayer too. Then they can run Firefox From the VD and get Arc.

Thats awesome! How do you know Firefox is actually launching? I have tried it in the past and even with Firefox set as the default browser Wine still tries to launch IE

 

I see the window. I can have both the Linux version of Firefox and the Windows version running at the same time.

 

I have completely revised the entire Neverwinter guide for the Arc client installer. Look it over. Everything should work nicely now.

 

Sorry but it won't download for me. I think you have to use a browser from the VD instead of the system.

 

If you tell me your characters name then we can play together as I was able to use an old setup file from beta that I still have on my HD.

 

If you tell me your characters name then we can play together as I was able to use an old setup file from beta that I still have on my HD.

By the way You can talk to STO players while playing Neverwinter! At least you can email them. Any character you make in any Cryptic game uses the same email domain for example my characters end in @sparow, whether STO, CHO, or NWO.