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Designed by: BioWare in June 18, 2002

Influenced by: C, Java

OS: Microsoft Windows, 3rd party tools for Mac OS X, and Linux

License: BioWare EULA

Further Reading: For now the NWN Lexicon holds the most comprehensive NWscript remarks, and tutorials.


    NWScript is the scripting language developed by BioWare for the computer role-playing game Neverwinter Nights. It is based on the C programming language and is implemented in the Aurora toolset. Neverscript, an open source 3rd party editor, has been created for the Mac OS X and Linux versions of NWN because the Aurara toolset has not been ported to those platforms.

    NWScript is also used in the video games The Witcher, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II The Sith Lords, which use the Odyssey Engine, Neverwinter Nights 2, the sequel to the original NWN features a modified version of this scripting language.

    NWScript is based upon the C programming language and contains most of the C language syntax. NWScript does not support arrays, nor the Standard C library, such as printing to the screen, file I/O, nor system calls. These limitations are of little consequence to the NWN game, as an existing library of functions and functionality is provided with the game.

Syntax

While based on C, NWScript does not have many functions from the C family, excluding logical and binary/ternary operators and some mathematical functions. Function source code is not accessible to the end-user, but the correct syntax is defined in a script file called nwscript.nss. The users can create their own functions, and these can be included in other scripts through the #include directive, which works slightly differently than in C++.

Hello world

NWScript has no way to directly target the screen for output. Instead, for instance, in-game characters such as the player character can be made to speak the typical “Hello world” example message. This script puts a “Hello world” message in the player’s message log. For it to work, it should be placed in the OnClientEnter event of the module’s properties.


void main()
{
	SendMessageToPC(GetEnteringObject(), “Hello world”);
}


The first line is the void main function which is the function that a NWScript will start at. In the third line, the text Hello world is sent to the player’s in-game message log.

Data types

NWScript allows structs, but not objects. It also allows constants with the "const" keyword. The following common data types are available in NWScript:

  • integer (int) (32bit)
  • float (32bit)
  • string
  • struct
  • vector

NWScript has also introduced some data types for purposes of the Neverwinter Nights game. These are in reality special structs or ID references but you can't manually alter them without script commands (eg; you can't change an effects properties without Effect* prefixed functions).

  • object (refers to game obgects, such as PC, NPC, placeable and item objects).
  • location (refers to the in-game location of an object, consisting of an area object reference, a vector and a float describing the position and facing within the area).
  • talent (refers to spells and abilities).
  • vector (refers to coordinates of an object, and is a construct of three floats).
  • itemproperty (refers to abilities on items such as weapons for use in the game).
  • effect (refers to game-mechanics-altering effects on objects; for example effects created by spells, diseases, and displayed visual effects).
  • event (refers to calling in-game events using SignalEvent)
  • sqlquery (refers to sqlite queries)

File format

    When saving a script, the Aurora Toolset saves the plain text of the script as a file with a .nss filename extension. When compiling the script, a .ncs containing Byecode to be run on the NWScript Virtual Machine file is created. If turned on, a debug information file an .ndb extension is also created. The game uses only the .ncs file (and the .ndb file if called)

When saving the created module, the files are packed into a single module file whith a .mod extension, along with other information about the layout of the module.


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