What is Reddit's opinion of
OpenMW?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
100 reviews of this app found across Reddit:
Honestly, at this point anyone who is still pledging on Patreon (barring those who somehow haven't seen this drama), are being scammed.
You don't get to say you don't owe anything to the community when taking in 18k/mn from said community. And the bullshit "ItS DonAtiONs" excuse doesn't fly.
This project is dead as far as I'm concerned, and people are better off supporting OpenMW. https://openmw.org/en/
For everyone who's feeling nostalgic, Morrowind has gotten a lot of upgrades from the community (and a few former devs if I'm not mistaken). Graphics upgrades, bug fixes, etc. More info on https://openmw.org/en/. They did a huge update very recently fixing even more stuff.
I installed it a few weeks ago and am playing again and I'm having an absolute blast. Highly recommend it.
Have you tried r/OpenMW? Basically the same game on a newer, free engine. Super easy to install and run and fans of the game usually have a blast with the engine improvements (plus it's still being actively improved)!
It's not yet complete so a few quests bug out or are quirky but I'm positive the story quests are all working fine! Definitely give it a try and let the developers know if you find any bugs :)
EDIT link https://openmw.org/en/
If people were unaware, there's similar projects for Morrowind and Age of Empires. Check out https://osgameclones.com/ for a huge list of projects like these.
Legalities aside, it's possible and has been done for older games. But you underestimate the amount of work it takes to reverse engineer or re-implement an entire game.
The devilution project comes close to what you are asking for. The original author used tools to reverse engineer most of the code and then fixed it up by hand. It only took 1200 hours for a game that's 1/1000th of the technical complexity of BotW. Aside from the insane amount of developer-hours you'd need, it's also highly illegal in most countries. Who would be willing to spend so much time on something that could get shut down any moment?
A more legal way is to re-implement everything from scratch, which is more akin to what OpenMW does. But this project has been in development for almost 10 years by dozens of people and only has recently become playable.
So ultimately, it's not a question of 'Is it possible?' but more of where to find the 20 reverse engineers you'd need and if it is even worth it.
Ah Morrowind, one of the best games of all time I believe.
There's a great Open Source Engine Remake called OpenMW in the works. It runs most mods and overall is rapidly approaching completion. Right now you can mostly play the full game with mods if you'd like, but expect a few hiccups. They're also releasing their own construction set to hopefully give us one that's not total garbage, so fingers crossed! It also opens up a slim chance for multiplayer Morrowind and Android Morrowind, so we'll see in the distant future.
We should squabble among ourselves as to what the best overhaul mod or guide is for making the graphics look better. It's a wonderful game worthy of being played in it's current state, but some recommendations for the best way to play it today would be nice. MO3 is my favorite.
Yup! That's why projects like Open Morrowind are actually totally legal. They are writing 100% original code, so it's all good.
Technically you actually can't even look at the original code, but that's awful hard to prove. That was the basis of the Google vs. Oracle lawsuit.
It's called TES3MP, some guys are working on a multiplayer addition to OpenMW. From what I understand NPC sync is scheduled to be in the next release, but earlier today the current dev. version was leaked. I'm guessing this guy downloaded the leaked version before it got taken down.
EDIT:Links
Yes, it's a mod for Morrowind, but it's still a rather popular game with a vibrant and dedicated fanbase.
You may want to check out OpenMW, too.
It's a community driven project to recreate Morrowind and its engine entirely from the ground up as an open-source project.
I'm not sure if it falls under your definition of fan-remake, but OpenMW is just about ready for their 1.0 release. The new engine already runs the game better than Vanilla Morrowind.
New notable features relate a lot to the UI. Keybinds for menu control is now more robust, optional ownership indicator, and optional spell/enchantments chance viewer. There's also a fair amount of AI enhancements dealing with spell and weapon use, pathfinding, and water AI management improvements. Music shuffling and minor adjustments have been made to make things more dynamic. Rain and snow also received enhancements, now being stick and causing water ripples.
Version 1 of OpenMW is quite a ways away unfortunately despite the massive progress on the engine over the past few months. The engine is pretty close to what the time wants for version 1, but OpenCS (the OpenMW creation tool similar to the Creation Kit) needs more developers as it is a requirement for a version 1 release. If you, or you know anyone who's interested, and know C++, take a stop over at the forums and main site https://openmw.org/ for more
As but a humble follower of the project, I'll try to run through them.
Multicore support and better performance. Morrowind runs not so admirably on modern systems due to only being able to utilise a single CPU core, severely bottlenecking the game for some. OpenMW will have Multicore support and will be more largely compatible with modern systems.
Improved Graphics. Though this 'feature' is still being implemented slowly OpenMW will have support for newer shader models and large draw distances without the need for external programs such as MGE (Morrowind Graphics Extender).
Better modding and Scripting support. OpenMW rewrites Morrowind's scripting system to be much more robust and featured. This could allow for mods that would have been inordinately difficult or even impossible in normal Morrowind.
Backwards Compatability with existing mods and expansions. This one blows my freaking brain. OpenMW will be compatible with the existing .esp / .esm plugin structure that Morrowind used. Every existing mod for Morrowind will conceivably be compatible with OpenMW.
Physics Engine. OpenMW's implementation of physics is still in its earliest stages but will probably be developed post-1.0 release.
That's the major features I can think of.
EDIT: A brief overview of features is listed here: https://openmw.org/faq/
There's a huge active modding community (easiest entry is https://openmw.org/en/) that basically gets you a remastered version of the game. See lists like this: https://modding-openmw.com/lists/total-overhaul/
No matter what, 16 years later some people keep making content for TES3:Morrowind and development is still active on its open source engine OpenMW
Between that and the fact that TESVI is still far far away, a significant portion of the community will be happy to see your projects come to completion.
Yes. Google OpenMW project. Bethesda told the devs of the project to stop distributing the Android compiles, but you can compile one yourself.
I'm currently at 2606 hours in Rocket League (entirely played under Linux). And I reckon I'm about half as good as I could be. RL has a very high skill ceiling.
I've got about 1500 hours in Left 4 Dead 2 though that was mostly played back when I still used Windows for gaming.
I've got 300ish hours in both Crusader Kings II and Europa Universalis IV and I've barely scratched the surface in either. If you want a game that'll easily do you for thousands of hours you can't go wrong with those two.
I've got 400 hours in Divinity: Original Sin over both versions (all played on Linux - Wine then native). Definitely recommend that one if you like expressive turn-based combat. Great in co-op.
I also have hundreds of hours in Mount and Blade across the versions, mainly pre-Steam. Amazing game if you like both lancing motherfuckers in the face and do-what-you-want sandboxes.
And I think Morrowind deserves an honourable mention. I've got a good coupla thousand hours in it and it's playable natively on Linux with OpenMW - in fact that's the best way to play it these days.
OpenMW is what you should look at if you want the same mechanics.
I look forward to Skywind because I love the setting/story/characters in Morrowind, but disliked a lot of the game mechanics.
I believe that deal was that they cannot PROMOTE any mobile version (https://openmw.org/faq/#bethesda_legal), which they don't (and that's the reason you are learning about Android port from some random post on reddit).
This is a modern reimplementation of the Morrowind engine. It's fully playable now assuming you have the original assets (steam version is supported).
Nice thing is they are making it compatible with mods too while fixing all the old bugs!
Isn't this the one that combined Morrowind Comes Alive, NPC Overhaul, Balmora Expanded, and a bunch of others? Always seemed like too much for me. Besides, a lot of the expanded cities don't mesh with MGSO, and I love me some MGSO.
I can't wait to see what people do with this game once OpenMW comes out.
One that I've heard lots of stories about is there there are like 5 quick-travel systems in the game that aren't always clear, and that some players don't discover (actually, this list shows even more).
OpenMW is an open-source recreation of the game engine, and ought to let you set whatever resolution you want, and smooth out some of the age-related issues.
OpenMW might finally make this viable, along with Oculus Rift support and a bunch of other things.
So if you want to bring this idea closer, stop by https://openmw.org/en/ and see how you can help. I've already run a bug discovery promo for OpenMW and worked on... another thing that I probably should post to this sub and not spoil it in this comment ;)
https://openmw.org/faq/ OpenMW is an open source reimplementation of the Morrowind Engine. It fixes tons of bugs and adds quality of life features and better graphics out of the box. For me, its the de facto way to play Morrowind.
If you get this check out OpenMW it allows you to play Morrowind on other platforms (Linux included). It's a complete engine re-write so it allows for engine mods, multiplayer, bunch of neat stuff.
They're remaking the original vanilla Morrowind but since this one is open source it'll allow in the future for new features
Their FAQ answers this nicely : https://openmw.org/faq/
> * Be a full-featured reimplementation of the Morrowind engine. > * Run natively on Windows, Linux and MacOS X. > * Support all existing content, including Tribunal, Bloodmoon and all user created mods (in case they don’t use external programs). > * Allow much greater modability: change game rules, create new spell effects, etc. through scripting. > * Fix system design bugs, like save-game “doubling” problem. > * Improve the interface and journal system. > * Improved graphics by taking advantage of more modern hardware. > * Support to improve game mechanics, physics, combat and AI. > * (Possibly) Support to implement multiplayer > * (Possibly) Support to run on mobile devices. >
In no particular order:
Disciples II. The demo of it came preinstalled on the first desktop PC I was using at the time. I purchased it shortly after. It is hard to forget a turn based game with such a unique art style. I used to keep bouncing between Disciples II and Heroes III. There was a similar game on Kickstarter, but it did not get enough funds to get going :<
FTL. This game was a gateway drug for me, in terms of rogue like games. I have been mesmerized with the no reload/ironman concept ever since. Excellent soundtrack.
(Open)Morrowind. It has been nearly 20 years since I put my hands on the game. Nostalgia or not, I am still entertained by it. Nowadays, you can even play it on phone or on Linux. What else do you need? :)
You see how 3D these bricks look? It's still a flat model with a flat texture, but another (for you invisible) layer is added (usually in grayscale) that tells the game which part of the model should appear higher than others.
After that, the light sources cast their light onto the floor, and because some parts are calculated as higher than other parts, the lighting will make it look extra 3D-ey.
You can see it in the above picture (and another example on the OpenMW front page). The light from the torch makes the texture of the wall "pop out". In reality, it's still the same flat 3D model, but because it now has support for these "height maps", the light makes it looks like there are really creases in there.
If you have any computer that came out in the last 8 years you can most likely run Morrowind, since the game came out in 2001.
I do however recommend that you install OpenMW. It's an engine rewrite that makes the game much more stable and easier to run on modern computers, and I think it would help on yours too.
Have fun, Morrowind is one of my favorite games of all time. If you have any further questions, feel free to pm me, or reply to this comment.
OpenMW basically just replaces the game's engine and allows it to run better with modern systems. There's lots of quality of life improvements as well.
I'm playing through it again (having just discovered openmw) and one of the things I love about it is how everything you know about the world comes to you through unreliable and politically biased sources. It's up to you to decide which version of history or cosmology is more reliable.
This includes offering you multiple interpretations of your own actions through the main quest, since it's a self-fulfilling prophesy to some degree.
If you don't care about running it directly through stream, there's actually an open source reimplentation of the Morrowind engine called OpenMW that can be installed natively on Linux if you have the original game files.
There's instructions for installing it under Ubuntu on the wiki, and instructions on how to run it (and where the data will be located) at the bottom: https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title=Installation_Instructions#The_Ubuntu_Way
Not quite what you're asking for and I'm not super familiar with Macs or running things in Wine, but you may be interested in instead checking out OpenMW. It should let you run the game 100% in native Mac without having to use Wine or anything.
You do still need to buy the original game and have it downloaded on your machine, but then instead of using the default game's launcher, you just launch OpenMW and play from there.
I always pop in over at OpenMW to see how things are going. If you know nothing of this, here's a quote from their FAQ:
>OpenMW is a free, open source and modern engine based which reimplements and extends the one that runs the 2002 open-world RPG Morrowind. The engine comes with its own editor , called OpenMW-CS which allows the user to edit or create their own original games. Both OpenMW-CS and OpenMW are written from scratch and aren’t made to support any third party programs the original Morrowind engine uses to improve its functionality.
This also may give programmers the ability to make a mobile version of Morrowind (which has been done but because of a big media fiasco, was pulled). Personally, I would absolutely love to have Morrowind in my pocket.
FYI there is an open source re-implementation of the Morrowind engine and editor which is capable of fully playing the game....
EDIT: Though to be fair, this won't address any of your concerns but it may address some of the concerns raised by other responders.
First, there is OpenMW which is a open source, multi platform game engine capable of running Morrowind, fully playable. This project has been forked and multiplayer features were added: it's called TES3MP.
Discord is a communication tool that includes chat rooms, voice capabilities and much more. Think of it like a mix of teamspeak, irc, and facebook groups. Just click the link above, it's simple, very idiot-proof.
For the AI and generally game scripting – yes, you need a custom engine to understand and execute those. But for the video, audio, input handling, physics, etc. – one can just write a loader for the non-standard game format, and feed them into an existing solution. Eg. OpenMW (Morrowind engine reimplementation) uses OpenSceneGraph for 3D rendering (and used to use Ogre3D before) instead of implementing the whole renderer themselves.
Things like Ogre3D, OSG, Bullet (which is used also by the OP’s project for physics handling) are not full-fledged game engines, but more libraries-slash-engines focused on providing a solution to one particular problem (graphics, physics…) or a few problems (graphics-and-input).
My point is – if one can actually load game assets into memory and parse them, there is no need for manual OpenGL/Vulkan magic or Newtonian mechanics math – there are existing engines / libraries which solve the entire class of problems for an engine reimplementation developer. But, sure, if the game does some very strange non-standard things in its graphics, or its physics, then one needs to reimplement those themselves – no general-purpose library will do that for them.
I too, am completely code-illiterate and had no clue what all the hype was about before I started using OpenMW. I still can't fully explain everything, but the way I understand it is:
Morrowind is a very old game and it was not made to be running on modern computers/systems. This means that certain things in the game do not work due to its rather dated and limited engine.
OpenMW is an open-source, modern engine that redoes and extends that of the original Morrowind.
This basically allows it to run Morrowind more smoothly on modern systems and gives it a high potential to fix every single issue with the game. Moreover, it is open-source*, meaning its future is basically secure and the project can be ever-improved.
Edit: Feel free to read the FAQ to learn a bit more about the project as well. Here you can see some of their goals for the 1.0 release, for example:
- Improve the interface and journal system.
- Improved graphics by taking advantage of more modern hardware.
- Improve game physics and AI.
as well as their wishlist, which includes:
- Allow much greater modability: change game rules, create new spell effects, etc. through scripting.
- Improved game mechanics and combat.
- Improved the interface and journal system.
*Open-Source: Software where the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified.
I assume you know you can't run non-Linux games on Linux without using something like Wine (which is, even at the best of times, a bit of a pain in the arse).
For Morrowind that's not necessary. Install OpenMW, which should be in your repos. It's a re-implementation of Morrowind's engine. You'll still need the data files from an actual copy of Morrowind to use it. The easiest way to do that is to acquire an iso and then point OpenMW's installation wizard at that iso. I don't see any harm in getting an iso from wherever you can since you own the game anyway.
Alternatively, and much more circuitously, you could install Wine, then install the Windows version of Steam via Wine, then install Morrowind in the Windows version of Steam in Wine and then point OpenMW at those data files. Googling "install Steam via Wine" should sort you out.
Alternatively alternatively, I think you you could use SteamCMD to download the Morrowind files.
(Getting the iso is going to be the easier of these options by far).
I love Morrowind. It's my favourite game of all time. OpenMW makes it better with proper widescreen support and per-profile saves and stuff like that. It's an excellent project.
Morroblivion is pretty much complete from what I hear, but personally I prefer the mechanics of Morrowind better than Oblivion's so I haven't been interested enough to try it.
I just mod the hell out of it and it looks pretty great. Framerates are sometimes kinda shitty but that's because I set distant land up really high so I can see Red Mountain from across the map and see Solstheim from the coast of Vvardenfell.
MGSO is really performance-hungry, but it's got an installer and I found the install process really easy (although I know others have had issues with it). The game looks great afterwards, although some cities give me framerate issues (and my PC is fine, I run Skyrim on ultra with ENBs and hi-res textures, Morrowind just has an old engine so there's only so much you can get out of it). Still, it'll make the game look much, MUCH better.
If you want to go for a more custom approach, just download mods that you like, but MGE XE is a must-have, that adds distant land files, support for high resolutions, and a bunch of other visual effects to make the game look better.
OpenMW is another project worth keeping an eye out for. They're trying to recreate the game engine from scratch so it runs better on modern hardware.
Pretty damn close!
Version 0.32.0 is already playable with minor gameplay issues: you can't re-equip summoned items after unequipping them, invisibility doesn't break aggro, casting waterwalking does not drag you to the surface... some of those are fixed in the upcoming 0.33.0, and these are the only notable issues I've encountered. Pretty much everything else works great! I've been playing it for the past few days and enjoying it a great deal. Encountered no blockers whatsoever!
See https://openmw.org/2014/matter-time/ for a bit of official communication on the topic.
Not at the moment, and I do not believe it is coming soon. I am sure someone add to the mod to allow for it later down the line. This mod will only allow you to experience the land and story of Morrowind. The gameplay with be distinctly different (and that is the part people often say is worth experiencing, such as the spell making and enchanting). If you want to play Morrowind, I would suggest following OpenMW where they are recreating the entirety of Morrowind for this generation of computers. https://openmw.org/en/
So first off, I think it's great that you're playing with spells / as a mage. By the lategame you're going to be a god, on a level that other Elder Scrolls games just can't recreate. The beginning is kinda tough -- but that goes for all classes in Morrowind.
I'd definitely say get a Magicka Regen mod. Normally your magicka doesn't naturally regenerate, which is a huge hassle. And while there are legit workarounds for it, they are kind of a hassle too.
I'd also suggest playing with OpenMW, a recreated open source engine for Morrowind, simply for stability.
But yeah, you're in for a treat. Savour the weirdness, the odd game design choices, the difficulty finding your way around... and the plot, lore and characters that are some of the very best in gaming.
Check out this review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkY0UT5dQ0M
Short version: If you want to experience Morrowind in an online setting, try playing TES3MP instead. Link with infos here https://openmw.org/2017/openmw-multiplayer-here/
I would suggest giving OpenMW a shot.
It's a FOSS reimplementation of the Morrowind engine.
It runs natively on Linux (doesn't need wine, but still needs original Morrowind files) and supports 64 bit architecture.
It might even be in the repository, but depending on the distro it'll probably be some older version.
Hit me up if you need help installing.
No idea
It can be done, but it's extremely script heavy = don't do it.
Maybe, but you'll need a LOT of new animations. You need someone to make these animations, and these kind of guys are rare.
Yes.
Yes, no idea how script heavy it would be tho.
Maybe. Afterall, look how people changed the engine in Morrowing and Oblivion : https://openmw.org/en/ and http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/45749/?
I've been playing it for a few versions now, nothing has prevented me from completing a quest. I just got the Moon-and-Star from Azura, to give you an idea how far I am in the main quest. Also, I hunted the Dark Brotherhood in Mournhold (second quest in Tribunal). The only problem I faced was running out of room from all the loot I got. :D
The only big problem with the current version is performance. But, hopefully, the next version will have the replaced rendering engine which has significant improvements.
I believe OpenMW is just an open source re-implementation of Morrowind's engine. This will make it easier for modern computers to run Morrowind with taxing graphics mods as well as make it easier for modders to change things that were previously hard-coded and as such inaccessible. To my knowledge, OpenMW does not aim to change any mechanics to the base game. Here's a link to their faq: https://openmw.org/faq/
What is OpenMW?
OpenMW is an attempt to reimplement the popular role playing game Morrowind. It aims to be a fully playable, open source implementation of the game. You must own Morrowind to use OpenMW. You can watch short video-faq or read detailed information below:
To give you a better idea of what this project is about, here are some of the aims for the future of OpenMW:
Be a full featured reimplementation of Morrowind. Run natively on Windows, Linux and MacOS X. Support all existing content, including Tribunal, Bloodmoon and all user created mods. Allow much greater modability: change game rules, create new spell effects, etc through scripting. Fix system design bugs, like savegame “doubling” problem. Improve the interface and journal system. (Possibly) Improve game mechanics, physics, combat and AI. (Possibly) Support multiplayer at some point. (Possibly) Improve graphics to use more modern hardware.
It’s a pretty ambitious list, and there’s a lot left to do before these goals can become reality. You should check below for information about the current development status.
OpenMW is released under the GNU General Public License version 3, and all source code has been written completely from scratch. It also builds on various other open source tools, most notably OGRE for graphics, and Bullet for collision (and possibly physics).
Fair enough; Morrowind's UI on the PC version is pretty heavily tied to the keyboard and mouse. OpenMW has some form of controller support, but I don't know what state it's in at the moment. I'd suggest asking around if you're curious.
>all the provinces done
No. Beyond Skyrim has enough on its plate.
As I understand it for morrowind, the open source project OpenMW (an open source remake of morrowind's game engine that can run morrowind) has slowly but steadily developing and has eventual mod support as a goal.
Maybe if that reaches a certain point, some dedicated fans will mod in the rest of morrowind for morrowind.
I have the latest version (0.34.0) too and i can still see the opening cinematic when i start a new game.
I don't see any changes in the patch notes. Notes
I've been able to run both of them on my windows 10 system with no issues. Of course your mileage may vary.
For morrowind, there is OpenMW. It basically takes the morrowind game files and runs them with a modern engine. It isn't perfect, but does have some advantages over the regular game like cross platform compatibility with modern systems and a built in FOV slider.
For people getting back into the game and who want to change things up (or just add more content), I wrote a very detailed (non-graphics) mod recommendations list.
There's a huge amount of content out there that makes the game feel fresh again. New quests, dungeons, landmasses, creatures, game balance overhauls, whatever you're interested in.
Even after 14 years people are still working on mods for the game, and the engine replacer project OpenMW is making great progress too.
First of all, grab OpenMorrowind. It's a third party engine that generally improves the game's stability. The biggest difference is customizable window size and much faster mod loading.
And just as a PSA: people are going the extra mile with Morrowind by writing an open-source implementation of the engine from scratch.
It's OpenMW and it is a damn fine piece of work imo. Version 1.0 aims to mostly hold true to the original (except some minor improvements to graphics and a couple UI tweaks), but post-1.0 will be improvements. And of course the aim is to be extremely modder friendly, with a much more developed scripting language etc.
Somewhat, through a DLL hack. Here's what it looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNnASI16KTk
However, OpenMW has native Oculus Rift support planned. That's going to work much better once it's complete.
I've found that the best is the open source version, OpenMW. You can download a Mac version that runs natively. The only trick is you need to download the data files separately. To do that without Windows you can use the Steam command line client.
Your best bet is OpenMW.
I don't think what you're wanting to do would be possible with the vanilla MW engine. Even if you could create extra UI tabs (which you can't), there's no functions for reading potion data so you wouldn't be able to list them anyways.
Basically, these guys are rewriting an entire engine to run Morrowind from the ground up, including an editor.
Their goal is to be able to have backwards compatibility with any mod ever made for Morrowind, all with an engine that is much more robust, modernized, and much more open to mods. So much of Morrowind is dated due to its old engine, this will hopefully open it up to more tweaking, better performance, and more time ~~wasted~~ enjoying the bets of the Elder Scrolls!
I haven't downloaded any of the beta builds as I am waiting for the project to be completed, but the video/dev commentaries look fantastic.
That is truly glorious.
It's not even really optimized yet, but just by not having to use WINE I've gotten a decent framerate boost compared to vanilla Morrowind.
OpenMW is a basically an open source Morrowind rebuild, if anyone is wondering.
Odd. Have you tried using OpenMW? Its a opensource engine for Morrowind. It gets around all the old engine limitations. Loads of docs online about how to use it, its very simple though, just download, install, and point it at your Morrowind installation, then launch it through there. Should solve your issue. If you need help with it then drop me a message.
I highly recommend OpenMW project to play Morrowind.
OpenMW is a free, open source, and modern engine which re-implements and extends the 2002 Gamebryo engine for the game.
OpenMW isn't complete yet, but it's a pretty solid 64-bit engine replacement for Morrowind and I'm pretty sure you can play through the entire main quest with it. It also crashes far less frequently. Give it a try.
you can choose either OpenMW route, or MGE XE route.
Morrowind Essentials Guide for MGE XE, all links in the description. you can just use MCP and MGE XE to keep things light at first. MGE XE also supports borderless windowed.
then download a mod manager like Nexus Mod Manager for example, then you can download mods from nexus easily since it unzips and installs the mods for you.
No sweat! If you'd asked me ten years ago whether people would still be playing and talking about Morrowind enough that:
- A dedicated subreddit was still getting tens of posts and thousands of views every day.
- Ancillary subreddits (r/TESLore, r/ElderScrolls, r/TrueSTL) still talked about Morrowind as much as the newer games.
- The engine was being reimplemented from scratch to fix bugs and issues and extend the game.
- Fans were even making other Tamrielic provinces in the Morrowind engine
...I very much doubt I would have said 'yes' - and yet here we are! I couldn't possibly speculate on how long the community will be active, but I certainly can't think of a more dedicated and fervent gaming community than that around Morrowind :)
If you wan't an Xbox exclusively to play Morrowind (and not necessairly other exclusive titles), maybe a new laptop would be a better trade for the money? Even cheap nowadays laptops with a decent CPU (not a netbook one) shouldn't struggle to run Morrowind. With an Xbox version you won't have acces to modding - and there is a lot of fun ways of modding Morrowind, not only in terms of performance (e.g. Tamriel Rebuilt is amazing).
Morrowind optimization is rather poor, but you could look into some helpful mods or tools like Morrowind Optimization Patch or OpenMw.
I have a tabletop with i5-3317U CPU and integrated HD4000 GPU - enough to run Morrowind. And my 10 year old laptop with Core 2 Duo and Geforce 8600M GT could run even heavily moded Morrowind with ease.
Morrowind is the best of them - at the very least storywise, the mechanics are dated tho and might need some getting used to if you're used to modern gameplay.
If you plan to play it I highly recommend using the OpenMW engine instead of the original - it's a complete rewrite of the original engine that makes better use of modern hardware and fixes a lot of bugs.
>what would be the best way to run Windows games?
The best way would be to run them on Windows (either on the metal or in a VM with GPU passthrough).
The other way is Wine, either on its own or with a wrapper such as Playonlinux. It's a very imperfect solution though so don't expect miracles.
Linux runs Linux games really well.
>Also I can run Morrowind GOTY on the Windows version of steam but the resolution is fucked
Use OpenMW for Morrowind. It's a native reimplementation of Morrowind's engine. So you need Morrowind's data files somewhere for it to use (which you already have if you installed MW in Wine). It's fucking fantastic.
OpenMW: Rebuilding/modernizing the Morrowind game engine from scratch. Uses the original Morrowind data files. Fully playable, but still has some missing features and bugs. Mods for Morrowind generally work on the OpenMW engine.
Morroblivion: Port of Morrowind assets into the Oblivion engine. Fully playable and fairly well debugged.
Skywind: Rebuilding Morrowind in the Skyrim engine. Not a port: almost all assets are new, designed by volunteers. Will be fully voiced. Work in progress, not yet available to the public. /r/skywind has some periodic updates (screenshots, voice acting, concept art, etc...).
If someone thinks Oblivion is better than Skyrim, I usually consider that to be a good sign that they will enjoy Morrowind. The UESP has an excellent list detailing the differences between Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim.
If you intend on playing (mostly) vanilla, I highly recommend OpenMW, a project that is recreating Morrowind's engine. I would say it's probably 99% complete and you can play the game perfectly fine. It includes some nice features, like widescreen resolution support, better water, and better stability. IMO it removes a lot of the headache associated with bringing an old game like Morrowind up to par with modern machines.
There are a few community projects currently working to build a new engine and an expanded map. I think the most prominent are OpenMW, and Tamriel Rebuilt.
Meanwhile, OpenMW, Tamriel Rebuilt, and Skyrim: Home of the Nords are all still going strong. Skyrim in a modernized Morrowind engine will be a reality long before the reverse is true.
If you like Morrowind, look into OpenMW. A team of developers are recreating the game engine open sourced. Using OpenMW's engine, Morrowind can now be natively played on Windows, OSX, and Linux. https://openmw.org/en/
Compared to previous versions, v0.32 has all magic effects implemented (although some kinks were ironed out after 0.32, and a couple still remain), much more AI is implemented, mouth movement and blinking now work. Also it's got a difficulty slider. And of course a lot of bugfixes, see https://openmw.org/2014/openmw-0-32-0-released/ for full changelog.
As of my experience, v0.32 is pretty much functional Morrowind, just with upgraded graphics, proper support for 16:10 aspect ratio and that can run on Linux natively. I have not experienced any crashes or graphical issues, although that might be since I'm running it on Linux on the open-source r600g driver.
It does have some gameplay kinks on a closer inspection, but nothing game-breaking, and a lot of them are already fixed since 0.32 came out. For example, the bug with being unable to equip summoned weapons after unequipping them has been fixed after 0.32 and will be included in 0.33. The bug with enemies still attacking you when you're invisible is still open, but that's the only serious one I know of!
I have found and reported 6 bugs. 4 of them are either really minor or downright wishlist items, and the 2 serious ones were fixed the day after I reported them! Props and kudos to the team!
I bet when/if it goes open source, many years from now, somebody will rewrite it in a more modern language that supports safe concurrent programming and is very fast (or still in C++) and it will be the same game but rewritten to run a lot smoother and to have better mod support and compatibility and maybe more platforms supported. I think it will be like what's happening now with OpenMW
- Use OpenMW; you lose out on script extender mods, but you don't need them--especially not on a first playthrough--and OpenMW makes Morrowind run like a dream on modern machines.
- Make a custom class, and try to ensure that at least ONE weapon skill is at or above 40 when beginning the game. Whether or not you land attacks is RNG based, and that makes it a lot more bearable.
- Take your time and soak in the world; Morrowind has easily the best worldbuilding of any rpg ever, and it's a treat to experience provided you stop to smell the ash yams.
If you're looking for anything modern the answer is no. Your options are either a streaming service like Stadia, or local streaming like Steamlink.
You can play Morrowind on Android via https://openmw.org/. There might be other projects in a similar vein that I'm not aware of. I haven't looked into it too deeply.
Otherwise you're stuck with whatever games have been ported to Android. See stuff like Stardew Valley, Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic etc.
Recently many optimizations were merged in OpenMW. I've been playing with it and I am very satisfied with the performance. Even with shadows and distant land active it runs smoothly.
So I suggest you to download and test the nightlies offered in the official page. I think you'll be satisfied.
OpenMW. If you've already got the refund from steam you might find it easier to purchase the gog.com version, since you can download it despite it being only available on windows. Then when you have the files you just run openmw and tell it where the directory is, and away you go.
Hmm, well that method should technically work, although it's not recommended. I would recommend posting in the support forum at OpenMW.org and having one of the devs help you troubleshoot. They're likely going to ask you what mods and if your .log file says anything.
When you say, put the missing meshes into the Data Files folder, you are simply dragging the meshes from the mod and dropping them back over the meshes in the Data Files folder? If you had missing meshes and that was it after installing this, I would say maybe the specific encoding of the mesh files is simply incompatible for some reason, indicating a problem with the mod. But the fact that more meshes disappear each time makes no sense from any standpoint.
Honestly, because none of this makes sense I would just reinstall Morrowind and OpenMW. Then install the mods using the method described here: https://openmw.readthedocs.io/en/master/reference/modding/index.html. Then if it screws up again, all you have to do is delete the "data=..." line instead of having to reinstall again. It's a bit of a hassle, but honestly doesn't take that long and it's nice to know you've started fresh.
The easiest solution is to install OpenMW. https://openmw.org/downloads/
I personally run the game on Windows 10 without OpenMW, but I also have the GOG version of the game.
You mentioned you have a physical copy, so are you trying to install from the CD or are you actually downloading it from somewhere?
As for anyone that is asking for a compiled version - I'm not a programmer nor am I having any intention of compiling OpenMW for Android . You are on your own, sorry.
There is not a (reverse-engineered) "open source version" (such as OpenMW), in 2010 Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory source code was released. ET: Legacy is a third-party conversion, though it may be superior to the original: https://www.etlegacy.com/about
Depends on your priorities. OpenMW means being able to play on my mac laptop, for example, and playing at all is a higher priority to me than distant land.
That said, if distant land is your priority, you're in luck. That will almost certainly be part of the 0.42 release, which is likely to come out in the next week or two.
There's a limit to what we (modders) can modify. We don't have access to source code and we certainly don't have access to lower level parts of the engine. The best we get is code injection with SKSE, while awesome things are possible, it has its limits. So a 64 bit re-write from modders would be nearly impossible.
I'll put it this way, Morrowind from 2002 is being re-created in a project called OpenMW where they are completely re-making the game engine from scratch. There's still not done and that was a much simpler engine and they've been working at it since 2008.
I find myself missing everything about Morrowind most of the time....I'm going to go play Morrowind.
edit: If you don't know OpenMW is the shit. It ports Morrowind to run on Linux, and I must say, it runs way better on Linux than it ever did on Windows. I put it on my work laptop so I have something to do if I'm traveling.
After browsing the guide, I think you have done an awesome job so far. If you do decide to complete it you should look into including mentions of https://openmw.org/en/ and http://tesrenewal.com/ They are two options for players looking for the Morrowind experience, but very different ways to enjoy it. I only suggest this where you go over MGSO, where OpenMW will allow people to further the level that the original game style Morrowind can be modded to modern standards or if they prefer the Skyrim style gameplay then at least Skywind will allow them to learn the story of Morrowind.
Skyrim? No.
But there's open source engine in works for Morrowind called OpenMW and since it open source, there endless possibilities for stuff what was impossible for Morrowind\Oblivion\Skyrim engines. New combat system? Multiplayer? Mobile devices? Who knows...
> but what is OpenMW
From their FAQ:
> OpenMW is a new and modern engine based on the one that runs the 2002 open-world RPG Morrowind.
Basically, an open source application that can run Morrowind files.
> and can I get it for my Mac?
Yep. See their downloads page
They are also making OpenCS which is a new version of the editor as well. Here is a link to their FAQs which covers some of the various things they are doing and some of the legal stuff. https://openmw.org/faq/
OpenMW for Android, sometimes listed as OMW or OpenMicroWave, can be found on the Play store or in the F-Droid repositories.
https://github.com/xyzz/openmw-android
Basically, it's an open source implementation of the game engine that plays Morrowind data files. Originally for PC, it's been ported to Android.
There's also an OpenMW-VR port that's kinda fun if you have the hardware.
> Like the Construction Set for the original Morrowind engine, OpenMW comes with its own editor, called OpenMW-CS, which allows the user to edit or create their own mods or original games.
https://openmw.org/faq/#whatis
There are some more infos on OpenMW-CS over there. I'm not in any way involved with OpenMW, so I can't really tell you anything useful about it.
>> What are some mods/mod lists you guys would suggest?
The Modding Guides section in the sidebar is a good starting point.
> For a graphical overhaul, I’m not really up to date but I think there was one called Morrowind Graphical Overhaul.
See Why We Are Not Recommending MGSO in the sidebar.
> There is also OpenMW, a new engine for Morrowind. It’s good but using it prevents you from playing with MGE XE.
OpenMW (at least the upcoming 0.47 version) does mostly have the same graphical features as MGE XE (dynamic shadows, efficient distant land, efficient grass handling etc …) the main difference is the lack of MWSE (that is bundled with MGE XE) which many gameplay mods (and some quest mods) depend on.
There are other OpenMW benefits: better NPC path-finding, better map handling (especially when visiting far away landmass mods), much more stable, better ground texture transitions, no 4GB limit …
>> I have the GOTY steam version and tend use Vortex
> Use Wyre Bash/Mod Organizer 2, those are more consistent than Vortex
The main issue is that Morrowind mods are not always properly organized, to match the folder structure in Data Files.
In the case of OpenMW you can also simply use the built-in support for multiple data folders, this makes it easy to add, remove and reorder mods. This is a slightly more manual process, as you will need to add data="..." entries in the openmw.cfg file. The pro is that there is very little to learn - I found Mod Organizer 2 considerably more overwhelming and confusing, when I first started using it.
Not who you were speaking to, but I can answer that.
OpenMW is an engine reimplementation to improve QoL. Improved draw distance, some UI changes, lots of bugs resolved. It's designed to be mod-friendly as well. You have to own Morrowind to use it since it doesn't have any game assets of its own, but Bethesda games go on sale all the time.
It's just now reaching its first release candidate versions, but it's been in development for years. I've been following its development for a while, but I have yet to play it.
If you are on PC, I would recommend playing it using OpenMW
It's a re-implementation of the original MW engine so it runs a bit better on modern computers and it also includes graphical improvements and quality of life fixes, for example some GUI improvements. Original mods also still work. I think it should work with the game pass version also as it only requires all the assets from the original MW.
Is there a special reason why you don't want MWSE or MCP? Morrowind + MCP + MGE XE seems to be a commonly recommended setup for original Morrowind.
OpenMW might possibly be an option, assuming that you're looking for decent resolution support and fps, without having to install a lot of extra stuff (OpenMW is approximatly = Morrowind + MCP + MGE XE - MWSE).
There are basically two recommended setups:
- OpenMW
- Morrowind + MCP + MGE EX
OpenMW is modern version of the game engine aimed at supporting modern hardware and OSes, and should eventually support more features than Morrowind + MCP + MGE EX can support. The latter is a patched version of the original game that fixes many of the stability issues of original Morrowind and which also adds additional graphics and scripting options (MWSE).
You'll need MWSE (currently not supported by OpenMW) for certain game-play and quest mods.
You'll need OpenMW if you want to play on anything else than Windows i.e. macOS, Linux or Android.
OpenMW is fairly close to having feature parity with Morrowind + MCP + MGE EX - the current nightly builds of version 0.47 add support for distant lands. Performant grass is in the works though I'm unsure if this will be part of the official 0.47 release. Lua support is being experimented on which should eventually help with porting MWSE mods to OpenMW.
MWSE support and compatibility with certain mods is really the main reason for picking Morrowind + MCP + MGE EX, OpenMW is generally a bit easier to deal with as it lack some of oddities and limitations of original Morrowind.
You may also be interested in openMW. It's the engine being rewritten from scratch using open tools, and once they hit 1.0 they'll be dehardcoding most everything so you can set whatever equations for whatever you want.
The elder scrolls series, but more specific for me it was morrowind that did it the best. Sure oblivion and skyrim are great, but morrowinds alien-ish landscape is just so fascinating. From giant mushrooms, giant floating octopus like creatures, to big castles and cities, there's a lot to see.
The game is sure outdated, but openmw and mods make it feel new. I recommend the i heart vanilla overhaul, just so you get to know the original feel of the game. But if you really can't stomach the graphics there are a lot of mods that overhaul this. Just know that it's a deep rabbit hole. Also adding visual mods can be very resource heavy. OpenMW Mods and mod packs for openmw