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[delphonso]

A thread to discuss Morrowind, a very old game but also a very great game.

Mostly, this thread is to discuss the OpenMW project and the revolutions coming out of that. Of course, any modding discussion is welcome.

For those who don't know:

OpenMW (exactly like OpenXCOM) is an open source remake of the Morrowind engine. You'll need a copy of Morrowind from somewhere else to use it, but it fixes several bugs and also allows you to play on basically anything (there's an abandoned, but not useless, Android port, even.) Mods for vanilla (so not MWSE mods) Morrowind also will work, and they're even working on their own version of the construction set.

As of writing, the current version is 0.47. The dev release is 0.48 and opens up some Lua access. Although just the beginning of opening up the game to custom scripts, modders have already made volumetric lighting/clouds which look amazing, and someone even wrote a mod to have enemies pursue you through cells like Oblivion.

OpenMW also has a daughter project called TES3MP - which allows multiplayer. It's really a wild ride that can best be expressed in this video. I've got no time to actually participate in this, but it's constantly on my list.

[Robsoie]

It's been a couple of years last time i toyed with OpenMW.

At the time grass was badly managed , i mean OpenMW grass performance was terribly bad in comparison to how MGE XE was managing grass in Morrowind (MGE XE was really incredible as it was running those distant lands and grass on even potato computer without any problem).

Has the situation changed, is OpenMW distant land and grass performance on par with MGE XE or is there still lots of work to do to reach this kind of optimisation ?

[delphonso]

It doesn't LOD like MGE XE does, but you can set the distance practically unbounded. There's videos of people standing on Red Mountain, clearing the weather, and looking at Vivec, Balmora, Sadrith Mora and even Solesthiem without issue. Depends on the rig, I guess.

OpenMW optimization has improved greatly. I don't use distant land (dinky laptop and also nostalgia for the fog) or grass, but they've become pretty standard fare for players which suggests they can't slog it down too bad.

Unrelated but I also forgot to mention OpenMW (and the latest TES3MP) support VR, which is just insane.

EDIT: I asked on the discord and yeah, distant terrain is native and thus better optimized. Groundcover is roughly equivalent.

[MrRoboto75]

speak quickly outlander, or go away

[Bumber]

i don't recall using teleportation and yet there i was. alone. naked.

[EuchreJack]

i don't recall using teleportation and yet there i was. alone. naked.

Hm, at least the Booze is working...

[Robsoie]

Morrowind lore is very likely a thing from skooma addicts anyways .

Just check sermon 14 of The 36 lessons of Vivec. In which one of the daedra lords rape "tenderly" the headless body of Vivec, then after the head reunite with the body, everyone take out their "spears" ( "" because in that case "spear" is actually refering to genitals, not an actual weapon) and compare them, and finally Vivec give a name to his own and start slaying people around with it.

In the unofficial lore "the Trial of Vivec" resulting from a forum roleplay that involved some of the elder scrolls lore developers, in the end you have Vivec as his vengeance against all she did to his people, thrusting his "spear" in the throat of the daedra lord Azura so she can't speak against her banishment ...

[delphonso]

I think the story goes that Kirkbride was actually on mescaline when he wrote the 36 lessons.

[Dorsidwarf]

Morrowind is a hell of a trip

[Robsoie]

It doesn't LOD like MGE XE does, but you can set the distance practically unbounded. There's videos of people standing on Red Mountain, clearing the weather, and looking at Vivec, Balmora, Sadrith Mora and even Solesthiem without issue. Depends on the rig, I guess.

OpenMW optimization has improved greatly. I don't use distant land (dinky laptop and also nostalgia for the fog) or grass, but they've become pretty standard fare for players which suggests they can't slog it down too bad.

Unrelated but I also forgot to mention OpenMW (and the latest TES3MP) support VR, which is just insane.

EDIT: I asked on the discord and yeah, distant terrain is native and thus better optimized. Groundcover is roughly equivalent.

That's great, if they managed to bring performance on parity with whatever magic MGE does for Morrowind, it means i'll have to try OpenMW again.
Also time i finally give a look to that Morrowind Rebirth mod for a changed/renewed MW experience as i noticed :

Morrowind Rebirth and OpenMW
Morrowind Rebirth is currently compatible with OpenMW, and should be compatible with it's multiplayer component, too. Note that OpenMW is still a work in progress so changes in future releases might cause compatibility issues.

[delphonso]

Rebirth comes packaged with some 'rebalances' that has driven some away from it. I personally would love it if they could package all the work they did rebuilding the cities and the rebalances seperately.

You can find alternative modlists on either nexus or the openmw modding page. Though, it's hard to beat the convenience of one download instead of like...50.

[Robsoie]

It looks like the rebirth author(s) certainly heard the feedback about their spell rebalance as in the download of the current version there is an alternative plugin  that restore the original balance.
 

[Ulfarr]

I'm not sure if it's still relevant but Rebirth used to increase the cost of services and/or lower quest rewards to the point that you couldn't break even, much less turn a profit, after a mission if you happened to use a Silt Strider or had to repair your gear. It wasn't completely broken but it made no sense narratively and more or less forced the player to take every piece of junk back to sell.

[delphonso]

Wealth is hard to balance. With intention and a little know how, it's easy to get thousands of gold quickly. Without the know how, you really don't make much (stealing peoples silverware is fun, but nets only a few hundred per town.) I think veterans of the game conflate the two and spoil both for new or less experienced players (or players like me who don't have less fun because I don't have to worry about paying for a boat)

[Robsoie]

After getting the latest dev version of OpenMW, adding only Rebirth and launching it ....
And what a truly horrible performance, wow even and that without even installing a grass mod. I don't know if it was the old settings from the last time i tried OpenMW a couple of years ago that were still there, but that was simply not good for me.

After turning down several settings and reading around https://modding-openmw.com/tips/performance/ 
( + adding Morrowind Optimisation patch and Morrowind Atlas for their better optimised meshes and textures )
I finally got performance in control but while it's better than vanilla Morrowind in term of view distance it sure is not as great as morrowind + mge that allow for much more without taxing that much.
Will have to read more on if i can improve it without performance taking a dive.