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It seems to be the season for new versions of excellent open source gaming projects. OpenMW, the open source recreation of the Morrowind engine, has a new version which brings important rendering updates.
Most of the previous OpenMW releases have been full of all kinds of features but in the last couple of versions things have been different. There are numerous bug fixes and some optimizations but there are very few new gameplay features. This, however, seems to be due to OpenMW quickly approaching a point where there simply aren't new features to be implemented.
That doesn't make this release a boring one though. The absolute star of the show is the new OpenSceneGraph renderer, which yields quite massive performance improvements over the older Ogre3D renderer. In the past, playing OpenMW has been pretty annoying at times due to frequent drops to under 30 FPS. Even more powerful hardware had trouble reaching framerates that many consider to be the absolute minimum for a playable experience. The new OSG renderer should improve this situation and you might find that OpenMW now works on your hardware even if it didn't use to do so in the past.
The new OSG renderer does have some downsides though. Shadows, distant land and object shaders are not yet implemented, so this version of OpenMW doesn't necessarily look as modern as 0.36 for example. However, considering the performance of the non-OSG builds I am not going to complain too much about the lack of cool shadows.
You can read the full changelog and announcement here: https://openmw.org/2015/openmw-0-37-released/ Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Most of the previous OpenMW releases have been full of all kinds of features but in the last couple of versions things have been different. There are numerous bug fixes and some optimizations but there are very few new gameplay features. This, however, seems to be due to OpenMW quickly approaching a point where there simply aren't new features to be implemented.
That doesn't make this release a boring one though. The absolute star of the show is the new OpenSceneGraph renderer, which yields quite massive performance improvements over the older Ogre3D renderer. In the past, playing OpenMW has been pretty annoying at times due to frequent drops to under 30 FPS. Even more powerful hardware had trouble reaching framerates that many consider to be the absolute minimum for a playable experience. The new OSG renderer should improve this situation and you might find that OpenMW now works on your hardware even if it didn't use to do so in the past.
The new OSG renderer does have some downsides though. Shadows, distant land and object shaders are not yet implemented, so this version of OpenMW doesn't necessarily look as modern as 0.36 for example. However, considering the performance of the non-OSG builds I am not going to complain too much about the lack of cool shadows.
You can read the full changelog and announcement here: https://openmw.org/2015/openmw-0-37-released/ Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: oldrocker99For an example of a FOSS game engine, check out Arx LiberatisThanks a lot! Didn't know about that project.
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If this thing supported Skyrim I would be ecstatic. If there's any way it could work Skyrim esms, I'm sure there's a lot of people that would love to know. Just being able to edit the engine rather than messing around ENBs and what not by itself is a huge win and the scene is there to keep the game going forever.
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slaapliedje Dec 2, 2015
Quoting: reaVerIf this thing supported Skyrim I would be ecstatic. If there's any way it could work Skyrim esms, I'm sure there's a lot of people that would love to know. Just being able to edit the engine rather than messing around ENBs and what not by itself is a huge win and the scene is there to keep the game going forever.
Funny thing is, Bethesda was lazy and didn't even really update the engine for Fallout 4, it's literally Skyrim in the wasteland. Doesn't seem as big as Skyrim either, but then I've only been playing it for a somewhat short time.
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Kallestofeles Dec 2, 2015
Wohoo, great stuff that it's now out. I'll still stick to the git version.
Great progress they have made! :)
Great progress they have made! :)
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From what I've seen of the engines, morrowind to skyrim involves updating file format support in openmw, and adding newer lighting methods. The rest of the engine is just extended/evolved from the base. Similar to how Dragon Age 1/2 are just evolutions on NeverWinter Nights.
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This project is awesome. I'm glad they are still working, as the engine is very close to be complete.
Morrowind GOTY had 66% discount at Steam this week.
The new version of OpenMW runs very flawlessly with high resolutions even with an Intel HD 4400. Highly recommended to have this gem natively running on Linux!!
Morrowind GOTY had 66% discount at Steam this week.
The new version of OpenMW runs very flawlessly with high resolutions even with an Intel HD 4400. Highly recommended to have this gem natively running on Linux!!
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