OpenMW, the excellent open source game engine for Morrowind has made some interesting progress towards supporting later games like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
From their latest news post:
Let’s begin with a recently merged feature which might seem like a small change at first, but rather is part of bigger project. OpenMW is now able to read the BSA files of Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3 and New Vegas – thanks to the hard work of both cc9cii, who first wrote the code for OpenMW 0.36, and Azdul, who ported the code to the current OpenMW master. This brings us one step closer to actually running assets from later TES and Fallout games in OpenMW. However, a lot of work lies ahead of us – next on our list is support for newer versions of NIF, ESM, and ESP files. We’ll keep you posted.
This is quite exciting, since some of those games are notoriously buggy even on their original platforms. Having an up to date game engine to run them as well as Morrowind, would be pretty epic. As they say though, a lot of work lies ahead and so to support another game we could be looking at quite a long time.
They've also been working on optimisations, improving both the look and the performance of distant terrain, work towards enabling OpenMW to support some popular Morrowind mods like Sotha Sil Expanded and so on.
On top of that exciting development, they've finally merged in support for shadows back into OpenMW which was removed when they switched from Ogre3D to OpenSceneGraph so the next release of OpenMW should be a rather nice one for completeness.
Need a copy of Morrowind to play in OpenMW? You can grab it on GOG and Steam.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
19 comments
Wow, this is very much unexpected. Oblivion support sound amazing, this game is borderline unplayable with a ton of mods.
6 Likes, Who?
That's... ambitious. But then so was reverse-engineering Morrowind in the first place. Good luck to them. I just hope it doesn't distract from the main goal.
0 Likes
Quoting: DuncThat's... ambitious. But then so was reverse-engineering Morrowind in the first place. Good luck to them. I just hope it doesn't distract from the main goal.
What main goal? Pretty sure they've pretty much nailed Morrowind. Fully playable, shadows are back... not sure what's left! It's been a while since I looked at their roadmap though.
5 Likes, Who?
That's awesome news!
I look forward to the day I can play all these games without wine/proton, and without all the bugs of the original engines. \o/
I look forward to the day I can play all these games without wine/proton, and without all the bugs of the original engines. \o/
2 Likes, Who?
qptain Nemo Feb 20, 2019
Wow, this is quite something. I'm not sure I'll still want to play any of these games in like 5 years but still, it's comforting and good for game preservation. It'd be interesting to give them a spin on a more sound technical foundation at the very least. It'd benefit things like Enderal too.
And maybe that's how Bethesda will finally get a decent game engine to use. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
And maybe that's how Bethesda will finally get a decent game engine to use. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: scaineFair point.Quoting: DuncThat's... ambitious. But then so was reverse-engineering Morrowind in the first place. Good luck to them. I just hope it doesn't distract from the main goal.
What main goal? Pretty sure they've pretty much nailed Morrowind. Fully playable, shadows are back... not sure what's left! It's been a while since I looked at their roadmap though.
0 Likes
If they can get Skyrim running in OpenMW they'll have literally replaced Proton for me.
3 Likes, Who?
I wonder if they'll use something like Bullet to replace the Havok physics engine. It'd be fascinating to see how that sort of change would impact the games, if at all.
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: BotonoskiI wonder if they'll use something like Bullet to replace the Havok physics engine. It'd be fascinating to see how that sort of change would impact the games, if at all.
Funny enough, it looks like Bullet can be tweaked to match Havok in older games. I wouldn't be surprised if they went that route, honestly.
1 Likes, Who?
Holy fuck! 
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
0 Likes
Quoting: CyrilHoly fuck!That's not how OpenMW works. It's not a game, just an engine which is freely available however you have to have an original copy of the game as well for all the assets. With Morrowind I install the openmw package and go through setup, it asks me for the game disk and then it installs the assets from the original disk. You can also have it use an existing install folder if you got the game through steam. Point is it's not a game and will never be released like one.
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
Last edited by Scoopta on 21 February 2019 at 5:51 pm UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilHoly fuck!That's not how OpenMW works. It's not a game, just an engine which is freely available however you have to have an original copy of the game as well for all the assets. With Morrowind I install the openmw package and go through setup, it asks me for the game disk and then it installs the assets from the original disk. You can also have it use an existing install folder if you got the game through steam. Point is it's not a game and will never be released like one.
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
I know that, I didn't say that "it was a game". And I already used OpenMW with my GOG copy of Morrowind (and the DVD release too).
When I said "with this", I was thinking about this principle, a open source cross-platform engine.
And I'm still hoping for a GOG release of Skyrim.
Sorry for being misunderstood.
2 Likes, Who?
Even if it takes a while, it's great we have a potential port for those games. Especially Oblivion, since it doesn't play too nice with wine.
0 Likes
Quoting: CyrilI'd be surprised if a GOG release of Skyrim were to happen but maybe. Honestly I don't really see the appeal of GOG but that's just me.Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilHoly fuck!That's not how OpenMW works. It's not a game, just an engine which is freely available however you have to have an original copy of the game as well for all the assets. With Morrowind I install the openmw package and go through setup, it asks me for the game disk and then it installs the assets from the original disk. You can also have it use an existing install folder if you got the game through steam. Point is it's not a game and will never be released like one.
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
I know that, I didn't say that "it was a game". And I already used OpenMW with my GOG copy of Morrowind (and the DVD release too).
When I said "with this", I was thinking about this principle, a open source cross-platform engine.
And I'm still hoping for a GOG release of Skyrim.
Sorry for being misunderstood.
0 Likes
Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilI'd be surprised if a GOG release of Skyrim were to happen but maybe. Honestly I don't really see the appeal of GOG but that's just me.Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilHoly fuck!That's not how OpenMW works. It's not a game, just an engine which is freely available however you have to have an original copy of the game as well for all the assets. With Morrowind I install the openmw package and go through setup, it asks me for the game disk and then it installs the assets from the original disk. You can also have it use an existing install folder if you got the game through steam. Point is it's not a game and will never be released like one.
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
I know that, I didn't say that "it was a game". And I already used OpenMW with my GOG copy of Morrowind (and the DVD release too).
When I said "with this", I was thinking about this principle, a open source cross-platform engine.
And I'm still hoping for a GOG release of Skyrim.
Sorry for being misunderstood.
I like GOG but that's not the reason. I said a GOG release because all previous Elder Scrolls games are there, and right now Skyrim doesn't have a DRM-Free release.
Any DRM-Free release of the game would be nice (out of Steam I hope), but I think they would release it on GOG in first mind.
I don't think they would release it on Humble Bundle or "worst" itch.io... ^_^
0 Likes
Quoting: CyrilTo be honest, given the fact that the skyrim DVD is just a steam installer and activation key and doesn't even contain the full game I would be really surprised to see them release a DRM free version.Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilI'd be surprised if a GOG release of Skyrim were to happen but maybe. Honestly I don't really see the appeal of GOG but that's just me.Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilHoly fuck!That's not how OpenMW works. It's not a game, just an engine which is freely available however you have to have an original copy of the game as well for all the assets. With Morrowind I install the openmw package and go through setup, it asks me for the game disk and then it installs the assets from the original disk. You can also have it use an existing install folder if you got the game through steam. Point is it's not a game and will never be released like one.
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
I know that, I didn't say that "it was a game". And I already used OpenMW with my GOG copy of Morrowind (and the DVD release too).
When I said "with this", I was thinking about this principle, a open source cross-platform engine.
And I'm still hoping for a GOG release of Skyrim.
Sorry for being misunderstood.
I like GOG but that's not the reason. I said a GOG release because all previous Elder Scrolls games are there, and right now Skyrim doesn't have a DRM-Free release.
Any DRM-Free release of the game would be nice (out of Steam I hope), but I think they would release it on GOG in first mind.
I don't think they would release it on Humble Bundle or "worst" itch.io... ^_^
0 Likes
Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilTo be honest, given the fact that the skyrim DVD is just a steam installer and activation key and doesn't even contain the full game I would be really surprised to see them release a DRM free version.Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilI'd be surprised if a GOG release of Skyrim were to happen but maybe. Honestly I don't really see the appeal of GOG but that's just me.Quoting: ScooptaQuoting: CyrilHoly fuck!That's not how OpenMW works. It's not a game, just an engine which is freely available however you have to have an original copy of the game as well for all the assets. With Morrowind I install the openmw package and go through setup, it asks me for the game disk and then it installs the assets from the original disk. You can also have it use an existing install folder if you got the game through steam. Point is it's not a game and will never be released like one.
When the time comes to get a fully playable Skyrim with this, i hope for a GOG release of the game.
I know that, I didn't say that "it was a game". And I already used OpenMW with my GOG copy of Morrowind (and the DVD release too).
When I said "with this", I was thinking about this principle, a open source cross-platform engine.
And I'm still hoping for a GOG release of Skyrim.
Sorry for being misunderstood.
I like GOG but that's not the reason. I said a GOG release because all previous Elder Scrolls games are there, and right now Skyrim doesn't have a DRM-Free release.
Any DRM-Free release of the game would be nice (out of Steam I hope), but I think they would release it on GOG in first mind.
I don't think they would release it on Humble Bundle or "worst" itch.io... ^_^
Fair point you're right, is there any case of another game released like that and released later on DRM-free?
Right now I don't have examples. :S:
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me