The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind is a true classic for many reasons, and it continues living on with the OpenMW free and open source game engine. It's been a while since the 0.46 release of OpenMW back in June 2020 but plenty of work has been going on since.
In a new blog post they did a round-up of work done during September-October and it all sounds pretty awesome. Here's a quick run over what's been going on:
- A modern 3rd-person camera view is coming, along with optional first-person head bobbing and a smooth movement feature to make animations look better.
- OpenMW is going to get Async Physics, which moved the game's physics from the main thread to one or more other threads, making OpenMW even better at using multiple cores.
- Work has continued on supporting groundcover with better performance, which adds grass and all sorts.
- The LZ4 format is now supported by OpenMW, which is used in later Bethesda games like Skyrim Special Edition. Supporting that game is a long way off, right now it might just help modders.
- Levelled items in untouched containers are now randomly generated from their respective lists when the game is loaded, mimicking the original engine.
- Automatic builds for Windows, Linux, Mac, and even Android on GitLab for every merge request that is opened.
- Work is ongoing to support the COLLADA 3D model format to work in OpenMW's rendering engine (OpenSceneGraph)
Amazing to see how much effort goes into open source game engine reimplementations. It's a very complicated job but one appreciated by thousands of players, as it keeps games alive on modern platforms and enables them to run better.
See more and download OpenMW from the official site. As you do need the Morrowind data files to play it, you do need a copy. You can pick up a copy of Morrowind easily from GOG.com.
If you didn't see it, here's the trailer for the last release of OpenMW:
YouTube videos require cookies, you must accept their cookies to view. View cookie preferences.
Direct Link
Direct Link
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
All posts need to follow our rules. For users logged in: please hit the Report Flag icon on any post that breaks the rules or contains illegal / harmful content. Guest readers can email us for any issues.
12 comments
Desperalaw Nov 18, 2020
It's really astonishing to realize the amount of work done when you play the game with OpenMW.
Among the various fixes made to the game's engine, they added so much small features that you feel a lack of them when you play the vanilla game.
And, on top of all, it's cross-platform and works extremely well (I use flatpak for this, no problem whatsoever).
I highly recommend you to test the latest stable version of OpenMW (0.46) if you already played the game before.
Among the various fixes made to the game's engine, they added so much small features that you feel a lack of them when you play the vanilla game.
And, on top of all, it's cross-platform and works extremely well (I use flatpak for this, no problem whatsoever).
I highly recommend you to test the latest stable version of OpenMW (0.46) if you already played the game before.
7 Likes, Who?
Wow, all thoses features make me want to play it again. Morrowind is an amazing game and Openmw fix some of its problem making it even better
Last edited by rafagars on 18 November 2020 at 1:43 pm UTC
Last edited by rafagars on 18 November 2020 at 1:43 pm UTC
0 Likes
OpenMW 0.46 really was the point where it was very mature. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and for the second time, got stuck in the world of Morrowind.
It's strangely immersive for a place where nobody talks and people look like badly painted dolls. It just has a real nice charm.
I also ran many, many, mods at once, and delighted in how it containerizes them so that you can resolve conflicts easily. And then I just enjoyed it for 100+ hours with no crashes or game breaking bugs.
It's strangely immersive for a place where nobody talks and people look like badly painted dolls. It just has a real nice charm.
I also ran many, many, mods at once, and delighted in how it containerizes them so that you can resolve conflicts easily. And then I just enjoyed it for 100+ hours with no crashes or game breaking bugs.
2 Likes, Who?
There's been a whole lot of work put into OpenMW by now, always great to see the project continue to steadily plod along.
I've been the Windows maintainer since around version 0.9 now, and the team just continue to perform wonders with features and improvements, year out and year in. It's quite honestly a great project to be part of - even if my contribution of actual code has been rather minor.
I've been the Windows maintainer since around version 0.9 now, and the team just continue to perform wonders with features and improvements, year out and year in. It's quite honestly a great project to be part of - even if my contribution of actual code has been rather minor.
6 Likes, Who?
Does anyone know if the multiplayer and VR forks are planned to be included in the main version?
0 Likes
Heh. I like the optimism in the suggestion that Skyrim SE is “a long way off” rather than not on the cards at all. 
0 Likes
i played openMW like year ago, added just grass Mod was greate xp, i like it more then skyrim at least story wise
0 Likes
oldrocker99 Nov 19, 2020
A lot of people aver Morrowind as the best TES game. The world is weirder, enemies don't scale, and the story is fantastic.
OpenMW just asks where your Morrowind installation folder is, and takes it from there.
OpenMW just asks where your Morrowind installation folder is, and takes it from there.
1 Likes, Who?
OpenMW 0.46 really was the point where it was very mature. I enjoyed it thoroughly, and for the second time, got stuck in the world of Morrowind.
It's strangely immersive for a place where nobody talks and people look like badly painted dolls. It just has a real nice charm.
I also ran many, many, mods at once, and delighted in how it containerizes them so that you can resolve conflicts easily. And then I just enjoyed it for 100+ hours with no crashes or game breaking bugs.
What mods do you recommend ? Have not really gotten into Morrowind that much.
0 Likes
enemies don't scale,
You can paint that in neon bright Hollywood-sign-sized letters on the cover :D
I absolutely hate enemy scaling in later games.
Bandits in daedric armor or glass armor. Getting killed by wolves or rats after tens of hours of gameplay , etc.
2 Likes, Who?
What mods do you recommend ? Have not really gotten into Morrowind that much.
I remember none of the face-fixup mods felt right, I basically kept to a vanlilla "feel", just more. Also some game balance fix mods were used to basically make some of the things that didn't age so well, less troublesome.
Yet Another Guard Diversity - Purist
Patch for Purists (+ Book Typos/Semi-Purist)
Correct_Meshes
Correct_UV_Rocks
Tamriel Rebuilt (the whole lot)
Morrowind Optimization Patch
That set of official mods (UMOPP)
OpenMW Containers Animated
Glow in the Dahrk
Graphic Herbalism MWSE - OpenMW
Project Atlas
HiResUI
Vurts Groundcover v2.3 for OpenMW
Better Balanced Combat
WeaponSheathing1.6-OpenMW
Sufficient Adamantium
Abot's Guars
Abot's Stilt Riders
Graphic Herbalism + TR stuff
Updated Morrowind - (skills/enchanting and blocking)
Some er, obscure names of archives:
shrinetext
MET (A texture pack)
All in one (A texture pack)
1 Likes, Who?
A lot of people aver Morrowind as the best TES game. The world is weirder, enemies don't scale, and the story is fantastic.
OpenMW just asks where your Morrowind installation folder is, and takes it from there.
IIRC, the enemies do actually scale, via the leveled list/creature system. The catch is that the scaling isn't universal or required.
This allowed the developers to make general tombs and dungeons that would still be challenging to the player at any level while still making specific areas off limits to low level players.
LL we're an awesome tool for the game, but for the original engine were also a bit of a headache for players running multiple mods as LL list entries would conflict and overwrite eachother.
And yes, I think it's the best TES game. It's actually one of my favorite games of all time and had been the first installed game on every new computer I've ever built until my most recent in 2018.
Last edited by denyasis on 30 November 2020 at 4:09 am UTC
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me