[Trevor Bostwick]

Physics can be implemented, and I think is planned. OGRE is compatible with Havok and PhysX, and has wrappers for ODE, Newton, and a few others.

So, you're saying we can get physics as good as Havok?

Is it also possible to implement facial animations?

[MISS KEEP UR]

Is it also possible to implement facial animations?

I am afraid that we are loosing the sense of reality. Developers have even not yet started to work on more crucial parts of the game engine like AI, PC/NPC animation control, etc.
Moreover, more complex facial animations would be definitely not backwards compatible with existing MW head models. Usually they require very complex modeling approaches: heavy morpher animations, complex face bone rigs, or solutions like the one used in Oblivion for creating these ugly heads (licensed external programs similar to FaceGen used in Oblivion and Fallout 3). Sometimes all that is also linked to lipsinc procedures.
Who will create such complicated models? Who has required skills, time, and expensive software? IMHO, it is better to find a certain compromise between quality (MW improvements) and possibility of modding without extraordinary demands.

[Tiffany Castillo]

So, you're saying we can get physics as good as Havok?

Bullet is being worked on to work with OpenMW for some basic physics.

[BrEezy Baby]

Do you think it's possible physics can be implemented?

Nico used Bullet for 0.6, I think.

[Juan Suarez]

Nico used Bullet for 0.6, I think.

Oh, is it bullet? Yeah, i'll edit my earlier post.

[Nicole Elocin]

snip

What is realistic however, I think is to allow for much more complex bone/rigging system etc. At least much more free. That will enable people if they truly would ever get to it to create facial animations through rigged bones.

Don't you agree?

[Trish]

What is realistic however, I think is to allow for much more complex bone/rigging system etc. At least much more free. That will enable people if they truly would ever get to it to create facial animations through rigged bones.

Don't you agree?

Um actually I'm not sure - I'd prefer some variety in body sizes - to be able to get off the boat at Seyda Neen and have a mod that allowed you to adjust your body size would be great - having different sized NPC's would be good - being able to use different textures for the same race so you could have old and wrinkly Telvanni's - having a new slot set up for clothes so you're not limited to left ankle, groin, chest or forearm - having clothes that mold to your body no matter what size you are and don't make female characters look like Dolly Parton (no offense Dolly) - I'd take those options over facial animations anyday Though having the ability to smile at NPC's to raise their disposition would be cool

[Natalie J Webster]

As far as I understand project developers the intention is to stay with MW nif format (4.0.0.2) and to use original and custom game recourses.
MW heads are animated with morphs. Morphs are not compatible in MW with skin/bones and that is also not recommended in NetImmerse documentation, original MW Max exporter does not support simultaneously physiqued and morphed meshes. Therefore MW heads are stored in separate nifs and attached to bodies by the game engine. Moreover, MW heads animations control is hardcoded: rotation in the direction of nearest NPC/PC or creature; mouth opens depending on the sound volume (say function); eyes blink, I guess, randomly?
In other Gamebryo games (Requiem, Zera) I have seen very nice and doable heads animated with bones. However, more "realistic" facial animations can be achieved with morphs (MW heads have only two morph targets).
Of cause it would be great to remove MW harsh limitations on bone number and names (at least for bodies/clothes/armor/hair), but I think that that it would be more practicable to stay with morphs for heads, may be to add a couple of optional targets like "happy", "sad", "angry"?.that can be controlled via scripts or dialogue options.
Let us wait and see how they are going to realize related to the discussed problem animation control system (including animation scripting functions), dialogues, sound, etc.

You can have different body shapes (races) at present (I have made "advanced" females, two-head giants, winged beast skeleton race, etc.) but they are not always compatible with existing standard clothes/armor meshes (clipping). Similar situation can be observed in Oblivion. This idea was rejected on BB Forum several times.
BTW, I have never seen adjustable PC bodies in Gamebryo based games (there many of them, e.g. several Korean MMORPGs).

[Mrs. Patton]

As far as I understand project developers the intention is to stay with MW nif format (4.0.0.2) and to use original and custom game recourses.
-snip-
You can have different body shapes (races) at present (I have made "advanced" females, two-head giants, winged beast skeleton race, etc.) but they are not always compatible with existing standard clothes/armor meshes (clipping). Similar situation can be observed in Oblivion. This idea was rejected on BB Forum several times.
BTW, I have never seen adjustable PC bodies in Gamebryo based games (there many of them, e.g. several Korean MMORPGs).

Adjusting weight/height per-character should be possible while staying within the format specs. The data is obviously taken from the Morrowind esm as scaling info each time an NPC is made, so it should be possible to overwrite that with per-NPC data. At that point (and with physics) we'll need an external data file (eg, for box.nif, box.physics, and for pk_them (NPC), Data Files/npcs/pk_them.npc for scaling info and extended AI data). Simple text files (say, XML) for physics and AI/npc data that gets loaded by the engine at runtime (but outside of the NIF and ESP) will allow for extended features and keep things completely compatible with Morrowind. Even allowing a Data Files/materials directory and checking for an OGRE material there to load instead of what's stated in the NIF (but with the same name, box.nif and box.material) would let Morrowind's texturing system be completely bypassed with something like 10 lines of code on the part of the developers (open NIF, check for MATERIAL, if exists, load, else, load from NIF). It's a simple, functional, fast and easy extension system.

As for scaling bodies, that would be possible. Korean MMOs are not a good example of what can be done in development (MMOs by nature tend to be far behind what's possible graphically, and Korea especially mass-produces them). Even if just the bones were scaled, the body should (if properly rigged) follow. Doing simple X, Y, Z scaling would be possible, or even scale bones independently.

[Brandon Wilson]

So how's progress?

[Lucie H]

So how's progress?

Not much has been going on since the main developer is on his summer vacation.

[Antonio Gigliotta]

Oh.Never knew. :facepalm:

[Charleigh Anderson]

I would say that, if OMW can offer a performance increase, and stability increase over the dated morrowind engine, then it is more than enough to warrent a download, and is all I could really hope or expect out of it. Regardless, this is a project I'm looking forward to.

[Thema]

I would say that, if OMW can offer a performance increase, and stability increase over the dated morrowind engine, then it is more than enough to warrent a download, and is all I could really hope or expect out of it. Regardless, this is a project I'm looking forward to.

That's kind of the point of OpenMW. Why else would you do it?

[..xX Vin Xx..]

I think that it is reasonable to stay with MW nif format (v. 4.0.0.2), but it's features should be used so to say more intensively. For instance, gloss maps are not rendered in MW for unknown reason, but they are supported in other v. 4.0.0.2 games, e.g. "Freedom Force".

And thanks to the Morrowind Code Patch, now they are rendered...

Can whoever creates the next thread please put a NUMBER on it instead of strange extensions to the adjective "new"?

[Hannah Whitlock]

Can whoever creates the next thread please put a NUMBER on it instead of strange extensions to the adjective "new"?

I concur, it's a bit annoying having that all the time...

[Madison Poo]

Hello Everyone,

Nico, the founder and driving force behind this project, can no longer dedicate much time to this project for financial reasons. As one of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who would love to see this project continue, I feel it is in the best interests of Bethesda to support this project and hire Nico.

If you feel the same way, please sign this petition

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/OpenMW/


EDIT: Nico has not left the project, and I did not mean to give that impression. He just cannot commit as much time to the project, and it will push on without him shouldering as much of the work.

[KiiSsez jdgaf Benzler]

I do not see how a petition helps.

Shame he can not work on the project, it would have been nice to see completed.

[Noraima Vega]

hire Nico

You mean donate money? If he is hired by someone, he'll most likely have to sign a contract which forbids him from working on other projects, and he wouldn't have time anyway. This suggestion lies in that grey area between pro bono modding and modding for a profit, the latter of which is against the law and will land this thread in the lock box.

Let him upload the entirety of his work; others can pick up where he left off.

[Jonathan Montero]

Nico hasn't quit as far as I know. We had a thread the other day shortly after he got back from holidays and, in the interest of getting more people to help, he is considering porting the D code into C++. I really don't think OpenMW will die as he has already done so much work that it wouldn't be a stretch for someone else to pick it up and I'm sure there are enough of us here interested in that sort of thing to push it through.

[Rudy Paint fingers]

Does anyone know how to build it and make it work? I tried a few times, with no success (hence why I haven't gotten any shaders working for it yet). I looked up OGRE's shader system, but can't make it work without a working copy of OpenMW (which would need the shader handling, which is very nice, built into the render/present func). Anyways...
I would be more inclined to help if it was in C++ (not knowing D), and I think a lot of other people would like it better (C++ is a far more well-known language, anyways).

[ezra]

Even if just the bones were scaled, the body should (if properly rigged) follow. Doing simple X, Y, Z scaling would be possible, or even scale bones independently.

Is it really this simple?
Scaling bones independently in the .nif format is pretty difficult, at the moment the actual bones aren't scaled, meaning animation isn't affected.
However, when you start scaling bones along X,Y,Z, you get problems. X, Y, Z are constant, they don't change with the direction of the bone. This means you get horrible distortations when the character moves.
There are ways to counter this, the safest being to change the length of the bone and then uniform scale it. But this would be difficult to implement in game.

I've been told many times, to avoid scaling animated characters like the plague. Animation in Morrowind seems to controls the size of the skeleton, so you can't just edit the skeleton either.
I'm not saying this because I think you're wrong though, but because I think I might be wrong (I'm pretty stupid compared to the people in this thread ).
I'd like to know how this is possible. I can only think of a couple possible ways of doing this, one of these would be fairly easy and compatible with existing meshes, yet might not even work.

[Erika Ellsworth]

Does anyone know how to build it and make it work? I tried a few times, with no success (hence why I haven't gotten any shaders working for it yet). I looked up OGRE's shader system, but can't make it work without a working copy of OpenMW (which would need the shader handling, which is very nice, built into the render/present func). Anyways...
I would be more inclined to help if it was in C++ (not knowing D), and I think a lot of other people would like it better (C++ is a far more well-known language, anyways).

Hehe, if it's c++ even I could at least understand parts of it. I mean.. I did go to a programmers school.

[jessica robson]

And thanks to the Morrowind Code Patch, now they are rendered...

Can whoever creates the next thread please put a NUMBER on it instead of strange extensions to the adjective "new"?

I don't really see what the point is :grad: Numbers are like ninjas, you can never find them when you need them, so do they really matter?
But I guess if it would someone...

[N Only WhiTe girl]

I agree, it would be easier to follow if the next thread had a number on it.