[michael flanigan]

OpenMW is an attempt to reimplement the popular role playing game Morrowind. It aims to be a fully playable, open source implementation of the game. You must own Morrowind to use OpenMW.

To give you a better idea of what this project is about, here are some of the aims for the future of OpenMW:

* be a full featured reimplementation of Morrowind
* run natively on Windows, Linux and MacOS X
* support all existing content, including Tribunal, Bloodmoon and all user created mods
* allow much greater modability: change game rules, create new spell effects, etc through scripting.
* fix system design bugs, like the "dirty" GMST entries in mods, and the savegame "doubling" problem
* improve the interface and journal system
* improve graphics to use more modern hardware
* (possibly) improve game mechanics, physics, combat and AI
* (possibly) support multiplayer at some point

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showuser=468902
http://openmw.sourceforge.net/jaws/
http://openmw.sourceforge.net/jaws/index.php/photos/album/1
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=923338
http://groups.google.com/group/openmw

Faq:

Q: When will this come out?
A: Whenever it's done, don't expect it for a while though

Q: Will this be backwards compatible with all Morrowind mods?
A: That's the plan, though some mods that rely on weird scripts or third party programs might not be supported

Q: Wouldn't this be awesome, put in pleeease, it would make the game so much better!
A: The goal of this project is to support Morrowind with expansions and mod support, making the game better will have to wait until after the initial project is done

Q: Will my save game be compatible with this?
A: Probably. But until there's an actual, working way to port Morrowind save games over to OpenMW there's no way to be sure.

Q: Morrowind is ugly, how will the graphics be improved?
A: At the very least the rendering engine will be better, better lighting and distant land is already in and other shiny things should be forthcoming. However there is neither a plan nor a desire to improve textures, meshes, or animations.

Q: Will this work well with mods already created?
A: Most definitely yes! Not only should the game theoretically crash less, but mods should be easier to switch around, activate, deactivate, and ect.

Q: Will this allow new types of mods to be created?
A: Yes, with a new graphics engine, scripting language, and being fundamentally built on open source tools OpenMW should allow a wide new variety of mods to be created.

Q: Will this have a new construction set?
A: Possibly, the main goal however is to produce a running game

Q: I want to report a error, what do I do?
A: You can post about it here on the forums, or possibly here: http://bugs.snaptoad.com/?project=2

Lastly, if you have an idea for how to improve Morrowind, go ahead and post it. Also, if you think you can help with the project, please say so.

[Rachel Tyson]

No one answered about the background so I will. I think option 2 is the best while trying to keep with the original morrowind background. Just add some frayed edges and your all set!

[Grace Francis]

Is OpenMW already able to render exterior cells? Or is this still in the works?

[Zoe Ratcliffe]

Will you fix the damn game to not crash to desktop all 2 hours?
It really destroys fun.
Will you implement "important" mods like better bodies, better clothes and unofficial bug/text fixes to the standard OpenMW game?

[Motionsharp]

Is OpenMW already able to render exterior cells? Or is this still in the works?

You need to kick me more. I think I may have some free time this weekend though

[Celestine Stardust]

I could be wrong but I believe he was probably referring to Havok or something of the sorts, not actual armour or weapons to put onto the shelves.

Uh? How does Havok stock shelves? As far as I know from my experience in Oblivion, Havok causes gear to fly off the furniture at velocities high enough to bypass collision detection so that they pass through the walls and are afterwards forever lost in the Void. Everybody agreed it was better in Morrowind where you can put items where you want them to be and they stay there.

[jesse villaneda]

Uh? How does Havok stock shelves? As far as I know from my experience in Oblivion, Havok causes gear to fly off the furniture at velocities high enough to bypass collision detection so that they pass through the walls and are afterwards forever lost in the Void. Everybody agreed it was better in Morrowind where you can put items where you want them to be and they stay there.

It really depends on how Havok is implemented. If I remember correctly, it works much better in general in FO3, although most likely on the level that player collision does not effect physics (at least not in general), which I think they should have done in the first place, really for Oblivion.

Oh and I'm sure this was coming but I must say that probably

Spoiler

the cake is a lie.

[Pawel Platek]

You need to kick me more. I think I may have some free time this weekend though

/me kicks Yacoby

j/k, I think what you've done so far has been great.

[Shannon Marie Jones]

Will you fix the damn game to not crash to desktop all 2 hours?
It really destroys fun.

Definitely. The random crashes (and the irritating GUI slowdown when you play for a long time) was what made me make OpenMW in the first place.

Will you implement "important" mods like better bodies, better clothes and unofficial bug/text fixes to the standard OpenMW game?

Not everybody will agree what is 'important', I guess. I think I might include the bug/text fixes, but probably not the better bodies etc - since they're much bigger and because they don't really fit as part of OpenMW itself, IMHO.

[Emma Copeland]

Glad to hear that you are trying to get rid of the crashes. It really annoys me when the game crashes after I haven't saved for quite some time.
Your "mod" + Tamriel Rebuilt = The best game ever created!

[Jessica Colville]

Being a new engine, i'm fairly certain it'll (initially) have random crashes all of its own. But this time everything can be fixed.

[Jessica Nash]

Definitely. The random crashes (and the irritating GUI slowdown when you play for a long time) was what made me make OpenMW in the first place.


Not everybody will agree what is 'important', I guess. I think I might include the bug/text fixes, but probably not the better bodies etc - since they're much bigger and because they don't really fit as part of OpenMW itself, IMHO.

I agree. Let the mods remain mods. Not everyone uses better bodies; it's definitely unimportant to me in every possible aspect since I don't use it, for example.

[Jaki Birch]

Will you implement "important" mods like better bodies, better clothes and unofficial bug/text fixes to the standard OpenMW game?

Why do people obstinately confuse code and content? They are completely different things!

[lucile]

As far as I understand, OpenMw will be able to run all typical MW content and also would be modular ( extra settings, fixes, code patches etc? ) ?

[Marta Wolko]

As far as I understand, OpenMw will be able to run all typical MW content and also would be modular ( extra settings, fixes, code patches etc? ) ?

Exactly.

[Jon O]

I wonder if external programs like MWSE, MWE, MGE could be run? Or maybe they could be implemented?

[A Lo RIkIton'ton]

I wonder if external programs like MWSE, MWE, MGE could be run? Or maybe they could be implemented?

Probably implemented right into OpenMW.

[josh evans]

You need to kick me more. I think I may have some free time this weekend though

Didn?t want to kick anybody . 't was just a simple question. When you will have implemented exterior cells I will give the wonders of a new MW engine a try and see for myself how it looks

[Mélida Brunet]

I wonder if external programs like MWSE, MWE, MGE could be run? Or maybe they could be implemented?

They won't work due to different memory structures, so they should be implemented right into the engine. All they are are extra scripting functions, and in MGEs case shaders and distant objects/land

[IsAiah AkA figgy]

You need to kick me more. I think I may have some free time this weekend though

Yacoby, do you have any updated screenshots of how the exterior looks so far?

[Alexxxxxx]

Not everyone uses better bodies

Just the people who want their character models to not look incredibly ugly and unrealistic.

While I personally consider BB to be an essential mod, and it wouldn't be a bad thing to just include it with the package (along with Better Clothes and with Pyschodog's permission, of course), particularly given that unlike Oblivion, MW has a definitive body replacer mod and I'm sure few people would complain about its inclusion. But ultimately it's inclusion would only serve the purpose of just making it easier to install (since BB and BC have installers set to the default MW directory and you'd have to manually change the file paths and everything), and making the overall download size of OpenMW larger. That plus there is no definitive head replacer mod (I'm not sure there ever will be-Better Heads comes close but some people would rather use Westly's Master Head Pack), and, I don't know their might be a few people who actually like having their character models look like cheap action figures. :blink:

In any case, perhaps psychodog will release a new installer once OpenMW "goes gold" that includes the option to install to the OpenMW directory.

And I think I asked this before but don't recall getting an answer, will OpenMW support normal mapping?

Notice I didn't say include, as in it being featured in the sense that normal maps come pre-created for every single MW texture, I said support, as in if somebody wanted to they could create a mod that adds normal maps to everything in MW.

Also, will there be support for separate world spaces?

Sorry if this was answered before, but you should really include it in the FAQ or something.

[Javaun Thompson]

Just the people who want their character models to not look incredibly ugly and unrealistic.

Better Bodies is unrealistic too, but there's no way to make a realistic body mod in either Morrowind or Oblivion. Those young and athletic bodies don't fit with each and every NPCs in the game world. (That said, I use BB and BC myself.)

Though that's an idea for a future feature for OpenMW or another Morrowind engine clone. Many different body types for each race, so some NPCs can be fat, or old, or hunchbacked, etc. It could allow the Dreamers to look like they should, full of scars and open wounds where they've torn down their own flesh to devour it, om nom nom nom.

[matt oneil]

v0.6 Is it just me or do the new GUI menus not work. I can't open menus at al.

EDIT:
Pressing the block button (right mouse button) seams to open a menu but that’s all for the moment.

[Samantha Jane Adams]

I'll look into including an "optional" combo pack, doing something like this anyway. Might be a good way to get new and other people to play Morrowind again, if they don't have to search around everywhere to improve the graphics

But here's a more direct question: Should control expansions be included from the beginning? I.E. more hotkeys, being able to switch sneak between press/hold and toggle? I think it'd be a good idea, just wanted to know if anyone disagreed with me.

[Andres Lechuga]

A little help running 0.6?
I've extracted both the binary package and the DLL pack into the same folder, but whenver I run openmw.exe, it says:

Adding game file Morrowind.esm
Error: initializeSound() SoundException: Failed to initialize music device.

and then it crashes.

Did I do something wrong?