[Emma]

They're pretty different. Could you be more specific? For instance, do you mean their goals in reimplementing the engine?

[Lauren Dale]

How is OpenMW different from Project Aedra?

OpenMw's primary goal, or at least benefit, is to open up modding possibilities beyond what modders are currently capable of. I'm not really sure what Project Aedra's goals are, as the developer doesn't seem to have explained it anywhere I can find. Still, his project seems to be going well. Best of luck to him and Crystal Scrolls. Development on OpenMw is, and in all likelihood will, continue until completion.

[Hannah Barnard]

They're pretty different. Could you be more specific? For instance, do you mean their goals in reimplementing the engine?

Their goals. Is OpenMW going to allow us to use any engine we want, like a Crysis engine or something?

[Valerie Marie]

Their goals. Is OpenMW going to allow us to use any engine we want, like a Crysis engine or something?

I think it's more along the lines of creating an open-source engine that can be edited and added-to at will by the community at large.

[Toby Green]

I think it's more along the lines of creating an open-source engine that can be edited and added-to at will by the community at large.

Well what's all that mean?

[Bethany Short]

creating an open-source engine

=> OpenMw creating their own new game's engine for Morrowind ; so no use of others engines.

[A Dardzz]

Aedra's made specifically with multiplayer in mind, and that's at the top of it's priorities.
OpenMW is more about being... well, open.

[roxanna matoorah]

Their goals. Is OpenMW going to allow us to use any engine we want, like a Crysis engine or something?

Nico seems to appreciate modularity very much, so in the future if someone wants to try and switch OpenMW's rendering to something else, like a realtime raytracer or whatever, i believe (afaik) it should be relatively easy (compared to a less modular design). At least if it's done inside Ogre3d. This way OpenMW as a project is very survivable.

Well what's all that mean?

OpenMW has been very welcoming towards any participation by interested people, as can be seen from the amount of information available about it here, on the forum, wiki, mailing list etc. This, and the switch to git as source management, seem to have worked out well, as there are a few contributors along with Nico working on OpenMW, and there's a nice "getting things done" atmosphere around it. This stuff also improves the project's survivability.

=> OpenMw creating their own new game's engine for Morrowind ; so no use of others engines.

I think this is slightly misleading, as OpenMW uses Ogre3d and plenty of other http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOSS middleware.

[Bedford White]

So does that mean that Morrowind will never have animations that are smoother like in Oblivion or more bones or physics and AI like in Crysis Warhead even if it's using the Ogre3D engine?

[Claudz]

So does that mean that Morrowind will never have animations that are smoother like in Oblivion or more bones or physics and AI like in Crysis Warhead even if it's using the Ogre3D engine?

As long as anyone is willing to put in the time, its definitely possible to improve Morrowind's animations using the Ogre3d engine, I would assume that phyisics and AI could theoretically be improved as well, however, it would take the programming know how and time to make it happen. Physics would be easier to impliment than new AI though......

[Monika Fiolek]

Im not entirely sure what making and "open source engine" means but morrowind on a mac caught my eye. I've been playing morrowind on the xbox for years and always been bummed about not being able to use mods because I have a mac. the site said you have to install the game to get the assets which are then loaded by the OpenMw engine (forgive me if im butchering the terminology, im not really a computer guy). How do you install MW on a mac? I've never tired installing a PC game on a mac, is it as easy as just running the installer or do I have to use bootcamp or something? if you can actually get morrowind to run on a mac then all my dreams will come true.


ps: I know its in pre-alpha and is a long way off, but im still excited

[Genocidal Cry]

Im not entirely sure what making and "open source engine" means but morrowind on a mac caught my eye. I've been playing morrowind on the xbox for years and always been bummed about not being able to use mods because I have a mac. the site said you have to install the game to get the assets which are then loaded by the OpenMw engine (forgive me if im butchering the terminology, im not really a computer guy). How do you install MW on a mac? I've never tired installing a PC game on a mac, is it as easy as just running the installer or do I have to use bootcamp or something? if you can actually get morrowind to run on a mac then all my dreams will come true.


ps: I know its in pre-alpha and is a long way off, but im still excited

There are open-source tools which can extract files from ESM/BSA archives. I would imagine that the actual game data is identical on all platforms (the meshes, textures, sounds, etc.) so it's quite possible that your xBox disc has what you need. That would be the easiest way on a mac probably. Otherwise, you would need to get a PC copy, install it in a PC VM (or boot camp), and copy the "data files" folder over.

[Jessica Colville]

There are open-source tools which can extract files from ESM/BSA archives. I would imagine that the actual game data is identical on all platforms (the meshes, textures, sounds, etc.) so it's quite possible that your xBox disc has what you need. That would be the easiest way on a mac probably. Otherwise, you would need to get a PC copy, install it in a PC VM (or boot camp), and copy the "data files" folder over.

I'd use a VM. XBox discs are encrypted, and you couldn't run an XBox executable on a Mac anyway. There's no way to run Morrowind on OS X itself at the moment, but you can use a VM or boot camp and run the Windows version.

[Taylor Bakos]

So does that mean that Morrowind will never have animations that are smoother like in Oblivion or more bones or physics and AI like in Crysis Warhead even if it's using the Ogre3D engine?

The idea behind OpenMW is to be able to play classical Morrowind on an updated, open-source game engine, in order to fix a lot of the irritating bugs that are still present (as well as play MW on other platforms). However, in a lot of ways, it's really an emulator - in the sense that it has to emulate the original engine. Unless they are going to ship with a mod "patch" (which is possible), they will have to replicate things like the scripting engine as perfectly as possible to keep the game from breaking. So, stuff that directly affects the core engine are going to necessarily be Morrowind-like - since breaking the vanilla game would be kind of pointless.

Which, for the purposes of your list, means that the base AI will have to be implemented pretty close to the original. It may be possible to add new packages to support new behaviors available to mods, but the current AI system will ultimately have to be supported - since a failure here could actually break the game. I would like to see AI packages that would support a true sitting/laying animation, so we could have real chairs and beds in Morrowind, but I'm not holding out for that one.

I believe more bones are already possible - I believe Axel figured out that you could possibly add at least a couple more without breaking the existing engine. A new engine could certainly support more, but it would have to do so carefully, so as to avoid breaking the vanilla game.

Animations can be smoother now - the only limitation is frame rate versus speed. However, most of the animation code is actually stored in the meshes - which means that vanilla is going to look like vanilla regardless of the engine. Scripted animations could potentially be improved, but at a great risk of breaking vanilla scripts.

Physics I don't know about, but I wouldn't get my hopes up. It's possible, but obviously it would only be fully supported in mods - the vanilla game has no concept of Havok. A lot of things that are havok'ed in Oblivion are statics in Morrowind, so I suspect this would be difficult to support very well.

What I expect out of OpenMW is an integration of stuff like MGE, MWSE, and MCP (the effects, not the code). We will likely see the game engine directly implement newer shaders out of the box, and sidestep obvious bugs and shortcuts (like rain/snow collisions, etc.) I also expect that someone will port the whole thing to OpenGL, and ultimately, Linux. It would be very nice to have Morrowind running on an Ubuntu box.

Even more exciting is the prospect is that the OpenMW team will fail to reproduce the jitter as you get further from the origin. This would mean that you could actually create all of Tamriel as a gigantic mod, and not have NPC's shaking to death in High Rock. Shoot, you could even add in the Summerset Isles and the Akaviri lands.

[Michelle Chau]

I searched OpenMW on here and is this the latest thread? With the most recent post being by Morovir in October 2010? I'd like to help out in getting OpenMW completed by I can't understand anything that they're doing. It looks like they're redesigning cells but I thought it was just about copying everything over to a new engine.

[Kari Depp]

I searched OpenMW on here and is this the latest thread? With the most recent post being by Morovir in October 2010? I'd like to help out in getting OpenMW completed by I can't understand anything that they're doing. It looks like they're redesigning cells but I thought it was just about copying everything over to a new engine.

but on their new homepage the last update 0.9 is from january 13th, so looking good
http://openmw.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

[quinnnn]

Thanks! I just registered over there.