» Tue Jul 12, 2011 1:55 am Dragongeo2's Email Address: DragonGeo2 -at- gmail.com
Official Aedra Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/aedra/
Official Aedra Forums: https://sourceforge.net/projects/aedra/forums
Summary of Project Aedra
Project Aedra is an open-source, free-to-download reimplementation of the The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind game engine by Dragongeo2. In short, its major goals are to add multiplayer support and upgrade the graphics engine, physics engine, and AI of Morrowind.
*It is currently in it's Pre-Alpha stages and is far from complete, however you can still download it if you simply want to see what has been accomplished so far.
Features (As of Pre-Alpha Revision 146)
*Improved Hardware Utilization*
Aedra not only supports 64-bit operating systems, but it also supports multi-threading. This allows it to use your PC's RAM and CPU to its full potential.
*Modding Support*
Aedra already supports any Morrowind mod that does not require MWSE, MGE, or MWE. Full support for MWSE will eventually be included in Aedra as well as partial support for MGE and MWE based mods.
Entirely new scripting functions for Morrowind will also be made available that will allow modders to change things that were never before thought possible to change.
Aedra also supports the adding of brand new script functions by other modders.
All of the MCP options will be present in the final version of Aedra.
*Multiplayer*
Multiplayer support for Aedra has already been in the works for quite some time, but it is not included in the current Pre-Alpha. Aedra's multiplayer will allow you to create dedicated servers with a slew of options to play with allowing you to run a server just the way you want to. Here is a list of some of the options that are planned to be made available to pick from:
1) Game Password (optional)
2) Maximum Number of Players (right now, Aedra has "no limit" to the number of players that can join any given server)
3) Friendly Damage on/off (so your giant AoE destruction magic spell doesn't have to kill your friends)
4) No Respawn Mode on/off (when you die, you die for good and you have to make a new character on that server)
5) Player Import Mode on/off (if on, then players can use characters from their computer, if off, then players can only use characters that they've created on that game server)
6) Force Random Characters on/off (if on, then players can't pick their character's gender, race, birthsign, or class, if off, then they go through the usual character generation sequence for Morrowind)
7) Allow Observers on/off (some servers may allow "observer" players, who cannot do anything but watch the game)
8) Allow User Pausing on/off (if on, users may pause the game at any time, if off, only server admins can pause the game)
9) Editor Game on/off (if on, users may edit the world in the Aedra world editor, if off, this is a non-editor game and nobody can edit the world)
10) Allow User Cheats on/off (if on, users can access the console, if off, only server admins can use the console)
11) Autosave on/off (if on, the server will autosave the game every X minutes, if off, the server will not autosave)
12) Server Saves Replays on/off (if on, the server will save replays that can be played back later)
13) Allow Local Risky Mods on/'off (if on, the server lets users use "risky mods" which may cause desynchs or crashes if the server and client don't have the same mods set up, if off, the server forces the client to disable "risky mods" before they will be allowed to play)
As for balancing, Aedra takes an approach similar to Diablo 2 or Borderlands. There will be a "Player Number Scaling" option that can be ticked in order to have the server automatically increase the difficulty slider of Morrowind depending on how many players are in the server.
How quests are to be handled in Aedra during multiplayer sessions is still in the air. The current idea is to include three different options for the admin to choose from when creating a server, but this will probably change before the final version is released. The options are as follows:
1) All players on a server share one journal/questlog
2) Each player has their own journal/questlog, and other players may NOT affect your journal/questlog
3) Each player has their own journal/questlog, and other players CAN affect your journal/questlog
In its initial release Dragongeo2 plans for the multiplayer portion of Aedra to only include support for LAN, with programs such as Hamachi allowing online games to take place. He still has yet to decide on implementing support for built-in online multiplayer.
*New Graphical Features*
Aedra already includes multiple new graphical features that Morrowind did not originally support such as anti-aliasing, tessellation, alpha to coverage, and anisotropic filtering.
Aedra also includes graphical improvements to the water and sky of Morrowind as well as text clarity.
Distant land is also included in the current version of Aedra.
Later releases will see new graphical shaders such as Sun Shafts, Improved Water Effects, Dynamic Shadows, and an alternative to SSAO that should prove to be far superior in visual quality.
Dragongeo2 also wants to include "ragdoll" physics in the game at some point, but has yet to make a final decision on whether or not to implement it.
*Playable Content*
In its current state Aedra includes the entire landscape of Morrowind as well as all of the original interiors. Landscapes added by mods such as Tamriel Rebuilt should also work well with the current version of Aedra as well as their interiors. You can move around and explore the land of Morrowind but there is no form of questing or interacting with objects/actors yet. This will come in a later version.
Working dialogue, UI, and Scripting has yet to be implemented into the game.
What About OpenMW?
Dragongeo2 has already stated that he is most definitely not against other MW engine projects.
He simply wanted to go a different direction than OpenMW so he decided to create his own game engine rather than join OpenMW's team.
Dragongeo2 wanted Aedra's multiplayer aspect to be its strongest point, while OpenMW's team wanted to focus much less on the multiplayer support. This was one of the larger deciding factors for his decision to start Aedra on his own.
Installation and Playing
Simply download Aedra from the website linked at the top of the page and extract its contents to your Data Files folder. You will then need to setup the included "Morrowind_aux.ini" file in order for it to run correctly. To start Aedra simply use the "Aedra_x86.exe" file if you have a 32-bit operating system and use the "Aedra_x64.exe" file if you have a 64-bit operating system.
If it crashes upon start-up (which it probably will) then you most likely need to recheck the "Morrowind_aux" file to see if you have an option set to something your PC doesn't support. If you know that's not the case then begin un-checking mods from your Morrowind load order until it starts up correctly as one of them may include an MWSE, MWE, or MGE function that is not currently supported.
*Aedra does in fact require the user to legally own a full copy of Morrowind in order to be used. However it does not require the expansion packs (although expansion packs are recommended).
User Commands and Controls
There are a few commands that can be entered into Aedra's console in order to help the player navigate the world more smoothly. Hit "Enter" to start typing into the console and then hit "Enter" once again to submit the command. This is a list of current commands:
NOCLIP
FLY
WALK
GOI ORIGIN (this produces a "cell not found" error, unless you have a mod installed which makes a cell called "origin". Just type anything that doesn't exist instead)
GOI CELLNAME (where "cellname" is the name of a valid cell that you want to go to) This command works for both exterior and interior cells, but be warned, it doesn't usually start you in the cell inside of a place you won't fall from, so be sure to use NOCLIP or FLY first so you don't start off falling!
CLS (clears the text from the console)
Special keyboard buttons are listed here:
Page Up - Decrease View Distance
Page Down - Increase View Distance
Left Arrow Key - Decrease Player Speed
Right Arrow Key - Increase Player Speed
Help Wanted
Dragongeo2 is in need of both dedicated Pre-Alpha Testers and C/C++ Programmers. If you wish to offer him help feel free to contact him through any of the methods mentioned at the top of this thread.
If you run into any trouble while testing Aedra such as odd game behavior, visuals, or crashes please report it to Dragongeo2 and send him a copy of any dmp, "lasterror", and "lastrun" files your PC may have generated from it (these will be located in your Data Files folder).
