After being absent for 6 months(playing Oblivion) I kind forgot, actually confused, if I should check the mods in the MW launcher or in the MGE distantland creator. I remember that I used to check most mods in the MW launcher and not others cause it would clash with MGE. For example, Vality's animated grass are checked in MGE distantland creator but not in the MW launcher cause if you do, the grass will have collision. I don't know if patches like MCP should be checked in MGE or in MW launcher or in both. I'm getting confuse again:(

All mods you want to use need to be checked in launcher. In MGE, you only create distantland from selected mods, it is not "activating" them.

An adendum to the above, you are correct to have the grass mods not checked in the launcher, but checked in MGE for distantland creation, other than the grass mods however, there are no special cases that I can think of that should not be checked in both(some mods that don't alter the landscape don't need to be included in the MGE DL creation list, however it shouldn't hurt anything if they are).

I believe there's a mod by Vality (Balmora mod) which adds the swamp look and, don't quite remember, if you check just one or both then the trees will disappear when you get close; only from afar you could see them. The other member said that MGE chooses the applicable mod automatically. That may be true BUT the thing that confuses me is that you can check both ways at the same time without getting any warning messages. It's very tempting in MGE distantland creator to choose ALL the mods cause it says "Select any plugins to use in distantland". It would be helpful that in MGE mods that shouldn't be checked be grey out or get a warning message.

I checked Better Bodies in the MW launcher. So, my logic tells me I shouldn't check this mod in MGE cause it doesn't have anything related to distantland. I think....... I don't know cause MGE doesn't let you know. If MGE chooses the applicable mods automatically then why doesn't MGE barred you from choosing the rest of the mods?

Are there any mods that change the background picture for the launcher? My GotY launcher is just a grey background with a greyish fabricant head on one side, and a greyish wolf head on the other side... doesn't really scream "Morrowind!" or 'Game of the Year box cover art!" to me.

The plugin selector in MGEgui's Distant Land File Creation Wizard is specifically for telling the distantland creator which plugins should be checked for creating distantland files - the selection determines what the world texture and world mesh should include (think of it as a world map which textures the world mesh), and what statics (if any) should be included for distant static creation.

In order to generate distantland files appropriate for your current active load list, MGEgui needs to be told precisely the plugins you're using. MGEgui then decides what statics to generate based on the minimum static size selected during the DL Statics step. If MGEgui where to just grab everything from your 'Data Files' folder, you would have to micromanage your plugins so that only the ones you plan to play with are in that folder. It's much easier to just be able to select your Morrowind.ini to get the active load list - that option is available during the DL 'Select plugins' step (v3.7.2+). You can always add to the plugin selection list any plugins that are designed just for distantland static creation, like Vality7's grass betas.

If you're using MGEv3.8-svn_rev0099 or newer, you can place plugins that should only be used for MGE distantland in a folder other than 'Data Files' ('...\Data Files\MGE static plugins' is a good choice). Then you can browse to that location and add those special case plugins during the Plugin selection step. That way you can keep MGE distantland specific plugins separate from and out of your Data Files (i.e. no chance to accidentally include them in your active load list). Another option is to add something to the start of the plugin file name like ' !MGE Only! ' so it's obvious where to use it.

The plugin selector has nothing to do with marking plugins for the active load list - that's handled by Morrowind Launcher or Wrye Mash, or some other mod manager.

It's perfectly fine to have a plugin selected on both the MGEgui DL Wizard plugin selection list and the MW Launcher Data Files list, especially if you want objects to appear in both MGE distantland and MW's standard draw distance. The exception is plugins that add animated statics to distantland (e.g. Vality7's grass betas) - you usually don't want to add those to your active load list since MGE handles all the rendering, even within MW's draw distance.

You're correct about plugins like Better Bodies - if you know a plugin does not add landmass or objects to exteriors (including interiors behaving like exteriors), then you can safely omit it from the DL Wizard Plugin selection. Objects might fade into MW's view distance if they're added to exteriors by a plugin that you chose not to include, and there's no harm to the actual plugin - it will still exist in the standard MW render range, it's just not going to be rendered by MGE. Conversely, you might get some objects fading out between the distant view range and MW's standard view range if you create distant statics for a plugin, then exclude it from your active load list afterward - in that case the plugin is not active so there's no data from that plugin for MW to know about, and regenerating distantland without the plugin selected in the DL Wizard will fix the ghost objects that MGE was rendering.

Oh, so if I have a mod that doesn't add landmass or objects to exteriors(including interiors behaving like exteriors), I don't have to checked them in the MGEgui. I think that clears my confusion. I guess I don't have to check patches like Morrowind Code Patch(MCP) in the MGEgui. But if that patch adds new objects then I guess I could check it in MGEgui. Is that correct?

Morrowind Code Patch only affects the Morrowind.exe - there is no plugin required for MCP (the showcase esp included with MCP is just to demo the changes and should not be used with an actual game).

IIRC, Morrowind Patch Project (MPP; patches the base Morrowind esms thru a fixer .esm plugin) adjusts the location of some exterior objects - most all are on the small size (i.e. crates, barrels, plants, torches), so it would only need to be included if you're creating distant statics with a very low minimum static size (e.g. less than 50).

Yes, you're right about the MCP. As for MPP, you meant i can check the plugin(esm) in the MGEgui if I intend to create distant statics?

I was wondering about this too. At the very least, I want my original launcher back, with the Orc about to cleave my head in twain