I started feeling extremely nostalgic lately, and decided to try playing Morrowind again. I've gotten spoiled with Oblivion, however, and I couldn't play the game with its obsolete graphics set to the highest values. I'm just not into it and immersed because of how clunky the graphics look now. But, I really like Morrowind, especially the epic main quest, and if I can find some graphic upgrade mods I'm going to play it. My computer has the following specs:

2.66ghz per core quad core processor
3650 ATI Radeon HD graphics card
7.1 sound card and 5 speaker sound system, plus subwoofer
6 gigs of DDR2 ram
1440 x 900 Widescreen Monitor

I'm looking for the mods that can best take advantage of this hardware, specifically upgrading the texturing of the world at large, the people, and hopefully the equipment. I've already started downloading the Morrowind Visual Pack- Combined (3.0) because it looks really good, but are there any better? I've heard Better Bodies and Better Clothes are good programs. Any better than those? Are they buggy?

Not sure if you know it but Morrowind Graphics Extender is brilliant. You can tweak it so it fits your specs but at full blast i'd put it up the with OB in graphics levels. But even with just the distant land an a few shaders it can make a marked improvement.

I saw some pics of that just now, and although the "looming in the distance" shots look great, and the water is especially beautiful, the graphics for the characters themselves are still kind of subpar. I'm aware that there are other mods that upgrade models and textures for people. Are they compatible?

There are many different types of texture replacers so it's difficult to say what is 'the best', but I like Connary's retextures the best. They also stay close to the original game's style. You can download his pack http://www.megaupload.com/?d=2JRYL4BT, now that he has temporarily removed the official download. As for pictures of those retextures...

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1270648257.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268811631.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268762497.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268761960.jpg


And some other general pics, mostly showing the Graphics Extender at work:

http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268763568.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268821786.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268822128.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268947800.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268948073.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1270201852.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268763328.jpg
http://www.tesnexus.com/imageshare/images/57416-1268763496.jpg

I still intend to create a large list of (graphics) mods that I'm using at some point...

These are fantastic! And my apologies, I should have specified what I consider "best": I like Morrowind's style, so Connary's textures are perfect for that. I'm not looking for anything orientally themed, although updated katana textures would make sense. I especially don't want any mods that contain stuff that would unbalance the game, no SWORD OF AWESOME SMITINGs in there. So, is Connary's pack compatible with the MGE? And do these things together fix how inhuman and weird the characters look?

Going to class, now...

You'll definitely want Better Bodies and Better Clothes, along with Westly's high-resolution http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=6825 http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=5635 for BB. And you'll need a http://www.mwmythicmods.com/telesphoros.htm#5 as well - my personal favourite is Vvardenfell Visages, but there are plenty of other choices.

MGE
Connary's Pack
Better Bodies
Better Clothes
Vvardenfell Visages Vol. 1

Would that be the correct order to install them in? Also, is there a high quality texture replacer for men as well as women?

I was just coming onto this thread to ask the same question as the OP. I LOVE Morrowind's locations, atmosphere and odd creatures. I too am feeling nostalgic after reading the book, but the graphics keep me from enjoying it as much as I originally did.

I your pictures, it looks great! Other than the textures you mention, how do you get the graphics extender to give you the excellent look I see in the second series of pictures? I've loaded the graphics extender and tweaked some of the setting like resolution, and run the distant land tool. However, Morrowind seems to crash frequently and I lose all the modifications that the MGE rendered. It's been a really long time since I played Morrowind, so it will almost be like playing a new game if I can get the graphics updated like in the pictures posted on this thread.

You can install those mods in any order, as none of them affect each other (though Better Clothes would look a bit weird without Better Bodies). The 'Fit Body Textures' mod I already linked to includes male body textures as well as female ones - you should install that one first, followed by the 'extra high resolution' textures for female bodies.

Encountered problems already. I've installed the C++ and DirectX 9c, and I'm running a 64 bit vista, so I don't need the .net 2.0 anyway, but the MGE files won't extract. I've got version 3.8b in a winrar archive in the same folder as the Morrowind.exe application. The directions in the MGE wiki stated that's where I should put it. When I tell the archive to extract, however, it says "cannot open data files" and "cannot open default MGE settings". What's going on?

Nevermind. Fixed it.

Some terrain mods for Morrowind that I enjoyed were Vibrant Morrowind (adds full color and brightens things up a bit) and Darker Morrowind (or Dark Morrowind, not sure which). This adds a dark outlook to the entire continent, and totally changes the whole mood of the place in my opinion. I've also used Better Bodies and that's a must have. Darknut makes some great texture replacers including armor, weapons, creatures, etc. I've used many of his uploads. PlanetElderScrolls has a very large selection of mods, as well as Eric Melnibone & The Elder Scrolls site.

Actually I've already downloaded and installed(?) a crapload of mods now, including ones from Darknut. The better bodies and faces seem to be working, and I've found that I like the compilation I downloaded better for outdoor texturing than Connary's, although his objects are great. The problem I'm encountering, however, is that many of the things I'm getting from Darknut don't seem to have those file-directory-namey-thingey-whatevers that I need to put a checkmark next to when I'm enabling data files in startup. As a result, none of the new textures for armors, weapons, clothing, and creatures are showing up. Any idea what's going on or how to fix it? Should I just come up with some arbitrary folder names and stick the graphics packages in in groups?

Darknut's texture mods do not need to be checked off as they should (upon installation) directly replace the stock textures (no plugin required). Making new folders is a bad idea (very) as the mods are structured to be installed in the right place to replace the original textures (so be sure to read the README for installation instructions to ensure that everything goes to where it needs to be).

:D

Westly's right.

Resource files, like meshes, textures, etc. don't need an esp file, if they directly replace vanilla resources without changing them.

An actual esp plugin is only needed when other changes are made using the CS.

This means I almost certainly installed these incorrectly, then. I've been copying the files from the archives into the ffolders that they correspond to/belong to. Meshes were copied from the archives straight into the mesh folder in Data Files, not into the folder containing Data Files and likewise the Morrowind application itself. Was this a mistake?

If you went through several folders in the mod's meshes folder to get the individual meshes, to then place them directly into the mesh folder of your installation, yes that's wrong. What you should do is extract the meshes folder from the mod into the Data Files folder, and then say 'yes' to overwrite. Everything will fall into place.

Meshes are usually in subfolders inside the Data Files\Meshes folder, so you'll need to copy over the subfolders as well. Textures usually go straight into the Data Files\Textures folder, but again, if there are any subfolders in the mod archive then you'll need to copy those over.

So, should I then go into the Data Files folder in my computer, going no further, and simply extract each mesh and texture folder from the archive into the Data Files folder? If I do this, doesn't that mean that additional textures I wish to add later will overwrite the old ones I want to keep? For instance, I intend to use Better Bodies 1.1, followed by Fit Bodies, followed by High Res Female Bodies. I know that each will overwrite the other. After adding all of them, I intend to add Darknut's creature, armor, weapons, and clothes packs. Will this have a bad effect? What about Icons?

I'd test all this myself right now, but I'm in class.

Wow Connary's replacers look great! I just can't find them anywhere.

Darknut's creature, armour, weapons and clothes packs will not affect the Better Bodies textures, so don't worry about that. Just make sure you install the Better Clothes textures before overwriting them with Darknut's hi-res replacements. With icons, the same rule applies: just copy everything over to the Data Files\Icons folder and make sure you include any subfolders.

I realize this is probably a rather dumb question, but I'd rather that someone else answers it before 5:30pm when I'll have to test for the answer myself. When I download and implement Darknut's mods to creatures, should I go into the textures folder in the archive and extract them directly into cdrive/programfilesx86/bethesdasoftworks/morrowind/datafiles/textures/? Or should I select the textures folder itself in the archive and tell it to extract into cdrive/programfilesx86/bethesdasoftworks/morrowind/datafiles/?