MGE XE
A custom MGE build with shadows and a handful of performance improvements, hopefully with similar or better performance than regular MGE. Have a look at these screenshots.

Galleries
Gnaar Mok (recent)
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-1-1326062680.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-2-1326062681.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-3-1326062681.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-4-1326062681.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-5-1326062682.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-1-1326063114.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-2-1326063115.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-3-1326063115.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-4-1326063115.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-5-1326063116.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-1-1326063294.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/41102-2-1326063295.jpg
Charm of the West
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178167.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178158.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178150.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178143.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178135.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178128.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178119.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178111.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178099.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178092.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178082.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178071.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178064.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178057.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178049.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178041.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178033.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178024.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178013.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304178004.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1304177939.jpg
To the South
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153914.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153894.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153886.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153876.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153867.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153857.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153849.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153838.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153830.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153821.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153810.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153799.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153790.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293153781.jpg
Weight of Light
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046108.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046097.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046089.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046079.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046071.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046060.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046048.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293046009.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045995.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045981.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045961.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045952.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045601.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045593.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045583.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045571.jpg
Ascadian Afternoon
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-4-1278628508.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-3-1278628508.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-2-1278628507.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1278628507.jpg
Coastal
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-3-1281023163.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-2-1281023162.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1281023162.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-3-1281023122.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-2-1281023122.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1281023121.jpg
Solar Dipole
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-5-1278457500.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-4-1278457499.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-3-1278457499.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-2-1278457499.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1278457498.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-5-1278457584.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-4-1278457584.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-3-1278457584.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-2-1278457583.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1278457583.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-5-1278457655.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-4-1278457655.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-3-1278457655.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-2-1278457654.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1278457654.jpg


It works by utilising the distant land objects to cast shadows, so it only works outside. It is real-time and speed that Morrowind time passes makes the passage of the sun quite noticeable. There are some limitations, and some optimizations compared to standard MGE. There are several features from MGE that have been cut too; some MGE-specific MWSE commands, texture hooks, and MGE-drawn animated tree statics.


New features since XE 0.8

• Dynamic water from MGE 178+, water simulation adjusted to be more liquid
  
• Less distant object popping
  
• Full install package, doesn't require a previous MGE installed
  
• HDR shader upgraded, opinions please
  
• HUD mods reload properly after alt-tab from fullscreen mode.
  
• Settings GUI improved

New features over standard MGE

• All objects in Morrowind view distance receive shadows.
  
• High quality selection of default shaders included.
  
• Screenshot enable checkbox now works as expected, since the screenshot code is patched. Just use PrintScreen, no macro required.
  
• Object pop-in at the screen edge no longer occurs. Distant land and grass culling is not delayed by a frame any more.
  
• Grass parts when the player is nearby; grass is lit better.
  
• Shaders no longer affect the crosshair, nor spill over the screen during cell loading, nor screw with cutscenes or the main menu.
  
• Windowed mode snaps to the screen edge to act like fullscreen, allowing fast Alt-Tab to work.
  
• Support for using shaders with the UI display quality fix in MCP.
  
• New underwater surface effects, with total internal reflection.
  
• Water shows up in the local map again, previous MGE versions did not allow it to render in the map.
  
• Scattering exponential fog and better sunsets, thanks to phal.
  
• MWSE upgraded to 0.9.4a (includes dll)
  
• Fullscreen alt-tab is functional (still slow to reload).

Requirements
Morrowind GOTY or Bloodmoon fully patched.
Shader Model 3.0+ graphics card; integrated graphics probably won't work.


Install Instructions
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=41102

1. Update to http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=35. (This won't conflict with DX10+.)
2. Install MGE XE to the Morrowind directory. If you've never used MGE before, run the Morrowind launcher as admin and set a resolution in the launcher options (to generate Morrowind's first time settings).
3. If you are using HUD mods made for standard MGE, you should deselect them from your load order. MGE XE requires its own HUD mods to fix design problems with older mods.
4. Run the new MGEXEgui. Read the instructions page. If you are upgrading from MGE you should regenerate distant land with 150 minimum static size (or smaller for more shadow casters).
5. If you use Crossfire/SLI, turn off "Responsive menu caching" in the In-game tab, to avoid performance reductions as caching is SLI unfriendly.

Note that Morrowind view distance in-game is set to maximum when you first load a game.

Recommended: set timescale to 10 or 15 in the console to slow down the day cycle (or 1000 to speed up). The movement of the sun is very visible.

Don't expect everything to cast a shadow, it's only objects large enough to appear in distant land. Small objects will cast weaker shadows for their size.

There are some HUD mods for use with MGE XE available from the same download page, mostly upgrades of Yacoby's mods and Vampiric Embrace. HUD mods for previous versions of MGE are unlikely to work.


Reporting problems

All errors while running Morrowind are logged to mgeXE.log in the Morrowind directory. Check there first if it crashes or white screens, it may explain why.
Errors from running MGEXEgui are logged in the mge3 directory.
When reporting errors, always post mgeXE.log (in a spoiler tag to avoid clutter) and OS, video card details, and driver version.
If the distant land generator crashes, please post your mge3/distant-land-crash-dump.txt instead.
Please report rendering errors with detailed information and a screenshot.


Uninstalling

MGE XE and MGE svn 178 are designed to be easily substitutable. To go back to MGE:

Replace d3d8.dll with the one from the the MGE svn 178 package.
(Optionally) Regenerate distant land, setting the distant static size back to its previous value.

Fully uninstalling:

Delete MGEXEgui, mge3, d3d8.dll and dinput.dll from your Morrowind directory.


Known issues

The game may crash on loading, try 'Disable internal MWSE' on the in-game tab. This will of course disable MWSE mods.
Certain mods with added meshes may cause the distant land generator to crash. Mods with known problems: the Neverhalls.
Reducing Morrowind options draw distance slider below maximum causes drawing errors.
Possible problems with Morrowind's actor shadows, turning them on may cause the game to be unstable, save often.


Notes

If you used a previous version, please remove the old HDR.fx shader from the XEshaders directory, it is no longer being updated.

Reflect far statics is disabled. It causes a very large amount of drawing to occur which is not visible for the 95% of the game when you are looking towards land. I tried to detect when they should be visible before, but it hardly ever worked well.

The MGE XE statics override list is included automatically in every distant land build, you don't need to do it manually.

Companion Health Bars has been fixed so you can still ask an NPC to turn off their health bar if they are no longer your companion or following you.
All other HUD mods are fixed to autodetect screen size, so screen config menus are no longer needed.

Source code available at https://github.com/Hrnchamd/MGE-XE/

The recommend shader order is listed at the bottom of the shader setup window. Use any shaders you want in the same order as the high quality list. For your FPS cap, try setting VWait to Immediate.


Still trying to figure out exactly why the land reflection does that. The distant land mesh doesn't match the Morrowind one exactly, so things like that can happen but it shouldn't clip so badly.


Which weather is that, and what are your distant land settings? It shouldn't happen.


The only useful crash data is the short part with Appname / Modname / Offset. The screenshot is missing all the important data MGE XE has to load and check the shader for when shaders are toggled in-game. The full report posted in the end doesn't seem to be a crash report, it's just a list of dlls and exes in the Morrowind directory. I am happy with just the crash module and offset.

Always wondered, why is the MGE XE topic called "Shelter from Magnus' Blaze"? Was always trying to find the topic a while back, to have it always staring me in the face

You're reading my mind lol.. was going to ask the same question

Anyhow nice work with the latest version Hrnchamd.

call whatever you want it, it is plain great

Hip, hip, horay to a new thread! MGE XE is brilliant!
Setting VWait to Immediate solved the fps cap issue, but i must beware screen tearing now as far as i understand .
Shaders recommendations aren't seen even if i http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/8605/shaderswindow.png the window enormously (monitor resolution is 1920x1080).

I think the name is just in reference to the addition of shadows to MGE, expressed in a lore driven way.

I think Magnus is another word for sun but I'm not sure. I tried googling it real quick but no dice. However I think it has something to do with either something historic or mythological. Also, I believe it was one of Abot's transportation mods that had an NPC mentioning Magnus.

Someone else care to shed a little more light?

Magnus is the sun. Shelter from it -> in the shadows -> One of the first notable features of this separate MGE branch was the addition of dynamic shadows to statics. Looks like that WIP title sticked.

Cunning, makes this tool even more better!

not only the distant land has those bad reflections, but also the land and even objects within MW draw distance.

It was an early morning fog in Balmora - Foggy

Distant Land Settings:

Auto set other distances - By above Water Fog End - ticked
Draw Distance (grayed out but shows as 20 cells)
Distant statics (don't think I changed these at all) Near 400, Far 600, Very Far 800
Fog - Above water Fog Start - 2 End 5
Use High Quality fog - ticked
Multiplier 4
High quality atmosphere - ticked

I am using Range vertex for Fog Mode

<sub>Oh, so this is where the MGE XE information is, I've seen the thread title several times before and just figured it was a quest mod

Wow, these features are impressive!</sub>

WOW! I'm really happy that myh first time playing Morrowind will be with this amazing mod! Thank you
What is a good thread to request the best mods to use for Morrowind guys? I'd like to enhance animations and characters and textures as well. thanks again!

Is there any place I can download the older versions of XE, my computer stopped supporting XE since .8.

I'd suggest Pluto's http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1305729-mod-recommendations-for-new-players/.
As you're talking about a graphical wash and brush up check out the http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1319942-relz-morrowind-overhaul-sounds-graphics-20/ as a one stop shop.

I've got 0.7.2 I could post a link...

There's an option to generate distant land for interiors (heavy). What exactly does that do, and the (heavy) refer to?

I'm guessing it's either longer to process with the MGE generating routine, or, more of a FPS hit in game. What advantage would there be for distant land in interiors? To stop the fogging of any large designed interiors?


I also had an idea, most likely not possible, but I'll throw it out there.
Have tiny square models that are distant land versions of light sources, and have them showing in distant land, but not using the lighting of distant land. That way, especially at night, you'll see small bright spots to indicate towns without the need for special lighting of the distant map.
Bit like an inbetween solution that hopefully won't be fps intense or difficult.

Not 100% sure, I think it enables land/static reflections in interiors. Current practical effect: solves lightning/reflection problems in some interiors when internal sun light is not right, slows loading times

I would be so thankful man.

Though I would really love it if someone had the release right before .9, that is when I starting getting the issue.

gaiusimperator,

try http://tes.ag.ru/cs/mge/files/MGE_XE_v0.8.23.7z. It's 0.8.23, I don't know how close it is to 0.9, though.

Also, what do you mean "stopped supporting XE"? I thought it only depended on your XE settings...

Well, Morrowind just crashes if I try to run MGE XE, I assume it is because it uses a more complex shader level than before, although, since my computer can run Crysis and Metro, I would think it should be able to run pretty much anything...

gaiusimperator,

if it does run Crysis, then it's most definitely not the shaders. Moreover, I'd suggest that you try to launch the newest MGE XE available. Try deleting your Distant Land folder and regenerating it again with default/recommended settings. Run both MGEXEGui.exe and Morrowind.exe by right-clicking and choosing "Run as administrator". Finally, try removing your graphics drivers and reinstalling to the latest version. I'm sure the problem is somewhere in your configuration, not in your hardware.

Yeah, that is what I was thinking, thank you, I will go and do that.

P.S.

Before I did all of this, I tried two older versions of MGE XE, and they fail to work, then switched to MGE proper and it worked. Then I reinstalled MGE XE's highest version, and I rebuilt distant land. Still no beans.

Then I reinstalled my graphics driver, and still no beans. I am at an utter loss considering I was able to run MGE XE before...

Think going to an older Driver would help?

No, not really. You may want to send the error report to Hrnchamd, including your hardware & OS specs. See 'Reporting problems' section in the first post.

There is one more thing that comes to mind, though: several people had problems running MGE XE until they changed their resolution http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1288370-shelter-from-magnus-blaze-7/page__view__findpost__p__19935806. It must be creating the registry key required by the XE. I really don't know if it's your case. Just check "Disable MGE in game" on the Options tab and see if it starts this way.

The option 'Height of waves' don't use the original MGE string (cbDLDynRipples), so the translation don't apply.