For the past weeks since the release of MCP 1.8, I've been working on this. 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
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
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
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


It works by utilising the distant land objects to cast shadows, so it only works outside. It is real-time and Morrowind time passing is quite noticeable. There are a lot of limitations, you'll just have to try it yourself. There are several features from MGE that have been cut too; MWSE, dynamic water, water caustics, keep fps constant, texture hooks. I require some compatibility and performance testing.

If you want to test, you will have to regenerate distant land. As statics cast shadows, you will need a low minimum static size; I recommend 150. You can use 100 if you have a higher performace setup. Shaders need updating as well, the HDR and shader chain setup has been changed slightly. I will be providing some updated versions of common shaders. You will also need to update DirectX 9 to the June 2010 release, it fixes serious issues with the shader compiler. Unmodified shaders will not be loaded to avoid crashes or incorrect operation.


Install Instructions
http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=26348

0. You need http://sourceforge.net/projects/morrgraphext/files/Beta%20Releases/MGE%203.8%2B%20SVN%20builds/ or later installed already. Shader Model 3.0 card.
1. Install files, update to http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=3b170b25-abab-4bc3-ae91-50ceb6d8fa8d
2. Backup your shaders/default directory and copy the shaders from shaders/XEshaders to default.
3. Turn off MWSE and dynamic water.
4. Deselect MWSE mods.
5. Generate distant land with 150 minimum static size.
6. Edit your shader chain to use the new shaders. SSAO needs extra steps to work, open that shader and read the comments inside.
7. Bind "toggle distant statics" key in macro editor. This currently toggles shadows instead.
8. Set view distance in-game to maximum.

If you have a shader you really want to use, please post in the thread with a name and link to the original.
You may want to set transparency supersample anti-aliasing in your graphics drivers, if you want high quality grass/tree edges.


Things to test
All errors go to mgeXE.log in the Morrowind directory. Check there first if it crashes or white screens.
Always report OS, video card details, and driver version with errors.

Please report rendering errors with detailed information and a screenshot. No data, no fixes. There are still problems with rendering on various platforms, expect them.

Don't expect everything to cast a shadow, remember that it's only distant land objects.

Try in console: set timescale to 1000 (default is 30)
Switch to third person and frolic under trees.
Various weather settings, check for problems with alphas

Do some controlled performance comparisons. Find a location, make a save there. Load the same scene in regular MGE and this version, compare fps with the same settings. I hope there is an improvement, but I can't really tell without a large sample.

Test scenes with stencil shadows on and off; see if there any rendering errors.


Known issues
Most of Mournhold has mesh issues. The walls do not have faces on the far side to cast shadows, and the distant static generator does not want to generate the activators (statue, trees) even with an override list. The temple looks nice, though.

The Ghostfence has problems due to the overlapping alphas, it is difficult to fix.

Just to repeat: There are cut features, which are MWSE, dynamic water, water caustics, keep fps constant, and texture hooks.
These features are cut for a reason, it's a tech demo. Please don't ask about them.

Anything underwater. Still needs work.


Some changes from SVN 178

• All objects in Morrowind view distance receive shadows.
  
• Distant land and grass culling is not delayed by a frame any more.
  
• Grass lighting changed. All grass was effectively shaded by a single ambient light; it was pretty flat. There is some directional lighting now, as well as grass receiving shadows. Please evaluate the lighting situation.
  
• Shaders no longer affect the crosshair, nor spill over the screen during cell loading.
  
• HDR resolve is now asynchronous and should cause less fps loss. Also uses less video memory.
  
• Shader chain double buffers instead of copying. clip no longer works, shaders must use flow control.
  
• thisframe and lastframe are no longer available.
  
• tickcount is removed, there is a time variable instead with in-game seconds passed.
  
• There is no alpha-to-coverage. Personal opinion; alpha stipple is too noticeable.
  
• MW/MGE blending modifications. May be more efficient.
  
• Distant scene has full land coverage for better culling of distant objects.
  
• Screen is no longer slightly blurred by half a pixel when MW/MGE blending is disabled.
  
• The game should load and save in exteriors with less crashes. Needs testing.
  
• Windowed mode snaps to the screen edge to act like fullscreen.
  
• New underwater surface effects, total internal reflection.
  
• A lot of other things I've forgotten about.
  
• InGame.fx has been replaced by a set of effect files that should be more easily substitutable.

On the last point, water should be upgradeable with a new version of XE Water.fx and it should work similarly for other things. The variables that control shadow appearance are in XE Shadow Settings.fx.

Wonderful accomplishment Hrnchamd! Looking forward to testing this out. :twirl:


[edit] btw, which subversion of MGE did you base your build from?

This looks fantastic. Assuming all goes well, can we expect exp. fog and mwse to make a return, or is there something about these shadows that somehow breaks those features?

I would assume you just worked from an older version of the codebase except you mention MWSE is disabled, and as far as I can remember MGE has had MWSE implemented.

You can count on me to test this, anyway. I'm presuming we'll still need Morrowind's in-built shadow system for actors since MGE doesn't even touch those.

It's based on SVN 178. MWSE isn't included as gcc doesn't compile MWSE; there are serious bugs regarding inline assembler, and the assembler syntax and conventions are quite different.

Looks amazing from the screens, really makes me wish that I could run shaders and distant land on my laptop.

Amazing. I assume that after testing this will eventually be made to work with the latest beta revision of MGE?

Looking forward to trying this out myself.

*jaw drop* That is amazing! Do want! :drool:

Is there a link to the latest directX 9.0c whatever thingy? I haven't updated mine (at least, that I'm aware of) in ages...

You can always find a link to it on the OP of the MGE thread, Alaisiagae.

I will certainly take the time to check this out.

Hey, been looking forward to trying this out! The demo will be exciting

I feel like resting in the shade of a nice tree now!

I'm probably going to drive the Nexus people nuts with my next screenshots. That can't be Morrowind!!!

I think my jaw dislocated.

I'm curious if this means that you might be considering helping out with MGE development? Please say its so! Seriously though, that would be pretty awesome! even if it is just me daydreaming.

Thanks for that too!

Looking forward to giving it a shot.

Hah, that'd be like Batman and Superman teaming up.


For now I'll just be thrilled to try out the tech demo ^_^

The goods are ready. Follow the instructions in the main post.

okay first totally amazing your a god, i only have one question as phal recently altered both the ingame and the d3d8.dll for his sunshafts 3 shader and his new sky lighting mod, obviously it wont be compatible with this. i was just wondering if you would be able to make a compatible version because to combine the both would be like getting a first class ticket to heaven

I don't see the option to set active shaders from any other folders than the default one. Maybe I'm missing something. For now I've renamed the default folder and renamed the XEShaders folder to 'default'.

When I try to add the new SSAO shader to the chain it says that the shader does not currently compile. I can add all the others just fine.

Nevermind, have read the header. Sorry.

You have to mess around with the SSAO shader a little, as the MGEgui compiler is out of date. Read the comments in the shader file. I'll try to be clearer with the instructions.

Looks really cool How well would it work with billboarded trees (like Vality's), though, I wonder? I can't test right now because I'm STILL unable to use my main computer :brokencomputer:

I feel your pain, I'm unable to use mine as well and the pc I'm on doesn't have shader 2.0 support

are you working this the mge team at all, or are you just sort walking beside them saying wrong it goes like this lol it would be good if maybe you both collaborated on one project youd be like the god of vvardenfell and we would all bow at your feet

MGE is open source. Anyone in the community is welcome to work on MGE. Hrn is just demoing a feature that will hopefully get added to the main codebase as soon as it is ironed out.

Custom revisions of MGE come out all the time. There are currently two: Phal's and Hrn's.

time to do the ironing i guess i dont know if i even have an iron lol