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
To the South (recent)
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 (recent)
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 http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045560.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045547.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045530.jpg http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/images/26348-1-1293045516.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 Morrowind time passing is quite noticeable. There are some limitations, you'll just have to try it yourself. There are several features from MGE that have been cut too; MGE scripting, dynamic water, 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 your drivers and DirectX 9 to the June 2010 release, it fixes serious issues with the shader compiler from last year. Unmodified shaders will not be loaded to avoid crashes or incorrect operation.


Install Instructions (updated)
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/ installed and working already, and a 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. Deselect mods from your load order that interact with MGE. (Standard MWSE mods are okay, HUD mods are not.)
3. Run the new MGEXEgui. Generate distant land with 150 minimum static size.
4. Edit your shader chain to use the new shaders. The XE shaders are separate settings from regular MGE. SSAO no longer requires fiddling with.
5. Bind "toggle distant statics" key in macro editor. This currently toggles shadows instead.
6. Set view distance in-game to maximum.

Recommended shader order: SSAO, DoF, Sunshafts, Bloom, HDR.
Also recommended: set timescale to 10 or 15 (or 1000) in the console. The movement of the sun is very visible.

You may want to set transparency supersample anti-aliasing in your graphics drivers, if you want high quality grass/tree edges.
Don't expect everything to cast a shadow, remember that it's only distant land objects.


Things to test
All errors go to mgeXE.log in the Morrowind directory. Check there first if it crashes or white screens.
When reporting errors, always post mgeXE.log and OS, video card details, and driver version.
Please report rendering errors with detailed information and a screenshot.


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, there is currently no solution for this.

Some Better Bodies/Clothes meshes have duplicated polygons which lead to double shadowing.



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.
  
• Grass animation is somewhat different.
  
• Shaders no longer affect the crosshair, nor spill over the screen during cell loading, nor screw with cutscenes.
  
• 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.
  
• InGame.fx has been replaced by a set of effect files that should be more easily substitutable.
  
• Redesigned GUI for simpler setup and use.
  
• Shader chain is seperate from regular MGE as the shader interface is different.
  
• High quality selection of default shaders included.
  
• Shoreline turbulence animation.

I don't really see this, in what situations exactly? Did you read the part in the main post about reporting bugs? Does turning on/off Morrowind character shadows fix it at all?



Thanks. It's nice enough to play Screenshotwind with at the moment which is still a bit fun.



Those Mournhold wall meshes would be real sweet if you fixed them up.


Some new release coming soon to fix exp fog and grass a bit more.

I haven't quite figured out what triggers the rain disappearing - although looking straight up seems to trigger it often (but not always!). I've seen enough people post about it in the MGE thread to assume it was semi-common knowledge - I'll post again if I can work out an exact, repeatable method for eliciting the behavior.

A bit off-topic, but are you using any sort of texture replacers or are those all just purely MGE effects?

I haven't forgotten, believe me. You need the towers and the two walls at least.

Testing with MCP 1.9, MGEgui 3.8.2.178, window mode 1280x960, XP Home service pack 3, Radeon HD 4830
Some (hopefully of use) feedback
* New underwater surface effects, total internal reflection.
A little too... total maybe?
Vurt's tree foliage shadows are great, most noticeable missing thing maybe is boat shadows disapperaring when under water
a bug report, perhaps: I had repeated crashes after hitting the up arrow key to recall a previous command from the game console.

Great work so far :turtle: , I hope this will be integrated soon with dynamic ripples & underwater blur.

[EDIT]I think I have found the crash reason: I had the up arrow key set to a MGE move 3d camera macro, which is probably not handled well at the moment.

any news of this great improvements? :foodndrink:

Couldn't this be integrated into mainstream MGE? The performance improvements could be made for everyone and the shadows could be an option or tick-box. Anyway, I'd love to try this but it makes my computer explode, so I've given up on it for now.

just popped this on with a clean install of morrowind and i've gotta say it looks AMAZING. to be honest i haven't seen a vanilla in a long time, so this is as close to vanilla as i've been in a while. I am having a bit of a problem though. I can't seem to get shaders to work at all. I'm trying to run zHDR, KNX_DOF v12,KNX_SSAO v09, and truebloom g6_3 but they don't seem to be loading in the game, i've even tried macroing toggle HW shaders but it doesn't do a thing. any suggestions on a fix?

I totally agree! This should be integrated into the "normal" MGE when it's done! (of course after the breaking of the script extender (etc.) issues are solved).


Also: vtastek's cloud shadows should be integrated in MGE XE (and later on in "normal" MGE) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi3iZplFOTs)

Can't wait till shadws are a normal feature.... IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME!!!!!! :clap: :clap: :clap:

yeah i read that late at night and i wasn't too sure what i was reading since i was half asleep, however reading that over i get it now. guess i'll just have to wait for updated shaders then

Actually, you can update them yourself if you are so inclined, most of them just need to have certain aspects uncommented, basically just remove the // at the beginning of the lines of code, though I'm not positive on which lines need to have those slashes removed....so I'll leave it up to shader experts to discuss that further.

i think i might try doing that then, though i have no clue what i'm doing. but if it's as simple as you make it sounds might be able to do it.


edit; nope, shaders don't compile.
as such, i'd like to request these shaders be updated if you get the chance.

http://www.mediafire.com/?mwzh2zztjlm
knx_SSAO_V09
knx_DoF_v12
http://www.mediafire.com/?wjyjmy2imyb

Hrnchamd, can you make shadows compatible with new water and sky shaders?

Edit: Poof!

Let's say at least some distant day?

The last uploaded revision of MGE XE was still considered a "tech demo," and as such not all features can be expected. Presumably in the future either MGE XE could backport features to the main MGE source, or will mature into its own feature-complete edition, if work is continued. Currently, the only issue I have with the 0.7.2 release is that the grass animation stutters (which I reported with example videos a while back, so I'm sure it will be corrected in a future revision). If not for that I would replace my MGE with MGE XE any day -- the features of this supposed "demo" are too awesome.

This looks amazing! I've tried it only briefly, but the result is stunning, and the frame-rate drop is minimal (like from 50 to 45 in Sadrith Mora). Keep up the good work, when completed it will be a must-have for me

So has anyone come up with a fix for the problems MGE XE has with Better Bodies and Better Clothes?

MGE XE has no effect on BB or BC, the shadows cast by pc's are still morrowind's own, MGE XE only produces shadows for statics rendered by MGE.

Edit: Oh, I see its the shadows cast onto the characters, regardless, that is still a mesh issue with those particular mods, which are completely independent on this.

Could You, please, rewrite me those?

http://www.4shared.com/file/223982821/7f8a4458/vignettingbleachbypass_shaders.html

Right, I remember talk a while back on releasing a separate mod to fix the meshes that are problematic, such as BB and BC as well as Mournhold and a few other things.

Change

technique T0

to

technique T0 < string MGEinterface="MGE XE 0"; >

Isn't it easy?

How is the progress on this going? Any news?