So, I have zero mods for Morrowind. No unofficial patches or anything. I'm running the Steam GOTY game with Tribunal and Bloodmoon, but nothing else. And I'm happy with that.

But, over in another thread, I was gawking at some excellent screenshots that showed a longer draw distance (I think that's the correct term?) - i.e., being able to see more than two cantons of Vivec at a time.

If I were to do anything at all to modify Morrowind, it might be to increase the draw distance slightly - just a touch. (well, ok, that and maybe take another look at Tamriel Rebuilt...) I've done a couple of playthroughs, but Morrowind is still a fairly new game for me, and I like the feeling of getting lost in the wilderness. Being able to see for miles would, I fear, 'shrink' the island too much.

A helpful community member, Spirithawke, directed me to MGE. I took a look at the relevant thread here, and came to the conclusion that MGE might be too much for me to handle. I'm envious of those who can get those beautiful screenshots, but hey, I've got 3 kids and a wife and a job and (supposedly) other interests, and I suspect I might not have the time or background knowledge it takes to teach myself how to make it all work without messing up some other aspect of the game, be it FPS or what have you.

So I wonder, is there any basic mod that delivers draw distance changes and nothing else - just a simple little .esp or something? If not, I am fine with continuing on with a perfectly vanilla Morrowind - it still holds up, IMO.

Thanks for any advice here!

I encourage you to try MGE-XE. It's really not that difficult to install; just a few well documented steps and you will have what you want. Also, don't be afraid of "distant land" generation. If you have no mods, it's just a matter of following the set-up wizard.

Without MGE, it's not possible to increase draw distance more than about 50% (not enough to be worth it) without causing crashes AFAIK.

Lots of forum members are available to help if you need it. The whole process shouldn't take more than 20 minutes or so.

If all you want is just a little more view distance, you can get FPSO.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=utilities.detail&id=22

With the mouse wheel you can increase/decrease view distance.

Although, MGE XE has shadows and better lighting.

MGE is surprisingly easy to get up and running, and there are plenty of helpful people here to smooth the learning curve. I've found that Morrowind looks best with a view distance less than what's possible. I like to hang it around 5 cells or so.

Well, I was scared off by the first page of the MGE thread. I will give it another look. I assume everything I need to know regarding installation and setup would be found in that thread, in the first post? (I'm just saying, if you know of any external tutorials or things that I would need to get going...)

I'll check that out as well, vtastek.

Thanks!

Yes, http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1467919-shelter-from-magnus-blaze-14-mge-xe/ thread has all you need to install. It's basically just installing, generating distant land and then running the game. Obviously there are lots of things to tweak, but if you aren't picky, then it's pretty easy. And if you are picky, there are plenty of people to help out.

Oh, and the FPS optimizer IS cool. But keep in mind that it's still restricted to one cell. So you won't be seeing half of vivec or anything.