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OpenMW, the open source Morrowind game engine continues advancing

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OpenMW [Official Site], the open source Morrowind game engine continues advancing with recent blog posts highlighting some changes sounding rather great.

Speaking on their official blog, the developers noted back in September that they've had some new developers come on board, with thanks in part to the multiplayer "" project (Morrowind Multiplayer), which is built from OpenMW.

Note: Videos shown below are from the developers, they are not our videos.

Some highlights of what's coming

It sounds like improvements are coming in nicely, with OpenMW-CS, their own editor which allows you to edit and create your own games now having the ability to reload assets without having to close and re-open it.

They're also doing an overhaul to the pickpocket system, although the old one will still be available. The new system will calculate success based on the weight, not the value of items. On top of that, you should also be able to put items into their pockets, so reverse pickpocketing.

In the next version, playing in an “over the shoulder” 3rd person perspective might be possible. They've shown it off a little:

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It might be small, but it's one of those little tweaks that can really help you get engrossed in the atmosphere of a game, I love it!

The same developer working on those little raindrops in the water, is also working on a bigger overhaul of the weather. Currently it just follows you around, as if you have a cloud above your head. So in future it should be more natural, I imagine based on locations (you know, weather patterns), not the player location.

It sounds like a more friendly installer/launcher for OpenMW is also in the works, going by the mock-ups it could turn out pretty great. They've already begun work on it too going by the blog post.

Shadows—yes, they're still working on getting them sorted and ready for an actual release. You can see how far they've come along in the below video:

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There's also a UI overhaul that's been merged, which allows for lovely new features like keyboard navigation in the UI. I'm sure plenty will be happy about that!

To read more about these changes, check out their various blog posts on the official website. Fantastic to hear about the progress being made, even though the game can already be completed, making Morrowind even better sounds awesome.

If you're interested in checking out all these new fun changes, you can grab a copy of OpenMW from their GitHub any time. You do need a proper copy of Morrowind to play, which you can easily grab from GOG. One of the few times I'm okay with buying a Windows game, because it's super old and there's a lovely open source game engine.

Thanks for the email tip mike!

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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TheSHEEEP Oct 17, 2017
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Quoting: Kimyrielle
Quoting: ColomboAnd First person view is much better.

Except when you have to throw up after 5 minutes of playing a first person game.
Excuses! ;)

Admit it, you just want that look-around-the-corner advantage.


Last edited by TheSHEEEP on 17 October 2017 at 7:05 am UTC
Sir_Diealot Oct 17, 2017
Morrowind is super old by your standards? It's only 15 years and all Bethesda games since are basically the same. It's a modern game. Maybe a bit dated graphics, but that's about it. This is no Adventure.

OpenMW is a cool project, it's pretty much better than the original already. They may have a different set of bugs.
razing32 Oct 17, 2017
I would love the game having more diverse dialog - I know there is a project for that but it does not seem complete
Also , audio would really help me enjoy the experience. I get bored of the sheer novels NPCs spit out when you ask them for the way to the Gnoll cave.
DMJC Oct 17, 2017
There's already people working on adding Fallout 3 and Oblivion/Skyrim support to the engine. One hacker managed to get the entire Capital city from Oblivion loaded into the OpenMW engine. There's a few videos on youtube showing physics/asset experiments. It will happen once OpenMW releases a completed Morrowind implementation.
Dolus Oct 19, 2017
Quoting: DMJCThere's already people working on adding Fallout 3 and Oblivion/Skyrim support to the engine. One hacker managed to get the entire Capital city from Oblivion loaded into the OpenMW engine. There's a few videos on youtube showing physics/asset experiments. It will happen once OpenMW releases a completed Morrowind implementation.

Loading assets is one thing, but the AI and physics in Oblivion is an order of magnitude greater than those of Morrowind.
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