OpenMW, the free and open source game engine reimplementation of Morrowind is about to get a lot better looking, with post-processing shaders coming in the next release.
This is a huge advancement for OpenMW, and will continue making it the absolute best way to play Morrowind on modern systems. Unlike modern games, Morrowind doesn't have lots of fancy graphical effects with shaders and OpenMW is fixing that for the upcoming 0.48.0 release.
Not in their recent blog post, they mentioned "Cody Glassman aka wazabear finally added post-processing shaders to OpenMW. This is probably the biggest graphical enhancement for OpenMW since the implementation of real-time shadows. Modded OpenMW setups will now be able to take a huge step forward in time when it comes to graphic effects." and that sounds very exciting.
Some shots were also shared, here's a few (click them to enlarge):
Want to install OpenMW easily using your Steam version of Morrowind on a Linux desktop / laptop or Steam Deck? Be sure to check out the Luxtorpeda tool and my guide.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
About the author - Liam Dawe
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked 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. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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Luke_Nukem 26 May 2022
And best of all? It runs at higher than 20fps!
5 Likes
Raaben 26 May 2022
Oh wow, that looks great without overdoing it or ruining the original vibe. Morrowind was literally my childhood, or at least young teenage life, and to see it still getting love to this day makes me happy.
3 Likes
tgurr 26 May 2022
Now if only someone could fix OpenSceneGraph (which is used by OpenMW) to work with the latest ffmpeg >= 5: https://github.com/openscenegraph/OpenSceneGraph/issues/1111 and OpenMW itself https://gitlab.com/OpenMW/openmw/-/issues/6631. Others like [CorsixTH](https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH/commit/95be4c96810818d05b668c373711cd8f38d4e8b4) and [FreeSpace 2 Open](https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/commit/5562a4f68449541d3783eda8c4d4465aa2602c44) have already done their homework in this regard.
Last edited by tgurr on 26 May 2022 at 11:47 am UTC
Last edited by tgurr on 26 May 2022 at 11:47 am UTC
1 Likes
akselmo 26 May 2022
Stunning! I lost my saves recently due to switching from Kubuntu to Fedora, so I suppose it's time to start it all over again.. With shinies! :)
0 Likes
ridge 26 May 2022
Goodness that looks gorgeous. It's almost giving me a Myst feeling ☺️
Morrowind is my favourite TES game, but admittedly I also think it aged like milk. OpenMW helps me cope with that more and more with every update.
Morrowind is my favourite TES game, but admittedly I also think it aged like milk. OpenMW helps me cope with that more and more with every update.
0 Likes
Nightmare Twilight 26 May 2022
This is cool, what's next? Ray-tracing...? Oh sorry, I mean path-tracing
0 Likes
anewson 26 May 2022
openMW is awesome for us linux folk. unfortunately there are a lot of great mods that aren't compatible with openmw, but if you're looking for a near-vanilla experience then openmw can't be beat.
0 Likes
slaapliedje 26 May 2022
Stunning! I lost my saves recently due to switching from Kubuntu to Fedora, so I suppose it's time to start it all over again.. With shinies! :)This is why I always have a separate /home partition... also make backups!
0 Likes
ElectricPrism 27 May 2022
This gives me Black Mesa Xen vibes.
Also Half Life Alyx
BM:X 
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 27 May 2022 at 12:49 am UTC
This gives me Black Mesa Xen vibes.
Also Half Life Alyx
BM:X 
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 27 May 2022 at 12:49 am UTC
1 Likes
foobrew 27 May 2022
I spent the last few weeks trying so, so hard to play OpenMW but I finally had to throw in the towel. I just can't play for more than about 10 min without getting extreme motion sickness. I consistently have frame rates around 100 and also tried many FOV settings from very low to very high all to no avail. I don't know exactly what changed or when with more modern FPS games but I do remember mostly hating FPS games from the old days due to how badly they'd all trigger my motion sickness. It's something which I rarely experience on modern FPS's and have, apparently, taken for granted.
The only thing which actually helped was switching to 3rd person. Unfortunately, MW just can can't be played in an enjoyable manner that way. It just wasn't designed for it and so things like fighting or trying to select items is very difficult and not fun. Travelling around in 3rd person is mostly fine but still gets to me after a while. A real bummer since the game is deep and runs so flawlessly and fast on Linux.
Last edited by foobrew on 27 May 2022 at 1:08 am UTC
The only thing which actually helped was switching to 3rd person. Unfortunately, MW just can can't be played in an enjoyable manner that way. It just wasn't designed for it and so things like fighting or trying to select items is very difficult and not fun. Travelling around in 3rd person is mostly fine but still gets to me after a while. A real bummer since the game is deep and runs so flawlessly and fast on Linux.
Last edited by foobrew on 27 May 2022 at 1:08 am UTC
0 Likes
slaapliedje 27 May 2022
I spent the last few weeks trying so, so hard to play OpenMW but I finally had to throw in the towel. I just can't play for more than about 10 min without getting extreme motion sickness. I consistently have frame rates around 100 and also tried many FOV settings from very low to very high all to no avail. I don't know exactly what changed or when with more modern FPS games but I do remember mostly hating FPS games from the old days due to how badly they'd all trigger my motion sickness. It's something which I rarely experience on modern FPS's and have, apparently, taken for granted.
The only thing which actually helped was switching to 3rd person. Unfortunately, MW just can can't be played in an enjoyable manner that way. It just wasn't designed for it and so things like fighting or trying to select items is very difficult and not fun. Travelling around in 3rd person is mostly fine but still gets to me after a while. A real bummer since the game is deep and runs so flawlessly and fast on Linux.
I have a friend who is the same way. Usually turning off any sort of head bob would help. For the most part he could sometimes handle slower paced games like Raven Shield. But most would make him want to yack. One thing he said also helped was taking dramamine, which is a pill for motion sickness.
I still wonder how he would handle VR.
0 Likes
TheRiddick 27 May 2022
Maybe a bit of dynamic tessellation could uplift the graphics allot? (on some objects)
0 Likes
akselmo 27 May 2022
Stunning! I lost my saves recently due to switching from Kubuntu to Fedora, so I suppose it's time to start it all over again.. With shinies! :)This is why I always have a separate /home partition... also make backups!
I did take backups.. Everything except the Morrowind saves! :'D
1 Likes
slaapliedje 27 May 2022
I'm in the same boat with a few games. Like I was really far in Neverwinter nights, and lost the saves. I beat the original Morrowind back in the day... but never the expansions, and didn't want to start over again...Stunning! I lost my saves recently due to switching from Kubuntu to Fedora, so I suppose it's time to start it all over again.. With shinies! :)This is why I always have a separate /home partition... also make backups!
I did take backups.. Everything except the Morrowind saves! :'D
1 Likes
Now if only someone could fix OpenSceneGraph (which is used by OpenMW) to work with the latest ffmpeg >= 5: https://github.com/openscenegraph/OpenSceneGraph/issues/1111 and OpenMW itself https://gitlab.com/OpenMW/openmw/-/issues/6631. Others like [CorsixTH](https://github.com/CorsixTH/CorsixTH/commit/95be4c96810818d05b668c373711cd8f38d4e8b4) and [FreeSpace 2 Open](https://github.com/scp-fs2open/fs2open.github.com/commit/5562a4f68449541d3783eda8c4d4465aa2602c44) have already done their homework in this regard.It is done: 
1 Likes
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