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Bringing with it some pretty fancy new features, the Morrowind engine replacement OpenMW version 0.48.0 is out now. An exciting release for bringing some modern stuff to this RPG classic.

One of the biggest additions is support for post-processing shaders giving plenty of new eye-candy and various advanced visual effects like bloom, godrays, ambient occlusion, and many more. There's also a new menu on F2, letting you toggle effects easily.

There's also much better looking fog, a visual overhaul of rain ripples, soft particles were implemented, a bunch of improved animations for blocking and spellcasting, big improvements to the sound-system so sounds fade instead of cutting out when moving away, various UI improvements, a data directory section in the launcher for easier modding, font settings in the launcher and lots of other tweaks.


Pictured - OpenMW on Fedora KDE 38

Another major addition is the introduction of their own Lua scripting API named OpenMW-Lua. This was built with eventually supporting multiplayer and reaching parity with MWSE (Morrowind Script Extender) but will not work with normal MWSE-Lua mods because OpenMW is quite different behind the scenes. Future releases of it will continue to expand what it can do, so eventually OpenMW really will be the place for everything Morrowind.

See the full release blog post for more.

Want to set it up on Steam Deck? It's pretty easy as I covered in a previous guide.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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14 comments
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neffo Jul 24, 2023
Are all those steps still required for OpenMW on Steamdeck?
Liam Dawe Jul 24, 2023
Quoting: neffoAre all those steps still required for OpenMW on Steamdeck?
Luxtorpeda from the linked guide is still the easiest way to do it.
Jarmer Jul 24, 2023
Man, don't tempt me! I shouldn't spend another umpteen hours modding the game and then never playing it, should I?!?!?!?!?
neffo Jul 24, 2023
Quoting: Liam Dawe
Quoting: neffoAre all those steps still required for OpenMW on Steamdeck?
Luxtorpeda from the linked guide is still the easiest way to do it.

I have the GoG.com version, but I installed OpenMW in Flatpak and added that to Steam. Had some trouble with pink screens but it looks sorted now.


Last edited by neffo on 24 July 2023 at 1:55 pm UTC
Avikarr Jul 24, 2023
Quoting: JarmerMan, don't tempt me! I shouldn't spend another umpteen hours modding the game and then never playing it, should I?!?!?!?!?
Haha, that's exact same thing for me xD EVERY TIME!


Last edited by Avikarr on 24 July 2023 at 3:08 pm UTC
Lofty Jul 24, 2023
Quoting: JarmerMan, don't tempt me! I shouldn't spend another umpteen hours modding the game and then never playing it, should I?!?!?!?!?

No, this time you should play it ;)
Spirimint Jul 24, 2023
Quoting: JarmerMan, don't tempt me! I shouldn't spend another umpteen hours modding the game and then never playing it, should I?!?!?!?!?

Maybe try this:

https://next.nexusmods.com/morrowind/collections
Grogan Jul 24, 2023
I just did a new build (still versioned 0.49 but lots of new commits since my last) and it's looks good for an old game, and works well.

Now if only I new WTF I was supposed to be doing in the game right now (that's the thing with old school, hard core RPGs lol)

Yeah, I guess this game predated shaders originally... fixed pipeline stuff. That would have been DirectX 8 back then.
Klaas Jul 24, 2023
Quoting: Groganand works well.
That's a matter of definition. The main issue is that the game assets are highly unoptimized so without mods the game runs worse than Skyrim.

To improve the situation there are some mods that fix the worst offenders https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45399 and https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45384
Grogan Jul 24, 2023
Quoting: KlaasThe main issue is that the game assets are highly unoptimized so without mods the game runs worse than Skyrim.

I've only had "0.49" from git (late to the party here) which probably isn't much different than 0.48 at this time, but I can't say I notice any performance problems. My hardware doesn't break a sweat for this. (amdgpu/RX 570/mesa 23.2'ish) and it doesn't feel like I'm running into any cpu/gpu underutilizing behaviour.


Last edited by Grogan on 24 July 2023 at 10:29 pm UTC
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