[HN Gopher] OpenMW: Open-source TES3: Morrowind reimplementation
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       OpenMW: Open-source TES3: Morrowind reimplementation
        
       Author : agluszak
       Score  : 279 points
       Date   : 2023-06-09 14:03 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (gitlab.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (gitlab.com)
        
       | smittywerben wrote:
       | OpenMW is one of my favorite open source projects. The upcoming
       | 0.48 apparently fixes the Lady birthsign bug. Someone must have
       | bit the bullet and reworked the magic effect system. Thanks guys!
        
       | nfriedly wrote:
       | There's also an Android port:
       | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=is.xyz.omw with
       | more info at https://omw.xyz.is/
       | 
       | It has onscreen and physical controller support + an emulated
       | mouse mode that can be helpful for navigating menus and such. It
       | works well on the Retroid Pocket 3+
        
         | ceearrbee wrote:
         | Sadly, that version is fairly outdated and has issues with
         | newer Samsung devices. There has been a couple forks[1] of it
         | that still work with newer devices and are based on newer
         | releases.
         | 
         | [1] https://github.com/Sisah2/openmw-
         | android/actions/runs/493540...
        
       | bamfly wrote:
       | I played the main quest, a high fraction of the sidequests &
       | major faction quest trees, one of the expansions, and most of the
       | other one, in OpenMW something like 18-24 months ago. With a few
       | mods, and draw distance cranked up fairly high, and at 4K
       | resolution.
       | 
       | Worked perfectly. Zero glitches the whole time, and the official
       | engine would have crashed at least a dozen times in such a
       | playthrough, while this one didn't even crash once.
       | 
       | [EDIT] I mean, zero _unexpected_ glitches. Obviously the entire
       | game is made of glitches.
        
         | mawadev wrote:
         | "All of this just works" - Todd Howard
        
         | bjablonski wrote:
         | Would you care to share mods that worked as expected with
         | OpenMW? I've just started my journey today, so any input will
         | be appriecieted.
        
           | polytely wrote:
           | There is a cool site with mod lists that are confirmed to be
           | compatible with OpenMW. I'm currently running 'I heart
           | vanilla' which is basically the vanilla game with extra
           | content and some balance and bug fixes. Highly recommend
           | checking it out.
           | 
           | https://modding-openmw.com/
        
           | bamfly wrote:
           | I can't remember which ones I used. Texture mods IIRC worked
           | fine, pretty sure I had hi-res replacement mods for most of
           | the textures in the game. I did some loading art replacer
           | thing so they'd be widescreen and hi-res, but that wasn't so
           | much a mod as replacing some images. I think I may have used
           | some of the "Comes Alive" stuff--I know I used to "back in
           | the day", so I assume I did this time, and I'd probably
           | remember if it hadn't worked. One obscure library mod that I
           | like, that adds an empty library just outside Vivec that you
           | can fill by giving them books to copy, that worked fine. Twin
           | Lamps, fairly certain I used that one.
           | 
           | As I recall, the main things that don't work are graphics
           | overhauls that require patching or wrapping the original
           | executable in some fashion. Usually these do some kind of
           | shader magic to e.g. make the water look nicer.
           | 
           | [EDIT] Oh, and I think I had Herbalism installed. If not
           | that, something similar. A mod that turns plants from
           | containers into pick-ups is one of those don't-play-without-
           | it things, for me.
        
           | Acrobatic_Road wrote:
           | Unless it says "MWSE" it should work with OpenMW. 99.9%
           | guaranteed.
        
           | dfu wrote:
           | As polytely said, https://modding-openmw.com/ is a great
           | resource for openmw mod lists.
           | 
           | Also, for certain mods, you do need at least OpenMW 0.48
           | release candidate [1], a development build [2] (it's below
           | Release Versions), or just build from source. I'm pretty sure
           | it was after 0.47 when they added the ability to add shaders,
           | and configure them using the F2 menu. The modding-openmw site
           | will tell you if you actually need a 0.48 build for a
           | particular mod.
           | 
           | I usually use "I Heart Vanilla" [3] as a base and then pick
           | extra mods from "Expanded Vanilla" [4], which includes the
           | load order if you also want Tamriel Rebuilt [5] (which lets
           | you explore the mainland). The Expansions Integrated,
           | Tribunal Rebalance, Bloodmoon Rebalance, and Expansion Delay
           | are all nice mods too. Makes the expansions really feel like
           | they are part of the base game. When adding extra mods like
           | that, I just use the load ordering they suggest.
           | 
           | One of my favorites (in "Expanded Vanilla") is called Natural
           | Character Growth and Decay [6], so you don't have to worry
           | about min-maxing the level mechanics. It has some options,
           | and I turn off the decay bit for a more relaxing time. It
           | allows you to just play the game as you want.
           | 
           | I love the addition of shaders, and use Zesterer's Volumetric
           | Cloud & Mist Mod for OpenMW [7] as you can have the game keep
           | some of that hazy feeling yet still have distant land and
           | objects. I also use Bloom Linear shader [8]. If you want some
           | other shaders, you can use OMWFX Shaders [9] and/or
           | Zesterer's OpenMW Shader Pack [10]. I have used Zesterer's
           | OpenMW Shader Pack, but you have to edit the config.glsl if
           | you want to set it different from the vanilla preset. The
           | game looks nice with just FXAA, clouds and mist, and linear
           | bloom (very mild). The "Expanded Vanilla" guide under shaders
           | gives a good preset, and then you can change them using the
           | F2 menu in-game.
           | 
           | This all said, it's been awhile since I've properly played
           | last. I take my old list and update it occasionally as mods
           | change or new features are added to OpenMW, thinking I will
           | play through it again one of these days.
           | 
           | [1] https://openmw.org/2022/openmw-0-48-0-is-now-in-rc-phase/
           | 
           | [2] https://openmw.org/downloads/
           | 
           | [3] https://modding-openmw.com/lists/i-heart-vanilla/
           | 
           | [4] https://modding-openmw.com/lists/expanded-vanilla/
           | 
           | [5] https://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org/
           | 
           | [6] https://modding-openmw.com/mods/ncgdmw-lua-edition/
           | 
           | [7] https://github.com/zesterer/openmw-volumetric-clouds
           | 
           | [8] https://modding-openmw.com/mods/bloom-linear/
           | 
           | [9] https://modding-openmw.com/mods/omwfx-shaders/
           | 
           | [10] https://github.com/zesterer/openmw-shaders
        
             | sbierwagen wrote:
             | >https://modding-openmw.com/lists/expanded-vanilla/
             | 
             | If I'm reading this correctly, this is a list of 268 mods,
             | each of which must be downloaded and installed separately.
             | Is that right?
        
         | hombre_fatal wrote:
         | I noticed that view distance can also remove some of the
         | mystique from a game.
         | 
         | When it's cranked too high, the world feels much smaller even
         | though it takes just as long to walk anywhere. Probably because
         | my mental understanding of the world is so fuzzy that it allows
         | my brain to overestimate how far apart the more concrete nodes
         | are like cities. Walking the path from Balmora to some quest
         | location and being distracted half the time with cliff racers
         | and dungeons doesn't really establish how far I walked in my
         | head. It could have been kilometers.
         | 
         | But looking at the whole 3D model of the world removes all of
         | that fuzzy uncertainty that made the world feel big. The best
         | example of this is looking at all of Vivec in your viewport.
         | Without the fog and short view distance, Vivec looks so small
         | despite the amount of times I got lost in it as a kid.
         | 
         | There seems to be a healthy balance of fog + view distance.
        
           | huevosabio wrote:
           | I agree. Also, I really liked the hazy vibe that Morrowind
           | has from an immersion point of view. It's a volcanic island,
           | it makes sense for there to be tons of smoke that clouds your
           | view! It really goes well with the bizarre out-worldly
           | vegetation and fauna.
           | 
           | When I played Oblivion and Skyrim, both great games, I felt I
           | was back in a medieval setting rather than some fantasy land.
           | (Skyrim is a bit better, Oblivion's look and feel is too
           | Europe in the Middle Ages).
        
             | hombre_fatal wrote:
             | Yeah, that's why I could never get into Skyrim even when
             | playing it after I beat Morrowind a few years ago on
             | OpenMW. It's cliche criticism, but it felt like a generic
             | medieval setting. The generic dragon opener of an otherwise
             | interesting hook also crystalizes the feeling.
             | 
             | It just can't compete with Morrowind's giant mushrooms and
             | random people calling me a filthy N'wah.
             | 
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utG17UeUv00 (19 seconds)
        
               | bamfly wrote:
               | I remember reading somewhere that there was a single
               | writer behind most of the distinctive, weird setting of
               | Morrowind (and I think the first two Elder Scrolls, too?)
               | and he didn't work on IV and V. The person or people who
               | replaced him didn't have that kind of creativity, or
               | weren't allowed to express it, so we got Generic Fantasy
               | instead of all the delightful weirdness we should have
               | (some of the early lore about other parts of Tamriel is
               | _nuts_ , I wish we'd gotten to see more of it).
        
               | kqr wrote:
               | You have probably received the response you were looking
               | for, but Kirkbride is another of those contributors to
               | Morrowind lore that helped make it special. Sermons of
               | Vivec, Dragon break, etc.
        
               | ovao wrote:
               | You may be thinking of Douglas Goodall, who designed and
               | wrote the majority of Morrowind's questlines. He left
               | Bethesda shortly after Morrowind's release.
               | 
               | I don't know if the general strangeness of Vvardenfell
               | could necessarily be attributed to Goodall, but various
               | central themes and dialog certainly could be.
        
               | JPws_Prntr_Fngr wrote:
               | Michael Kirkbride is mostly responsible for Morrowind's
               | unique flavor:
               | https://www.polygon.com/2019/3/27/18281082/elder-scrolls-
               | mor...
               | 
               | I read somewhere that he would come up with his weirdest
               | lore during all-nighters, delirious from sleep
               | deprivation & some kind of intoxicant which I forget.
        
           | bamfly wrote:
           | Yeah, high enough to see most of Fort Ebon from Vivec and
           | vice-versa is roughly the sweet spot, IMO.
           | 
           | (Or is it Ebonheart? That sounds right.)
        
           | JamesLeonis wrote:
           | > But looking at the whole 3D model of the world removes all
           | of that fuzzy uncertainty that made the world feel big.
           | 
           | The map also plays a trick on you. Many of the paths are
           | deliberately winding through valleys and such to make the
           | travel seem longer. Personally I felt this the most in the
           | northern Ashlands. Combined with the Fog, limited Fast
           | Travel, and a bunch of distracting Dwemer ruins the whole
           | island felt huge.
           | 
           | ...I might have to reinstall
        
             | bamfly wrote:
             | The fast travel's not actually _that_ limited, you just
             | have to work for some of it. Like if you don 't learn the
             | mark, recall, and the two intervention spells pretty early
             | on, yeah, it's painful. Otherwise, it's barely less fast-
             | travelly than the next two entries in the series. The game
             | provides the tools to solve the problem, it just doesn't
             | give them to you for free, and it doesn't push them at you
             | with flashing lights around them like "DEFINITELY GET THESE
             | ASAP".
             | 
             | ... which means that younger-me totally did two entire
             | playthroughs without ever learning _any_ of those spells,
             | of course. Ouch.
        
           | fho wrote:
           | I guess the next generation of open world games will have a
           | much larger scale ... you will be able to stand on a hill and
           | watch miles of procedurally generated landscape populated by
           | ChatGPT powered farmers and bandits.
           | 
           | While that sounds great ... I bet AAA titles will find ways
           | to make that repetitive as hell in the name of providing
           | predictable fun.
        
           | kqr wrote:
           | This is definitely true. A good compromise I've found is the
           | mod that adds volumetric fog to OpenMW. Looks absolutely
           | stunning and retains the mystique of distance in a more
           | immersive way.
        
             | bamfly wrote:
             | Oh man, does it have a way to set the fog to different
             | density in different areas? Vanilla's max draw distance
             | seems way too low in the relatively-nice parts of the
             | island, especially the South, West, and coastal East, but
             | if you set OpenMW's draw high enough to feel right in those
             | areas, it's way too high in the ashlands and around the
             | volcano and all that.
        
               | kqr wrote:
               | Not directly, but it is dynamic based on weather and
               | atmosphere in each region.
        
           | sneed_chucker wrote:
           | I think everyone's first playthrough should be the vanilla
           | game if possible.
        
             | bamfly wrote:
             | There are hi-res texture packs & mesh improvements that are
             | pure wins, even for a first time player, IMO. They don't
             | change the art much, they just make it look way better on a
             | modern screen. And I'd recommend a mod to make plant
             | harvesting more like the later games (there are a few, I
             | think the one I usually use is Herbalism--the vanilla
             | behavior of treating them like containers and not marking
             | which have been harvested simply sucks). Plus the usual
             | unnofficial-patch mod that's basically required for _any_
             | Bethesda game.
             | 
             | That'd be the extent of the mods I'd recommend to a first
             | timer.
        
       | 1MachineElf wrote:
       | I did not know 0.49 had been released. I wonder what the
       | highlights are.
        
         | l-p wrote:
         | 0.48 is not even released yet (still a RC) you'll have to wait
         | a bit more for 0.49.
         | 
         | There's nothing preventing you from building it yourself
         | though, the master branch is stable and you can complete the
         | game without a single crash or game-breaking bug.
        
         | boobsbr wrote:
         | I don't think it has been released.
         | 
         | 0.48 is in RC phase.
        
       | beebeepka wrote:
       | "I fear not the man who has released 10000 games once, but I fear
       | the man who has released 1 game 10000 times." - Todd Howard.
        
       | cactusplant7374 wrote:
       | Not seeing a binary for mac. Is there one?
        
       | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
       | I'd like to mod Cliff Racers into every Bethesda game.
        
       | CoBE10 wrote:
       | There is also a fork that has very basic initial support for
       | Skyrim. Here are videos:
       | https://www.youtube.com/@PetrMikheev/videos
       | https://www.youtube.com/@cc9cii/videos
        
       | throw_m239339 wrote:
       | Interesting. So it's basically the game engine without the
       | assets.
        
       | causi wrote:
       | OpenMW is a great way to play Morrowind on Android.
        
         | monetus wrote:
         | I found an unmaintained version on gitlab and github, is there
         | a current version that you use?
        
           | ceearrbee wrote:
           | I believe that Sisah2's fork on GitHub is the newest version
           | that's stable/widely used and on version 0.48[1].
           | 
           | I haven't played through OpenMW in awhile, but I was able to
           | do it on a Blackberry KeyONE from 2017 and it ran smooth and
           | was quite fun!
           | 
           | [1] https://github.com/Sisah2/openmw-
           | android/actions/runs/493540...
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | causi wrote:
           | The old version is, essentially, complete. There's nothing
           | wrong or missing with it as far as I can tell.
        
       | wheybags wrote:
       | There's a fantastic fork of this project which adds multiplayer
       | also: https://tes3mp.com/
       | 
       | It's a bit awkward to set up, but I played coop with a friend and
       | it worked great.
        
       | sBqQu3U0wH wrote:
       | >Open source.
       | 
       | >You need to own the game to play.
       | 
       | So, what's the point?
        
         | jraph wrote:
         | The code can be updated, adapted and audited. Or someone could
         | provide alternative artwork and data.
        
         | bamfly wrote:
         | 1 - Having an open engine allows for enhancements.
         | 
         | 2 - Having an open engine means opportunities to fix defects
         | (OpenMW crashes _far_ less than the original, even in its final
         | version)
         | 
         | 3 - You can recompile it for other architectures and operating
         | systems, that weren't supported by the original.
         | 
         | 4 - Someone _could_ write a whole new game for the engine, and
         | release the entire thing for free.
        
           | xen2xen1 wrote:
           | 5. Probably also easier to add large new sections or
           | expansions if other games are any judge.
        
         | netruk44 wrote:
         | As a hobby project, I'm adding AI text generation to the OpenMW
         | NPC's. I'm trying to figure out how this would work for a
         | 'real' project without having to develop an entire game first.
         | 
         | I would definitely not be able to do that if OpenMW did not
         | exist.
        
         | shakow wrote:
         | - Playing in 4K
         | 
         | - Playing on Linux
         | 
         | - Playing on a better implementation of the engine
         | 
         | - Changing what you don't like in the game
        
         | haunter wrote:
         | >OpenMW is a game engine recreation and only replaces the
         | program. OpenMW does not come with any "content" or "asset" -
         | namely the art, game data, and other copyrighted material that
         | you need to play the game as designed by Bethesda Softworks.
         | You have to provide this content yourself by installing
         | Morrowind and then configuring OpenMW to use the existing
         | installation.
         | 
         | https://openmw.org/faq/#whatis
         | 
         | The point is that it makes the game available on more
         | platforms, more graphic features, stability etc.
         | 
         | https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title=Features
        
         | jakkos wrote:
         | What's the point of Linux when your wifi card driver is
         | proprietary ;)
        
       | ricardobayes wrote:
       | Hmm, this got my hopes up. Turns out this is just a random
       | mention, and not a new release. Last release seems to be from
       | 2021.
        
         | agluszak wrote:
         | OpenMW is in active development, but for some reason there are
         | no longer release announcements on the webpage/GH. The newest
         | version is 0.49 (the one you mentioned from 2021 was 0.47).
        
       | markbnj wrote:
       | I did a recent full playthrough of Morrowind and all the
       | expansions on OpenMW, using one of the available curated mod
       | lists as a starting point. It was rock solid throughout, looked
       | much better than the original, and was at least as much fun as I
       | remembered it was. Highly recommended for TES fans.
        
       | Acrobatic_Road wrote:
       | It re-implements a little more than MW :)
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8jkNO-M9cg
        
         | veave wrote:
         | That's cool, but let's be honest here, Skyrim SE runs perfectly
         | fine on recent computers. It's Morrowind that doesn't, which is
         | why OpenMW is necessary.
        
           | faangsticle wrote:
           | Open open source engine would be absolutely huge for
           | stability & moddability. Stock Skyrim SE mostly runs fine,
           | but is still prone to crashing, corrupting save files, etc.
           | 
           | Many of those can be addressed by mods such as the Unofficial
           | Skyrim Special Edition Patch and various mods aimed at
           | overhauling the save system but an open source engine would
           | be really great.
        
           | Acrobatic_Road wrote:
           | Disagree. Skyrim has all kinds of problems that an openSK
           | could address.
           | 
           | - 60fps cap
           | 
           | - no native support on mac/linux
           | 
           | - engine bugs/limitations
        
       | dabluecaboose wrote:
       | OpenMW is nothing short of amazing.
       | 
       | I only wish there was a similar undertaking for Oblivion. The PC
       | version is playable, but the game came out in the weird, awkward
       | dark ages for PC configurability and accessibility, so there are
       | some stumbling blocks.
       | 
       | For example, despite first playing and loving Oblivion on my Xbox
       | 360, the PC version still does not have controller support, and
       | any attempts to hack it in require mapping the mouse to a
       | joystick (Which is not a great approximation).
        
         | troad wrote:
         | I'm so looking forward to F:NV support, which I understand is
         | some ways off yet.
         | 
         | It's a pain to play and mod on Linux at the moment, and I'd
         | find some kind of OpenFNV extremely welcome.
        
         | shakow wrote:
         | OpenMW seems to be on the early road for that, too.
         | 
         | For now, it can load assets & worlds from Oblivion, FO3/NV &
         | Skyrim. ``Only'' thing missing is... well, all the game
         | mechanics.
        
           | dabluecaboose wrote:
           | hah, as soon as I posted this comment I googled it and saw
           | that Oblivion support was nascent. Here's hoping it gets to a
           | good enough state! Oblivion co-op would fulfill the dreams of
           | 15-year-old me
        
         | khalilravanna wrote:
         | This is somewhat antithetical to your desire of playing it on
         | PC but Oblivion got updated to run backwards compatible on Xbox
         | Series X at 4k 60fps. Unreal you can pay $10 for a used copy
         | and play this classic and it runs like a dream.
         | 
         | In general I love Microsoft's investment in backwards
         | compatibility and wish we had more 1st party support from all
         | the companies so these games could be more easily enjoyed for
         | the rest of time.
         | 
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backward-compatible_...
        
           | robertlagrant wrote:
           | Agreed - Microsoft's Xbox backwards compatibility is awesome.
           | I bought Xbox 360 LEGO Batman ages ago and play it with my
           | son now 2 player on Xbox One.
        
           | dunham wrote:
           | Microsoft is not my favorite company, but one thing that has
           | stood out to me is that they really value backwards
           | compatibility in general.
           | 
           | I see Microsoft bending over backwards to support old third
           | party apps that rely on API bugs or ancient versions of
           | windows. On the Apple side, I see 32-bit apps being cut off,
           | Pages not supporting old versions of Pages files, etc. To me
           | this reads as not caring much about backwards compatibility.
        
             | actionfromafar wrote:
             | Microsoft is very committed to support apps compatible with
             | Windows versions from 1995 to about ... 2007 or so.
        
               | dunham wrote:
               | I see. Coincidentally, my experience with windows mostly
               | falls into that range of dates. (Actually goes back to
               | the 80's, and ends around 2003.)
        
               | actionfromafar wrote:
               | I'm not entirely sure where the cutoff date is. But my
               | general point is that Microsoft started churning lots of
               | dev stacks which aren't easy to install or deploy on
               | their newest Windows versions, all the while a random
               | Win32 program from 1999 works just fine.
        
         | Acrobatic_Road wrote:
         | OpenMW already has basic support for Oblivion. They are having
         | trouble with getting the trees to load (something about
         | SpeedTree). Skyrim trees work though.
        
         | Timon3 wrote:
         | There is a project attempting to re-implement Oblivion in the
         | Skyrim engine. Could that be a good alternative? Controller
         | inputs etc. should at least work natively. It's not done yet,
         | but they are targeting 2025 as a deadline for full release.
         | 
         | https://skyblivion.com/
        
           | dabluecaboose wrote:
           | Oh, I'm 100% looking forward to SkyBlivion. They've been
           | making great progress. But it's more of a remake than a
           | remaster, if you catch my drift. The underlying mechanics are
           | going to be more Skyrim.
        
         | branon wrote:
         | NorthernUI (a mod for Oblivion) allegedly can add full gamepad
         | support, they have a lite version that does this without
         | altering the vanilla UI:
         | https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/48577
        
         | andylynch wrote:
         | Skyblivion (https://skyblivion.com/) is an improved remake of
         | Oblivion running on top of the Skyrim engine. It's due for
         | release in 2025. And possibly one of the biggest mods ever
         | made.
        
       | Floegipoky wrote:
       | I've used this project, really appreciate the ambition and
       | quality.
        
       | hu3 wrote:
       | Bethesda games community is amazingly insane.
       | 
       | For example yesterday I found out that modders managed to "merge
       | Fallout 3 and its DLC into Fallout: New Vegas, allowing both
       | games to be played in a single playthrough".
       | 
       | It is called Tale of Two Wastelands and it goes above and beyond
       | modding. This is art. More info:
       | https://taleoftwowastelands.com/faq#What-is-ttw
       | 
       | If you like playthroughs, Gopher youtuber is recording an amazing
       | series of it:
       | 
       | - Playlist of Chapter 1 (57 videos):
       | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-Dekit0ce4ni...
       | 
       | - Playlist of Chapter 2 (4 videos):
       | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-Dfag97E44fF...
       | 
       | - Playlist of Chapter 3 (32 videos):
       | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-DcRVZclOtOY...
       | 
       | - Playlist of Chapter 4 (10 videos):
       | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-DeLxMTphztm...
       | 
       | - Playlist of Chapter 5 (9 videos and counting):
       | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE7DlYarj-DcDxBImozYs...
        
         | rurban wrote:
         | > It is called Tale of Two Wastelands and it goes above and
         | beyond modding. This is art.
         | 
         | Glad to hear, because I invented this art genre with ArsDoom.
         | Still striving
        
           | Octopodes wrote:
           | I'm guessing this is your work?
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9r_f8un3NE
        
             | gorgonical wrote:
             | The description of that video credits one of the creators
             | as Reini Urban, which I'm gonna infer means yes in this
             | case
        
             | rurban wrote:
             | The game mod yes, the video not.
        
         | antisthenes wrote:
         | Damnit!
         | 
         | Reinstalling...
        
           | hu3 wrote:
           | I apologize. Have fun!
        
         | Kiro wrote:
         | I don't understand how there can be so many people putting in
         | so much time and talent into projects like these. I've tried
         | getting into modding many times but it's always overwhelming. I
         | don't even know where to start, so that there are enough people
         | pushing through the obvious hurdles and produce things like
         | this is mind-blowing.
        
           | meesles wrote:
           | These aren't massive communities, these big modders often
           | know each other and work together.
           | 
           | I'd say it depends on your background and availability. Most
           | people in any of these intense tech scenes are a combination
           | of a)young/low-commitments - in school, summer, no kids, etc.
           | so they have the time and energy to dedicate b) grew up in
           | these scenes so that the barrier to entry to start creating
           | is much lower than someone like you or me trying to figure
           | out how to mod a game for the first time and c) members of a
           | strong community. I used to be in the fansub scene and
           | there's something about being celebrated by your peers for
           | achieving something that only they recognize. Same with the
           | crack scene. I'm sure modders in these communities feel the
           | same way when they can release something and receive so much
           | positive feedback. It's great!
        
             | hungryforcodes wrote:
             | Which just shows -- having kids leads to a massive
             | productivity drop / personal advancement opportunity
             | failure.
             | 
             | Consider wisely...
        
               | civilitty wrote:
               | A month or two ago, I stumbled onto the RegretfulParents
               | subreddit [1] thanks to an HN comment. After reading all
               | those horror stories... yeah, consider wisely.
               | 
               | [1] https://old.reddit.com/r/regretfulparents/
        
               | thrashh wrote:
               | Some people have kids
               | 
               | Some people don't
               | 
               | Some people get into art
               | 
               | Some people get into monster trucks
               | 
               | And because everyone is doing their own thing without
               | worrying about conforming to one pattern, you literally
               | get a billion slices of life to choose from.
        
               | kimixa wrote:
               | One big difference is that if you decide that art isn't
               | your thing, you can move on and try something else.
               | 
               | But Children are a big commitment. For many people it's
               | well worth it, for others maybe not. And that's fine - so
               | long as it is considered.
               | 
               | Not for any weird anti-child reason, just that it's
               | something that probably should be thought through and
               | considered more than trying out a hobby.
        
               | psychphysic wrote:
               | > Not for any weird anti-child reason, just that it's
               | something that probably should be thought through and
               | considered more than trying out a hobby.
               | 
               | I'm not sure there is any basis to this statement. It
               | seems prudent but otherwise unfounded.
               | 
               | Only a relative minority of parents report regret at
               | having had kids (<10%)[0]. Of those 10% many probably did
               | consider it extensively, and even if they regret it it
               | does not mean there was any likelihood they wouldn't have
               | kids anyways. Put another way, regret does not mean they
               | were not desperate to have kids before they realised they
               | would regret it.
               | 
               | It's incredibly complex gaining insight about these kind
               | of major life altering decisions.. especially because
               | it's clear people change once they have kids.
               | 
               | I see no reason to think about having children more
               | deeply than just deciding you will try. Getting pregnant
               | unexpectedly is it's only can of worms especially as
               | access to abortion is at the whims of government. Not to
               | mention pregnancy and labour suck.
               | 
               | [0] https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/head-
               | games/201909/wh...
        
               | kimixa wrote:
               | I think the underlying question is to see if regret (or
               | other difficulties like financial hardship or things that
               | require a state actor to intervene) are correlated with
               | planning and consideration. Measuring that is the
               | difficulty.
               | 
               | And as that article state - that "less than 10%" number
               | is coming from a population where it is taboo to _admit_
               | to regret. People have been shown to be economical with
               | the truth on otherwise anonymous surveys - [0] is a
               | humorous example, so how much that may skew the results
               | would likely need to be looked in to. And that 's just
               | the responders who know they're replying inaccurately -
               | with such cultural pressure, they may not admit to
               | themselves - there's lots of examples where people
               | deceive themselves about how they feel about things that
               | may go against society's grain at their time.
               | Introspection is really hard.
               | 
               | So I'd see that number as a lower bound, not necessarily
               | accurate.
               | 
               | EDIT:
               | 
               | Additionally the cost - 7% of artists not reaching their
               | ambitions is sad, but 7% of children being unloved and
               | resented is a tragedy.
               | 
               | [0] https://www.iflscience.com/men-cant-be-trusted-to-
               | measure-th...
        
               | thebigwinning wrote:
               | Alternatively, I think if you just compared
               | accomplishments of population with families vs without
               | you would not be impressed.
               | 
               | Its a tiny population that would turn less responsibility
               | into more productive output.
               | 
               | (I for one would probably not consider making fallout
               | mods a great tradeoff, and that's probably better use of
               | time than most)
        
           | t0bia_s wrote:
           | I was modder few years ago. Eventually I find out that I sent
           | more time by modding than playing game itself. I finished
           | Morrowind once a did not pay much attention to sidequests
           | which is about 80% of whole quests.
           | 
           | It is rabbit hole but it gets better. For example I totally
           | abandon graphic mods. It alters vanilla aesthetic, there is
           | literally endless options and usualy coast GPU performance.
           | So focusing on bugfixes is achievable in complexity.
        
         | psadauskas wrote:
         | Many a True Nerd is also in the middle of a playthough:
         | https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwH1xJhcXG0dR6Ue5o39y...
        
           | KennyBlanken wrote:
           | Is there anyone who doesn't have an excruciatingly painful
           | and annoying commentary over almost every second of the
           | gameplay?
        
             | ttctciyf wrote:
             | I realise your question is more of a commentary on MaTN's
             | voiceover, but can't resist answering..
             | 
             | CouchWarrior on youtube has a vast oeuvre[1] of Bethesda
             | letsplays with varying degrees of in-character narration
             | and meta commentary which I find highly non-excruciating.
             | 
             | Most of it is (variously modded) Skyrim - here's one where
             | a high level assassin mage gratifyingly takes out the
             | Black-Briar household by commission which contains both a
             | "silent" and a separate commented version: [2] (skip to
             | 18:30 if you want the commentary).
             | 
             | There's also a partial Fallout 4 playthrough, mostly done
             | with engaging in-character narration as "Saint Billy" [3]
             | 
             | It may not be for everyone, but the thoughtful, relaxed and
             | character-based roleplay-centric approach beats out the
             | squeaky-voiced minmaxing of standard letsplays every time
             | as far as I'm concerned.
             | 
             | 1: https://www.youtube.com/@couchwarriortv/playlists?view=1
             | &sor...
             | 
             | 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OADtS8yAsCk
             | 
             | 3: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLq3QdWvJDnh024Umn
             | WHvK...
        
         | jakkos wrote:
         | While this mod is great, I'd recommend playing Fallout NV on
         | it's own first. TTW can ruin pacing and when i played it
         | (admittedly close to a decade ago) I had quite a few near
         | playthrough-ruining bugs.
        
           | LegitShady wrote:
           | Fallout NV is an amazing game but its largely composed of
           | bugs.
        
             | t0bia_s wrote:
             | That's, why modders exits and are active even today.
             | Bigfixes for FNV are complex and makes game absolute solid
             | piece of game.
        
           | zerocrates wrote:
           | > I had quite a few near playthrough-ruining bugs.
           | 
           | Sounds like it preserved the core authentic experience then.
        
             | BookPage wrote:
             | I tried to play NV vanilla a few months ago and ran into
             | multiple of these within the first couple hours. Never went
             | back
        
           | AdmiralAsshat wrote:
           | The mod does its job beautifully: it allows players to play
           | The Capitol Beltway with their Fallout: NV crew and
           | mechanics.
           | 
           | F:NV was the better game, but even as a huge NV fan,
           | exploring post-apocalyptic DC and its suburbs was way more
           | enjoyable a locale than exploring the nuked desert. This
           | gives the best of both worlds.
        
             | LegitShady wrote:
             | I agree that the capitol area was amazing, but the design
             | of the game, characters, and experience in NV felt far more
             | fallout-like than 3, which makes sense given who made it.
        
         | gymbeaux wrote:
         | Get some!
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | KennyBlanken wrote:
         | Is there anyone who did playthroughs who doesn't swamp it in
         | extremely-irritating-neckbeard "commentary"?
         | 
         | I didn't make it past 15 seconds of the second video (ie where
         | the game starts, in the OB/GYN room.) I've never heard someone
         | so excruciating.
        
       | hombre_fatal wrote:
       | This got me to finally play through and beat Morrowind in my 30s,
       | avenging my 13yo self who had looted and lost an essential quest
       | item got stuck in the main quest line.
       | 
       | I played it while taking notes about the quests which was a bit
       | more fun than just following quest markers. Though that was only
       | fun because of Morrowind's weird alien world. There are only a
       | few games intriguing enough to warrant note-taking.
       | 
       | Something interesting in the ecosystem is the tes3cmd cli tool
       | anonymously(?) written in Perl: https://github.com/john-
       | moonsugar/tes3cmd/blob/master/tes3cm... for manipulating game/mod
       | files.
        
         | troad wrote:
         | > This got me to finally play through and beat Morrowind in my
         | 30s, avenging my 13yo self who had looted and lost an essential
         | quest item got stuck in the main quest line.
         | 
         | Hah, I had the same experience in my teens as you did.
         | 
         | Was it worth the replay? Any tips, other than note-taking?
        
           | hombre_fatal wrote:
           | I don't know. I played it during covid when I had a lot of
           | time and patience. I'm also not a big gamer anymore so
           | Morrowind wasn't competing with much more stimulating games.
           | That's probably going to be the biggest obstacle for most
           | gamers: why play Morrowind when you can hop into Diablo 4 or
           | whatever with your friends in your limited free time.
           | 
           | With OpenMW, you can be playing as soon as the game files
           | download, so just give it a shot. If you get to Cassius'
           | House in Balmora and still can't give a damn about what's
           | going on, then just shutter it for some other time.
        
             | tpxl wrote:
             | > why play Morrowind when you can hop into Diablo 4
             | 
             | 10 years from now, Diablo 4 will be dead and you'll still
             | be able to play Morrowind :)
        
       | ineedasername wrote:
       | I love this just on principle, but maybe someone can clarify
       | something for me. Does this:
       | 
       | 1) Provide a better experience of the game immediately?
       | 
       | or is it
       | 
       | 2) The (very high) value of this tool is that it will lend itself
       | to faster/better/easier fan base development and modification of
       | the game, enhancing the entire ES ecosystem?
       | 
       | 3) something i didn't think of
       | 
       | 4) some combination. Of the above
       | 
       | Regardless, it makes me want to kick my current gameplay to the
       | curb (it's Shadow of Doubt, it's incredible check it out) and
       | dump another 100 hours into Morrowind right now.
       | 
       | Nice work!
        
         | joeman1000 wrote:
         | It performs better on modern hardware and fixes a number of
         | issues in the original game. This is generally the purpose of
         | source ports. It also simplifies modding, as you can use the
         | launcher to enable/disable mods as you like. Graphics are also
         | improved. For example: the water effects look much more
         | realistic in OpenMW.
         | 
         | Fun fact: OpenMW now stands for 'Open Microwave'
        
       | BlackLotus89 wrote:
       | I really miss the old commentary videos on youtube :/
       | 
       | For weirdsexy life got in the way and suddenly stopped doing the
       | commentaries and was replaced by some german dude (sorry don't
       | know his name). Somehow watching the release videos wasn't as fun
       | anymore as it was before. I don't want to talk down on the work
       | the new guy does, but only want to highlight how exceptional high
       | quality (especially for their time) the old release videos were.
       | 
       | Also... I can't stand the german accent
        
       | tkuraku wrote:
       | Morrowind was just fantastic. I loved that everything seemed to
       | always exist. You could wonder around and find a super powerful
       | artifact or kill or lose something required fornthe main quest.
       | It felt more immersive that way.
        
         | troad wrote:
         | The game was fantastic. Buggy, awkward, sometimes barely
         | functional - and yet it conjured a cohesive world in a way that
         | every successive generation of TES game has managed less and
         | less well for me.
         | 
         | The lore- and world-building, circa Morrowind, was top notch.
        
         | danielvaughn wrote:
         | Yeah the ES games feel super immersive in a way that hasn't
         | really been replicated. You can sit down anywhere, pick up any
         | item, etc. That makes the game more "real" than any amount of
         | graphical fidelity.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | umvi wrote:
         | > You could wonder around and find a super powerful artifact
         | 
         | If that's true they got rid of this in later elder scrolls
         | games. One of the reasons I abandoned Skyrim before finishing
         | was because the loot leveled with you. You could walk across
         | the world and find a secret cave, yet all the chests therein
         | contain crap. So I had virtually no incentive to explore
         | knowing the loot was randomly generated based on my current
         | level.
         | 
         | Compare to FromSoftware games like Dark Souls where you can run
         | halfway across the world and find super rare and powerful
         | items.
        
           | sbierwagen wrote:
           | Morrowind also has random loot based on your level:
           | https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Leveled_Lists
           | 
           | This is especially obvious in the Mournhold sewers were
           | basically every chest you find draws from the "silver weapon"
           | list.
           | 
           | Tribunal also had the usual expansion pack problem of basic
           | enemies carrying better equipment than the top level items in
           | the base game. (The goblin sword is worth 100 gold, but does
           | 10-35 damage! The Daedric Wakizashi, the best short blade in
           | the base game, is worth 48,000 gold... and does 10-30
           | damage.)
        
         | itsibitzi wrote:
         | One thing that drove me mad about Oblivion was the level
         | scaling of items which meant it sometimes made sense to be
         | strategic about when you completed a quest in order to best
         | optimise/metagame the mechanic.
         | 
         | I really love it when a game is completely happy to allow you
         | to innocently wonder into a zone far above your level and let
         | you get completely squashed by the monsters you find there.
        
           | lapetitejort wrote:
           | Dark Souls (released the same year as Skyrim) famously lets
           | the player walk into high level zones mere seconds from the
           | starting area. It's easier to find the cemetery than the path
           | up to the proper first area.
        
             | faangsticle wrote:
             | Oh, that explains why i abandoned the game. Terrible
             | design. It doesn't even tell you what's going on.
        
           | StrangeATractor wrote:
           | or save scum it to get the loot. I got umbra gear not too
           | long after getting out of the sewers in Oblivion by opportune
           | saving.
        
           | veave wrote:
           | One of my playthroughs of Oblivion I did at level 1 without
           | levelling. It made everything much easier (oh, and Umbra's
           | sword). Unfortunately it also meant that you there was much
           | less monster diversity since some monsters only appeared at
           | higher levels.
           | https://en.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Under_Leveling
           | 
           | Still something interesting to try.
        
         | samstave wrote:
         | I didnt like morrowind, when I played it, only because it felt
         | such a massive map and I would get lost easily...
         | 
         | and if I stepped away from the game even for a short while...
         | 
         | https://i.imgur.com/jB0TZm6.jpg
        
           | huevosabio wrote:
           | Funnily that's one of the things I loved the most!
           | 
           | Nowadays games with massive world-maps have navigation on the
           | HUD, and always-available fast travel. Morrowind had neither.
           | A quest's instructions were like "take the road to Balmora
           | and then on the second fork, go past the tree and you will
           | find a cave". And then you would spend hours trying to find
           | that spot. And unless you had the proper scrolls, you
           | wouldn't even be able to teleport back to a main spot.
           | 
           | It made the world so wonderful to explore.
        
             | bamfly wrote:
             | One of the things I really like about the new Zelda game is
             | that, while it has quest markers and all that for many of
             | the quests (but not all! Some will just mark where you need
             | to return when it's done, and the rest is up to you!) you
             | also get lots and lots of hints about locations of
             | interesting or valuable non-quest things, and those are
             | purely up to you to pursue, based on what you've been told.
             | Not even a quest entry, just something you _can_ do if you
             | want to.
        
       | hashworks wrote:
       | This is only Singleplayer, right? How is the Linux support?
        
         | voidpointercast wrote:
         | Good.
        
         | SquareWheel wrote:
         | TES3MP is a sister project built on OpenMW which adds
         | multiplayer.
         | 
         | https://tes3mp.com/
        
       | zamadatix wrote:
       | For those that have a liking to the blog style project updates
       | some other projects do, the main website is a good feed
       | https://openmw.org/en/.
        
         | troad wrote:
         | I like the blog, but I wish it were updated more often. Even
         | little updates would be welcome.
         | 
         | Another interesting blog in a similar space is the Daggerfall
         | Unity bloc over at https://www.dfworkshop.net/.
        
       | ianbicking wrote:
       | I wonder if there's some new opportunities for these game engines
       | with generative AI.
       | 
       | One possibility is treating the game like scaffolding. It feels
       | like textures and images could all be replaced fairly easily with
       | generative versions. Toss them in Midjourney with /describe, play
       | around to create replacements. Or Stable Diffusion or whatever.
       | (Not sure how many things are "images" and how many are other
       | structures like shaders.)
       | 
       | Maps are harder, at least I imagine harder to deconstruct into
       | atomic pieces that can be replaced. Though it's interesting to
       | think about whether an LLM could decompose them into more
       | semantic pieces, if it could understand the underlying structure
       | that may only have existed in the mind of the original map
       | creator.
       | 
       | I imagine things like quests, stats, etc., would all be amenable
       | to generation.
       | 
       | Maybe the big question is if things really are separable enough
       | to use the old game as scaffolding: can you replace 10% of the
       | game, or 50%, or 90% and have a meaningfully playable game?
        
         | AmenBreak wrote:
         | Seems like a huge waste of GPU / CPU when Dwarf Fortress has
         | had all this for years...
        
         | nightski wrote:
         | You might want to check out what Nvidia is doing with RTX Remix
         | -
         | 
         | https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/rtx-remix/
        
         | yomlica8 wrote:
         | Morrowind's predecessor Daggerfall had randomly generated
         | dungeons. Overall, they were pretty bad although they were kind
         | of interesting and added variety. I got the impression they
         | randomly stuck basic dungeon chunks together to build them.
         | 
         | The idea of using the AI to generate new similar textures is a
         | pretty cool one.
        
         | dr_monster wrote:
         | This is a plot point in the Orson Scott Card novel 'Ender's
         | Game'. Ender plays a generative video game on an iPad-like
         | device that responds to his decisions and incorporates
         | people/events from his personal life, to the point of
         | manipulating his subconscious thoughts and dreams.
         | 
         | A game like this could be interesting, but you would not be
         | able to discuss it with others as a shared experience that has
         | fixity the way you can with any modern media, and it could
         | certainly be used to manipulate people.
        
         | kqr wrote:
         | It may be unimaginative but I'm really looking forward to
         | really deep NPCs with relationships and interests and
         | personalities and all.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-06-09 23:00 UTC)