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OpenMW

OpenMW is an open-source game engine that supports playing Morrowind by Bethesda Softworks. You need to own the game for OpenMW to play Morrowind.

OpenMW also comes with OpenMW-CS, a replacement for Bethesda's Construction Set.

• Version: 0.47.0
• License: GPLv3 (see LICENSE for more information)
• Website: https://www.openmw.org
• IRC: #openmw on irc.libera.chat

Font Licenses:

• DejaVuLGCSansMono.ttf: custom (see files/mygui/DejaVuFontLicense.txt for more information)

Current Status

The main quests in Morrowind, Tribunal and Bloodmoon are all completable. Some issues with side quests are to be expected (but rare). Check the bug tracker for a list of issues we need to resolve before the "1.0" release. Even before the "1.0" release however, OpenMW boasts some new features, such as improved graphics and user interfaces.

Pre-existing modifications created for the original Morrowind engine can be hit-and-miss. The OpenMW script compiler performs more thorough error-checking than Morrowind does, meaning that a mod created for Morrowind may not necessarily run in OpenMW. Some mods also rely on quirky behaviour or engine bugs in order to work. We are considering such compatibility issues on a case-by-case basis - in some cases adding a workaround to OpenMW may be feasible, in other cases fixing the mod will be the only option. If you know of any mods that work or don't work, feel free to add them to the Mod status wiki page.

Getting Started

• Official forums
• Installation instructions
• Build from source
• Testing the game
• How to contribute
• Report a bug - read the guidelines before submitting your first bug!
• Known issues

The data path

The data path tells OpenMW where to find your Morrowind files. If you run the launcher, OpenMW should be able to pick up the location of these files on its own, if both Morrowind and OpenMW are installed properly (installing Morrowind under WINE is considered a proper install).

Command line options

Syntax: openmw <options>
Allowed options:
  --help                                print help message
  --version                             print version information and quit
  --data arg (=data)                    set data directories (later directories
                                        have higher priority)
  --data-local arg                      set local data directory (highest
                                        priority)
  --fallback-archive arg (=fallback-archive)
                                        set fallback BSA archives (later
                                        archives have higher priority)
  --resources arg (=resources)          set resources directory
  --start arg                           set initial cell
  --content arg                         content file(s): esm/esp, or
                                        omwgame/omwaddon
  --no-sound [=arg(=1)] (=0)            disable all sounds
  --script-verbose [=arg(=1)] (=0)      verbose script output
  --script-all [=arg(=1)] (=0)          compile all scripts (excluding dialogue
                                        scripts) at startup
  --script-all-dialogue [=arg(=1)] (=0) compile all dialogue scripts at startup
  --script-console [=arg(=1)] (=0)      enable console-only script
                                        functionality
  --script-run arg                      select a file containing a list of
                                        console commands that is executed on
                                        startup
  --script-warn [=arg(=1)] (=1)         handling of warnings when compiling
                                        scripts
                                        0 - ignore warning
                                        1 - show warning but consider script as
                                        correctly compiled anyway
                                        2 - treat warnings as errors
  --script-blacklist arg                ignore the specified script (if the use
                                        of the blacklist is enabled)
  --script-blacklist-use [=arg(=1)] (=1)
                                        enable script blacklisting
  --load-savegame arg                   load a save game file on game startup
                                        (specify an absolute filename or a
                                        filename relative to the current
                                        working directory)
  --skip-menu [=arg(=1)] (=0)           skip main menu on game startup
  --new-game [=arg(=1)] (=0)            run new game sequence (ignored if
                                        skip-menu=0)
  --fs-strict [=arg(=1)] (=0)           strict file system handling (no case
                                        folding)
  --encoding arg (=win1252)             Character encoding used in OpenMW game
                                        messages:

                                        win1250 - Central and Eastern European
                                        such as Polish, Czech, Slovak,
                                        Hungarian, Slovene, Bosnian, Croatian,
                                        Serbian (Latin script), Romanian and
                                        Albanian languages

                                        win1251 - Cyrillic alphabet such as
                                        Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian Cyrillic
                                        and other languages

                                        win1252 - Western European (Latin)
                                        alphabet, used by default
  --fallback arg                        fallback values
  --no-grab                             Don't grab mouse cursor
  --export-fonts [=arg(=1)] (=0)        Export Morrowind .fnt fonts to PNG
                                        image and XML file in current directory
  --activate-dist arg (=-1)             activation distance override
  --random-seed arg (=<impl defined>)   seed value for random number generator

VR

This fork is a VR port of openmw using the OpenXR VR standard.

Download

You can grab the latest binaries/sources under Releases Or grab a development build from the artifacts of any pipeline of the openmw-vr branch on the gitlab.

Current Status

The VR fork was written on windows with access only to the Oculus Rift headset. Consequentially the current state of the port may have any number of Oculus specific idiosyncrasies, and may not build for linux. Users with the vive, the index, or any other openxr supporting VR headsets are encourage to suggest or contribute bindings for their respective headsets.

Compatibility with general mods should be high, but this has not been thoroughly tested. Custom shaders have not been tested at all.

Installation (openmw vr)

Installing the VR port is similar to openmw, but you should manually edit settings.cfg under my games/openmw to input your real life height under the VR section so the game can correctly scale you. Reference VR settings exist in settings-default.cfg.

Installation (OpenXR)

If openxr fails to load, it's nonetheless possible your VR headset offers a preview release of openxr. At this point most mainstream headsets have OpenXR implementations, but some may be less stable than others. SteamVR users may need to use the BETA channel to run OpenMW VR.

Building

On windows, the fork builds with the same instructions as building openmw.

On linux, however, openmw does not package binaries for external dependencies. OpenMW attempts to support commonly packaged versions, but this fork is written against OSG version 3.6.5 and earlier versions may not work or even compile. It may therefore be necessary to build your own version of OSG.

VR Controls

In VR mode control is based on tracking and VR controllers. There is currently no option for regular gamepad based controls.

The player hands will track the controllers and can be used to activate items and actors while holding down the control bound pointing. The 'use' action (attack, pick lock, cast spell) and activate action share the right trigger on all controllers.

The control bound to the menu also doubles down as a recenter action. Hold the menu key to recenter the menu in case it opened inside some object and is inaccessible.

When in menus, alternate bindings are used to navigate the menus using the thumbsticks and the A/B controls (or equivalent)

Default controller bindings:

• Oculus: Bindings
• Index knuckles: Bindings
• Vive wands: [TODO: No graphic available]

Rebinding Controls

Currently openmw-vr has no interface for re-binding controls in VR, as this is expected to be offered by the VR runtime itself. No runtimes have implemented this so far, however. You can manually edit bindings by modifying xrcontrollersuggestions.xml. It is strongly recommended that you copy this file to your settings folder (documents/my games/openmw) first and only edit that copy.

Known Issues

• For many controllers, the SteamVR runtimes do not play well or at all. Use your native runtimes when possible
• For Quest users: Virtual desktop requires SteamVR to play OpenMW VR. But SteamVR does not play well with the oculus controllers.
  • Workaround 1: https://www.reddit.com/r/OculusQuest/comments/lf7ten/openmw_vr_oculus_quest_2_joystick_fixed/
  • Workaround 2: use the link
• Cannot point and click in the main menu, you must use the controllers / hit enter to load into any game first.
• Performance is sub par, you may have to turn off shadows and/or the water shader.
• Audio is not automatically captured in some HMDs.
  • Work around this by adding the line device = OpenAL Soft on Headphones (2- Rift Audio) under [Sound] in settings.cfg. Replace the device string with the string corresponding to your device. You can find a list of device strings in openmw.log after running it once.