OpenMW (Open Source Morrowind) Version 0.14.0 released

[antoine32]

The OpenMW team is proud to announce the release of version 0.14.0! This release precedes Morrowind’s 10th Anniversary by 2 days! Release packages for Ubuntu are now available via our Launchpad PPA https://launchpad.net/~openmw/+archive/openmw . Release packages for other platforms are available on our Download page http://code.google.com/p/openmw/downloads/list . This release brings many notable features, including terrain and water rendering! A video highlighting many of the new changes in this release made by our very own WeirdSexy can be found here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrOpenMW

About OpenMW:
OpenMW is an open source and cross platform (Linux, Windows, OS X) reimplementation of the The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind engine. Our project is quite ambitious and we can always use help programming. If you have worked C++, Ogre3d, or the bullet physics library please register on our forums and join our team. You need the original Morrowind game data to play OpenMW. Morrowind can be purchased on Steam (it goes on sale every couple of months for 5 or 10 dollars).


Please note:

There is a regression in the Launcher in this release, from which you will observe that the rendering subsystem will default to OpenGL regardless of what was previously selected. This will be fixed in the next release. This can be overcome by setting the rendering system explicitly from the launcher each time, or running the OpenMW binary directly from the command line, which will select the renderer that has been set in your config file.
There is a known issue where a crash may occur underwater with the underwater effect enabled on OS X

Changelog:

Fix for meshes rendering with the wrong orientation
Fix for better grabbing of small objects
Fix to enable toggling of collision rendering
Updates to be compatible with Ogre 1.8.0 RC1
Fix for Wireframe mode applying to HUD and Console
Fix for terrain crashing when moving away from predefined cells
Fix to allow OS X Launcher to handle spaces in the binary path
Fix to support TGA textures
Fix to support wireframe mode in water
Added water rendering
Added terrain rendering
Added ability to render Path Grid
Added Factions support
Added Local Map
Added Compass/Mini-Map
Added Clothing/Armour redering
Added Window Pinning
Added Auto-Equip.
Added support for containers tracking changes to their contents
Added several NPC Dialogue Window improvements
Added backend for a game settings manager
Added backend for a Spell List and selected spell
Added backend for NPC holstered/drawn state
Added a Morrowind.ini Importer (not yet included in the binary packages)
Refactored the Sound code
MyGUI updated to version 3.2.0



Website
http://openmw.org/en/

Download Page
http://code.google.com/p/openmw/downloads/list

Forum
http://openmw.org/forum/

[BHX]

While it looks great, I wonder what legal issues you will face from Bethesda if and when they get wind of this. You may be creating a game from scratch, but you are using their trademarked game to do it so I worry they will try to put a stop to this project.

I tried to be polite back when Midway was open and get the okay to make a fan based MK game in another genre and their reply was a legal team threatening to take me to court if I attempted it. I pray this won't happen to you and your team, because just the YT video makes me eager to see the future updates.

[hanst99]

I think the idea here is to just recreate the engine, but still require the data files of the original games, in which case they'd probably get away with it.

[BHX]

Yes, but keep in mind that several companies have shutdown projects that were fan based. A Mario project, Zelda project, and Chrono Trigger project were shutdown by the companies that made them for using copyrighted materials which is what they are doing (I know there are more, but those are just what I can think of right now). Which is why I'm worried if Bethesda gets wind of this they will shut it down :(.

[hanst99]

They aren't actually using copyrighted material if they're just distributing a self written engine without the data files though. The only thing that's copyrighted about the project in that case would be the name, which shouldn't be too much of a problem considering that many popular mods also have the name of the game they're for in their name.

[BHX]

Oh okay, thought it was a game that was using the data of MW. Nevermind about my comments then, just a misunderstanding :).

[chrisname]

I assume it does use the original data files, but as long as they aren't distributed with the game engine, it should be fine.

[antoine32]

Hey, we're back with the bimonthly update.

But first, on behalf of the team I'd like to thank you for your kind words. It's very appreciated. Also, you're correct in that we are not distributing any of Morrowind's original art assets.

Moving on to news:
Our killer-feature this time (yup, we’ve got one!) is drag’n'drop by gus. Drag’n'drop allows you to drop things from your inventory. The code is not yet perfect, and not everything is fully functional, but folks are cleaning and improving it.

jhooks1 got terrain collisions working! You can test this feature by typing tcl or togglecollisions in the console. Terrain collisions will be included in version 0.15.0.

With terrain collisions finished jhooks1 is back to getting Ogre3d-powered animations working. There are still issues with some creatures like the ancestor ghost, but things are slowly moving forward.

scrawl is a machine, he worked on the following:
-Introduction of a new font (not under GPL, unfortunately, but it’s better than nothing) for daedric alphabet.
-Improving scrolls/books interaction and rendering.
-Bugfixes and improvement of the GUI : you can now scroll with the mouse wheel!
-Improvements for journal rendering.
-Single quotes now work.
-Opening/taking/closing books/scrolls now work
-Movement is no longer framerate dependent
-You can now talk with creatures
-More spell backend

The quote of the week :

OpenMW just got to a whole new level
because you can now steal Fargoth’s ring!

Thanks to the propaganda of the PR team, we attracted several future new contributors.

Ho, by the way, if you know some Qt, we are looking for someone to develop the OpenMW Editor. Don’t be shy, apply!

[antoine32]

The OpenMW team is proud to announce the release of version 0.15.0!

Release packages for Ubuntu are now available via our Launchpad PPA. Release packages for other platforms are available on our Download page.

This version includes a reimplementation of the physics and player movement system, elevating the player from slug to hobbit status. Terrain collision and many newly-implemented GUI elements are also featured in this release.
Weirdsexy has made a demo video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkOCH6bWqeo) for your viewing pleasure.

For 0.16.0 we are planning to implement many skills and attributes. If you want to help out with the project, but are unable to code, we need help discovering the formulas used for skills, magic, and attributes and also testing and confirming the ones that have been described are accurate. For more i

Changelog:
- Reimplemented physics system/player movement
- Implemented terrain collision
- Implemented pulsating lights
- Implemented Magic Effect Bookkeeping, and Feather/Burden effects
- Implemented Book and Scroll windows
- Implemented Inventory, Container, and Trade windows
- Implemented item stacking in containers
- Implemented tooltips for items in the world, and many GUI elements
- Added faction and other information to Stats window
- Fixed Resizing arrow’s background transparency
- Fixed Stats window layout when resizing in the X direction
- Long topics in dialog window now wrap and sort correctly, and other dialogue window fixes
- Fixed terrain handling in non-predefined cells