Welcome back to another OpenMW release commentary! The OpenMW team is proud to announce the release of version 0.43 of our open source reimplementation of The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. As usual, this commentary deals with changes in our engine. For recent progress on our editor, OpenMW-CS, check out the second release video. After the unexpected delay of version 0.42, everything is back on track and development has gained momentum in the last few months. Our team solved an outstanding number of 135 issues for this release, including a handful of features we need for version 1.0 of our engine. Hopefully, we can keep development activity at a high level for the next releases. Meanwhile, let's have a look at what's new. -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- Version 0.43 includes various improvements for our user interface and controls. First and foremost, you may now use your keyboard to navigate through menus by using the arrow keys, the key bindings for your character's movement, and the [Tab] key. Press [Shift]+[Tab] to move backwards. As you can see, OpenMW highlights the currently active control element. Although there is room for improvement, being able to use your keyboard in addition to the mouse cursor really enhances the usability of OpenMW. Or what do you think, why everyone loves my Nord character? The current release also allows you to close containers while dragging an item. In this case, the dragged item will be added to your inventory. That is especially useful, if you want to search several containers in a row, while only taking the most valuable items. Although we haven't reached version 1.0 yet, OpenMW already provides a variety of additional features compared to the original engine. Check out our on-line documentation at readthedocs.io for more details. Please note that most of these features must be manually activated in your local settings.cfg file. For example, OpenMW offers players the option to use a crosshair which changes colours depending on the owner status of objects. With this release, the crosshair’s colour won't change to red anymore, if the corresponding "Activate" action does not trigger a crime. This change affects doors which are unlocked and don't have traps on them, free-to-sleep-in beds, and certain containers, e.g., faction chests in guild halls. When you hover your mouse cursor over an item, additional information is displayed in a tool tip. OpenMW now allows you to extend this information beyond vanilla Morrowind's capabilities by displaying damage values for projectiles as well as speed and reach values for melee weapons. Another optional feature introduced in version 0.43 is making the game display the success chance of a self-made enchantment. Enchanting items by yourself was one of the most frustrating things in the original game. If you turn the new option on, you can at least see your chance of succeeding in that task. Finally, we have changed the way your character consumes ingredients and potions. In the vanilla engine, you can only drop one item on your character's inventory doll at a time, then, you must select the item stack again and repeat the procedure. OpenMW now allows you to take a stack of items, drag them over the inventory doll, and use one item per click while still holding the stack with the mouse cursor. Really convenient, don't you think? -------------------------------------------------- Let's move on to AI and gameplay improvements. In previous versions of our engine, spell-casting animations could be interrupted to cast spells at a higher rate. Moreover, interrupting the animation before the actual spell effect had been triggered would use up magicka points without the spell being cast at all. Both issues have been fixed in the current release as spell-casting cannot be interrupted anymore. Have you ever tried to capture a Golden Saint's soul in OpenMW? If yes, you certainly know how difficult that task can be since these damn creatures dispel every Soul Trap spell you cast on them. Luckily, version 0.43 improves the AI's spell priority which drastically decreases the usage of Dispel spells. You will also realise that creatures will now try to avoid melee attacks while casting spells on themselves. Yet they stand no chance against a greedy player who wants to create some constant effect enchantments. Speaking of Dispel spells: Formerly, such a spell would cancel all temporary magical effects, including those from abilities, items, potions, scrolls, or diseases. However, in the vanilla game, only spell-inflicted effects were cancelled. The current version fixes that issue. With this release, actors will not always attack the nearest opponent anymore, but rather take other factors, e.g., weapon resistance, into account. And, yes, attacking a Golden Saint with a steel weapon is suicide. Actors will also check whether they are underwater before using any ranged weapon because these are almost useless in water combat. Well, that behaviour may become anachronistic once harpoons turn up on Vvardenfell, but let's stick to it for the time being. Finally, if an actor doesn't know what to do at all, they simply fall back to good ol' hand-to-hand combat -- which, by the way, bypasses any weapon resistance. Perfectly reasonable, if you ask me... In previous versions of OpenMW, drowned NPCs were a quite common sight: Drowned silt strider caravaners, drowned player followers, drowned guards, drowned combatants in general, a drowned Fargoth, drowned shop owners, drowned guild leaders, drowned assassins, drowned gods, a drowned Fargoth again, drowned people with armour, drowned people without armour, drowned... Oh, ehm, I got carried away. Anyway, with version 0.43 actors can surface to take a deep breath and, then, continue their underwater actions. This feature should drastically decrease unwanted casualties on Vvardenfell in the future. -------------------------------------------------- Let's stay underwater a bit longer. The first thing you will notice is that NPCs no longer talk to your character while being submerged. Secondly, UI sounds are no longer distorted when your character is rummaging around in their inventory or reading their journal, ehm, underwater, that is. Wearing heavy armour. Oh, man… Finally, underwater sounds are now distorted in a more realistic way; just compare the old and the new sound effects... Formerly, OpenMW shuffled music files randomly which caused issues with some tracks being played more often than others. To demonstrate this, I added 150 tracks to my Morrowind installation and let OpenMW play 81 of them in a row. As you can see, version 0.42 plays a lot of these tracks two or even three times. The newly implemented Fisher-Yates shuffle, however, distributes the tracks evenly and causes not a single repetition. To cut a long story short: Music tracks are now more sophistically distributed which should prevent any noticeable repetitions in your playlist. Additionally, we have introduced a short fade between tracks to reduce sudden changes in music, especially when combat starts. A last note on sound: We have now increased the default size of our sound buffer, i.e., the engine can keep more sound files ready at the same time. This should resolve performance issues with audio-related mods, e.g., Morrowind Acoustic Overhaul. Older versions of our engine didn't make use of certain creatures’ swimming animations. Have a look at this Horker: It is clearly using land animations underwater. The current release fixes that issue. What a cute little Horker that is! Version 0.43 also drastically improves the rain and snow visuals. Previously, rain and snow effects would simply move with the player, making them look like cheap overlays. This issue has been solved. Additionally, rain and snow will now cause water ripples like they did in the vanilla engine. The improved visuals are still by no means up to date, but they add a lot to Morrowind's atmosphere. -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------- If you don't mind, I'll now go for a walk in the snowy wilderness of Solstheim. Like I said at the beginning of this video, development has sped up in the last few months. Nonetheless, you are always welcome to join our project -- especially, if you want to help us on the editor's side. So, if you have some skill in Qt or C++, sign up on our forums and introduce yourself. We don't bite. Most of the time, that is. Don't forget to check out the corresponding release video for our editor, OpenMW-CS. It's noticeably shorter than this one, which is a plus, I guess. Also consider reading through the official release notes for more in-depth information, and visit our forums on openmw.org. Until next time; thanks for watching!