Open Mw advanced release (not tomorow) vs best Mods

A generic talk on the OpenMW project.
Locked
User avatar
lgromanowski
Site Admin
Posts: 1193
Joined: 05 Aug 2011, 22:21
Location: Wroclaw, Poland
Contact:

Open Mw advanced release (not tomorow) vs best Mods

Post by lgromanowski »

pogzy wrote: Hi,

Don't know how to find an appropriate title for this subject. But I'd like to know how we could compare the far future of Open MW with best existing mods of Morrowind, including MGE and so (like Overhaul http://morrowindoverhaul.net/blog/?page_id=17)

OK, don't bother me, I know OpenMW is not so close to v1.0 and there is many basic features that are not coded. I'm just curious about what we could expect of Ogre and other libs that are used, and of the usage of Ogre with all existing mods.

Could we expect much better quality and features (even if according mods are not done yet) of the best current mods for Morrowind, or an equivalent quality, or would it be difficult to achieve the same quality.

It's a discussion about possibilities and limits of the libs that are used, and the ability to attract devs and modders to this project to create an up to date engine game on top of TESIII core game. Not about the current stage of this project.

Please tell me how you see or feel this.
Zini wrote: Well, most of the mods for MW are actually esps, so they can be used with OpenMW.

Then we have those extensions that hack into the Morrowind executable (via DLL-injection and other dirty stuff).
Eventually everything they can do, we can do too (graphically). And better. OGRE doesn't really have any serious limitations and also not much overhead. Currently there isn't a fully functional DirectX 10/11 renderer available, but even that is worked on.
And since we have full access to the source and don't have to rely on dirty hacks, at some point we will overtake those extensions.

Obviously this won't happen in 1.0, since we are focussed on reimplementing the original game without any extensions. To be honest I don't expect it in the early post-1.0 versions either.
We don't have any plans for the development after 1.0 and we will need to discuss it, but I will most likely root for a different development focus in the early post-1.0 stage (namely low hanging fruits and groundwork for further extensions).
pogzy wrote: Ok, it seems quite clear that is not v1.0 feature at all, not even in the near future after v1.0.

It could also nice to have in mind what could be possible in the long term, could help a lot to stay involved and focused, even if for now there are so many technical points before v1.0.

OK for the exe hack that can not used at all. But potential of Ogre, bullet and other libs could enable to build (yes long term plan, ok ok) a great game engine.

If we examine libs as they are now, without taking into account the gap they can fill between may be the v2 or v3 Open MW version time, how could we imagine the usage limit of these libs, compared with today game engine?

Doing this mental prospective, it could be useful to set a long term roadmap with possible achievement key points. Stay focused on the short term (v1.0) with many practicals and precise milestones is mandatory, but keeping an eye opened and what the future could be and long term possibilities enables contributors to embrace a common vision of long term plan.

First post question is still opened, because you give no precise clue of what great features could be possible in the long term plan ;) (please let us dream).
Zini wrote:
If we examine libs as they are now, without taking into account the gap they can fill between may be the v2 or v3 Open MW version time, how could we imagine the usage limit of these libs, compared with today game engine?
OGRE is basically a thin wrapper and abstraction layer around the render APIs (DirectX, OpenGL). it doesn't really impose any notable limits. I don't know about bullet, but it seems to be a very capable physics engine.
Doing this mental prospective, it could be useful to set a long term roadmap with possible achievement key points.
We have already seen that it doesn't work this way. We had a good sized chunk of the road to 1.0 mapped out in the past. And in the end we had to throw the roadmap away and write it from scratch. I don't see why it would be different past 1.0.
First post question is still opened, because you give no precise clue of what great features could be possible in the long term plan ;) (please let us dream).
That is because I haven't thought about them yet. Also, I don't see graphics as the primary focus of our effort. Gameplay enhancements are at least as important as the graphics. But okay. Let's speculate:

One of the low hanging fruits in the near 1.0 future might be enabling direct access to OGRE resources (mesh files, shaders and such). This would allow the unlimited use of modern shader techniques like per pixel lighting.

In the long run (assuming we still have enough manpower) I can see the following graphical features:

- seamless integration of exteriors and interiors
- extended viewing distance
- various compositor-based techniques like HDR
sir_herrbatka wrote: Note that there are things that simply can't be done with morrowind, no matter how hard you will try.

For example you can't create mountain higher than morrowind allows. And I don't belive that there will be hack for it.
Locked