Just saying thank you!

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haloterm
Posts: 13
Joined: 15 Feb 2019, 13:12

Just saying thank you!

Post by haloterm »

Hi all,

this is my first post here.

I am currently re-discovering the two older TES games Morrowind and Daggerfall (with DFU), while also still playing Skyrim and ESO. I'm on a Linux PC, and while I can play Skyrim and ESO perfectly using Steam Play (WINE-based emulation), this did not work very good with Morrowind, and also tools like the MGE did not work on Linux.

I then discovered OpenMW, installed it (a breeze using the Ubuntu PPA provided!!), installed MW on Steam, pointed OpenMW to the Steam files -- and it works. So easily. So simple.

I then installed some mods (I checked the Wiki first for compatibility), mainly OpenMW texture and mesh replacers, and set the distant land config in the settings file. And it looks great. Nearly as good as it did when I last used MGE on Windows -- but it feels much more stable, whereas I got lots of crashes with MGE.

So, this is all just me saying thank you for the great work. Very much appreciated!

(Addendum: Regarding distant land, I think the recommendation in one thread I read that one should set it to 66666 is a bit over the top for actual gameplay. Not performance wise -- it's fine. But Vvardenfell is a small world in terms of game design, and for immersion there should be fog in the distance. For reference, I set my distant land so I can just a glimpse of Castle Ebonheart, which is 13000. Cell load distance is 3, and FOV 65)
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psi29a
Posts: 5355
Joined: 29 Sep 2011, 10:13
Location: Belgium
Gitlab profile: https://gitlab.com/psi29a/
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Re: Just saying thank you!

Post by psi29a »

Cheers! That's what we are aiming for.

First stabilize, then features, then performance (and repeat). :)
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Capostrophic
Posts: 794
Joined: 22 Feb 2016, 20:32

Re: Just saying thank you!

Post by Capostrophic »

With a viewing distance of 13000 units and exterior cell loading distance of 3 there isn't any actual "distant land" (as in, terrain LOD and stuff) in the view, it gets culled and you waste your RAM for no reason, and you don't get any benefit from having 3 (instead of at most 2) cells being loaded in front of you either because the third cell can barely be visible (one cell is 8192 units x 8192 units). You should either increase the viewing distance to get the benefit from having 49 instead of 9 cells being loaded at once or decrease the exterior cell loading distance to actually make use of distant terrain and don't bog down the engine with all the extra objects in the scene.
haloterm
Posts: 13
Joined: 15 Feb 2019, 13:12

Re: Just saying thank you!

Post by haloterm »

Capostrophic wrote: 15 Feb 2019, 14:30 With a viewing distance of 13000 units and exterior cell loading distance of 3 there isn't any actual "distant land" (as in, terrain LOD and stuff) in the view, it gets culled and you waste your RAM for no reason, and you don't get any benefit from having 3 (instead of at most 2) cells being loaded in front of you either because the third cell can barely be visible (one cell is 8192 units x 8192 units). You should either increase the viewing distance to get the benefit from having 49 instead of 9 cells being loaded at once or decrease the exterior cell loading distance to actually make use of distant terrain and don't bog down the engine with all the extra objects in the scene.
Thanks for the clarification! I simply experimented with the values until I got a view which I liked. I reduced the cells to 2 and there is indeed no difference, but better performance. (Although I think OpenMW's performance is not bad at all, and I have installed lots of texture and mesh mods by now).
stachnie
Posts: 1
Joined: 21 Feb 2019, 13:32

Re: Just saying thank you!

Post by stachnie »

I have played vanilla Morrowind, Morrowind with both addons, Morroblivion. Morrowind with MCP, now I gave OpenMW a try.

In general: good work! Morrobblivion is something different (Morrowind on the Oblivion engine), so I think the only comparable project is MCP. Which of them is better? I would say there are some features from MCP I lack in OpenMW and vice versa. Two MCP features I lack are greater custom spell magnitude (up to 500) and increased value for items enchanted by the player.

One of things I like in OpenMW is that although some merchants have unlimited supply of some goods, but their numbers cannot be increased. It makes much more difficult to buy hundreds of samples of some alchemy ingredients to make a super-Intelligence buff and create super-potions. And even when I managed to do that, it is not so easy to raise Alchemy to an arbitrary level, so my character cannot advance in the Mages Guild too easily (and trainers see the real value of Inetlligence, not the buffed one).

S.
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