Some questions about OpenMW!

General discussion regarding the OpenMW project.
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Megaprana
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Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 09:49

Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by Megaprana »

I've been keeping an eye on OpenMW for a while now. While my interest in the project has been light, upon downloading it to try it out, the OpenCS' "Create A New Game" button has somewhat inspired me. I've helped others on many TCs that never saw the light of day (or remain private mods to this day, at most), but the idea of actually making a game with the engine never really occurred to me. OpenMW makes that a viable option, however.

I plan to make all of my assets this time around (my previous projects were merely using existant MW data files, with the occasional self-made resource). Before I start making meshes/textures/sounds though, a few questions must be asked to prevent making some critical mistakes.

If any of these were answered in an FAQ or something that I missed, feel free to point and laugh at me before answering my questions.

1. What file formats do OpenMW's engine support?
To make sure I'm not using incorrect terminology, I'm referring to the likes of .mp3, .nif and .tga/dds. These were the old file extensions I worked with, but It'd be nice to know what options I have to work with when it comes to OpenMW.

2. How limited is the animation aspect of modelling in OpenMW?
To quote a very old post on a very old forum about animating for Morrowind by 'Lady Eternity' (may be a known modder that I simply haven't heard of):
Animation in Morrowind is hard. Yup very hard. Only primitive animation can be used. Morrowind does not support:
What Morrowind does NOT support
1: Vertex movement
2: Skin (makes bones a loss cause)

So basically all you will be able to do is rotate and move. I'm unsure if scale works, haven't tried it yet. I also haven't gotten modifiers to work, like melt.
Source
So, does OpenMW allow models to animate more freely than this?

3. How easily will one be able to modify the combat system?
My idea will require gun-like capabilities from the ranged weapons, something the crossbow barely does in the current Morrowind engine. Will I be able to pull this off with OpenMW? This one is rather critical to my initial idea. :I

4. Can one sell their product?
I do not wish to make any profit off of my planned TC. This is more of a curiosity question than anything else. If I theoretically wanted to sell a game I made with OpenCS, would I be allowed to?


Thanks for answering any of these in advance. Keep up the good work. J:
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Zini
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Joined: 06 Aug 2011, 15:16

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by Zini »

1. OpenMW supports pretty much any file format for textures. For sound files, I am not entirely sure, but at least we support all that MW support. @Chris: Do we have a list of file types here?

2. OpenMW 1.0 should be mostly identical to MW in this regard. We will expand the animation capabilities after 1.0 by going from .nif to OGRE .mesh formats (plus some extras; still in early concept stages).

3. Again OpenMW 1.0 should be identical to MW in this regard. We will eventually make various parts of the combat system more moddable, but we have no concrete plans yet and this is not on my list for OpenMW 1.1 either.

4. I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to sell files generated by OpenCS.
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sirherrbatka
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Joined: 07 Aug 2011, 17:21

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by sirherrbatka »

For sound files, I am not entirely sure, but at least we support all that MW support.
MW is supporting mp3 and wav. With FFmpeg, we support almost everything, including ogg, mp4, flac and other types that are actually not suited for video game.
Chris
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Joined: 04 Sep 2011, 08:33

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by Chris »

sirherrbatka wrote:With FFmpeg, we support almost everything, including ogg, mp4, flac
Also s3m, it, and other module formats (for music), and speex (good for voice recordings). Also webm, mkv, and other video formats. Pretty much anything that ffmpeg supports should work with OpenMW, and the list of supported formats they have is impractical to fully list (and also depends on the build options used by the distro/repository you get them from).

For textures, we support anything Ogre does, which includes dds and tga (like vanilla), but also png, jpg, and more... though there's not much of a reason too, really. You should use DDS for DXT5, DXT3, DXT1, and other compressed formats the hardware can use directly, and when you want lossless textures (for normal maps, etc), it's best to store them raw (not png) to avoid load stutters.

For models, we unfortunately only support NIF since they can contain important character information that formats like Ogre's .mesh and .skeleton can't.
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Megaprana
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Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 09:49

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by Megaprana »

Thanks, guys. I'll get to work on my project as soon as possible, then. I'll probably post something about it when it's less of an idea and more of an early-stage creation.
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WeirdSexy
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Location: USA

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by WeirdSexy »

Megaprana wrote:Thanks, guys. I'll get to work on my project as soon as possible, then. I'll probably post something about it when it's less of an idea and more of an early-stage creation.
If you want some practice in working with a "total conversion" that uses no Morrowind assets before you get to work on your own project, look into the OpenMW Example Suite :D viewforum.php?f=25
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Megaprana
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Joined: 30 Nov 2013, 09:49

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by Megaprana »

WeirdSexy wrote:
Megaprana wrote:Thanks, guys. I'll get to work on my project as soon as possible, then. I'll probably post something about it when it's less of an idea and more of an early-stage creation.
If you want some practice in working with a "total conversion" that uses no Morrowind assets before you get to work on your own project, look into the OpenMW Example Suite :D viewforum.php?f=25
So, what's going on here is that you're all making an example TC for packaging with the engine? I may be able to contribute, given some time to catch up on the project (and as long as I don't procrastinate too much; my procrastination levels are notoriously awful :P).

Sounds fun. I presume it's a fantasy TC (no space-y stuff)?
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Greendogo
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Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by Greendogo »

Yeah, that's pretty much what we're doing. If you feel like contributing please apply in the showcase thread. You can be the first to use it! :-P
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Br0ken
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Location: Siberia

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by Br0ken »

According to GPLv3, it's forbidden to develop commercial closed-source games with OpenMW. I'm right?
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werdanith
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Joined: 26 Aug 2011, 16:18

Re: Some questions about OpenMW!

Post by werdanith »

Br0ken wrote:According to GPLv3, it's forbidden to develop commercial closed-source games with OpenMW. I'm right?
If you take OpenMW, make changes to the source code, compile it and ship it with your game assets without making the changes available then yes you are breaking the license.

But legally nothing prevents you from selling a game with your own proprietary assets and the OpenMW engine as long as you make available the source code and any changes that you made to it, afaik.
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