Openmw and Skywind

[Chris]

Would it be interesting then to abstract it out a bit?

It more or less is. It mainly just requires us to write a loader for the formats we want to support.

[psi29a]

Would it be interesting then to abstract it out a bit?

It more or less is. It mainly just requires us to write a loader for the formats we want to support.

Then nothing would stop us from supporting other (later) versions of the NIF? Ignoring, of course, the extra bits that came with the format that we don't yet support. This would please modders immensely.

[sirherrbatka]

the problem is the nif format itself. It is poorly documented and somewhat difficult to understand. This would require substential ammount of effort that could used to do many other things instead.

[psi29a]

the problem is the nif format itself. It is poorly documented and somewhat difficult to understand. This would require substential ammount of effort that could used to do many other things instead.

You're ignoring the fact that people work on what they want to work on.

[Chris]

Then nothing would stop us from supporting other (later) versions of the NIF?

Technically, no, there's nothing stopping us. However, there's complications because the NIF record structures change between versions and we don't have a system in place to handle a given record type having different fields and properties for different NIF versions.

Ultimately, it would be better to support an open, extensible model format instead of an ever-changing proprietary one.

[psi29a]

I agree that there should be a better format for creating new content, but how many 'standards' are there now and do we really want to create a new one?

We should, eventually, support additional revisions of the NIF format.

OpenMW is moving beyond just Morrowind, as a result we should be aiming to be as inclusive as possible (within reason) considering that other people have done a lot of work already in other formats.

[Chris]

I agree that there should be a better format for creating new content, but how many 'standards' are there now and do we really want to create a new one?

There's been a push to get OpenGEX widely supported by modeling apps. That's certainly something to look in to at some point.

[Okulo]

I just can't help but feel kinda sad that so much amazing work gets done for a skyrim mod instead of an engine that has the possibility to become so much more.

Pretty much this. It's a huge waste, to the point of it being a loss to the community. All OpenMW can do is attempt to pick up the slack and adapt, since we sadly lack the visual power and huge rabid fanboy community that Skyrim has.

Also, from what I've seen, the voice acting is pretty hit and miss. Don't forget that the Skywind videos only show what is good, and aren't very transparent about what is not possible or how they're going to deviate from the original. They're much better at public relations than I am since they won't talk about possible dealbreakers.

[lysol]

Don't forget that the Skywind videos only show what is good, and aren't very transparent about what is not possible or how they're going to deviate from the original. They're much better at public relations than I am since they won't talk about possible dealbreakers.

True, and something I thought about when watching that trailer too. Why are they only showing these very specific parts of the game?

[sjek]

Well as im in to this now the opengex http://opengex.org/ already have some importers and template to write own one available. that jmonkey got some discussion about arctitechture. Basically barebone custosimable format is the goal as of october by one.

http://hub.jmonkeyengine.org/forum/topi ... a-and-fbx/

Two first in google search someway by now however that googles click and find algorithm works anyway.. but the marketing world is trange and the most graightforward place in the same time have to say xP

Old car salesman tactic with repairing insurance.... salesman's etchics is the another point. All maybe depents on by can they pull it off in the long run. Getting skyrim oriented players to play partly unforgiving vanderfall is kinda challenge. Have to give to skyrim that it's AI scripting ( enemy placements exp. ) and such can be kinda versatile as it's. Base game beth might have done unchangeable for the sake of morrowind and oblivion / market in general thought.