1.0 Release

[sonicboom12345]

Hi,

Up front, I want to say, thanks for all your work! You guys are amazing, and your love for the game shows through your dedication.

I've been following for a long time, and I'm curious what the timeline is for a 1.0 release. I've watched a lot of projects come and go over the years, and one thing I've noticed is a lot of them fall into the trap of, "It's done when it's done," which never has a good outcome. At what point can we expect to see a finished release?

Thanks.

[Capostrophic]

Sorry, but it's really done when it is done.

[DestinedToDie]

Maybe when we get shadows and distant land. Not sure if anyone's currently working on them tho.

[lysol]

Check the roadmap in the bugtracker. The features left to do until 1.0 is officially ready for release are:

Version 0.43:

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Feature #824: Fading for doors and teleport commands
Feature #1161: Autodetect encoding of Morrowind installation files
Feature #2509: Editor: highlighting occurrences of a word in a script
Feature #2834: have openMW's UI remember what menu items were 'pinned' across boots.
Feature #2860: [MAC OS X] Cannot Command + Tab while in fullscreen
Feature #2923: Option to show the damage of the arrows through tooltip.
Feature #3099: Disabling inventory while dragging an item forces you to drop it
Feature #3274: OpenMW-CS: Script Editor - Shortcuts and context menu options for commenting code out and uncommenting code respectively
Feature #3442: Default values for fallbacks from ini file
Feature #3491: Support Software-Side Gamma Correction
Feature #3492: Show success rate while enchanting
Feature #3537: Water ripple vfx
Feature #3602: Implement NiBillboardNode flags
Feature #3740: Gamepad GUI Mode

Version 1.0:

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Feature #452: Rain-induced water ripples
Feature #1113: NPC door AI
Feature #1374: AI: Resurface to breathe
Feature #1421: Console commands (Help, ToggleBorders)
Feature #1645: Casting effects from objects
Feature #1724: Handle AvoidNode
Feature #2229: Improve pathfinding AI

So when these tasks are done, 1.0 should be done. The thing that makes it hard to guess is that sometimes more features gets added. Why so, then? Because someone might find that there's a feature that Morrowind has that is neither in OpenMW already or in the bugtracker. Also, the list of bug fixes in each version is enormous and these are more or less impossible to know beforehand that they will be added to the bugtracker.

[psi29a]

Why does it matter?

If you want to play Morrowind with OpenMW, then do it. As it is right now, it is better than Vanilla Morrowind out of the box. 1.0 is just a number, if I had to wait until all the software I use becomes "1.0" then I wouldn't even bother having a computer.

[lysol]

Why does it matter?

If you want to play Morrowind with OpenMW, then do it. As it is right now, it is better than Vanilla Morrowind out of the box. 1.0 is just a number, if I had to wait until all the software I use becomes "1.0" then I wouldn't even bother having a computer.

This.

[CMAugust]

I follow OpenMW closely not just for its present usefulness but for its future promise - namely, all the things that will be possible when "the great dehardcoding" is complete. A process which, as has been explained time and again, will only begin when OpenMW 1.0 is officially released and not a moment sooner. So I can understand people's enthusiasm to see that magical number in the not too distant future.

[psi29a]

People said that about MultiPlayer too, but it is already being worked, well before before 1.0

What is meant by "not before 1.0" is that the core developers don't see it happening until what they deem to be "1.0". It doesn't mean that someone else might come along and start working on it. Developers come and go in FOSS so it is very hard judge and give an answer when things will be finished or ready since software is almost never finished.

[sonicboom12345]

Why does it matter?

If you want to play Morrowind with OpenMW, then do it. As it is right now, it is better than Vanilla Morrowind out of the box. 1.0 is just a number, if I had to wait until all the software I use becomes "1.0" then I wouldn't even bother having a computer.

Because most people (myself included) will not begin a 400+ hour game if there's even an outside possibility that a future update will break everything and force a restart, and this is a notorious problem with in-beta software...

Because a 1.0 release implies full compatibility with all mods, and as of now I don't see this advertised anywhere, at least not anywhere obvious...

Because if the PR leads are wise, they will coordinate with Wired, Kotaku, GiantBomb, Destructoid, The Escapist, TB, Jim Serling, etc. and milk a 1.0 release for a lot of press, which could generate a ton of renewed interest in Morrowind and inject a whole lot of new blood into the community and the modding scene, especially with the engine going open source, and that would have reverberating repercussions far beyond OpenMW itself...

For all of these reasons, really. It's my opinion that projects that are only done "when they're done" are usually on a path to misfortune... They lose vision and perspective on an uphill climb towards perfection, which becomes ever-steeper... And they cede valuable opportunities along the way. I'm just some nobody on the Internet that you have no reason to pay attention or listen to, but my advice is, set a reasonable deadline for yourselves that will allow you to put out a quality 1.0 release in the next three to six months and go for it. Seems like it's not an unreasonable goal given how short your feature lists are.

[Greendogo]

Agree, 1.0 is just a number. The best things that are going to come out of reaching 1.0 is being able to get work done on post-1.0 features which will mostly benefit performance and modding ability. A lot of the save file format has to stay stable until 1.0 because we (Zini, Scrawl, etc.) will need to piece together and agree on what to do next in an additive fashion and still have the project and structures it's built upon be organized.

If we just started adding post 1.0 features right now, there'd be a lot of problems with the save-file format; in addition, things that don't effect the save-file would take developer focus away from getting bugs crunched and 1.0 features added.

Have faith, play the game on OpenMW, it's already amazing.