Simple Graphics Mod List

[Effortlessdepths]

Hello all,

I'll try to keep this simple and quick. I need suggestions on a lightweight list of mods to make Morrowind LOOK good again, as in graphics, lighting, faces, foliage, that kind of thing. I know there is a very large overhaul mod list on this site, but I am not super great at dealing with mods. Don't get me wrong, I have vortex and have about 8 mods installed, with Morrowind Enhanced Textures and all the gameplay mods I like. But troubleshooting is something that I'm not terribly well equipped to deal with. I can handle some stuff, but I am just not confident and experienced dealing with mods. It's hard to describe my skill level with this. With the Morrowind Enhanced Textures mod, i honestly can't tell a difference in the quality of graphics, and just wish it looked better. I've watched youtube vids of people making it look great but it's all script extender stuff that openMW doesn't support. Anyone have a more lightweight list of mods that can still make the light, foliage, faces, and general graphics look better, without overwhelming me with 100+ mods? Sorry I'm such a noob, just really want to get back into Morrowind again. Any help is appreciated.

[ezze]

It is really a problem, there are not comprehensive graphics improvements.

Here is my experience, the first and most grave offenders are fonts and scrolls. Just changing those two helps a lot in the game.
Fonts and scrolls.
Besides, here is the settings.cfg I use. You may need to change the values depending on your resolution and screen size.

Code: Select all

[GUI]
scaling factor = 1.5
font size = 20

The second are the signpost, why no names?... I use Signposts Retextured, but you can try Daedric Signposts if you feel hardcore.


The third worst offender are the icon of scrolls and potions. They look so samey.
Fortunately an old mod from by Erasmus helps a lot giving each potion and scroll type a nice colorful icon.


While there are no comprehensive graphics improvement there are, at least, few texture improvements that include everything.
Watercolored Morrowind uses a clever idea, instead of adding details it makes the textures look like an watercolor, or oil, painting. If you like the aesthetic it is a nice solution, the only problem is that usual textures will look out of place and may need to edit them. While it is easy with Gimp, it is a bit annoying.

Otherwise Intelligent Textures as a base, plus some high resolution pack like the Morrowind Visual Pack on top.

It is a matter of taste, but I like more to see little squares than blurry textures. So in settings.cfg I use those settings:

Code: Select all

[General]
texture mag filter = nearest
texture min filter = nearest
texture mipmap = nearest

Finally, I found simple but effective to use Animated containers and Weapon Sheathing.

I am aware you asked about graphics, but I found that also sounds help a lot.
I suggest to use
Better Sounds Data, Better Sounds esp, and the still unbeaten creepy Daggerfall Skeleton Sounds.

The classic of course is Ducan's Atmospheric Sound Effects, but I found the loop sound of wind really noisy. It is probably a difference between OpenMW and vanilla for the read me mentions that even the original morrowind has differences about how it processes sounds between Tribunal and the base game.


Done those steps, play a bit. If something irk your eyes go in the openmw mod lists and see if something is already there. Otherwise browse the nexus and the morrowind mod history, as example Mr. Swiveller mods can help.

Since OpenMW, unlike the vanilla Morrowind, has a sane way to manage mods you can easily keep textures in order of priority. If you do not like some textures, just delete them (or remove the whole mod if applicable) and the game will automatically use the one back on the list.
As example I find the Morrowind Visual Pack Imperial castle terrible, but if I delete the related tx_imp_ textures OpenMW will automatically use the Intelligent Textures.

[Effortlessdepths]

Thank you so much for the detailed reply, I appreciate your time. I will try these out and give it a whirl. Can I install these on an active file? Or do I have to start a new character?

[ezze]

If there is no .esp (or .esm) file installation is dead easy and safe; just unpack the archive in a directory and refers the openmw.cfg file to it. If you change your mind and don't like it, just remove the reference to the openmw.cfg file and delete.

Even if the mod does have an .esp file, since the mods are graphical in nature I am fairly sure it is safe anyhow. In the worst case scenario your character will be stuck in a new stone or something like that. Just use the tcl cheat in the case to move away and save in a new slot.

[AnyOldName3]

As OpenMW's main graphics programmer, I feel obliged to strongly recommend against using nearest-neighbour texture filtering in any situation other than Minecraft. It's objectively less realistic, and if your eyes and optic nerve work anything resembling normally, it shouldn't look prettier unless you've actively worked to convince yourself otherwise.

[ezze]

I always thought it was just a matter of taste, as expressed by sentences like "my round and nice is your blurry" or its opposite "my sharp is your deformed".

I do wear glasses, but I never trained to like one option more than the other... What do you suggest to use?

[AnyOldName3]

So basically a texture isn't really an image, just a sampling of a continuous function in 2D. You want the GPU to be able to reconstruct that function and apply it to a surface. Even if it's not a particularly accurate reconstruction, at least bilinear filtering preserves the continuous property and doesn't artificially insert hard edges where they didn't exist originally. Your eyes definitely notice the presence of hard edges.

Maybe if you're trying to texture a mosaic nearest neighbour is good, too, as there are hard edges in the original signal.

Anyway, I'd recommend leaving the texture sampling settings at the default (which is linear), and turning anisotropic filtering up as high as you can get it. On a desktop machine, this should be approximately free, but it can have a hit on phones and tablets, and sometimes also integrated graphics, too.

[ezze]

Back to the topic: to be sure that what I said made sense I tried it myself. I used Watercolored in the past, and now I tried the other way.

I think it works quite fine, a part of the Silt Strider, both the alive ones and the carapaces are still terribly low res. Vurt helps for the alive ones and here is for the dead ones.


Edit: I almost forgot. In my game I changed the settings of the fog, from the Morrowind.ini file, so that the fog has almost the same color of the sky. So, the game world seems to blend in the sky. If you like it I can find a way to share the values.

[Effortlessdepths]

Wow you guys really know your stuff... definitely a noob here, you'll see when I ask my next question. Besides the suggestions you've given for enhancing graphics for morrowind, I wanted you guys to take a look at my mod list and tell me if there is something vital missing, like a code patch or something, because I KNOW there is stuff missing. Here's what I'm running:

Linoras Leveling Mod
Better Governing Attributes
Unofficial Morrowind Official Plugins Patched
Morrowind Optimization Patch
Morrowind Enhanced Textures
Better Balanced Combat

That's it... so what's missing that's VITAL, besides everyone's suggestions for graphics mods? And keep in mind I have a character going that I don't want to restart

[Effortlessdepths]

Also, forgot to say this. Just watched the video "How to Morrowind" on youtube, and I really like the look of what the morrowind graphics extender does to the game. I love how it truly increases how far you can see in the world, and really let's me see ahead, like at 2:52 in the video. That's the kind of stuff I want. I know the graphics extender doesn't work with openMW, so what do I need to do to make it look as much like that as possible? I'm hearing this guy on the video say things like "bloom" "shaders" "meshes" "shadows" -- that's the stuff I want I guess, that's what I mean by graphics. Yeah, now can you see that I'm a noob lol? And god I want to change the faces. I know I've asked a lot of questions here, but I could really use some help on all the things I've said. I want to rock this game