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Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 14 Aug 2017, 10:17
by motaboy
Hi,

I'm just getting started with OpenMW and here are my questions:
- At the first start it says "Tribunal.esm needs Morrowind.esm". So I need to manually change the lines in the "openMW.cfg" to the correct order. Shouldn't that be mentioned somewhere (not just in the bugs section)? I think 90% got the same problem (clean Morrowind installation in Steam) and it's a good way getting started with working with .cfg files.

- OpenMW starts now, but how do I make it look better? Many mention working with the "settings.cfg", but all it looks like in my case is:
Spoiler: Show
I tried adding lines for more distant land, but it didn't work. Maybe someone can upload a "settings.cfg" with tweaked graphics? My settings.cfg now looks like this:
Spoiler: Show
- Last question: Why does my water look worse then in the original morrowind? :D


THanks for your help, maybe we could create a "step-by-step instruction" out of this thread for noobs like me :)

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 14 Aug 2017, 11:02
by Naugrim
motaboy wrote: 14 Aug 2017, 10:17 Hi,

I'm just getting started with OpenMW and here are my questions:
- At the first start it says "Tribunal.esm needs Morrowind.esm". So I need to manually change the lines in the "openMW.cfg" to the correct order. Shouldn't that be mentioned somewhere (not just in the bugs section)? I think 90% got the same problem (clean Morrowind installation in Steam) and it's a good way getting started with working with .cfg files.
No need to manually edit files, just reorder them in the launcher. Some people is actively working on improving the initial experience with the installer and launcher. So this improvements will come.
Here is my personal opinion, I don't thing that we should encourage manipulating files in the beginning. Right now, it is necessary if you want to keep mods in separated data folders, but other than that, you can use the launcher for almost everything and install as always (all in data).
motaboy wrote: 14 Aug 2017, 10:17 - OpenMW starts now, but how do I make it look better? Many mention working with the "settings.cfg", but all it looks like in my case is:
Can you define "look better"? OpenMW does not include meshes, textures or shaders. The only thing you can do out-of-the-box is increasing resolution (via launcher) and the "viewing distance" once distant terrain is on.
Btw, there are (with this) 3 recent post about Distant Land, I did not find the configuration hard, but the posts show otherwise. I think the problem is that that fact that you need to increase "viewing distance" is not obvious, maybe this should be included as an option in the launcher.

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 14 Aug 2017, 11:09
by DestinedToDie
As settings-default.cfg says, you shouldn't edit it. The file that you do want to edit is settings.cfg, which on Windows is located in my games/OpenMW folder.

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 14 Aug 2017, 11:43
by motaboy
Naugrim wrote: 14 Aug 2017, 11:02 No need to manually edit files, just reorder them in the launcher. Some people is actively working on improving the initial experience with the installer and launcher. So this improvements will come.
Here is my personal opinion, I don't thing that we should encourage manipulating files in the beginning. Right now, it is necessary if you want to keep mods in separated data folders, but other than that, you can use the launcher for almost everything and install as always (all in data).
Thanks for the answer! Because there is no "Morrowind.esm" in the load order, I can't reorder them. "Morrowind.esm" is just at the top with the drop-down menu, so i really had to edit the config.
Naugrim wrote: 14 Aug 2017, 11:02 Can you define "look better"? OpenMW does not include meshes, textures or shaders. The only thing you can do out-of-the-box is increasing resolution (via launcher) and the "viewing distance" once distant terrain is on.
Btw, there are (with this) 3 recent post about Distant Land, I did not find the configuration hard, but the posts show otherwise. I think the problem is that that fact that you need to increase "viewing distance" is not obvious, maybe this should be included as an option in the launcher.
What i meant to say with "look better" are the easiest tweaks in the setting.cfg. For me it was quite hard to find that all the possible changes are hidden in the "settings-default.cfg". I'm used to just edit lines in a config, adding lines is somehow unusual to me (and caused me much pain in skyrim). So I just copied all of the "settings-default" text into the "settings.cfg" to work with it.

I now set "distant terrain = true" and "viewing distance = 6666.6" - Is there anything else I can do? Increasing the "exterior cell load distance" seems to have no effect except lowering my FPS.

Btw., I fixed the water issue by just turning all water effects ingame on - sometimes it can be easier than expected :D

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 14 Aug 2017, 12:05
by DestinedToDie
"viewing distance = 6666.6"

This determines how far the fog goes. If you set the game to load 1 instead of 2 cells, those farther cells will still be covered by fog if your viewing distance is too low. I would increase your viewing distance so that you can see the extra loaded cells.

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 14 Aug 2017, 13:28
by motaboy
DestinedToDie wrote: 14 Aug 2017, 12:05 "viewing distance = 6666.6"

This determines how far the fog goes. If you set the game to load 1 instead of 2 cells, those farther cells will still be covered by fog if your viewing distance is too low. I would increase your viewing distance so that you can see the extra loaded cells.
Ah, thank you very much! I thought it was limited to "viewing distance = 6666.6" because in the settings-default.cfg it says "Maximum visible distance (e.g. 2000.0 to 6666.0)."

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 08 Jun 2018, 03:35
by Corwyn77
Naugrim wrote: 14 Aug 2017, 11:02
motaboy wrote: 14 Aug 2017, 10:17 Hi,

I'm just getting started with OpenMW and here are my questions:
- At the first start it says "Tribunal.esm needs Morrowind.esm". So I need to manually change the lines in the "openMW.cfg" to the correct order. Shouldn't that be mentioned somewhere (not just in the bugs section)? I think 90% got the same problem (clean Morrowind installation in Steam) and it's a good way getting started with working with .cfg files.
No need to manually edit files, just reorder them in the launcher. Some people is actively working on improving the initial experience with the installer and launcher. So this improvements will come.
Here is my personal opinion, I don't thing that we should encourage manipulating files in the beginning. Right now, it is necessary if you want to keep mods in separated data folders, but other than that, you can use the launcher for almost everything and install as always (all in data).
I have the same problem. though in my case, the problem is with Bloodmoon. It says check the load order.

What is meant by reordering load order in the launcher?

If you mean the Morrowind launcher, they are in the right order. If you mean the openmw launcher, I get no option like that. All I see is a choice between default and the Morrowind install that I set today. Nothing about load order.

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 13 Jun 2018, 03:55
by Thunderforge
Corwyn77 wrote: 08 Jun 2018, 03:35 I have the same problem. though in my case, the problem is with Bloodmoon. It says check the load order.
There's a good chance that you ran into this bug, which has been fixed in the upcoming OpenMW 0.44. You can either download the latest nightly (see the top-right of the wiki for links) and re-import Morrowind, or you can manually fix it like so:
  • Find the openmw.cfg file on your platform
  • Open it in a text editor
  • Scroll down to the bottom where there should be a few lines that say stuff like "content=Morrowind.esm"
  • If this is the bug I mentioned above, then Tribunal and/or Bloodmoon will be above Morrowind. Reorder them so that Morrowind is followed by Tribunal and Bloodmoon
  • Save openmw.cfg
If that doesn't fix it, let us know and we can try other stuff.

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 13 Jun 2018, 17:13
by AnyOldName3
If you can run the launcher, it should be faster to just click and drag the DLC into the right order.

Re: Getting started / Rookie questions

Posted: 13 Jun 2018, 17:19
by Thunderforge
AnyOldName3 wrote: 13 Jun 2018, 17:13 If you can run the launcher, it should be faster to just click and drag the DLC into the right order.
That is indeed faster if the error is that Bloodmoon is loaded before Tribunal (does it matter which order they are in?). But if the error is that Bloodmoon is loaded before core Morrowind (which is the error I am referring to), then that's not possible since you can't use the Launcher to reorder the base game in relation to the mods, since Morrowind is in the dropdown menu above the list of mods.