openmw.org

I was wondering if there is a way to do multiple completely separate installs. By that I mean one instance of OpenMW that only points to my main game, a different copy that does not share any of the settings that points to my less-modded game data install that I use for testing mods that I work on, and a third copy that points to the total conversion mod I downloaded a few days ago. My main concern is keeping the TC separate as it includes new splash screens, interface colors, and other thematic aesthetic differences that I do not want in my main game, but when I tried just switching the data folder in my OpenMW back to my regular game it kept the interface changes even though the regular game was otherwise restored. I tried installing two copies in separate folders but it turns out they both read the same configuration file in My Documents and load the same mod list. Please help!

OpenMW relies on a local directory (the exact location depends on your OS). What many people do is having differently named local OpenMW folders and "activating" only one of them by renaming it "OpenMW". On Windows, it could look something like this:
It's not the most elegant solution, but it works like a charm. You only need to remember to change your directory when playing with another installation.

In theory, we could change this and allow users to put their local directory whereever they want, but we've discussed this in the past and decided not to do this for practical and technical reasons.

OpenMW follows the xdg variables, so just set $XDG_DATA_HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to different places for each installation, you can wrap the executable in a little script to set the variables up and start openmw.

ezze wrote: ↑13 May 2021, 17:43 OpenMW follows the xdg variables, so just set $XDG_DATA_HOME and $XDG_CONFIG_HOME to different places for each installation, you can wrap the executable in a little script to set the variables up and start openmw.

On Linux at least. Does it try to read those variables on Windows too? IIRC, Windows has some AppData environment variables, though I don't know which OpenMW uses.

Thanks, got it working. Turns out I just needed different versions of the openmw.cfg file, each pointing to a different install directory. I have three versions of that file which I drag and drop into the folder when I want to switch environment. I tested switching between the environments and it works cleanly. If I discover and decide to download more TCs in the future I will continue to use this method.