Everyone's excited for Skyblivion, but one dedicated dev has been working for years to go in the opposite direction: cramming Oblivion into a version of Morrowind's engine⁠—and they've got a good reason for it too

GamesRPGOblivionEveryone’s excited for Skyblivion, but one dedicated dev has been working for years to go in the opposite direction: cramming Oblivion into a version of Morrowind’s engine⁠—and they’ve got a good reason for it tooWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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[WIP] NPC Dialogue (pt. 4) - YouTubeWatch On

[WIP] NPC Dialogue (pt. 4) - YouTube

That OpenMW distinction is key here: this isn’t some kind of meme demake, but rather an attempt to port these games to a flexible, open source engine, with all the benefits that entails. Some of the improvements OpenMW has already brought to Morrowind include:

It’s basicallytheway to play Morrowind these days, and cc9cii knows what they’re doing: the dev is listed as a contributor on theOpenMW team page. Their primary concern seems to be preservation: while big hits from RPG juggernaut Bethesda aren’t in any danger of becoming lost media or anything, we can already observe how third-party projects likeDaggerfall Unityand OpenMW have facilitated more accessible, even enjoyable ways of playing Daggerfall and Morrowind.

That’s still a long way off for Oblivion, Fallout 3, and New Vegas though, with cc9cii periodically uploading progress videos of Oblivion in Morrowind that showcase the reimplementing of basic features likeMorrowind-style dialogue menusbut with Oblivion’s full voice overs or the host of more intricateanimations and level geometry changespresent in Oblivion.

Indeed, the main appeal right now is just seeing a funky,vaguely haunted version of Oblivionchopped and screwed with sounds and UI elements from Morrowind. The big winner in the long run will definitely be New Vegas though, which cc9cii hasdemoed a few times in OpenMW. As it stands, a careful latticework of fixes and mods like theTick FixandAnti-Crashare mandatory for enjoying Obsidian’s 2010 classic, and it strikes me as the Bethesda Gamebryo engine project that would most benefit from a full retrofit.

This isn’t the only project of its kind I’ve seen out there either, though cc9cii seems like the most active developer. Unfortunately,Xoreos, an open-source implementation of BioWare’s legendary Aurora engine, seems to have been quiet for a few years now. Xoreos aimed to port much of BioWare’s catalogue⁠—includingKnights of the Old Republicand evenDragon Age: Origins⁠—to an open-source version of the tech powering its 2002 RPG, Neverwinter Nights.

[WIP] FalloutNV Facial Hair and Facial Animations - YouTubeWatch On

[WIP] FalloutNV Facial Hair and Facial Animations - YouTube

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