
OpenMW 0.40.0 Released - rocky1138
https://openmw.org/en/
======
btown
The legal status of this is fascinating. Essentially, it's blessed in a series
of email by Bethesda, as long as the OpenMW team doesn't explicitly promote
its use on mobile platforms - with the understanding, of course, that as a
cross-platform open-source engine, it could certainly be used for that
purpose. Bethesda had every reason to find legal ways to shut down the project
(it's quite the opposite of a clean-room implementation), but they worked to
find a happy medium that allowed the project to coexist with its own mobile
ambitions.

[https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title=Bethesda_Emails](https://wiki.openmw.org/index.php?title=Bethesda_Emails)

But it's certainly unclear in the general case whether engines that require
the user to provide their own (presumably legally purchased) data files are
derivative works of the original engine. It's even more iffy when, as is the
case for [https://pokemmo.eu/](https://pokemmo.eu/) , it might be illegal in
certain jurisdictions to obtain a ROM even if you have purchased the physical
product. Of course the creators protect themselves legally, but is it ethical
for a software product to effectively encourage users to break a law that is
itself unethical?

(IANAL)

~~~
Sevrene
So what's the difference between this and the whole Mojang 'scrolls' debacle?
Seems pretty strange Bethesda would let this fly compared to simply naming
your name Scrolls.

~~~
justinlardinois
Trademark versus copyright.

Also, my guess is that a court would reject the idea that you could trademark
as common a word as "scrolls," and Mojang simply conceded to avoid a costly
legal battle.

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beefsack
I'd like to take this opportunity to acknowledge what I feel is the greatest
FOSS reimplementation of a game engine: OpenTTD[1].

I'm sure many here fondly remember Transport Tycoon Deluxe, but for those who
don't know it, imagine Sim City but only the transportation side of things
(sea, air, road and rail.) The cities grow organically and you need to connect
them with each other and industries dotted around the map.

It also has multiplayer which is really fun if you want to work either with or
against others.

It seems the game is really enjoyable for analytical / engineering types, and
I still love to play it after over a decade since I found it.

Nowadays, OpenTTD is available via most popular distros' package managers,
along with free graphic and sound assets so you can jump right in[2].

[1]: [https://www.openttd.org/en/](https://www.openttd.org/en/)

[2]:

    
    
      pacman -S openttd openttd-opengfx openttd-opensfx
      apt install openttd openttd-opengfx openttd-opensfx
      yum install openttd openttd-opengfx

~~~
spb
Sounds like a more detailed version of Mini Metro:
[http://dinopoloclub.com/minimetro/](http://dinopoloclub.com/minimetro/)

~~~
beefsack
Apples and oranges, I'm not sure people who enjoy Mini Metro would
automatically take to TTD. Mini Metro is a fun little abstract puzzler, wheras
TTD is a fairly complex simulation.

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kevinmchugh
It's very good, runs the original game and both expansions very well. Mod
compatibility isn't complete yet, but they're working on it. It's great to be
back in that world, and to be able to play natively on a Mac or Linux machine.

Edit:The most important mod,Tamriel Rebuilt works flawlessly.
[http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org](http://www.tamriel-rebuilt.org)

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iamcreasy
Another group of developers are remaking Morrowind using Skyrim's engine. They
call it "The Elders Scroll Renewal Project".

Their latest dev video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_ldn6JQ0o](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KB_ldn6JQ0o)

~~~
anexprogrammer
On balance I wish I hadn't clicked that link. It's impressive. :)

I adored Morrowind and spent a ridiculous amount of time in it. I liked
Skyrim, but regretted the lack of depth of quests and in the world which is
built around you being a special snowflake.

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partycoder
I loved that Morrowind, especially the music, and the fact that you could see
the stars at night. A very immersive game.

However today it might look a bit dated, I hope for this project that can
bring some cool upgrades to the Morrowind experience as well as that it can
thrive from a legal standpoint.

Now, I never really enjoyed the fact you could enter a shop and steal from it,
and then sell it to the vendor. In Oblivion they fixed that.

~~~
boyter
From memory you couldn't. The owner would say something like hey that's mine
and you would gain a bounty instantly and guards would chase you.

~~~
partycoder
You could if you sold items from one vendor to another vendor, e.g: from
another town.

~~~
kirab
Yes but in the long-term this screwed you hard. If you ever stole e.g. a
diamond from one trader you could no longer sell that trader diamonds. Even
after years and dozens of looted diamonds you still couldn't sell diamonds
there.

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cyphar
It's awesome to see free software games being made, and it's pretty cool that
someone decided to reimplement one of the best open world games made. Finally
I might be able to play it on my GNU/Linux machine.

~~~
mynameislegion
This is only a free software game engine, not a free software game.

~~~
cyphar
However, they plan to expand the free software editor to the point where you
could create fully free game assets. So while it doesn't have that _yet_, it's
on the pre-1.0 roadmap.

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boriskourt
Awesome to see this project here! It also comes with an open source creation
kit that allows for standalone (non mod) games to be built with no Morrowind
associations. The whole thing runs on top of Open Scene Graph, and is multi-
platform out of the box. Their GitHub has some useful information as well:
[https://github.com/OpenMW/openmw](https://github.com/OpenMW/openmw)

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gravypod
This is something that makes me extremely happy. I can't wait until someone
tries something like this for FO3/NV as these are my favorite games.

Hopefully then I can jurry rig some kind of coop system into the game.

I can also be sure that my favorite game will be supported on all future
hardware I run, fix any bugs myself, and keep it going until I die. Without
VMs of course.

This is very important to me as these sorts of things aren't like books or
movies. People who don't game might not understand this. It's more like a
really really long game of chess that gets you purposefully emotionally
invested in certain characters. I think I'd feel emotionally sick if I lost
the ability to be able to start Fallout 3/NV and I don't even play it that
often due to college and work.

~~~
kevinmchugh
There have been fleeting little explorations into co-op with openmw:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq6bAEQ0fyg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq6bAEQ0fyg).
It's lower priority for now than complete mod compatibility, but an obvious
and awesome goal.

~~~
gravypod
Yes it is an awesome goal. Great to see it.

