OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation

Enthusiasm for OpenMW and Morrowind Mods

• Many commenters are deeply impressed by OpenMW’s maturity and scope, including experimental loading of Skyrim/Fallout/Oblivion content and plans for multiplayer.
• Tamriel Rebuilt and related projects (Project Tamriel) are highlighted as enormous, lore-friendly expansions that effectively create a “Morrowind 2+” within the original style.
• People praise OpenMW’s stability compared to the original executable and appreciate features like expanded Lua scripting and improved controller support (notably for Steam Deck).

Graphics, Immersion, and Technical Limitations

• There’s praise for modern graphics: shaders, volumetric effects, higher draw distance, and PBR textures.
• Some feel extreme view distances and ultra-clear visuals damage the sense of scale and mystery; fog and volumetric effects are seen as important for preserving atmosphere.
• Others note that heavy water reflections, clouds, shadows, and certain waterfall mods can still tank performance; better culling, LOD, and batching are desired.
• UI remains a pain point, especially for inventory and shop filtering/sorting.

Cultural Preservation, IP, and Ownership Debates

• Strong sentiment that long-lived games become cultural artifacts that should be protected from publisher control, forced updates, and DRM-dependent servers.
• Suggested remedies include: shorter copyright terms, automatic public-domain status for “abandonware,” popularity-based obligations to open games/mod APIs, or mandatory open-source code.
• Opponents argue that tying legal obligations to popularity or usage time is dangerous and unpredictable for creators, and that developers must retain freedom to ship breaking updates and evolve games.
• There is broad agreement that current copyright duration is excessive and harms preservation, but disagreement on how far new regulations should go.

Opinions on Bethesda and Paid Modding

• Several commenters criticize Bethesda’s post-Fallout 3 output (especially Skyrim) as shallow, buggy, and overly reliant on community modding to become good.
• Defenders value the worlds chiefly as modding sandboxes and open-ended roleplaying spaces.
• There is widespread suspicion of paid modding initiatives; many fear they would damage the organic, collaborative mod ecosystems that make these games special.

Ecosystem, Modding Tools, and Ease of Entry

• Morrowind’s modding scene is described as huge and longstanding, helped by shipping official tools on the original discs.
• People recommend curated OpenMW modlists and one-click installers to avoid the “two evenings of manual mod setup” trap.
• Advice for newcomers includes altering the leveling system, using magic-focused builds, adding balanced teleportation/fast-travel mods, and QoL tweaks like reduced cliff racers.

Related Projects and Platforms

• Commenters mention TES3MP (multiplayer fork), and compare OpenMW to other reimplementation projects like OpenTTD, FreeDoom, OpenRA, VCMI, Widelands, etc.
• OpenMW is praised as turning devices like the Steam Deck into dedicated “Morrowind machines,” using tools like Luxtorpeda to transparently launch it instead of the original executable.
• Some feel many modern texture/lighting packs push the look toward overly bright, high-contrast “HD” aesthetics that clash with Morrowind’s original overcast, muted atmosphere.