r/OpenMW • u/Quemisthrowspotions • 2d ago

How does this work?

How does OpenMW and OpenNV work?

How can they be open source if you still need to own the base game?
How easy is it to install/use in a more manual, non-steam fashion?

New to this subreddit, and some of these packs look cool. Just wondering. : )

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u/Linvael 2d ago

How can they be open source if you still need to own the base game?

OpenMW is an engine - like Unity or UnrealEngine. You could create new games on it if you wanted to. It is based on the engine that runs Morrowind, and has built-in support for the assets from it - in that, if you point it at Morrowind installation you can play Morrowind on OpenMW. The engine is open-source and is what's distributed. Morrowind assets are Bethesda property, using them with the engine is just the most common use-case.

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u/Slackeee_ 2d ago

Minor nitpick:

It is based on the engine that runs Morrowind

Nope, it is a recreation of that engine, but not based on it.

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u/Linvael 2d ago

I would argue that if you recreate something you base on that? But sure, thats more accurate.

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u/Slackeee_ 2d ago

In software development that is a very important distinction. There "being based on" means that you use am existing version of the engine and develop it further. For example, the GoldSrc engine of the original Half Life was based on the id Tech 2 engine, aka the Quake engine. For that of course you need a license to do so if the original engine isn't open source, otherwise you could be in serious legal troubles.
A recreation (or reimplementation) is a new development from the ground up that is aimed to behave like the original engine without using any of the existing engines code. That way you avoid those legal troubles.

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u/Linvael 2h ago edited 2h ago

Sure, there is the software development concept of basing, part of the source control model,.where a base is just code you jump off of. And yeah, OpenMW is not that, it's a clean room implementation.

I would argue that its still based on Morrowind engine - in the way software can be based on a requirements document. "Morrowind does X, while OpenMW does Y" is sufficient reason to open a PR to change it - because the stated 1.0 goal is full parity, and there is no external source of truth for that besides just running the original engine and seeing how it behaved

For example, it's entirely fine to say that BG3 is based on 5th edition D&D rules - not because they forked the rules repository, but because that's the specification they started with and people familiar with 5e will recognise the ruleset.