Skywind - Recreating a Modern Classic

PC Gamer discusses Skywind and how it is reinventing an old favorite.

A mushroom towers above you, reaching for the sky. The place feels familiar, but the light has changed. Plants have taken root in previously barren land, new rocks jut from the earth like gnarled fingers. It’s the same, but different—a place inspired by what came before. “A complete remake and re-imagining of Morrowind,” in the words of Brandon Giles, one of the lead developers of the ambitious community project Skywind. The mod aims to draw players fresh and old to the world of Bethesda’s 14-year-old RPG.

Skywind had its inception in 2012. The seeds can be found in Morroblivion, which ported Morrowind’s content into Oblivion’s engine. Once the project came to an end, some leftover team members decided to attempt a similar feat—this time using Skyrim as their base.

“It wasn’t until late into the following year that the project evolved into what it is now,” Giles says of the Elder Scrolls Renewal Project, of which Skywind is a part. “[We] aspired to do something greater than a mere port of Morrowind. No one really knows the exact point that this switch happened, but I think as we got more and more talented individuals on board, we really broadened our horizons and looked to make something much more special. Since then the vision has only grown.”

Skywind’s global team was brought together by a love of the Elder Scrolls series. They’re all volunteers, and their ultimate reward for the thousands of hours invested will be the finished project itself. The challenge they have set is to take a classic and renovate it, improving it graphically and bringing the world’s density, life and interactions up to the standards set by today’s open-world games.

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Great article, it shows how hard can be a volunteer project this size and how much faith they're putting on it! This one and Enderal are my most-wanted projects.

Also, the article mentions Morroblivion project and I have some doubts here: Is it already finished ? Does it keep some Morrowind vibe ? If it's finished, is it worth playing ?

Originally Posted by henriquejr
Great article, it shows how hard can be a volunteer project this size and how much faith they're putting on it! This one and Enderal are my most-wanted projects.

Also, the article mentions Morroblivion project and I have some doubts here: Is it already finished ? Does it keep some Morrowind vibe ? If it's finished, is it worth playing ?

I have not played it but according to the mod dev, Morroblivion is 100% done

Current Status (version 0.64)
Morrowind: 100% of the main Morrowind game has been completed, and is fairly well debugged (details here). There is very little that gets in the way of a complete Morrowind experience.
Tribunal: Main quest is 99% complete (with the exception of some creature models) and playable. Sidequests are 100% complete.
Bloodmoon: All quests are complete, including main questline, East Empire Company questline and various sidequests.

I see this map on there and all the good memories came flooding back in…. I must have spent counless hours looking at that printed map … I wish they still do map like this rather than travesty we get with Oblvion and Skyrim.

I hope the more skilled Skywind artists will gather enough experience and routine that they will be hired by pro devstudios with good salaries!

Why doesn't Bethesda just make a good more complicated game next time around?..

Originally Posted by Eron
Why doesn't Bethesda just make a good more complicated game next time around?..

Money.

No.
It's just that it wouldn't work on phones.

Good article. I would only appreciate more details about how they tried to merge those two combat systems. That part is pretty vague.

I didnt know that they work on new quests. So Skywind = Morrowind Extended edition?

Skywind is a nice project and all, but there is far far more potential on OpenMW. There's a shame that no one talks about it, because OpenMW with Tamriel Rebuilt and the other province mods will make for the ultimate edition of Morrowind. Heck I'd venture to say it will be the definitive TES experience.

Originally Posted by LanceTheeGamer
Skywind is a nice project and all, but there is far far more potential on OpenMW. There's a shame that no one talks about it, because OpenMW with Tamriel Rebuilt and the other province mods will make for the ultimate edition of Morrowind. Heck I'd venture to say it will be the definitive TES experience.

I confess I didn't even know OpenMW exists. Do the devs do the right marketing?

Originally Posted by LanceTheeGamer
Skywind is a nice project and all, but there is far far more potential on OpenMW. There's a shame that no one talks about it, because OpenMW with Tamriel Rebuilt and the other province mods will make for the ultimate edition of Morrowind. Heck I'd venture to say it will be the definitive TES experience.

OpenMW is still using the original, rather dated assets from the core game, though. The engine itself does not seem to be significantly more advanced than the original.

Originally Posted by henriquejr
I confess I didn't even know OpenMW exists. Do the devs do the right marketing?

I'm on mobile so I can't really link you to anything, but yes it's well known within the Morrowind community. There is a YouTube and Twitter at the very least, not to mention that Morrowind Modding Showcases (a YouTube channel primarily) covers it a good deal.

It's no surprise that Skywind is all the rage however. Skyrim is the newest TES game and the only one that most people have played. Of course the fact that Morrowind has been remade my fans in both its sequels and has an open source recoding shows how timeless it is.

Originally Posted by Ripper
OpenMW is still using the original, rather dated assets from the core game, though. The engine itself does not seem to be significantly more advanced than the original.

That's where you're mistaken. The only reason the original assets are being used is because OpenMW is designed to be a modern reinterpretation of the original engine. This means multi ore support, multi GPU support, more advanced lighting, AI, more advanced assets, etc. OpenMW is still in beta the the moment, but it is nearly at the point where it is on par with the original game's functionality (Version 1.0). After that point the improvements will be worked on. Don't forget it's an open source engine, anyone with the proper skills can work on tweaking it far into the future.

Originally Posted by LanceTheeGamer
That's where you're mistaken. The only reason the original assets are being used is because OpenMW is designed to be a modern reinterpretation of the original engine. This means multi ore support, multi GPU support, more advanced lighting, AI, more advanced assets, etc. OpenMW is still in beta the the moment, but it is nearly at the point where it is on par with the original game's functionality (Version 1.0). After that point the improvements will be worked on. Don't forget it's an open source engine, anyone with the proper skills can work on tweaking it far into the future.

Well, it's hard to know what they may make of it in the future, but as of now, they are pretty clear that it is using only the original assets, and working on simply being a replacement for the original exe. They've been working just on that goal since 2008. As an open-source project, it might one day become the greatest engine in existence, but at this point, I think Skywind looks far more convincing as an upgraded version of Morrowind.

Originally Posted by Ripper
Well, it's hard to know what they may make of it in the future, but as of now, they are pretty clear that it is using only the original assets, and working on simply being a replacement for the original exe. They've been working just on that goal since 2008. As an open-source project, it might one day become the greatest engine in existence, but at this point, I think Skywind looks far more convincing as an upgraded version of Morrowind.

Right, as the initial goal of OpenMW is to become the new vanilla experience. After which the improvements can be made. Ask yourself this, why does Morrowind use such primitive assets? The answer is obvious, engine limitations. After OpenMW is brought up to par, what's stopping modders from porting Skywind assets into OpenMW?

Originally Posted by LanceTheeGamer
Right, as the initial goal of OpenMW is to become the new vanilla experience. After which the improvements can be made. Ask yourself this, why does Morrowind use such primitive assets? The answer is obvious, engine limitations. After OpenMW is brought up to par, what's stopping modders from porting Skywind assets into OpenMW?

I don't know what the permissions issues are with regard to Skywind assets. If they are open, that sounds like a good idea.

The quality of the assets is not necessarily constrained by the engine itself, but rather by the power of the hardware at the time of creation. It's often quite possible to use higher quality assets in an older engine. Most of the Skyrim assets have already been greatly upgraded by modders.

As I say, in theory, OpenMW could become the best TES engine we've ever seen, and that would be wonderful. But, I think we'll be waiting a very long time before their implementation surpasses what Skywind can do by borrowing the Skyrim engine.

Originally Posted by Ripper
I don't know what the permissions issues are with regard to Skywind assets. If they are open, that sounds like a good idea.

The quality of the assets is not necessarily constrained by the engine itself, but rather by the power of the hardware at the time of creation. It's often quite possible to use higher quality assets in an older engine. Most of the Skyrim assets have already been greatly upgraded by modders.

As I say, in theory, OpenMW could become the best TES engine we've ever seen, and that would be wonderful. But, I think we'll be waiting a very long time before their implementation surpasses what Skywind can do by borrowing the Skyrim engine.

I agree, the hardware from 2002 had a part to play, but so does the outdated engine. For instance, did you know that Morrowind (unlike the newer games) renders things you cannot see? Such as things behind you, and over the next hill. That's terribly inefficient. There are other issues that made the engine less than ideal. Hopefully Skywind will share its assets with Morrowind. Then the only difference between the two will be mechanics.

When it comes to Skywind I'm not as excited because of two main points. One, is that Morrowind's greatest mods are not being ported. Mods such as Tamriel Rebuilt and Morrowind Rebirth are huge deals. Two, is that I prefer Morrowind's mechanics to Skyrims. Skywind will me forced to deal with Skyrim style mechanics (no attributes, limited customization, no spellmaking, etc). OpenMW also adds the potential to tweak Morrowind's mechanics as you see fit, even adding Skyrim style gameplay if so desired. I'll still end up trying out Skywind of course.

I hope either openmw or skywind will come with controller support. Does anyone know?

Just activating shadows adds a lot of depth. It definitely needs to had grass and low growths added though; the ground looks very bare bones.

Originally Posted by joxer
No.
It's just that it wouldn't work on phones.

Some phones have more horsepower than PCs did when some complex games came out for PC.

Morrowind, for example. My tablet could run that without breaking a sweat.

The Nvidia Shield has the equivalent or slightly better horsepower of an Xbox 360/PS3 console.

So I agree that it's much more about money and what currently sells. Making a more complex game is too much of a risk to profits.