Another heads up as there has been a lot of confusion regarding OpenMW. OpenMW by itself doesn't have anything to do with this mod and doesn't replace its functionality in any way. This mod only replaces meshes and works absolutely fine with it. In theory the improvement should actually be even more noticable with OpenMW.
Amazing mod, thanks a lot. I am not active in the modding community and I am neither playing nor modding Morrowind or any other Bethesda game at the moment, but I just had to comment this. It demonstrates perfectly why Morrowind is very poorly optimized for modern systems and why OpenMW struggles to get good performance. Many people still believe that the amount of polygons is important for performance, but that hasn't been true for quite some time now. The Morrowind engine is actually pretty good when it comes to handling high-polygon objects and especially collision shapes, which unfortunately cannot be said for OpenMW (yet). However, the technical definition of what counts as an "object" is different from what the game treats as an object. A weapon, for example, is a single, indivisible object in terms of how it can be used in the game and in the construction set, but from the view of the engine, every single NiTriShape is a different object, even if more than one of them use the same texture and material. At least that's the case for OpenMW, as we cannot determine the amount of objects in view in the vanilla engine, but it's probably safe to assume that it's basically the same. Modern engines are able to batch different objects with the same material to improve performance, but I doubt that this is possible in the vanilla Morrowind engine.
Anyway, every one of these objects cause a draw call, which is basically the CPU telling the GPU what to draw, and that's probably one of the largest bottlenecks in terms of performance. Once the GPU takes over, however, it doesn't really matter how many polygons a single object has, and one objects with many polygons is much more performance-friendly than many simple objects. Which is probably the main reason why mods that add LOD objects to the distant landscape in Oblivion are guaranteed to kill the frame rate. Fortunately, MGE XE distant land seems to be much more efficient.
Many objects in vanilla Morrowind are badly optimized in terms of the amount of objects they consist of. Not only do many objects use quite a number of different textures, but often they are split into many NiTriShapes which use the same texture, trees for example. flora_bc_tree_01.nif consists of no less than 63 different objects and thus causes just as many draw calls, at least in OpenMW. It might be useful to conduct some testing of how the vanilla engine performs with "optimized" meshes in comparison to the vanilla ones. Anyway, I believe there is much potential for reducing draw calls in Morrowind, but many meshes and even more textures would have to be remade from scratch. As it is now, things like clothes, armors, weapons and so on often consist of several different NiTriShapes and use multiple textures. In modern games, including every Bethesda-Game since Oblivion, meshes use as few different textures as possible, and usually only one per armor, weapon, etc. It is much better for a mesh to use one large texture than several small ones, even if this texture is considerably bigger than the smaller ones combined. For some objects it may be possible to create a texture atlas out of the different textures it uses, but in many cases this would probably not be the case because of their uv maps. Also, texture replacers would no longer work. So the most logical thing to do would be to create completely new meshes and textures. Good examples are PeterBitt's Creatures or many of your own mods (of course, I am aware that you know about all of this, but maybe someone else is interested into these explanations). On the other hand, many older mods are doing just the opposite by mashing vanilla meshes together for a new object, thus further increasing the amount of Draw Calls. Unfortunately, a truly modern Morrowind in terms of graphics, from an artistic point of view as well as a technical one, will most likely remain a dream. But this mod is a good first step in the right direction. ;)
Is this mod compatible with mge , morrowind code patch and rebirth? i also have 30 or so other mods added that are visual and gameplay changing. Would this mod interfere at all or be of any use?
so, im on android on omw nightly 0.48.0-46 and i replaced 00 Core with that 00 Core from your mod, but I've got no fps boost at all, i have lowest distance and 60 fov and barely got 22 fps in city, im on Samsung A7 2018
You installed it wrong. You're not supposed to have a "00 Core" folder in your data files. If you had one even before installing MOP, you also installed another mod wrong.
Holy s*** the difference in FPS is huuge (using OpenMW), thanks so much for this mod! I'm glad my modest rig can now run a full graphically modded Morrowind haha
Apologies. Furn_de_bar_02 is from Atlas. I've been seeing quite a few lighting issues with both Atlas and MOP. Either way, removing those meshes from my install fixes the issue.
For whatever reason, I cannot get the weapon sheathing to work as of late. I think i followed your instructions correctly. First Patch for purists, then Weapon sheathing, then your specific patch, correct?
That's correct. What's the problem? Do the sheaths not show up? In that you likely didn't install Weapon Sheathing itself correctly or are missing one of the requirements.
Sorry, couldn't find this comment anymore. Disregard what i said. apparently you need mge xe as well, which was not a requirement listed on weapons sheathing and I only found out by accident. I do have a question. IN your list for recommendations you say install patch for purists before anything else on the list. Which list? The list of recommendation
When I install your meshes, it causes a CTD crash when approaching the entrance to Andrano Ancestral Tomb near Pelagiad. I have tested this on a fresh, clean install so it is not a conflict issue. I am using OpenMW.
EDIT: Had to delete the models that use NiLODNode as explained in the post below.
Sorry if this is answered elsewhere, but which mod files exactly should I install (or not install) to incorporate this "OpenMW workaround" that won't cause crashes/conflicts in OpenMW? Do I simply install the latest mod version including both the "00 Core" and "01 Clean Alpha Textures" folders, and leave it at that? Or are there still problems with files in one or both of these mod folders that use NiLODNode as a parent/root node as Draulius pointed out (furn_mist256.nif, furn_mist512.nif, active_bubbles00.nif, etc.)?
I'm hoping to use OpenMW to avoid crashes, not cause them, so any help will be appreciated - cheers!
Great, thanks for the very quick reply! Guess I can safely use all folders (00 Core, 01 Clean, possibly 02) from this mod under OpenMW.
By the way, do you have any knowledge of the below two mods? Both are recommended for use under OpenMW per https://modding-openmw.com/, but the first is quite old, and the author of the second has made some recent comments in his mod's Nexus forum on mesh optimization and compatibility with Morrowind Optimization Patch that don't inspire confidence.
Thanks Flash! From reading the Correct Meshes forums, CM apparently doesn't optimize its meshes in the way MOP does (like vanilla Morrowind meshes, its files instead use a huge number of trishapes, which can impact performance), and there are quite a few meshes that both CM and MOP include, so installing MOP after/over CM would at least result in more optimized versions of those files being used in game. The CM author recommends installing his mod after MOP (unless playing on a smartphone where performance is more critical), but it seems it's better to do the opposite, as Flash suggests.
Just a case of choosing wether you want optimized meshes or ones with fixed slits and UVs etc, or Is there a chance you'd consider optimizing some if the fixed versions, or making similar fixes for MOP?
It would be amazing to see an all-in-one vanilla mesh/texture fix/optimization mod where the authors collaborate to include both fixes (e.g. from Mesh Fix (http://mw.modhistory.com/download-15-6088) and Correct Meshes (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/39348)) and optimizations (e.g. from Morrowind Optimization Patch (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45384) and Project Atlas (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/45399)), as there are many overlapping files among those mods as is. Would this be possible in future?
Revisiting this a couple years on, has more coordination been considered among these overlapping mods? I see on the Project Atlas page it's noted that MOP "has a different scope and would ultimately be replaced by" Atlas, despite the fact that MOP currently includes vastly more optimized meshes than Atlas. In any case, it seems a bit odd that the work is scattered as it is among several different mods rather than combined in a focused way, given the at least basic similar goal shared by the various mods. Obviously, this is in no way to disparage the amazing work all modders here are doing for the community, but I would appreciate any insight.
EDIT: I'll take that as a "no", lol - looks like everyone's doing their own thing rather than planning a single comprehensive mesh fix/optimization mod (to include e.g. the four different mods I listed in my post above from 2019), which of course is understandable since none of you are getting paid! Thanks anyway if you've been reading.
(OpenMW 0.46) Light meshes do not show up. Torches, candles, and so on emit light but the fire mesh is invisible. On the flip side the performance boost is really noticeable.
All tests were done with OpenMW 0.47. Maybe the old version lacks support for several things as problems with light meshes were common with older versions. Please make a bug report to the OpenMW team if this still persists after upgrading to the newest version.
256 comments
Anyway, every one of these objects cause a draw call, which is basically the CPU telling the GPU what to draw, and that's probably one of the largest bottlenecks in terms of performance. Once the GPU takes over, however, it doesn't really matter how many polygons a single object has, and one objects with many polygons is much more performance-friendly than many simple objects. Which is probably the main reason why mods that add LOD objects to the distant landscape in Oblivion are guaranteed to kill the frame rate. Fortunately, MGE XE distant land seems to be much more efficient.
Many objects in vanilla Morrowind are badly optimized in terms of the amount of objects they consist of. Not only do many objects use quite a number of different textures, but often they are split into many NiTriShapes which use the same texture, trees for example. flora_bc_tree_01.nif consists of no less than 63 different objects and thus causes just as many draw calls, at least in OpenMW. It might be useful to conduct some testing of how the vanilla engine performs with "optimized" meshes in comparison to the vanilla ones. Anyway, I believe there is much potential for reducing draw calls in Morrowind, but many meshes and even more textures would have to be remade from scratch. As it is now, things like clothes, armors, weapons and so on often consist of several different NiTriShapes and use multiple textures. In modern games, including every Bethesda-Game since Oblivion, meshes use as few different textures as possible, and usually only one per armor, weapon, etc. It is much better for a mesh to use one large texture than several small ones, even if this texture is considerably bigger than the smaller ones combined. For some objects it may be possible to create a texture atlas out of the different textures it uses, but in many cases this would probably not be the case because of their uv maps. Also, texture replacers would no longer work. So the most logical thing to do would be to create completely new meshes and textures. Good examples are PeterBitt's Creatures or many of your own mods (of course, I am aware that you know about all of this, but maybe someone else is interested into these explanations). On the other hand, many older mods are doing just the opposite by mashing vanilla meshes together for a new object, thus further increasing the amount of Draw Calls. Unfortunately, a truly modern Morrowind in terms of graphics, from an artistic point of view as well as a technical one, will most likely remain a dream. But this mod is a good first step in the right direction. ;)
Edit : Also, thank you to Flash for the continued updates :).
10/10
EDIT: Had to delete the models that use NiLODNode as explained in the post below.
I'm hoping to use OpenMW to avoid crashes, not cause them, so any help will be appreciated - cheers!
By the way, do you have any knowledge of the below two mods? Both are recommended for use under OpenMW per https://modding-openmw.com/, but the first is quite old, and the author of the second has made some recent comments in his mod's Nexus forum on mesh optimization and compatibility with Morrowind Optimization Patch that don't inspire confidence.
--Mesh Fix (http://mw.modhistory.com/download-15-6088)
--Correct Meshes (https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/39348)
Thank you for your work!
EDIT: I'll take that as a "no", lol - looks like everyone's doing their own thing rather than planning a single comprehensive mesh fix/optimization mod (to include e.g. the four different mods I listed in my post above from 2019), which of course is understandable since none of you are getting paid! Thanks anyway if you've been reading.