Morrowind Overhaul Personalization Guide Because the Morrowind Modding Community is huge, and you can have it your way!

Guide Version 1.0 – Based on MGSO version 1.1

I wrote this guide because some people may not understand that Morrowind Overhaul isn’t a unique and huge mod,

but a compilation. And that compilation can be tweaked, used as “base” for your Morrowind Installation.

This guide aims to teach you how to tweak the Morrowind Overhaul package to fit your personal tastes, because

everyone is different.

So, let’s start!

Index Morrowind Overhaul Personalization Guide ..................................................................................................... 1

The MGSO Options Program ......................................................................................................................... 2

Morrowind Overhaul – Performance Optimizations ..................................................................................... 6

Morrowind Mods – The Basics ...................................................................................................................... 9

Morrowind Mods – The Tools ..................................................................................................................... 10

The MGSO Options Program As you know, MGSO comes with an handy tool that allow you to switch between some mods to satisfy your tastes.

In this chapter of the guide we will analyze it.

• The user interface:

The MGSO Options Program (MGSOO), comes with this interface:

As you can see it’s very easy to understand. There are the followind options groups:

o Crosshair

o Magic Items Glow

o Grass

� Vvardenfell

� Solstheim

o Trees

� More Trees

� West Gash

� Bitter Coast

� Ascadian Isles

� Grazelands

o User Interface

o Better Bodies

o Solstheim

o MGE

o Misc

o Game Language

If you choose an option the program simply takes those files to copy them in your Morrowind

folder, and automatically activates the .esp files (the plugins) in the Launcher. For every options

there is a self-explanatory screenshot.

Let’s see a more detailed list of the offered choices:

Crosshair Group:

This group is dedicated to the look of the crossair.

� OBLIVION LIKE: This crosshair is based on the Oblivion’s crossair.

Here’s an example:

� MOON AND STAR: This crosshair is based on the Morrowind Moon and Star logo.

Example:

� VANILLA TARGET: This is simply the default Morrowind crossair.

Example:

Magic Items Glow Group:

This group is dedicated to the “glowing look” for the enchanted Armors & Weapons.

� SHIMMER: The default MGSO look for the glowing, made by me. It’s balanced.

� NO GLOW: No magic glow at all.

� VANILLA: The default glowing effect of the game. This looks like plastic sometimes.

Grass Group:

Here you can change the look of the animated grass in Morrowind.

� VVARDENFELL - VANILLA FRIENDLY: Grass with dark and more cold colours.

� VVARDENFELL - MORE COLOURFUL: Grass more colourful and lush.

� SOLSTHEIM – LITE: Lite version for Solstheim grass.

� SOLSTHEIM – BUSHY: A more lush version of the grass.

Trees Group:

In Morrowind Trees are particoular. Change trees can result in change completely the atmosphere!

� SIMPLE TREES: This option is meant for two types of players: who have a crappy PC

and cannot run the more detailed trees, and who likes the look of the original

Morrowind trees. In both cases this option is perfect. Note that if you choose this

option the other and more detailed trees cannot be activated!

� MORE TREES – BITTER COAST: This option adds many more trees to the Bitter Coast

region, resulting in a jungle. This can be heavy for some old computers.

� MORE TREES – BALMORA: This act the same as the Bitter Coast More Trees, adding

some trees (Bitter Coast trees) in Balmora.

� MORE TREES – ASCADIAN ISLES: And here again, more trees on the Ascadian Isles!

Please note that this plugin is actually incompatible with some tree models,

resulting in many floating trees around Vivec. It’s very heavy for your PC, too! This

problem will be corrected in a future patch.

� NEW MOURNHOLD TREES: This option will add new pink-looking trees to Mournhold.

� NEW ASHLAND TREES: By ticking this option all the Ashlands trees will be replaced

with bigger and cool ashtrees.

� NEW SOLSTHEIM TREES: This option adds new animated trees to the Solstheim

Island.

� REGIONS – WEST GASH: Choose between the Lite and Bushy version of the West

Gash trees.

� REGIONS – ASCADIAN ISLES: Choose between many version of trees for the Ascadian

Isles.

� REGIONS – BITTER COAST: Choose between many version of trees for the Bitter

Coast.

� REGIONS – GRAZELANDS: Choose between many version of trees for the Grazelands.

MGE Group:

What’s the more suitable MGE version for you?

� REV.186: This is the default version, and it’s the heaviest!

� REV.178: The classic older MGE revision. This can be more stable and lighter on

some configurations. Use this if you are experiencing framerate/stability problems.

� 3.0B STABLE: The official MGE release. This is the lighter version and it comes with

old and worse shader. For very old pcs.

� NO MGE: This option deletes MGE from your PC.

Misc Group:

Other changes!

� NEW VOICES: This option adds new voices for important NPCs, such as Dagoth Ur,

Almalexia, Vivec, etc.

� DAGOTH UR VOICES: Dagoth Ur once spoke to you in text dreams. Now he calls you

to Red Mountain with a full, eerie voiceover instead!

� MAGICS SORTING ICONS: Sort your potions/spells more easily. You can find a

screenshot of it, too.

� FIREPLACES ADDON: This option adds new fireplaces around Vvardenfell, in the

taverns and stuff.

� ANIMATED MORROWIND: This adds new animated NPCs arount Vvardenfell. It adds

SO MUCH in atmosphere, but it can result in a framerate hit.

� ANIMATED SOULGEMS: New animations for the soulgems. Sometimes it can be

buggy.

� LEFT GLOVES ADDON: It adds left and right icons (and models) for the pauldrons and

gauntlets of al the armor, to sort them more easily.

� NEW MAGIC SOUNDS: New sounds for magic casting, high quality.

Game Language Group:

The last one!

� POLISH: If you have Morrowind in Polish please choose this, it’s required from a

mod called Better Dialogue Font.

� EVERY OTHER: If you have Morrowind in every other language please choose this,

it’s required from a mod called Better Dialogue Font.

Morrowind Overhaul – Performance Optimizations Have you got performance problems with MGSO? Let’s see how to optimize it for your poor PC!

The start: graphics card control panel options

Please before follow this guide make sure to DISABLE all the forced options such Antialiasing, Anisotropic

filtering, V-Sync,… from your Graphics Card control panel. And make sure to disable SLI/CrossfireX systems,

because Morrowind runs better on single GPU configurations.

The most influent options – Morrowind Graphics Extender (MGEgui.exe)

Morrowind Graphics Extender (MGE) is the most influent feature of MGSO. Luckily you can optimize it to

help your computer. Let’s see how!

• GLOBAL GRAPHICS TAB:

Here the only heavy features are Antialasing and Resolution, for obvious reasons. Please make sure

to have VWait setting on “Immediate” or “Default(1)”. Do not choose other values.

• RENDER STATE TAB:

The Anisotropic filtering is heavy for old videocards only. If you have a modern videocard (>256

MB, >2006) you can keep Anisotropic filtering on. The VERY heavy feature here is Hardware

Shader. If you disable it, you will not have the awesome shaders included in MGSO, but the

performance will get so much better.

• INPUT TAB:

Nothing that impacts performance here.

• MISC TAB:

Nothing that impacts performance here.

• MORROWIND.INI TAB:

There is a VERY heavy feature here: High detail shadows. I suggest to leave it off, because the

shadows in-game look very ugly. It’s your decision but remember: shadows in Morrowind aren’t

optimized and they can dramatically reduce the framerate.

• TOOLS TAB:

This tab is very important. Here you can make the difference! There are 2 very important features:

� SHADER EDITOR: By clicking this the shader editor will appear. If you click on “Edit active

chain” you have the opportunity to choose between the shaders included in the pack.

Some of them are very heavy, here’s a quick description:

HDRBloom: This shader adds a bloom effect to every light of morrowind. If you had

checked Supply HDR info to shader this shader will also simulate the effect of pupil

dilatation.

Performance impact: Medium

Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO): This shader simulates the light attenuation

caused by ambient occlusion. It adds smooth shadows where light cannot spread due to

objects blocking it.

Performance impact: High

Playable Depth Of Field: This shader simulates the focus effect of the human eye. if you are

looking to a nearby object the background will be blurred.

Performance impact: Medium

Godrays: It adds beautiful-looking godrays.

Performance impact: Low

Underwater Blur: This shader blurs the screen while swimming underwater.

Performance impact: Very low

Water Wobble: This one adds distortion while swimming underwater.

Performance impact: Very low

You can enable/disable the shaders by clicking on it’s name 2 times. Remember to Save the

shader setup with the “Save” button.

� DISTAN LAND FILE CREATION WIZARD: Distant land is one of the key-features of MGE. A good

configuration is fundamental to having a working Morrowind installation. Let’s see what

the most influent features are!

World Texture/Normalmap resolution: They can be heavy on videocard with low memory.

I suggest leaving the default values.

World Mesh Detail: As above.

Minimum Static Size: This option can be heavy when under 40-50. Minor values = more

detail in the distant land. In fact this is the minimum size for an object to be drawn in the

distance. I suggest to never go under 150.

Grass density percent: This is simply the quantity of grass in the game. 80 % is the most

balanced value, but if you want to set it lower to gain in framerate surely you can! 0%

results in no grass at all. With no grass the game runs smoother.

• DISTANT LAND TAB:

One of the most important tab, let’s see why!

Use Distant Land: If you uncheck this option you will disable all the distant land, that means

an HUGE boost on framerate, but the classic “foggy” Morrowind will come back and you

won’t have the shader 3.0 water.

Draw Distance: Another important option. This is the distance of the Distant Land drawing.

If you set very high values your framerate will be many times lower. I use a value of “6”, to

keep the Morrowind original feeling and to have a decent framerate.

Water Reflections: On some videocard these features can be heavy, try to disable some of

them to gain some FPS.

Use exponential fog: This is very heavy. It adds a better fogging formula. The fog will look

better, but you will have a lower framerate.

Min. Size – Far: This acts the same as “Minimum Static Size”, as seen during Distant Land

generation, but for statics that are further away. Bigger values mean that less objects are

drawn in the distance (and performance is improved).

Min. Size – Very Far: As above, but for very far distances.

In-Game Options

The In-game options are those features that you can set under the Options menu of the game.

• VIEW DISTANCE:

Much important. This slider (that I actually keep in the middle), determinates how much far the

game will render the world. Since we have the distant land thanks to MGE this option is less

important than in the past. To gain FPS you can set it lower than max.

• SHADOWS:

Simply leave this on minimum (off), unless you like the ugly Morrowind shadows. They are very

heavy and unoptimized.

The mod options

Here’s a list of the heavier mods included in the pack:

• ANIMATED MORROWIND:

Since it includes Animated Morrowind + Animated Morrowind – Expanded and it adds many

animated NPCs, this mod can be heavy in some PC, especially while in cities.

• TREE MODS:

All the tree mods but Simple Trees can be heavy on some configurations. The More Trees mods are

so much more influent.

• MGE:

There are 3 MGE versions included in this pack. The heavier version is the Rev186, the second is

Rev176 and the lighter version is MGE 3.0b. The first comes with some nice features such a better

water with foam and atmosferic scattering (better colours in the sky). The second is another nice

MGE that can improve your framerate, and it’s more stable. The revision 3.0b is for very old PCs

and includes some old shaders that are very light.

Morrowind Mods – The Basics Every day the Morrowind modding community releases/updates/starts a new mod. It has been almost 9 years since

Morrowind came out and now we can count on thousands of community-made mods. Morrowind Overhaul itself is

based on 200+ mods, made by various authors. In this chapter you’ll learn how to download, install and try a new

mod. Yes! You can do it even with MGSO!

Raccomandations:

The start.

Read the readmes and be patient. Those are the two main rules to keep in mind when installing mods.

Morrowind modding isn’t easy at the beginning, but when you understand it, it’s pure satisfaction!

How to download mods:

Cool there are thousands of mods but… where to download them?

There are many mod sites but the most active and used are:

o Planetelderscrolls

o TESNexus

o ElricM

But there is also an awesome search engine for mods:

o Es Search

Please note that Planetelderscrolls and TESNexus require a free account.

How to install mods:

How do I install mods?

Almost all the available mods are built the same way:

o A plugin/master file (“.esp” or “.esm” file), except for graphics/sounds replacers

o The Data Files folders (Sounds, Meshes, Textures,…)

To install a mod you just have to put those files and folders in Morrowind\Data Files, and then (if the mod

included a “.esp” or “.esm” file), you have to run the Morrowind Launcher, click on Data Files and activate it

by double-clicking on the file.

The next step is very simple, you have to sort the load order of the installed mods with a tool called Mlox,

that is included in MGSO. You can find it in the Morrowind\Mlox folder. Every time you install a mod, it’s

better to check if the load order can be optimized. In order to do so simply open Mlox.exe and (if available)

click on Update Load Order.

How to try mods:

The final test.

Now you have to try them. The first part is the startup. If there aren’t errors on startup it’s a good start. Read

on the mod’s readme what change does that plugin and go in the game to test it!

How to avoid conflicts with MGSO:

MGSO contains so many mods, how can I be sure to not conflict them?

MGSO contains many graphics/sounds mods, but rarely there is a conflict with them. To make sure to avoid

conflicts read the MGSO Modlist and read the descriptions. If a mod you're using does/edits the same thing

as another mod you want to install, then there’s a conflict. The last loaded mod in the load order will override

any change made before.

Mod Lists:

There are some mod lists around the web. Here are some good list that can help you choose mods.

BTB Morrowind Modlist

Povuholo’s ToMorrowind

Knots Morrowind Modding Guide

Mythic Mods

Morrowind Mods – The Tools Here I’ll explain how to use the included simple tools to install and keep mods working!

Morrowind Graphics Extender (MGE):

A tool to improve the graphics of the game.

MGSO contains this tool, and a detailed guide how-to-use it is included in the MGSO Install Guide, chapter 3.

Mlox

This tool helps you to keep the load order updated.

The load order is very important. This tool helps you to keep it fixed. Simply run it (you can find it in the

Morrowind\Mlox directory) and click Update Load Order. I suggest to do this everytime you install a new

mod!

That’s all for now! I hope this guide was useful!

Kingpix – The Morrowind Overhaul Team

Thanks to Povuholo for the grammar help!