Morrowind modders continue to astound, add object physics with ‘pure lua’ to a 23-year old game

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In a twist, Morrowind, aged 23 years, continues to captivate its dedicated group of modifiers and prodigious tinkerers, who refuse to let age hinder its advancement. A significant boost enabling much of this progress is the script extenders, which in turn expand the scope of scripting languages, inspiring an endless stream of innovations that leave people awestruck.

I, the passionate gamer, have personally taken advantage of OpenMW’s Lua scripting to infuse some rudimentary physics into Morrowind, as you can see in the video above.

In simple terms, modder MaxYari has created a basic physics engine using Lua that delivers physics similar to Half-Life 1, if not slightly superior. It’s remarkable to witness the realistic interactions, like bottles clinking and shattering, in Vvardenfell. This level of detail makes it feel as though I’ve stepped into an alternate reality where Bethesda perfected their renowned physics tricks a few years ahead of schedule.

Regarding the functionalities of this mod, it essentially brings physics to all items within the game that can be stored in your inventory. This means you can move them around, toss them, and even shatter bottles. However, please note that excessive interaction with another player’s belongings might not be accepted (depending on factors like your stealth skill, proximity, and a bit of luck)).

It brings back memories, and a tinge of nostalgia, recalling the classic Skyrim basket trick, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to work here. However, who knows? If you bring your own solution, it might just be possible! I must admit, it would surprise me (yet not too much) if MaxYari’s system includes the specific angles that allowed such a trick in Skyrim.

This mod also comes with two additional constraints: ranged attacks can’t affect objects, and NPCs seem to pass through stationary items as if they weren’t there. Despite these limitations, it’s quite remarkable to witness bottles moving around in a game that is 23 years old.

Just like many outstanding modders, MaxYari encourages others with creative minds to take advantage of his work for their own endeavors: “Beyond tinkering with physics items, the main objective of this mod is to reveal a collection of methods that other developers can utilize to create physics-based mods.

At the moment, you can utilize OpenMWLuaPhysics to bulldoze through an unsuspecting merchant’s goods, much like MaxYari did. The merchants of Vvardenfell were unfortunately not prepared for such a rampage.

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2025-05-14 20:42