OpenMW, an open morrowind reimplementation

[Chris R. Miller]

Nicolay Korslund Wrote:

> Hi guys.
> 
> I'd like to announce a project I've been working on for some time - an open
> source reimplementation of Morrowind. I've called it OpenMW, see
> http://openmw.snaptoad.com
> 
> OpenMW is written almost completely in D, with some minor parts in C++
> to interface with libraries. I'm using Ogre for graphics, and there's already
> a discussion going (with screenshots) at
> http://www.ogre3d.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=288886
> 
> My hope is that this project will make D more visible in the game dev
> community, and prove that D has merit in that field.
> 
> One specific thing is that it connects D code with Ogre and other C++
> libraries. Even though this is done in a way that is very specific to
> openmw, it show that it can be done without much problem. (In fact it
> isn't hard at all, the interface is not a complete low-level wrapper but
> a small set of "medium-level" functions using extern(C). It will be even
> easier with D2.0-style C++ linkage.)
> 
> For more info and shots, check http://openmw.snaptoad.com . Note
> that it's still in a very early stage of development though.

Very very cool, though I do wonder about the legality of what you have just done.  I seem to remember a large number of commercial EULAs being more or less Xerox copies of each other, and all of them very expressly disallow reverse engineering of any kind.

I don't mean to be hostile, I'm just trying to know whether I can expect to see you in the news.  I can see it now...  "Electronic Entertainment Mega-corp Ubisoft sues Open-Source Programmer Nicolay Korslund for the reverse-engineering of their ancient and discontinued title "Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind," claiming that the act of writing a redundant game data file reader constitutes reverse engineering and is a violation of Intellectual Property.  Representatives from Ubigroup were unable to comment at this time, though damages in the order of $500,000 were discussed if programmer Korslund refuses to completely destroy his work and renounce computer science for ever.  Details at eleven."  Perhaps not that dramatic, but you understand where I'm coming from.  Then again, I live in America.  Lawyers are a dime a dozen, so we get to put up with a lot of legal nonsense.  I think it's made me more than a little paranoid.