OpenMW
Hacker ApprovedRanked 6 of 20 game engines by recommenders
Free, open-source engine that plays Morrowind using your original game files, running well with added graphics and Lua scripting; critics say its graphics changes can break immersion.
Free, open-source engine that plays Morrowind using your original game files, running well with added graphics and Lua scripting; critics say its graphics changes can break immersion.
29 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 25
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 25 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 6.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Runs well and crashes less
“it runs so well and it's so convenient to have all that world with me on the go”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “It also crashes a hell of a lot less than the official binary.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “I can play on my steam deck now”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” - Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “SailfishOS: A Linux-based European alternative to dominant mobile OSes”
Welcoming, impressive project team
“The community is really nice, I have sent a few PRs myself”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “Wow, congrats on the significant release, OpenMW team!”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “I'm hopeful though, it's an amazing project!”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” - Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation”
Modern graphics, faithful to original
“Graphics updates with shaders for improved water and fog (which you can combine with much higher view distance), godrays, HDR”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “Really breathing new life into an old game while remaining faithful to the original vision.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” Strong Lua scripting support
“The Lua integration has grown massively over the last couple of years.”
Comment from 7 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “supports scripting that exceeds the original engine”
Comment from 24 Jul 2026 in “The case for MUDs in modern times”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Graphics changes can break immersion
“they're making it too sunny and pretty, I liked the drab English weather in the original”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation” “the advanced graphics broke my immersion”
Comment from 8 Nov 2025 in “OpenMW 0.50.0 Released – open-source Morrowind reimplementation”
Other game engines people recommend
The four most recommended other game engines, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Godot | 213 | 57 | 79% | 12 | 2 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| Unity | 110 | 165 | 40% | 12 | 16 yrs8 owners | — |
| Unreal Engine | 104 | 89 | 54% | 12 | — | — |
| Bevy game engine | 50 | 18 | 74% | 11 | — | Approved |
| OpenMWThis page | 25 | 4 | 86% | 6 | — | Approved |
What people said
26 of the 31 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“supports scripting that exceeds the original engine”
“And that's really great, but this model is ultimately not realistic for most game developers.”
“which allow you to play the games if you can provide the original assets”
“Except OpenMW and OpenRA don't charge players for access/extra context, they only accept donations.”
“OpenMW is a totally open source reimplementation of Morrowind”
“The multiplayer version openMW being a great example of this.”
“OpenMW only cares about supporting the original game and not the script extender ecosystem”
“There's a fantastic engine rebuild called OpenMW”
“it took longer than that to set up openmw on mac, extract the game files from the steam windows distribution and doing various config/plugin tweaks”
“serious issues (crashing, visual glitching, extreme lag, etc) running OpenMW and Minecraft on XWayland”
“That is much easier than in the past. Fired it up yesterday”
“the advanced graphics broke my immersion”
“they're making it too sunny and pretty, I liked the drab English weather in the original”
“it runs so well and it's so convenient to have all that world with me on the go”
“It also crashes a hell of a lot less than the official binary.”
“I'm hopeful though, it's an amazing project!”
“OpenMW is definitely the way to go for a fresh game.”
“I can play on my steam deck now”
“it was already perfect then”
“Wow, congrats on the significant release, OpenMW team!”
“Graphics updates with shaders for improved water and fog (which you can combine with much higher view distance), godrays, HDR”
“The Lua integration has grown massively over the last couple of years.”
“The community is really nice, I have sent a few PRs myself”
“Really breathing new life into an old game while remaining faithful to the original vision.”
“This project never fails to impress me.”
“still work great on Linux”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.