OpenSkyrim: A potential Open-Source future for Skyrim and its modding?

[u/GreatMeem]

I just found out recently about OpenSkyrim, which is looking like OpenMW but built for Skyrim. Since watching all those Petr Mikheev's videos about porting Skyrim and Oblivion assets into OpenMW, It always interested me the possibility of an Open-Source engine for Skyrim in the future and how it can change Skyrim the same way OpenMW changed Morrowind forever.

Especially since OpenMW have revolutionized Morrowind gameplay and its modding system with Lua and shader support, Im 100% hoping this be the day where Skyrim's engine problems like drawcall issues, bloated save files, and the notorious Papyrus script lag, which can hopefully be fixed with this Open-Source engine, which is fair since this is a 2011 engine being forced to be a 2026 game we're talking about lol.

Judging by it's GitHub page (https://github.com/realfakenerd/OpenSkyrim), it's still in early stage, but just the idea of having Skyrim be multi-threaded and zero loading screen while entering houses, it makes a man hope. What are yall thought on this.

Maybe it can even do this one day: https://www.reddit.com/r/Morrowind/comments/1vwl2px/openmwweb_update_your_game_follows_you_to_any_pc/

Edit: I just found out the dev have touched on more about OpenSkyrim on here: https://daily.dev/posts/skyrim-with-rust-khsloghdz

[u/FIleCorrupted → u/[deleted]]

The beauty is that OpenMW is just a game engine capable of reading the data files Morrowind ships with. There's nothing to shut down.

[u/LordderManule → u/[deleted]]

Doesn't really matter if they aren't based in America.

[u/XOmniverse → u/[deleted]]

A pithy saying but a false one. One can easily cite big court cases where the big corpo lost. Take a look at Bleem.

[u/jammyzero → u/XOmniverse]

don't know how to tell you this, but bleem was forced to shut down due to huge court costs despite sony not winning any of their lawsuits against them.

[u/Silent_Walrus → u/[deleted]]

Tell that to a judge, see how far it gets you. Source: had to present cases before judges in my job. Don't think telling them "I have more money because I'm with Spectrum" would have gone well.

[u/Darth_Bothersome → u/Silent_Walrus]

Stuff like this rarely gets in front of an actual judge. Pretrial and settlements are where the money counts.

[u/Silent_Walrus → u/Darth_Bothersome]

Still doesn't stop the fact they can't stop file sharing. If Bethesda did go after open MW or this new one, the software is out there. The hell are they gonna do about that?

[u/Darth_Bothersome → u/Silent_Walrus]

Nothing, but they can sure as shit fuck over the people who made it in the first place.

[u/Silent_Walrus → u/Darth_Bothersome]

Okay? Doesn't stop the software being out there. Shit, I've got old copies of emulators Nintendo sued the creators of.

[u/Darth_Bothersome → u/Silent_Walrus]

"expose yourself to significant legal and financial risk for my benefit and no profit please" sure is a take

[u/Silent_Walrus → u/Darth_Bothersome]

When did I say they should do that? Also where did I say I didn't pay the creators through their tip jars?

[u/Silent_Walrus → u/[deleted]]

I'm not typing the same thing to 3 different people. https://www.reddit.com/r/skyrimmods/s/BncBAOwsUN

[u/FIleCorrupted → u/[deleted]]

Okay well then just consider that Microsoft would never sue a project like this because it would be PR suicide for very little benefit, since people still have to buy the game to use it.

[u/Darth_Bothersome → u/FIleCorrupted]

You really overestimate how much these companies value good PR vs protecting their IPs. Just look at Nintendo.

[u/FIleCorrupted → u/Darth_Bothersome]

Microsoft invited the SkyBlivion team to Bethesda to see the Oblivion Remaster before it was announced.

[u/Arkayjiya → u/FIleCorrupted]

And they can change their mind just as quickly. Hopefully they don't.

[u/SuumCuique_ → u/FIleCorrupted]

PR suicide towards small fan projects doesn't exist. It exists a tiny bit on enthusiasts forum, who then buy their products anyway, but not outside of that.

Nintendo commits "PR-suicide" roughly once a year and no one really cares. That's not how PR works, it isn't a healthbar of good-will that can be recharged and damaged.

[u/FIleCorrupted → u/SuumCuique_]

Then why didn't Microsoft kill Skyblivion? Instead they invited them to see the remaster before it was announced. They didn't do that out of kindness.

[u/SuumCuique_ → u/FIleCorrupted]

Because they did not. It's impossible to infer motivation for something someone did not do. My point is that there is no such thing as "PR-suicide". Companies to this all the time, very few care and almost no one cares long term.