OpenMW 0.51.0 Released! | OpenMW
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← OpenMW 0.51.0 is now in RC-phase!
OpenMW 0.51.0 Released! 2026-06-19 - capo
The OpenMW team is proud to announce the release of version 0.51.0 of our open-source engine! Grab it from our Downloads Page for all supported operating systems.
This release allows modders to create magic effects through our scripting API and introduces terrain vertex painting to our content file editor. It also fixes many Lua-related crashes and addresses a few minor annoyances with gamepad menu navigation introduced in the previous release.
Check out the release video by the astounding Gitshiver (also available on PeerTube), and keep reading to learn more about what we have in store for Morrowind’s 24th anniversary!
Things to Keep in Mind
As always, it is generally safe to keep using your existing saves, configuration files, and mod setups in the new release.
To avoid issues, please update any shader mods and mods that implement new UI widgets through OpenMW-Lua. If you still experience slowdowns or visual artifacts, try to narrow down the mods responsible and contact their authors.
The saved game format has changed since version 0.50.0. You cannot load newer saves in older releases.
Have a great time.
Known Issues
On macOS, launching OpenMW from OpenMW-CS requires OpenMW.app and OpenMW-CS.app to be siblings.
[#7511] On Windows, a freeze may be reported if engine startup takes too long; ignoring the message is usually harmless, as it should eventually disappear, but if it doesn’t, please share the freeze dump with us
[#8233] Hardware antialiasing may cause driver timeouts on AMD GPUs of the RX 6000 and 7000 series; this is a driver bug AMD has yet to address
[#8255] On Intel GPUs, the game may freeze visually while still responding to input. This is a driver bug; as a workaround, you may need to install an older version of the driver
[#8464] Red tint on macOS. Some of it can be mitigated by enabling per-pixel lighting
Dialogue
Contributions from Capo , Evil Eye and winklecrux
New Features
[#7297] Support for topic marking (MRK) files from Russian Morrowind; they override the keywords used for implicit topic highlighting
[#8956] The iGreetDuration and fGreetDistanceReset game settings are now used in voiced greeting logic
Fixes
[#7340] The Should Attack filter now passes for actors that are already in combat; this concerns actors that are not normally hostile, like guards
[#8760] Implicit topic highlighting supports single-character topics
[#8978] Added support for custom word separators required for Polish Morrowind topic highlighting (brackets and parentheses)
Mixed implicit/explicit topic highlighting is properly supported
Gameplay
Contributions from Capo , Dima Katashov , Evil Eye , Kuyondo and Riley Munro
New Features
[#8731] Hand to Hand Hit 2 sound is now used
[#8801] More controller buttons can be used for actions
Fixes
[#7605] Creatures that cannot equip items can use enchanted items
[#8123] Various restrictions on equipping weapons during an attack were lifted (e.g., equipping ammunition)
[#8692] The above extends to switching between enchanted items while casting a spell
[#8765] Diseased actors may infect actors other than the player
[#8847] Stretched collision box detection is more accurate
[#8926] Weapon swish sound has been restored for thrown projectiles
[#8929] Old effects now stick around for a frame when they’re re-cast; this makes Weakness to Magicka increase its own magnitude
[#8949] Instant effects are no longer applied twice
[#8975] Stat modifiers are reset when werewolf modifiers are applied
[#9062] Staggering an actor when they’re unequipping a weapon and intend to re-equip it will no longer break their combat animation state
[#9078] Preview mode is disabled when the preview if stand still setting is disabled
Graphics
Contributions from Capo , Cédric Mocquillon , elsid , Evil Eye , Kartoffels and wazabear
[#9001] Exclusive fixed-function pipeline rendering mode and the legacy lighting method have been removed
New Features
[#6885] BC6H and BC7 compression are now supported for DDS files, as long as our OpenSceneGraph fork is used; this requires driver support and may not apply to all platforms
[#8826] Sunlight direction is exposed to post-processing
[#9030] Camera projection offset is configurable through Lua, which allows implementing techniques such as temporal antialiasing
Fixes
[#6439] Fixed moon rendering: moon shadow colour and moon phase transparency are now used
[#8351] Malformed NIF models are much less likely to cause freezes or crashes and will instead be gracefully rejected
[#8657] Fixed a preloading-related crash on exit if startup was interrupted by non-graceful error handling (e.g., missing GUI layout files)
[#8820] Non-carriable light sources like the scripted Trueflame light are properly detected again...