Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind Guide

Back in 2002 a third installment of Elder Scrolls was humbly released and the world was introduced to one of the largest RPG worlds ever created called Vvardenfell. As you played Morrowind you found your character exploring vast environments with unique cultures and settings. From dense forests, to swamps, deserts, ice lands and even basaltic mountain ranges. Attention was given to even the smallest details. Every single object in the game has a price, weight and specification attached to it.

Your character can be customized in hundreds of ways as you join guilds, level up, experiment with Alchemy and try out armor and weapons.

Follow my step-by-step guide on installing, configuring and optimizing Morrowind in Linux with PlayOnLinux.

Note: This guide applies to the Retail version of Morrowind GOTY. This includes Bloodmoon and Tribunal expansions. Other versions may require additional steps.

Tips & Specs:

To learn more about PlayOnLinux and Wine configuration, see the online manual: PlayOnLinux Explained

Mint 14 32-bit
PlayOnLinux: 4.2.1
Wine: 1.7.6

Installing Wine

Click Tools
Select "Manage Wine Versions"

Look for the Wine Version: 1.7.6
Note: Try using stable Wine 1.8 and 1.8-staging

Select it
Click the arrow pointing to the right

Click Next

PlayOnLinux will automatically download it and save it in this directory:
/home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wine/linux-x86

Note: username is where you put your login name

Its a good idea to backup this directory to another computer because you won't have to keep downloading wine versions when you need them.

Extracting

Downloading Gecko

Installed

Wine 1.7.6 is installed and you can close this window

Setup PlayOnLinux

Launch PlayOnLinux
Click Install

Click "Install a non-listed program"

Click Next

Select "Install a program in a new virtual drive"
Click Next

Note: If you are running a 64-bit system, PlayOnLinux will prompt if you want to use a 64-bit or 32-bit virtual drive. Always select 32-bit virtual drive.

Name your virtual drive: morrowind
Click Next

Select all three options:

• Use another version of Wine
• Configure Wine
• Install some libraries

Click Next

Select Wine 1.7.6
Click Next

Note: If you are running a 64-bit system, PlayOnLinux will prompt if you want to use a 64-bit or 32-bit virtual drive.
Always select 32-bit virtual drive.

Wine Configuration

Applications Tab
Windows Version: Windows XP
Click Apply

Graphics Tab
Check Automatically capture the mouse in full-screen windows
Check Emulate a virtual desktop
Desktop Size: 1024x768
Click OK

Installing Packages (Windows components/libraries)

Check the following libraries:

• POL_Install_corefonts
• POL_Install_dxfullsetup
• POL_Install_tahoma

Click Next
All libraries should automatially download and install

Installing Morrowind

Select CD-ROM : Morrowind
Note: Steam versions or downloaded versions click "Select another file"
Click Next

Click Yes

Click Yes

Click Next

Click Next

Click Next

Installing

Construction Set...

Click Yes

Click Next

Installing

Click Finish

Click No for registration

Click Finish

DirectX 8.1
Click Ok

PlayOnLinux shortcut

Select Morrowind.exe
Click Next

Name your shortcut: Morrowind Launcher
Click Next

Select "I don't want ot make another shortcut"
Click Next

PlayOnLinux Configure

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure

Display Tab
Direct Draw Renderer: opengl
Video Memory size: The amount of memory on your video card
Offscreen rendering mode: fbo

Installing Tribunal

Eject the Morrowind CD
Insert Tribunal CD
Go To Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"
Navigate to the Tribunal CD
Select "Setup.exe"
Click Open

Click Yes

Click Next

Click Next

Registration
Click No

Click Finish

Installing Bloodmoon

Eject the Tribunal CD
Insert Bloodmoon CD
Go To Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"
Navigate to the Bloodmoon CD
Select "Setup.exe"
Click Open

Click Yes

Click Next

Click Next

Registration
Click No

Click Finish

Installing Bloodmoon patch 1.6

Download the Bloodmoon patch 1.6
http://support.bethsoft.com/patches.php
Save to your desktop

Back to PlayOnLinux
Go To Miscellaneous Tab
Click "Run a .exe file in this virtual drive"
Navigate to your desktop
Select Bloodmoon_v1.6.1820.exe
Click Open

Click Yes

Click OK

The Elder Scrolls II: Morrowind Game Of The Year is installed

You should be able to run the Morrowind Launcher, configure graphics and resolution, then play the Vanilla game.
But I know you probably won't be satisfied with the old configuration.

I was unable to get Morrowind Graphics Extender to work in Linux.
But I did find the Morrowind FPS Optimizer and it works beautifully.

Download Morrowind FPS Optimizer

Save to your desktop
Right-Click and Select Archive Manager

Select mw_fps_opt.exe
Click Extract

Extract to your Morrowind game folder
Path: /home/username/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/morrowind/drive_c/program files/bethseda softworks/morrowind

Note: username is where you put your login name

Back to PlayOnLinux
Click Configure
General Tab
Click "Make a new shortcut from this virtual drive"

Select
mw_fps_opt.exe
Click Next

Name the shortcut: Morrowind FPS Optimizer
Click Next

Select "I don't want to make another shortcut"
Click Next

Configuring FPS Optimizer

Note: Make sure you have launched Morrowind at least one time before using the FPS Optimizer

Select Morrowind FPS Optimizer
Click Run

Status Tab
Click "Change Morrowind registry settings here..." to select a high definition resolution

Video Mode
Use the drop-down menu or manually type in your desired screen resolution
Click Ok

Uncheck Novice Mode

View Tab
Take some time experiementing with these settings and your video card.
I unchecked "use mouse wheel for increase/decrease actions"
I also increase/decrease speed to 87%

misc/2 Tab
FOV
Horizontal degrees: 100
Aspect: 16:10
Note: Aspect ratio depends on the size of your monitor. 4:3 is fullscreen, 16:10 is widescreen, 16:9 is smaller widescreen. Play with the settings and test by launching Morrowind

System Tab
Check: minimize program to the system tray
Check: run Morrowind on program start-up (after testing)
Check: terminate this program together with MOrrowind

This allows you to run FPS Optimizer when you launch Morrowind from the PlayOnLinux Shortcut
Note: Make sure to test all of the FPS Optimizer settings first before checking "run Morrowind on program start-up"

Conclusion:
Morrowind vanilla ran perfectly at 1680x1050 and distance set to far. I also was able to install the massive mod Morrowind Rebirth in Linux along with a bunch of texture mods too.
With the texture mods and Rebirth running Morrowind would slow down at certain areas. If you have this problem too, play with the FPS Optimizer settings to re-gain some frames per second.

Morrowind Rebirth Mod
http://www.moddb.com/mods/morrowind-rebirth
Still actively in development and includes a bunch of other mods too.

Screenshots:

 

I guess that is possible. I used FPS Optimizer also to increase view distance and a few other graphical settings. I wish MGE worked.... you might want to try it again as well.
Unfortunately if MGE doesn't work, I think you have to re-install the entire game.

 

I wish the wine devs would get steamwebhelper.exe working again. I missed out on some free trains in TS because of that.

 

Agree! I know they will in time... must not be a huge priority since Steam works without it. Just no browsing

 

It works for most games unless as in TS you need the Steam store in order for a big part of the game to work.

 

Or any free-to-play Steam game that you want to add to your library. Can't add it from the website, so until steamwebhelper.exe is fixed you can't play those at all.

 

hello new to ..well everything linux much less wine and play on linux. Do all mods install the way that FPS optimizer will or are there more steps if so is there a helpful guide? Thank you you for your time and knowledge.

 

I'm sorry but no, mods work differently than FPS optimizer. I haven't tested Morrowind in PlayOnLinux/Wine in a long time, but when I did, MGE didn't work, which is why I used FPS Optimizer. MGE (Morrwoind Graphics Extender) does an amazing job providing many graphical additions to the game. I still don't know if it works or not, but as for mods... you can download them and extract them to a folder in the game directory. Then the launcher should allow you to enable/disable mods.
At least, that is how I got some mods working like texture mods and Morrowind Rebirth.
You may want to check out Open MW
You can now play native in Linux, but it is still in development.

 

Thank you sir, for the reply. Is there a comprehensive guide that would be useful for installing mods ie, Morrowind Rebirth and few face and detail mods?

 

Not that I know of, but if you have used mods in Windows, its pretty close to the same. Just download the rar, zip or compressed folder, extract to the "Data Files" directory.
Launch Morrowind and enable/disable mods.

 

Thank you, ..yeah well never really did mods in Windows either. It is only here a little later in life I find the time to do the mods and trying something new. (for me anyway) I must say I do enjoy Linux. Thank you for your time and knowledge.

 

No problem, let me know if you have any problems. I can pull out the old Morrowind disk and install it a again.
Just make sure to post any problems here: PlayOnLinux Forum

 

At least this game runs great on my notebook. Probably Oblivion to when I get around to installing it. I suspect a little wine tweaking might fix Skyrim. I just switched to wine 2.16, but it still needs a bit to fix the FPS. Still to poor FPS in that game.