Ornitocopter's Morrowind Overhaul

[Sånıc Bÿm]

Official Website: http://www.ornitocopter.net/morrowind-overhaul/

What is Ornitocopter's Morrowind Overhaul? It is a compilation of graphical enhancement mods that dramatically improve the visuals of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. The Overhaul includes an installer that lets you "install hundreds of beautiful mods at once, with a simple installer designed by [Ornitocopter] with simplicity in mind." The installer provides four "presets" to help simplify installation,

Slow PC

• CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz/AMD Athlon equivalent
• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon X800XT/nVidia GeForce 6600GT or equivalent
• RAM: 1GB

Medium PC

• CPU: Intel Pentium D 3.0GHz/AMD Athlon X2 3.0GHz
• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon X1800XT/nVidia GeForce 7800GT or equivalent
• RAM: 1GB (WIN XP) 2GB (Vista or Seven)

Fast PC

• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo/AMD Phenom II
• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 4850 - 4870/nVidia GeForce GTX 260 - 280 or equivalent
• RAM: 2GB (WIN XP) 4GB (Vista or Seven)

Very Fast PC

• CPU: Intel Core I7/AMD Phenom II (Better if overclocked)
• Graphics Card: ATI Radeon HD 5850 - 5870/nVidia GeForce GTX 470 - 280 or equivalent
• RAM: 4GB

More graphically intensive options will be installed when a faster preset is selected. You can further customize your installation once you've selected your preset.

Do not underestimate how much the Overhaul increases Morrowind's graphical intensity! I have a laptop with a Core i7 quad-core CPU and an nVidia GTX 850M GPU, and with the "Very Fast PC" preset and with all (or nearly all) of the additional optional bells-and-whistles installed, I remember getting around 30-40 FPS in outdoor areas and around 60 FPS in indoor areas (it's been over a year since I last played Morrowind with Ornitocopter's Overhaul installed, so please forgive me if my recollections are inaccurate); I have not tested any of the slower presets on this laptop. For comparison's sake, I've been getting a consistent 60 FPS in Dragon Age: Origins (1600 x 900, Very High graphics detail, 8x anti-aliasing, High texture detail, V-sync enabled).

Why did it take me so long to make this post, and why haven't I played Morrowind with Ornitocopter's Overhaul in the meantime? I originally planned on doing a video review, but I procrastinated, especially since I was busy with grad school at the time, and ultimately abandoned the idea of a video review. I then thought about writing a post here on this forum, but I still procrastinated, and I continued to procrastinate even after I graduated from grad school. But now, I finally sat down and presented you with this post.

As for why I haven't played Morrowind with Ornitocopter's Overhaul throughout this time, it's because other things have caught my attention. I've used Windows' "Reset this PC" feature several times throughout the past year or so, and I haven't felt like reinstalling Morrowind and Ornitocopter's Overhaul during that time period. Perhaps I should revisit Vvardenfell someday, but unfortunately, probably not any time soon.

Here is a before and after comparison video that someone else has made,