Morrowind Infobits

A great deal of recent discussion at the Morrowind Forums concerned the differences, if any, between the Xbox version and the PC version of Morrowind. Members of the Morrowind development team were on hand to answer those and other questions. This time around, Steve "MrSmileyFaceDude" Meister, Christine "smudge" Miller, Mark "BlueDev" Nelson, and Gary "WormGod" Noonan, were supplying the answers:

WormGod on differences between the Xbox and PC versions of the game: The ONLY differences will be resolution and the dashboard. That be it. They are one in the same game.

following up on more questions concerning the same topic: [That doesn't really answer the question does it?] In slightly less than a nutshell, it really sorta does.

[adjusting display settings] The highest possible setting for the Xbox is the best we can do. What these settings are, are not relative to the PC since the PC user can adjust it accordingly. Can the Xbox use the highest settings that the PC can? No. Not much can be done about that. That's console design at work. But, Morroiwnd for the Xbox is still quite impressive for it's limited resolution.

[is AA enable on the Xbox version?] Alcoholics Anonymous? I sure hope Morrowind doesn't push people to drink.

[is the texture quality maxed?] The texture quality IS maxed, as per what we can get maxed to work on the Xbox. Remember, this is an RPG, not a shooter, so there are are ton more textures being loaded into memory.

[is the view distance maxed?] If you mean maxed as in what the highest clip setting is on PC, once again, it is not relative. We aren't talking 2 different computers here. We are actually talking about a PC and a console. Being console, there are always some limitations.

[is the Xbox achieving a framerate equivalent to a high end PC setup?] I guess I will be the first to touch this can of worms. I don't know actual numbers but from my limited playtime on the Xbox version, it feels fine, and in some instances faster. Remember, we are talking about "1" console compared to near infinate numbers of setups for PCs. A high end PC setup plays it fast just as well. Do remember, an RPG does not rely on speed like a shooter or a driving/flight sim. Of course, we don't want the game to run like a slide show either, and it doesn't. Not on the Xbox or high end PCs.

more follow-up concerning the Xbox version: I cant shed much light on the topic of Xbox screens since I dont test that. The screens I take are PC shots. I have done a LOT of visual CG work before games though, and I know well, that when imaging anything from tv, you WILL lose some detail. ANYTHING from tv to a PC WILL lose detail. Remember, what you are seeing is an image taken in 640X480, the you are veiwing it on a monitor, up to, most likely 1024X768. Also, the saved image itself, whether it be a bmp or a jpg, will lose quality. Such as life. Now, I have seen and played Morroiwnd on the Xbox here, and I am still stunned. Visual continuity doesnt even ring a bell in my head. It looks just as good to me. I never even actually thought about a difference until posts like this started. I have even gone back again, yesterday even, and looked at the Xbox version. Still doesnt strike me as looking different.

And just FYI, the real limitation on the Xbox is NOT the CPU -- it's the memory. Only 64MB total, and that is shared system and graphics RAM. Yes, you can use the hard disk drive and create virtual memory -- we do it -- but you have to use that judiciously because it is very slow compared to system RAM. But that limitation certainly did not affect the lighting.

WormGod on taking advantage of the Nvidia hardware better: We take so much advantage of it that it filed for a restraining order on us.

I played with the Xbox version about an hour before I bailed for the night, and it was purdy. I wont give system specs for my dev system at work, but the Xbox was faster than that even. The visuals, well, they didnt seem any dofferent to me, exceot for the fact that the tv I was playing on was brighter tha should be and I couldnt find the controls to change it. The res may have been 640X480, but that didnt phase me a bit either. I noticed it, sure, cause I am so used to playing the game at 1024X768 and higher, but never bothered me a bit.

the draw distance for the Xbox version: From what I have seen, it looks like the clipping fog is set to the maximum of what the PC would use. I took careful notice of it when playing today and it looked that way to me at least. I could be mistaken, but mot by much.

MrSmileyFaceDude following up on draw distance: I don't know the numbers on the draw distance, but you can get a pretty good idea by looking at the screenshots out there. There are lots & lots of Xbox screenshots, both on the official site and on the websites that have been posting previews of late.

WormGod on what Xbox controller configuration he used: Eesh, I cant even remember them now. It came VERY naturally though. Looking around and moving felt a LOT like Halo, so those that played that will have it easy.