Print

[Lesaras]

Okay, here is the sum of my work.  For all intents and purposes, I’m calling it the Morrowind Xbox Compatibility Pack, because each part of it is used to make Morrowind PC plugins a little more compatible with the Xbox, due to the numerous problems I, and others, have come across with using the Xbox version.  Personally, I like to play Morrowind on the Xbox, with a better frame rate and all, plus the controller.

All of these work on the Morrowind Game of the Year Non-Platinum Edition for Xbox.
I used the hex edited version of the Morrowind.xbe.

This pack includes the following

“Tricking the ESMs”- This was a little trick I discovered out of desperation.  It eliminates the need for ever text or hex editing out the dependencies for Tribunal and Bloodmoon ever again.  I included the blank ESM’s (No copyright infringement, I made them myself, read the file to understand why) for the trick.
“General Compatibility Issues”-This is a list of a few issues that still need to be addressed to make PC mods fully compatible on the Xbox
“Tutorial for Merging Custom ESP Maps to the Original ESM MAP”-Oh, yeah, um, I took some time, and hacked the .map files!  This tutorial was made to merge the .esp.map files that the PC Morrowind version can make from the changing the CreateMaps=0 setting in the PC Morrowind.ini to 1 and running the command “CreateMaps “YourPluginName.esp” from the ingame console window.  It will provide fully working local maps and mini maps on the Xbox.  No more wandering in the dark.
“Morrowind GOTY Map File Technical Details”- For all you future and current programmers or just plain devs, I’ve included this file documenting all the structure of the .map files, I found in four days.  It is the basic whitepaper, and goes byte by byte through each piece of the file.  I am hoping somebody understands it, and can help make a program to easily do this merge or select what cells to merge and which to delete or something.  I don’t know enough about C++ yet.  If anyone is interested contact me.  I also included the two World Image bitmaps I extracted while working on this project.  The document will explain more on these.
“Morrowind.xbe.ppf”- I made a PPF patch for the Morrowind.xbe to make it the hex edited version that runs off the game directory, instead of the cache files.  It has worked perfectly in conjunction with my compatibility works.  Between this and “Tricking the ESMs” all you have to do is copy your PC mod to the game directory’s Data Files and everything will work perfectly (Unless you have artwork.  Then see “General Compatibility Issues”)
“XV132”- This was the hex editor I used to discover the map file format.  It’s also used in the tutorial, so I included it.

I know my tutorial can be a bit confusing, so give suggestions on how to make it easier to understand.  It’s hard to make an easy guide for hex editing.  Editing the World Image does not yet work, because it is a complex matter.  See the technical details file for more information.  Sorry for those of you with new landmasses.  I’ll get it to work soon.

My next planned project is to layout the Xbox BSA archives.  I’m looking for a programmer to make a program to extract them, once I can give them the format.  Anyone interested, contact me at [email protected].  In particular, ghostwheel.  You made the PC BSA extractor.  If I can get you the format, it shouldn’t be too hard to reprogram the original for the Xbox format.  But anyone else is welcome, as ghostwheel’s BSA extractor was open-source.

I hope you all have fun with the new maps, and with the new amounts of PC mods that will now work on the Xbox.

Thanks

I would like to thank the following people for this package.

Bethesda Softworks- Thank you for a wonderful game series, and for a superior game editor.  You’ve given me hours of entertaining and learning.
Christian Maas (Creator of XV132) - Thank you for a functional and extremely useful hex editor.  It has served me well in many dev projects
Microsoft- Your computer systems and Xbox have taught me a lot, and they are so fun to use.  (Stupid Apple)
grifter66- You were probably the most helpful resource in the particular area of Map Files with your ESP and ESM 101 guide.  You came the closest to having any idea of how they worked and your speculation led to this project.  Also, thank you for the original guide to hex edit the Morrowind.xbe; that along with my guides here have given me flawless Xbox plugin loading.  Thank you.
Pyro0623- Thank you for correcting grifter66’s guide to hex editing the Morrowind.xbe; that along with my guides here have given me flawless Xbox plugin loading.  My best regards.
halohack- Probably the only person I talked to that had a clue what I was talking about as I worked on this.  He is also my main partner in crime with any modding and without him, I would have long ago given up modding because no one else I knew cared.

Here is the link to the Morrowind Xbox Compatibility Pack via FileFront

[Rwolf]

Well, I think the best thing someone could possibly make for the xbox - pc compatablity issues would be a program that resizes the dds files to a size that wouldnt murder the xbox, I know, its simple to do this in Photoshop, but it just takes too damn long! Also, theres still many problems with xbox and pc plugins, like the dialog problems, the six button limit problem, etc... we need to really start working on solutions for this... i was able to get the Advanced Save System mod working on the Xbox by walking around the dialogs, i took them out completely and make the mod start when you entered seyda neen, arriles tradehouse, instead of having to talk to an npc to activate it...