OpenMW 0.49.0 Release Highlights:

• After 3 years, released largest and most ambitious update.
• Lua scripting API additions, engine polish, and beyond Morrowind.
• Release announcement video in production.

Known Issues:

• On macOS, OpenMW-CS requires 'OpenMW.app' and 'OpenMW-CS.app' to be siblings.
• On Windows, freeze may occur on engine startup.
• Combat music doesn't start during pause.
• Hardware antialiasing causes driver timeouts on AMD GPUs.
• OpenMW-CS may crash on Linux and macOS.
• Shader rendering is tinted red on Apple Silicon.

Removed Features:

• Support for pre-0.45.0 saved games.
• Virtual filesystem case-sensitivity support.
• Broken 360° screenshot support.
• Script blacklisting.

AI and Pathfinding:

• Creatures can drink potions, laws against lycanthropy and vampirism.

Fixes:

• Various actor behaviours and combat-related fixes.
• Animation-related fixes like continuous attack segments, no unequipping during attacks.

Animations:

• Introduces animation blending and an animation API.
• Many animation-related fixes and improvements.

New Features:

• Animation blending and animation layering support.

Configuration and VFS:

• Stricter configuration of settings.
• Replaced Boost filesystem library with C++ standard.

ESM Format and Saved Games:

• Theoretical compatibility with saved games.
• Warns on loading saved games with different content setups.

Gameplay:

• Melee combat changes, reworked Intervention spell.
• Properly applies temporary crime disposition changes, etc.

Graphics:

• Overhauls lighting, introduces prettier water ripples, etc.

NIF Format:

• NiFogProperty, S3TC-compressed NiPixelData support.

Physics:

• Purged guesswork from actor collision box detection.

Post-Processing:

• Improved stability with new features and fixes.

Scripting: mwscript:

• Minor changes to address mod compatibility issues.

Scripting: OpenMW-Lua:

• Marked step forward with new interfaces, bindings, etc.

Sound and Media:

• Supports FFmpeg 5.1.1 and above.
• Sound spell effect has a sound.

User Interface:

• MyGUI 3.4.3 as minimum requirement.
• Console improvements, quality-of-life changes.

Launcher and Wizard:

• Supports Qt 6, localisation in launcher and wizard.

OpenMW-CS:

• UI updates, quality-of-life features.

The Elder Scrolls IV and Beyond:

• Prototyping support for Oblivion, Skyrim, etc.
• Archives and ESM/SCENE/NIF updates.