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The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project

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The Elder Scrolls Renewal Project (TESRenewal) is a fan volunteer effort to recreate and remaster the video games in The Elder Scrolls series. The team is best known for its Skywind project, which seeks to recreate the 2002 The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind on the 2016 The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim: Special Edition game engine, known as the Creation Engine.[1]

History

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The Renewal Project began with Morroblivion, a Morrowind remaster on the 2006 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion engine, prior to Skyrim's release. Coordinated through the Morroblivion website's forums,[2] the mod was publicly available on the team's website in 2008.[3]

In 2012, after the release of Skyrim, forum members began work on Skywind, intending to begin the same result in the Skyrim engine.[4]

Another volunteer team works separately on Skyblivion, a similar but separate project to remaster Oblivion on the more advanced Skyrim engine.

Skywind

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Skywind is a recreation of Morrowind (2002) in the Skyrim – Special Edition game engine (2016).[5] All original game assets, including textures, music, quests and gameplay, were planned to be redesigned.[6] The remastering team involves over 70 volunteers in artist, composer, designer, developer and voice acting roles, who released several videos highlighting their development progress. In November 2014, the team reported to have finished half of the remaster's environment, over 10,000 new dialogue lines and three hours of series-inspired soundtrack. Players were able to download and play an unfinished version of the release until late 2014, when the volunteer team chose to divert assets to development instead of user support.

A March 2015 update showed updated levels. The developers wrote that they were not close to a release despite technical indications from their project's version number.[7] In mid-2015, the team released its public alpha, an unfinished test version, but it was soon withdrawn.[1] After a year, the project team released its fourth update, which was designed to solicit volunteers for the remaining work.[8] In October 2018, a further major trailer was released[9] and another in July 2019 and January 2020.[10]

In May 2023, the 21st anniversary of Morrowind's release, the Skywind team released a 21-minute video of gameplay footage. In the video, the narrator stated that the team was "finalizing major game elements".[11]

Skyblivion

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Main article: Skyblivion

Skyblivion is a recreation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006) within the engine for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Special Edition (2016).[12] Like its sister project, it involves an overhaul of most aspects of the original game, including landscaping, weapons, and armors.[13]

As of mid-2014, the project sought outside help from visual artists and declined voice actors, as Oblivion already featured a full voice cast.[14] The team released a development trailer in May 2014 that showed the remaster in early development[15] and a gameplay trailer a year later. As of 2015, the game lacked navmesh, a mechanism by which non-player characters wander an environment without becoming lost in other assets.[16] In November 2016, Rebelzize started to send out invites on Nexus Mods in the hope of attracting more volunteers. More people joined and not much later the "Skyblivion – Return To Cyrodiil" trailer was published resulting in an influx of new volunteers.[17][non-primary source needed]

By August 2019, the project started to near its completion, with the exterior map in its final stages of development, 3D assets being implemented at a rapid rate and debugging being done for the quests.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Owen S. Good (January 10, 2015). "Fans remastering Morrowind give another glimpse of its landscape". Polygon. Archived from the original on November 23, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  2. ^ Jason Schreier (September 20, 2012). "Morrowind Modded Into Skyrim Is Something You Must See". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  3. ^ Mike Fahey (July 30, 2008). "Morroblivion - You Got Your Morrowind In My Oblivion". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on July 17, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  4. ^ Alexa Ray Corriea (September 20, 2012). "Skywind project mods 'Morrowind' into 'Skyrim'". Polygon. Archived from the original on August 25, 2017. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  5. ^ Craig Pearson (January 1, 2014). "Ten top fan-remade classics you can play for free right now". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on June 16, 2017. Retrieved June 8, 2017.
  6. ^ Rainer Sigl (February 1, 2015). "Lieblingsspiele 2.0: Die bewundernswerte Kunst der Fan-Remakes" (in German). Der Standard. Archived from the original on November 24, 2016. Retrieved June 6, 2017.
  7. ^ "Ambitious The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Morrowind Crossover Mod Gets a New Trailer". GameSpot. Archived from the original on February 28, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  8. ^ Owen S. Good (March 5, 2016). "Fan-made Morrowind remaster gives another look at the progress they've made". Polygon. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  9. ^ Skywind - The Fall of House Dagoth Story Teaser Trailer - IGN, October 3, 2018, archived from the original on July 2, 2019, retrieved July 2, 2019
  10. ^ "New Skywind trailer introduces a haunting remix of the Morrowind theme". PCGamesN. July 2019. Archived from the original on July 2, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  11. ^ Smith, Graham (May 2, 2023). "Skywind releases long new trailer for Morrowind's 21st anniversary". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Archived from the original on July 7, 2023. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  12. ^ "Making Skyblivion: Bringing Oblivion To Skyrim". GameSpot. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  13. ^ Senior, Tom (November 2, 2018). "Beautiful, familiar scenery on show in Skyblivion video update". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 29, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
  14. ^ Owen S. Good (May 18, 2014). "'Skyblivion' seeks to recreate The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion with Skyrim's engine". Polygon. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  15. ^ Savage, Phil (May 19, 2014). "Skyblivion trailer shows Oblivion's opening locations recreated in Skyrim". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  16. ^ "Tour the world of Skyblivion in new 45-minute gameplay trailer". PC Gamer. July 20, 2015. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016. Retrieved March 8, 2016.
  17. ^ "Skyblivion - Return To Cyrodiil Teaser Trailer". Archived from the original on April 2, 2020. Retrieved September 29, 2019 – via www.youtube.com.
  18. ^ "The Elder Scrolls: "Skyblivion" Fan Mod Shows Off Latest Developments". Archived from the original on August 21, 2019. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
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