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Morrobroom
diagnostics

Troubleshooting

A short diagnostic guide for the problems you are most likely to meet, and what to send when it is none of them.

TrenchBroom does not list Morrowind#

Check the custom game directory first. It must contain GameConfig.cfg, CompilationProfiles.cfg and the rest of what was in Morrobroom’s resources/, directly, not in a resources/ folder of its own. Restart TrenchBroom after copying them.

Then check the game directory setting. It must point to the folder containing Data Files/, not to Data Files/ itself.

Textures are missing in TrenchBroom#

Confirm that the configured Morrowind game directory contains Data Files/, and that the texture exists under its textures/ path as .tga, .png, .dds or .webp. Missing textures in the editor are a TrenchBroom search-path problem, not a plugin problem.

OpenMW launches the old map#

Save the .map before compiling. The compiler reads the saved file, not TrenchBroom’s unsaved state. Then check that the compile profile points OpenMW at build/<map name>/ and loads the matching <map name>.omwaddon.

OpenMW does not start in the room#

The Map-to-Engine profile starts OpenMW in the cell named after the map. If worldspawn has an ESM3_Name, the cell is called that instead, and OpenMW has nowhere to start. Clear ESM3_Name, or change the profile’s --start to match.

Something I placed is not in the game#

Look at the compiler’s output. Unidentified point entity class: … means the entity is neither one Morrobroom compiles nor a record to place: a record from the catalog whose ESM3_RefId was cleared looks like that, so give it back its ID. … is an editor preview and is not compiled yet is nif_fx_fire or the VFX catalog. … has no brushes, so there is nothing to build is a brush entity whose brushes were all deleted or moved out of it. No matching object type found! is a brush entity whose class Morrobroom does not compile. Entities lists what does compile.

A record from the catalog that compiled but is missing in game comes from a plugin OpenMW is not loading. Load that plugin, or generate the catalog from the openmw.cfg you play with.

Objects are missing from the entity browser#

If a record from an installed mod does not appear, generate the catalog from the openmw.cfg that loads it with morrobroom fgd, then reload the game configuration or restart TrenchBroom. Use --output <path> for TrenchBroom’s portable mode.

Geometry fails or looks wrong#

Start with a smaller map and isolate the newest brush or entity. Check for malformed or zero-volume solids, degenerate faces, extremely thin slivers, and geometry imported from a NIF rather than authored as a brush. Compile early and often; the compiler has no obligation to conceal a cursed polygon until the end of the project.

For imported assets, run nif2map --dry-run --verbose first. Check the .nif2map.json report and watch the brush count: complex visual geometry can produce very large .map files. See NIF import for the structural and surface reconstruction model.

A Nif_Target names a Nif_LinkName that is not in its scope, is in it twice, or leads round in a circle. Inside a group, a target only sees markers in that group and the groups around it. NIF authoring has the rules.

Lighting is absent or stale#

Make sure the map contains a light and that the compile was not run with --no-lightmaps. An entity with its own Nif_Texture_DarkMap shows that texture instead of the lightmap. Delete the map’s build/ directory if old generated textures make the result hard to read, then compile again.

Reporting a problem#

Include:

  1. your operating system and Morrobroom version;
  2. the command or TrenchBroom profile you used;
  3. whether the problem happens with --no-lightmaps;
  4. the smallest .map or NIF that reproduces it;
  5. the compiler’s output, and OpenMW’s log if it got that far.

Open a GitHub issue with that information, or ask in Discussions if you are not sure it is a bug. A small reproducible crater is vastly more useful than a large screenshot of one.