What an import does

An import reads Morrowind.ini, finds the files it names, and changes a handful of keys in the cfg. The command line, the GUI, the Rust crate and the Luau module all run this same importer.

What it reads#

Every other line in the INI is ignored.

Fallback settings#

OpenMW reads the engine values Morrowind.exe took from its INI as fallback= lines. dream-ini imports the 573 keys it knows, the same list as OpenMW’s importer, and nothing else. The key becomes Section_Key, with spaces and the colon turned into underscores, and the value is copied as it is:

; Morrowind.ini
[Weather Clear]
Cloud Texture=Tx_Sky_Clear.dds

# openmw.cfg
fallback=Weather_Clear_Cloud_Texture,Tx_Sky_Clear.dds

A key the INI repeats gives one fallback= line per value, in order. Fallback keys must be spelled as Morrowind writes them, in the same case. known_fallback_keys() in the Rust API returns the whole list.

The three [Fonts] keys name Morrowind’s bitmap fonts. OpenMW uses its own fonts unless the cfg names others, so they are left out unless you ask for them.

How the INI is read#

• The whole file is decoded with the encoding first.
• Lines end at a line feed and lose one trailing carriage return, so Windows and Unix line endings both work.
• [Name] starts a section. A line starting with [ and no ] after a name is skipped with a malformedIniLine warning.
• ; starts a comment anywhere on a line.
• Key=value: everything before the first = is the key, everything after it the value, spaces included. A key with no value is skipped with an ignoredEmptyValue warning. A line with no = is ignored.

Encoding#

Morrowind stores text in a Windows code page, and so does OpenMW, which reads it from encoding=. dream-ini uses one encoding for both jobs: it decodes the INI with it, and writes it to the cfg.

The encoding is the one you pass (--encoding, or Encoding in the GUI), else the encoding= already in the cfg, else win1252. windows-1251 is accepted for win1251, and so on, in any case.

Where it looks for files#

Archives and content files are searched for, in order, in:

1. The folder passed with --data.
2. Each data= folder in the cfg, in the cfg’s order. A relative one is relative to the cfg’s own folder.
3. Data Files in the folder that holds Morrowind.ini.

The first folder that has the file wins. A folder that does not exist is skipped, but still named in the error if nothing is found. Names are compared by the file system, so on Linux, Tribunal.esm and tribunal.esm are different files.

data-local, resources and user-data are never searched, even when you set them. They are settings OpenMW reads when it runs, not places Morrowind’s files live.

The data= lines it adds#

When a file is found in a folder the cfg does not list as data= yet, that folder is added: the --data folder as you typed it, Data Files as its full path. A folder the cfg already lists, in any spelling that leads to the same place, is not added twice.

New data= lines go after the ones already in the cfg. OpenMW gives later data folders priority, so if your cfg lists mod folders and gets a new Data Files line, move that line above them.

Archives#

Morrowind.bsa comes first, always, because Morrowind.exe loads it whether the INI lists it or not. Then Archive 0, Archive 1 and on, in number order, up to the first missing number: after Archive 0 and Archive 2, Archive 2 is not read. Entries that do not end in .bsa are skipped.

Every archive must be found. If one is not, the import fails, names the archives and the folders searched, and writes nothing. --no-archives leaves fallback-archive= alone.

Content files and load order#

With --game-files, the .esm and .esp files in GameFile0, GameFile1 and on become the cfg’s content= lines. The rules are Morrowind.exe’s:

• The list ends at the first missing number, as with archives. GameFile keys match in any case, and GameFile07 is not GameFile7.
• A file that is not found stops the list, with a missingGameFile warning. The files before it are imported; the ones after it are not. This is not an error.
• Entries that do not end in .esm or .esp are skipped. An entry that is a path rather than a file name fails the import.

The INI’s numbering does not set the load order. Morrowind.exe loads master files first, then plugins, each oldest first by modification time, and dream-ini writes them in that order. Two files with the same time load in reverse alphabetical order, whatever their case. Plugin headers are not read.

What it replaces and what it keeps#

How the cfg is written, and what happens to its comments, is in Writing the cfg.