The OpenMW project has been in development for quite a while now but only with the recent release of update 0.38 did I learn of its existence and rather noble purpose.

OpenMW is a modern open source engine which aims to reimplement and extend various features present in the original Morrowind engine in order to improve upon both the game and its mod support. As of right now its still under heavy development but through frequent and extensive updates OpenMW is getting closer to its vision with every passing month.

Here's a bit more information on the project and what it aims to accomplish before its 1.0 release:

- Be a full-featured reimplementation of the Morrowind engine.

- Be able to create and build your own game from scratch, free of Bethesda’s intellectual property (Morrowind).

- Run natively on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX.

- Support all existing content, including Tribunal, Bloodmoon and all user created mods that do not use use external programs and libraries.

- Fix system design bugs, like save-game “doubling” problem. Improve the interface and journal system.

- Improved graphics by taking advantage of more modern hardware. Improve game physics and AI.

Another interesting thing about this engine rework is that it comes with a whole new editor which you can use to either modify Morrowind itself or, if you're creative enough, even make entire new games with it. The second part is somewhat unlikely given that it won't have the amount of documentation or as much flexibility as some of the more popular engines today, Unity for example, but as far as modding Morrowind goes it'll bring about a revolution.

Given that this is a recreation of the Morrowind engine you might be wondering if Morrowind is even needed to run the whole thing, to which the answer is a definite yes. While the engine contains (or will contain) the entirety of the code that runs the game it doesn't come with any of the actual content or assets so unless you're a fan of playing a text-based version of Morrowind you'll have to grab yourself a copy.

If you would like to give it a try yourself the download links are here though be warned, a bit of technical knowledge will be required in order to get the whole thing to run as its still a bit rough around the edges. However, if fiddling around with early versions isn't your cup of tea I'd suggest you wait for the official release which will come with everything nicely bundled and easy to use.

Though keep in mind, even with the development pace being this rapid it still might be a while before that comes to pass.