OpenTESArena

This is an in-progress modern open-source engine for the 1994 DOS game The Elder Scrolls: Arena by Bethesda Softworks. The goal is to replicate all aspects of the original game with a clean-room approach while making quality-of-life changes along the way. Details on Arena's inner-workings can be found in the wiki. No game assets are distributed.

Preview

Current status

No actual gameplay yet, but all locations and interiors can be accessed. Citizens wander around but can't be interacted with. Collision detection is barebones and needs work. Character creation works but class questions and player attributes are not implemented.

Controls:

WASD - move and turn. Hold LCtrl to strafe.
Esc - pause menu
Tab - character sheet
F - draw/sheathe weapon
G - hold and click voxel to destroy
L - logbook
M - world map
N - automap
V - status
F2 - player position
F4 - debug profiler
PrintScreen - screenshot

Playing OpenTESArena

Windows

#### Download [*The Elder Scrolls: Arena* on Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/1812290/The_Elder_Scrolls_Arena/) - Alternate downloads: [GOG](https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_elder_scrolls_arena), [Bethesda website](https://cdnstatic.bethsoft.com/elderscrolls.com/assets/files/tes/extras/Arena106Setup.zip) #### Download OpenTESArena 1. [Get latest Windows build](https://github.com/afritz1/OpenTESArena/releases) 1. Extract the `.zip` #### Copy game assets path (skip if Steam library is default `C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\`) 1. In your Steam library, right-click *The Elder Scrolls: Arena* then select Manage -> Browse local files 1. Open `ARENA` folder then highlight the current directory path and copy with Ctrl+C 1. Back in the OpenTESArena release folder, open `options/options-default.txt` and paste the game directory after `ArenaPaths=` - Example: `ArenaPaths=C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Elder Scrolls Arena\ARENA` #### Run `otesa.exe` #### Music (optional) 1. Download [eawpats](https://github.com/afritz1/OpenTESArena/releases/download/opentesarena-0.1.0/eawpats.zip) 1. Extract the `.zip` 1. Move the extracted `eawpats` folder inside the OpenTESArena `data` folder - If you'd like a different sound patches library like OPL3, edit the value of `MidiConfig` in `options/options-default.txt` so it points to the MIDI `.cfg` file for that library #### Common issues - Missing MSVCP141.dll error - Download and run latest X64 [vc_redist.x64.exe](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) from Microsoft - No sound, `alcOpenDevice()` warnings - Download [OpenAL 1.1 Windows Installer (zip)](https://www.openal.org/downloads/) and run `oalinst.exe`

Linux (Debian-based)

#### Download packages ```bash sudo apt-get install wget unzip rar ``` #### Download *The Elder Scrolls: Arena* from Bethesda website ```bash wget https://cdnstatic.bethsoft.com/elderscrolls.com/assets/files/tes/extras/Arena106Setup.zip ``` #### Download OpenTESArena Replace `` with the latest build number (`#.##.#`) and `` with an architecture (`x86-64`, `rpi4`) available on the [Releases](https://github.com/afritz1/OpenTESArena/releases) page. ```bash wget https://github.com/afritz1/OpenTESArena/releases/download/opentesarena-/opentesarena--linux_.tar.gz tar xvzf opentesarena--linux_.tar.gz ``` #### Extract game assets ```bash cd opentesarena--linux_/data unzip ../../Arena106Setup.zip rar x Arena106.exe ``` #### Run OpenTESArena ```bash cd .. ./run.sh ``` #### Music (optional) 1. Download [eawpats](https://github.com/afritz1/OpenTESArena/releases/download/opentesarena-0.1.0/eawpats.tar.gz) 1. Extract the `.tar.gz` 1. Move the extracted `eawpats` folder inside the OpenTESArena `data` folder - If you'd like a different sound patches library like OPL3, edit the value of `MidiConfig` in `options/options-default.txt` so it points to the MIDI `.cfg` file for that library

macOS

#### Download *The Elder Scrolls: Arena* 1. Get the full game from the [Bethesda website](https://cdnstatic.bethsoft.com/elderscrolls.com/assets/files/tes/extras/Arena106Setup.zip) 1. Extract `Arena106Setup.zip` 1. `Arena106.exe` is a self-extracting RAR file. Use a tool such as [The Unarchiver](https://theunarchiver.com) to extract it into a folder of data files #### Install OpenTESArena 1. Download the latest [macOS build](https://github.com/afritz1/OpenTESArena/releases) 1. Open the `.dmg` and copy `otesa.app` to the `Applications` folder or another location you prefer 1. Right-click on the .app and choose "Show Package Contents" 1. Navigate to `Contents/Resources/data` and copy in the files for Arena that you extracted earlier #### Run OpenTESArena 1. Return to the `Applications` folder or wherever you have the app installed and open `otesa.app`. If you have Gatekeeper turned on (the default for macOS), you will need to do the following: 1. Right-click on the app and choose "Open" 1. In the warning that appears saying that it is from an unidentified developer, choose "Open" 1. The app will start. In the future, you can just double-click on the app without having to go through these steps

Options files

options-changes.txt is created in your user prefs folder the first time OpenTESArena runs and stores values that differ from the ones in options-default.txt.

Windows: <username>/AppData/Roaming/OpenTESArena/options/
Linux: ~/.config/OpenTESArena/options/
macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/OpenTESArena/options/

Building OpenTESArena from source

Dependencies

Example Unix terminal commands on a fresh machine:

sudo apt-get install git g++ cmake libsdl2-dev libopenal-dev libwildmidi-dev

Building OpenTESArena

Navigate to the root of the repository
Use CMake to generate your project file (Visual Studio .sln, Unix Makefile, etc.). In a Unix terminal, the commands might look like:
```
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=<?> ..
make -j8
```
where CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE is one of Debug|ReleaseGenericNoLTO|ReleaseGeneric|ReleaseNative
- For maximum compatibility, use ReleaseGeneric
- For maximum speed only compatible with your specific CPU, use ReleaseNative
Other parameters for CMake may be necessary depending on the IDE you are using

Running OpenTESArena

Copy the data and options folders from the project's root folder to the same directory as the game executable (this should be fixed in the future with a post-build command)
Make sure that MidiConfig and ArenaPaths in the options file point to valid locations on your computer (i.e., data/eawpats/timidity.cfg and data/ARENA respectively)

Other guides:

Contributing

Check out CONTRIBUTING.md for details on how to assist with development.

Resources

Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages - a great resource for information about Arena
Various tools like WinArena and BSATool for browsing Arena's assets
The Elder Scrolls: Arena manual

afritz1 / OpenTESArena

readme