Testing

For anyone who wants to give OpenMW a try, this will get you started in testing things out.

Game Arguments
The game has terminal/command line arguments available when you run it through the executable that are can be added with the form "openmw --something --something-else"

--help gives a good overview of options available at launch.

--skip-menu skips the introduction tutorial and generates a default character at a default cell.

--start="Seyda Neen" can be combined with --skip-menu to start the game at the designated starting cell.

--activate-dist=value allows to override the maximum activation distance for objects the player is looking at. The normal value is the GMST iMaxActivateDist (192 by default). Increasing this value can speed up testing.

--script-run=filename will execute all console commands in the specified file upon starting a game. Applies to regular newly started games, but also when using the --skip-menu argument. For example, this can be used to set up your new testing characters with items, spells, etc.

Arguments can also be added to the user's openmw.cfg (See Paths), in the form of something=value, for example: skip-menu=1, start=Seyda Neen

On Mac OS, these commands must be run as such ./OpenMW.app/Contents/MacOS/openmw --help

General Commands
The full list of console commands may be found at http://www.uesp.net/morrow/editor/mw_cscommands.shtml, and the current implementation status in OpenMW at Scripting_(status).

Note that OpenMW's console supports tab completion, so in most cases you don't have to fully type a command / name. For example, try entering the following:

coc "Balmora, Caius  results in coc "Balmora, Caius Cosades' House"

To obtain all valid IDs for a particular command, you can use ESMTool or OpenCS (both included in the OpenMW repository).

Extended Tooltips
The tfh (ToggleFullHelp) command will reveal more information in item tooltips, such as the owner of the item and the script attached to it, if any.

Cells
Teleport: the commands are coc, to be used with cell names and coe for exterior cells with the provided coordinates (coc "Seyda Neen" or coc Balmora, or coe 2,3).

Physics

 * Use the console command ToggleCollision (or the short version tcl) to toggle gravity and physics interactions.
 * ToggleCollisionGrid/tcg reveals the collision geometry.

Environment
You can alter global variables with console syntax of the form "set value to x" (e.g. "set timescale to 2000") and reveal their current value by typing their name. Interesting global variables to tinker with are timescale for the game speed (default is 30) and gamehour for the game hour.

ChangeWeather sets the weather in a certain region. Look it up in the UESP wiki for the definition and examples.

Journal
You can populate the journal by talking to quest-offering NPCs or through the console with a command of the form Journal, A2_4_MiloGone, 10

Debugger
If you are running the game with a debugger to analyze a segmentation fault you should run the game with the --no-grab argument to avoid the game locking up the mouse input when it crashes.

For example with gdb: