If he is using openmw then code patch is not possible.
It’s a texture replaced mod, so should be ok.

Yuck, OpenMW isn't even real Morrowind, it's just a clone using the assets.

No, it’s not.
It’s a modern engine for Morrowind, similar to DevilutionX for Diablo or Julius for Cæsar Ⅲ.

There is no longer any valid reason to play Morrowind in its outdated original engine instead of playing it through OpenMW.

Never heard of a source port?

OpenMW is awesome. I played through the whole of MW with Tamriel Rebuilt with it last year. It's solid as a rock - far more stable than the original engine. I don't think I saw a single bug that was attributable to OpenMW. The only bugs I found were content bugs left behind by Bethesda. And this was with a bunch of other mods on top of TR (plus increased view distance, dynamic shadows, enhanced water shaders, etc).

I agree with you, it’s an engine reimplementation. Much like your examples, or dhwem for doom 3.
Nothing wrong with it at all. What I would say is currently (to my understanding) it’s not as feature complete as mgxe. Don’t ask me to be more specific, that’s what I have taken from discussions around, been a while since I have run either.
So that being said, there is still very good reasons to use original morrowind, plus mgxe and code patch. Also, the two are not exclusive, you can run both (as they use the same assets, just the engine which differs), and so see for yourself which one you prefer.
I do hope openmw does indeed be come complete and become a total replacement for the original engine, but I just don’t think it is right there yet.

Edit:
From the openmw FAQs:
Why is the version number less than 1.0? Is OpenMW incomplete?

Don’t let the version number being less than 1.0 fool you: OpenMW is more stable and less buggy than the original Morrowind game engine and only lacks a few minor features.

Reaching version 1.0 signals that it has reached feature parity with the original Morrowind game engine. After that, the project will change directions and de-hardcode Morrowind game mechanics, improve modder tools, and add many new features beyond the original game engine. See this document for the complete post-1.0 roadmap.

So it does currently lack some features.

The OpenMW engine is complete and it exceeded the original engine in terms of both features and stability many years ago. The reason it is not at version 1.0 is because they have linked the version for both the engine and the editor, and the editor has been lagging behind. Although I admit it is a bit confusing and it puts some people off, because they have the impression the engine is not complete.

My understanding is that mgxe has better support currently for increased view distances and groundcover (both things that go beyond the original engine). Those are areas that the OpenMW team are still working on (although it certainly already achieve better view distances than the original).

How could it be a source port if the source code was never released?

They wrote a new engine from scratch that can play Morrowind using the original game assets. They didn't need access to the source code of the original to do that. All of the game mechanics have been reverse-engineered. It is very faithful to the original and includes many enhancements, including UI (for things like alchemy), higher resolutions, shadows, improved water shaders.

I believe it's still referred to as a 'source port', even though it is written from scratch. You still need a copy of the assets from the original game to play it.

It's not a source port - it's a reimplementation that strives to be faithful to the original and improve on it. Much like DevilutionX (Diablo never had its source code released either, duh) and OpenRA.

No, it is not. There are no sources involved anywhere.

Original assets are a common requirement for many source ports (which in most cases target the game engine only) and reimplementations.

I disagree.

There are a few things that are different with OpenMW, like blindness lowering accuracy (instead of increasing it like in the original) or nor being able to climb mountains by repeatedly jumping.

(One could easily argue that the first one is a bug (though it's the sort of bug I might prefer to play with instead of have it fixed), but the latter feels like it wasn't really a bug, but rather just a way to get around (one that doesn't rely on magic) that was taken away in OpenMW.)

Edit; Also, why is this topic here and not on the Elder Scrolls series subforum?

Reimplementation are usually not based on the original engine code.
The examples I listed (DevilutionX and Julius) are modern engines for games that never got their source code released,

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I never used MGE XE, so I do not know which of its features would be part of OpenMW scope, and what would rather go into mods territory.

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This is part of the reasons I say OpenMW is better than the original engine.
I know you like to play with more bugs, but most people don’t.

My understanding was that engine recreations are usually also referred to as 'source ports', but if that isn't correct then my mistake. Still, OpenMW is an excellent engine recreation that is very faithful to the original and well worth considering.

There's still the issue of not being able to climb mountains by jumping; being able to do so in the original engine did not feel like a bug to me.

Also, another valid reason to play the original is speedrunning, as speedrunners generally require official releases of the game. (Also, some categories rely on a bug that is only present in 1.0; that does, however, come with the downside of frequent crashes.)

I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'climb mountains by jumping'. You can climb mountains just fine in OpenMW and before too long the player gains the ability to levitate wherever they want anyway. I never had any issues getting where I wanted to go to vertically.