Fans of the classics may be interested to know about 'VCMI' [Official Site], an open-source engine for Heroes of Might and Magic 3.
It needs the original data files, much like other open-source efforts do. You can find it on GOG if interested.
It currently features:
- Complete gameplay mechanics
- Almost all objects, abilities, spells and other content
- Basic battle AI and adventure AI
- Many GUI improvements: high resolutions, stack queue, creature window
- Advanced and easy mod support - add new towns, creatures, heroes, artifacts and spells without limits or conflicts
- Launcher for easy configuration - download mods from our server and install them immediatelly!
- Random map generator that supports objects added by mods
- Linux, Mac OS and Android ports
Not a bad list, sounds like it's probably quite playable.
The developer of it emailed me to let me know about it. You can find the github here. It's under the GPL license.
They need fresh developers too, so if it interests you, why not go ahead and contribute to it?
The project also has an IRC channel: #vcmi on freenode. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
It needs the original data files, much like other open-source efforts do. You can find it on GOG if interested.
It currently features:
- Complete gameplay mechanics
- Almost all objects, abilities, spells and other content
- Basic battle AI and adventure AI
- Many GUI improvements: high resolutions, stack queue, creature window
- Advanced and easy mod support - add new towns, creatures, heroes, artifacts and spells without limits or conflicts
- Launcher for easy configuration - download mods from our server and install them immediatelly!
- Random map generator that supports objects added by mods
- Linux, Mac OS and Android ports
Not a bad list, sounds like it's probably quite playable.
The developer of it emailed me to let me know about it. You can find the github here. It's under the GPL license.
They need fresh developers too, so if it interests you, why not go ahead and contribute to it?
The project also has an IRC channel: #vcmi on freenode. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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stickyparadigm 4 Nov 2016
I love these open-source re-implementations. Thanks for pointing this one out.
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ElectricPrism 4 Nov 2016
Looks like stratagus. I wish stargus was more developed I love these reimplementation too.
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Looks like stratagus.HoMM 3 is not an RTS, but classical turn-based strategy with town building, heroes that have skills / artifacts / spells and tactical battles. So it's somewhat close to Battle for Wesnoth (another close game is Age of Wonders).
Last edited by SXX on 4 Nov 2016 at 7:58 pm UTC
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A Similar project for HOMM2:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fheroes2/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/fheroes2/
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Kimyrielle 5 Nov 2016
Awesome to see that this is still in active development. HOMM3 is probably the best fantasy strategy games ever made.
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HOMM3 was previously released on Linux by Loki Software. It really should be re-released on Steam.
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HOMM3 was previously released on Linux by Loki Software. It really should be re-released on Steam.Where can I buy it now?
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Kimyrielle 5 Nov 2016
HOMM3 was previously released on Linux by Loki Software. It really should be re-released on Steam.Where can I buy it now?
I still have an old copy of it, but it's a hassle to get to run these days, due to library dependency issues. I guess you are better of with VCMI, really. You can get the game from GOG for cheap if you don't have it.
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If I have the game from gog, can I use this VCMI to play it on linux? The Gog version is windows only for now.
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VCMI as available so far is a bit of a pain for us Linux users. No binary installer, so if you want it you need to compile it from source, and make sure all the many dependencies are also installed. After 20 minutes of trying, and having issues along the way, I gave up. Shame the site doesn't provide a deb binary package for Debian/Ubuntu/Arch/Mint platforms. For Windows, there is an exe install file - so nice and easy for Windows users.
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VCMI as available so far is a bit of a pain for us Linux users. No binary installer, so if you want it you need to compile it from source, and make sure all the many dependencies are also installed. After 20 minutes of trying, and having issues along the way, I gave up. Shame the site doesn't provide a deb binary package for Debian/Ubuntu/Arch/Mint platforms. For Windows, there is an exe install file - so nice and easy for Windows users.
Are you using Debian Stable?
I recomend you to upgrade to Testing.
In testing you have the VCMI package in the oficial repos.
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If I have the game from gog, can I use this VCMI to play it on linux? The Gog version is windows only for now.Yes you can and GOG assets are recommended actually. Though keep in mind VCMI is still work in progress and you might still need to wait until it's fully playable. Almost everything implemented and works, but there is still plenty of issues.
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VCMI as available so far is a bit of a pain for us Linux users.We do have Ubuntu PPA and packages in Debian. Also I pretty it's in aur for Arch and other distributions have some way to install it.
No binary installer, so if you want it you need to compile it from source, and make sure all the many dependencies are also installed. After 20 minutes of trying, and having issues along the way, I gave up.Please if you decide to compile it check readme in repo and wiki. Information might be slightly outdated, but nothing important changed in build process really.
If you have some other distribution and problem with compiling feel free to join our forums or #vcmi channel on freenode IRC. We also use Slack, but so far there is no public invite page.
Shame the site doesn't provide a deb binary package for Debian/Ubuntu/Arch/Mint platforms.Our site is old and lacking really. Wish to replace it with something modern one day, but didn't have time for that yet.
For Windows, there is an exe install file - so nice and easy for Windows users.We don't really have any installers, just prebuilt binaries and daily builds I cross-compile from Linux to Windows testers since most of them can't compile on their own.
In future I wish to have Linux builds with Steam Runtime too, but again had no time for it.
Last edited by SXX on 6 Nov 2016 at 10:20 pm UTC
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rustybroomhandle 7 Nov 2016
VCMI as available so far is a bit of a pain for us Linux users.We do have Ubuntu PPA and packages in Debian. Also I pretty it's in aur for Arch and other distributions have some way to install it.
Can confirm it is in AUR and can also confirm it compiles and runs fine.
Last edited by rustybroomhandle on 7 Nov 2016 at 12:31 am UTC
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Hi again,
After reading the above comments, I decided to have another go. Not sure why, but I didn't spot the binary Linux files on the VCMI website on my first visit ( and it wasn't in my distribution's repository when apt-cache search vcmi ).
I found links to the binary files here:
http://wiki.vcmi.eu/index.php?title=Installation_on_Linux
I attempted to install the binary with dpkg -i package.deb
The various dependencies were mentioned, so I installed those with apt-get install dependency1 dependency2 etc
Success, I managed to get it up and running. Yes, I know I could add another repository to my available repos, but decided to do it this way instead.
One little question, if anyone cares to answer: Is the game stuck at 800x600 resolution? That is what I found when I started playing. i.e. Is it just me, or is that what everyone gets with it?
After reading the above comments, I decided to have another go. Not sure why, but I didn't spot the binary Linux files on the VCMI website on my first visit ( and it wasn't in my distribution's repository when apt-cache search vcmi ).
I found links to the binary files here:
http://wiki.vcmi.eu/index.php?title=Installation_on_Linux
I attempted to install the binary with dpkg -i package.deb
The various dependencies were mentioned, so I installed those with apt-get install dependency1 dependency2 etc
Success, I managed to get it up and running. Yes, I know I could add another repository to my available repos, but decided to do it this way instead.
One little question, if anyone cares to answer: Is the game stuck at 800x600 resolution? That is what I found when I started playing. i.e. Is it just me, or is that what everyone gets with it?
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Success, I managed to get it up and running. Yes, I know I could add another repository to my available repos, but decided to do it this way instead.You shouldn't really use those deb's linked on wiki, they're for version 0.95 that is more than two years old. If you're on Debian then you just need to enable "contrib" repo.
One little question, if anyone cares to answer: Is the game stuck at 800x600 resolution? That is what I found when I started playing. i.e. Is it just me, or is that what everyone gets with it?This is what everyone get's by default since it's only resolution original assets support. For higher resolution modified UI files needed and those can't be hosted with the code for copyright reasons.
Our engine is created from scratch, but all high-res support mods are derivative work from original game assets. This is why we have separate launcher for mods: many of them like mods for any other game doesn't have proper licensing.
Sadly core mod is currently messed up a bit so easier way to get higher resolution support is just to copy core mod "Mods/vcmi/" from Windows build into ~/.local/share/vcmi/Mods. Probably you'll need to remove one from /usr/share/vcmi/Mods since launcher can't merge them well.
Last edited by SXX on 7 Nov 2016 at 3:30 am UTC
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Another easy way to play it in resolutions > 800x600 would be to just play the HD-edition of HOMMIII via wine. Works flawless for me.
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Another easy way to play it in resolutions > 800x600 would be to just play the HD-edition of HOMMIII via wine. Works flawless for me.HD-edition it's crippled version of game without expansions that cost more money. Complete edition from GOG and HD mod works as good and provide much better expirience.
And you can also play with HD mod and let's say HoTA mod together since it's high-quality and adds a lot to the gameplay. Problem is that you can't really set more than one large mod with original game (since they all want to patch executable) and this is why VCMI were created.
Last edited by SXX on 7 Nov 2016 at 2:49 pm UTC
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Another easy way to play it in resolutions > 800x600 would be to just play the HD-edition of HOMMIII via wine. Works flawless for me.HD-edition it's crippled version of game without expansions that cost more money. Complete edition from GOG and HD mod works as good and provide much better expirience.
And you can also play with HD mod and let's say HoTA mod together since it's high-quality and adds a lot to the gameplay. Problem is that you can't really set more than one large mod with original game (since they all want to patch executable) and this is why VCMI were created.
How to install HD Mod? (https://sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/)
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How to install HD Mod? (https://sites.google.com/site/heroes3hd/)If you mean on top of GOG version then same way you install any other software in Wine.
It's can't be used with VCMI since "HD Mod" is not actually a mod, but one large original game executable patcher.
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