[MOD] LEGACY CLASSIC 1.0 Quality improvement of the standard interface for HoMM V 3.1 [11.11.26] Auto-translated

Exactly 20 years ago — May 19, 2006 — the official premiere of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic V took place in the CIS.
You can have different attitudes toward this installment, but it's worth admitting that these are still the same old Heroes, and it's probably the best part of the series in 3D format, as well as the most alive part of the forum.
The game went through a real production hell and a real battle with the publisher Ubisoft, and despite everything, it's a powerful hit of nostalgia and the era of 2000s games.

In honor of this big anniversary in our RU-space, I decided to mark it in a special way.
I took on an extremely large task alone: to completely refresh the quality of the original game interface without globally changing its structure — that is, to improve quality while preserving the UI concept.
The project was given the name Legacy Classic.

Legacy — this is the fact of legacy: players kept the game alive with mods, created a ton of content, and deserve to see one more global, comfortable mod.

Classic — this is the vector of preserving the spirit of classic style and the original.

Since the amount of work for one person is simply colossal, the modification will be released in stages, in the form of large patches.
Nival's archives have plenty of everything — chaos, unnecessary files, errors, and connections of one element to multiple places, etc.

 And today, on the anniversary day in the CIS, I'm glad to present you information about the first patch.

🛠️LARGE-SCALE UPSCALE:
Almost the entire main UI has been upscaled to new pixel dimensions, with the same style as in 2006.
Some small elements have been touched up or redrawn from scratch, some have been replaced with new ones that visually fit the design solution.
Buttons, backgrounds, tooltips, rendering elements for all sections in all modes (including campaigns) and options have been updated, along with all the main working interface categories.
Hero and town portraits, various interface icons have been enlarged. Some interface elements have gained a new visual that fits the design, because some originals looked bad when enlarged. This usually concerned small elements. I aimed to preserve the original elements, so mostly successful upscaling and sometimes forced replacements that look organic.

A group of old Nival visual errors has been fixed.
Minor display fixes, including my own.
High-resolution hero and neutral unit skirts added + Collectors Edition skirt.
Fixed the position of menu scrolls in some categories.
Improved texture coordination after upscales.
New, absolutely canonical faction crests above buildings.
Added a background around the stained glass when searching for Asha's tear.
Adjusted the excessive yellowness of the interface.
Launcher backgrounds created from scratch based on internet images and game screenshots.
Changed the interface scroll sound to a more pleasant one with a shorter tail, which slightly changed the frequency.
Aimed at modern monitors, but also works on older ones — the difference will vary but remain noticeable compared to the original.
Other minor visual fixes.

⚜️A NEW ROUND OF MODDING

The value of this release is not only in the updated picture, but also in the technical foundation. The assembled file structure opens the way for further development: now we can make edits, redraw individual elements, and experiment with high-definition visuals, which can be increased further if needed, should paths for additional game optimization open up.
We've got an excellent foundation with great possibilities.

🔎SIDE BY SIDE COMPARISON IN SCREENSHOTS:

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=6b978b6e-dae9-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=3ccac518-dacf-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=d345ef98-6a56-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=d68b7890-dad0-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=06f21bf0-dad2-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=352479f6-6a5b-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=5eb2a32e-dad1-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=91fded54-dad8-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=891544da-daf1-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=3dec21e8-daee-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=a0f0a372-daee-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d

⚙️Technical comments

📜REQUIREMENTS:
HoMM V Tribes of the East 3.1
LAA Patch
All Campaings Remastered
TotE 3.1 fixes

The last modification fixes many broken text positions, the texts themselves, and other errors of the original game. You will guaranteed see Nival's flaws without this mod.

🧱STABILITY:
The mod is stabilized and does not cause freezes or crashes.
The only places where FPS drops are the Kingdom mode / global hiring from a number of towns, and as I've found out, this happens almost even without the mod.
The culprit is one thing — the improved quality of unit icons. When there are many towns, there's a dip in the global hiring mode.

👀COMPATIBILITY:
The modification is not compatible with those that do the same job. Texture sizes were increased and scales in files were rewritten, so a conflict is inevitable.
But adaptations are possible by working with these very files, comparing, and disabling file lines — for example, when it comes to an alternative battle UI.

I didn't touch the construction icons at all; they look fine in my opinion.

⚡⚙️INSTALLATION:

1. Download LEGACY CLASSIC 1.0. Put the archive into the data folder.

2. Put the «For Launcher» folder into the game folder. From it, you can copy the desired splasha2.bmp into the game folder if you wish.

3. The «All Campaings Remastered» mod is adapted for this modification. You need to remove All_сampaignsR_.h5u from the UserMods folder and put LEGACY_PATCHED_All_campaignsR_.h5u into UserMods.
   Nothing in the mod has been touched except files related to the interface (+ a couple of changes and HD campaign icons that I posted separately. The other modules of All Campaings Remastered remain in place as usual.

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️ Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rKDDlmHoXxH2FPXDLSwka_aPX_WGfZoc/view?usp=sharing⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

Patch 2.0 plans (year 27)

1. Thematic pictures in the interaction menus on the global map (bartender, rumors, escape, sphinx, tree of knowledge, victory/defeat, scales, etc.)

2. Switchable interface tabs (pages): tavern, hiring, hero menu

3. Buttons in command roses (the roses themselves are done in 1.0)

4. Cursors

5. Artifacts

6. ATB battle log viewing (possibly)

7. Buff and debuff icons in battle when viewing creatures (fury/soldier's luck/poisoned/stunned/weakened, etc.)

8. Campaign loading screens in real HD state — we'll consider the possibility

9. Scrollbar sliders that are part of large scroll textures and were not a separate element (there's one drawn by hand)

10. Cosmetic fixes of improved elements.

11. Discuss with other modders the possibility of implementing an HD font, the specifics of fonts in H5

12. Remove the "mods" item from the main menu

13. Stained glass shards for all 8 factions — maybe.

1. Spell icons — a very large job. They look acceptable, especially the higher your resolution.
2. Ability icons — the same. I don't know if I'll take it on.

THANKS:

Mооnst@r for help and information at the beginning of the journey and for the scroll materials from UpdatedInterfaceTextures and the extended battle log (I fixed minor Nival flaws and added them to the project)
His explanations at the start allowed me to begin working on the project, where absorbing the material further on made it possible to do a lot of work.
And also for other minor fixes, helping forum members, and contributing to the community as a whole.

Rommy for the huge work on the updated version of the campaign merge pack and fixing various shortcomings.
The build contains minor fixes made by other forum members. Some things I did myself and then came across similar ones on the forum; some of the small things already created by people were included. A number of such micro-decisions were added even before the clear start of work on the mod — these are usually not obvious big changes when considered individually, and unfortunately a list of absolutely every fix cannot be provided. So thanks to everyone whose traces can be noticed here — no offense intended.

Hello everyone!

Thanks for the comments and well wishes.

I've added screenshots for you to see.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to release the first patch by the end of the month. It is quite large and will cover all the main things that players need.

Question for those who know the structure: how can I remove the darkening of the background in some scenes? (opening settings during combat/viewing hero data when selecting in duel mode/mission results)

I would like to get rid of it in these places because the textures are already reasonably optimized + mip maps have not been set up, but there is an FPS drop. Even though these are practically static scenes, this isn't good.

Yes, thanks, this works overall, though it's not always possible to find the background that way — it feels like it's bound differently in some places. In any case, I figured out that it's not really about the backgrounds but about the fact that the interface has gained new weight, and it's clear how the game reacts to that. I'm optimizing where possible, and overall the FPS drop remained only in the kingdom menu when calling up the recruitment and hero screens (does anyone even use the kingdom?) and in the arena hero view menu. Everywhere else I restored it. 
PS: In total, the FPS drop is noticeable only in the creature recruitment mode — via the kingdom or via the castle, provided there are multiple castles and further dwelling build-ups.
This drop is consistent, around half, and a static screen like recruitment doesn't ruin the game. It's related to the icon quality improvement, not the improved UI mod. That is, in the vanilla game the FPS genuinely drops already from the quality of unit icons if there are more than 4 castles, etc. That's how it is.

Well, the patch assembly took longer than expected, but it turned out to be very substantial and, in my opinion, well-polished, and the first version is complete. Screenshots and description have been updated. I did all the technical work and testing on my own. It's quite amusing to be at this point now, since I started because the blurry loading bars and scrolls were getting on my nerves. At that time, it seemed that the limit of improvements was adding sharpness to textures.
Over the past year, I've learned quite a lot about Nival's file structures, not just images. A great deal of work has been done. I'm satisfied with the quality. In some places I had to rack my brain, in others resort to small tricks for correct and beautiful rendering. It's funny to recall now.
I'm glad I managed to pull this off, and I hope the community will continue to develop the game's interface based on this foundation. If we unlock optimization possibilities, we could allow even higher image multipliers and texture scales. I would call this mod a conditional core for potential modification work, or for playing with the original interface, as I myself prefer, for example. The continuation and goals for 2.0 are outlined in the thread. There may be intermediate patches before the global one, but that's not a firmly committed initiative yet. By 2027, we need to finish the remaining elements and enjoy. Thanks to anyone who believed in the project and spiritually hoped something like this would come out.

Not 100% sure, but as far as I remember (and I've encountered this myself) — MIPMAP generation in interface textures is EVIL and can mess things up quite badly when changing graphics settings from high to low, etc.

Good job! Everything looks really great, I know a ton of work went into this (Respect and Props 🫡).

G0ldiel, congratulations on the mod's release. The mod turned out to be big. And that's without 2k textures with an ornate frame.

A couple of points:
Skills and abilities have shifted to the right (screenshot 1).
The Warlock's elements have shifted down a bit (screenshot 2).
On the black screen that appears for a second during loading, a logo has appeared. It's now permanent and everywhere.
In the UI, you're using the MPCreate.(WindowScreen).xdb file (screenshot 3) not from the a2p1-data.pak patch. The file has outdated settings. There may be issues with texture positioning, etc.
The scroll texture in Settings > Video > Battle recording and Video editor https://heroesworld.ru/post/1334029/ and the textures of the Sylvan Guild of Avengers and the Horde's Slave Market https://heroesworld.ru/post/1334485/ haven't been fixed. These fixes could have been (and still can be) taken from FixsToE_3.1. I've attached a mod with these fixes.
You didn't use the fix with replacing the turquoise color for Sylvan with your own texture. https://heroesworld.ru/post/1307969/
In the mod attached below, I've added the files for the Astrologer's Tower screens and mission completion (full-screen dimming (screenshot 4 before)).
Mod files for all campaigns in the regular version of the mod (screenshot 5).
Folders and files with a trailing dash, as I understand it, are not used. Well, and about the buttons with mipmaps, it's already been said above.

But these are all minor things. There's probably more to fix, I haven't looked at everything by far. Maybe something will be reworked, fixed, and added in the new version of the mod.

Of course, I would remove all unnecessary files from the mod that haven't been changed or are no longer used (with a trailing dash), and compress all textures (BC3/DXT5) above 4 mb. (they'll lose a bit of beauty). The mod will become significantly lighter and performance will improve. In any case, I wish you success.

G0ldiel, tell me how exactly to extract symbols like these from your work (for a home build)

Hi, thanks for the support!
Yes, mipmaps on textures not related to the world itself and models aren't needed — I re-saved many of them without that checkbox, but probably not all. I'll work on making sure they're not on the files at all.

Hello, thanks for the wishes and feedback! I appreciate that you wrote in and attached the links.
I looked into these points by running the mod without your fix pack, and basically understood everything.
Here's what came of it:
1. Regarding the video section scrolls, the dimming at the Astrologer's, at mission end, and the position of scrolls at special buildings and the elven symbol — when playing with your mod, these errors are absent.
I checked not on the version I've been tinkering with for myself, but by downloading it fresh from the forum. That's why I was advocating for installation — people are strongly recommended to install your fix.
I just see it as the mandatory minimum for comfortable play nowadays. Some fixes overlap. Still, I should have made it mandatory too.
Over time, the visual fixes could be moved into my mod for autonomy. Though honestly, I can't imagine the game without your fix pack.

2. I know about the game logo flashing in the menu, but I hadn't come up with anything by that point. And where else does it flash? I'll fix that.
3. Does the info from screenshot 3 and the MPCreate.(WindowScreen).xdb file concern exactly that? And where should it be taken from then?

4. The element icons can just be raised a bit — they didn't bother me, so I left them as is.

5. Regarding the last screenshot — I don't even know what situation that is. I patched All_campaignsR. And named it with the LEGACY suffix. Everything's fine there for me. I tried installing Roommy's original mod file — everything's fine in the campaign and mission menus. In battle tooltips that show effects on units too.

Are you sure you don't have something third-party lying around in your folders at the time of playing?
If you're absolutely sure there isn't, then maybe the problem is the resolution after all. I remember yours isn't very large. In some things in Heroes it does affect display. For me, despite all the fixes the community has, unit numbers in battle get cut off (by the way, you can see one example on the screenshot with the Dryads). If I switch to 1920x1080, it disappears. And the logic isn't that bigger numbers get cut more — 125 can look better than 78. Also, hero tooltip windows display stupidly for me — it depends on their position on the field, sometimes they don't want to open and flicker, asking for a different angle. At 1920x1080 that disappears too.

Based on all the above, I'm not concluding anything definitively, but that's really the picture I'm observing so far. I'd like to see more feedback from people.
Regarding file optimization — it needs further optimization; I worked on it and removed a lot of mipmaps, etc. Some files are left because they'll be scaled in a future update. That is, working materials. And some folders and files that haven't been touched at all can be removed, yes — you understood correctly about the ones deactivated with a dash.

Hi, the faction symbols are located in Textures\Effects\BuildingsCapture

1. I figured, since the mod is about interface textures, it should be self-sufficient in such matters, without third-party fix mods. Especially since it weighs hundreds of MB.

2. For example, you press start game, a black screen with the logo appears for a second. You press exit to main menu, again a black screen for a second with the logo in it.

No, that's not it. The third screenshot is a file from data.pak, but it should be from a2p1-data.pak. Make it a rule: when making a mod, you look at the needed files in data.pak, find them, then open a2p1-data.pak and look at the same files; if they're not there, use from data.pak; if they are, always take from a2p1-data.pak.

1. In z_UI_11_11_26_LEGACY_CLASSIC_GameInterface_1_0.pak. I installed only that and showed what's on the fourth screenshot. I didn't install any all-campaigns or other mods.

In your screenshots, the icons shifted to the right, as I showed. It's not about resolution. In my first screenshot, the shifted ones are on the left, the original on the right.