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Exactly 20 years ago — May 19, 2006 — the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic V had its official premiere in the CIS.
One may feel differently about this installment, but it must be admitted that these are still those same heroes and probably the best part of the series in 3D format, as well as the most active section of the forum.
The game went through a real production hell and a true battle with the publisher Ubisoft, yet despite everything, it is a powerful blow of nostalgia for the era of 2000s games.
In honor of this great anniversary in our RU-space, I have created what I consider an important event for the game.
I took on an extremely voluminous task alone: to completely update the quality of the original game interface without changing the global structure itself—that is, to improve the quality while preserving the UI concept.
The project was named Legacy Classic.
One may feel differently about this installment, but it must be admitted that these are still those same heroes and probably the best part of the series in 3D format, as well as the most active section of the forum.
The game went through a real production hell and a true battle with the publisher Ubisoft, yet despite everything, it is a powerful blow of nostalgia for the era of 2000s games.
In honor of this great anniversary in our RU-space, I have created what I consider an important event for the game.
I took on an extremely voluminous task alone: to completely update the quality of the original game interface without changing the global structure itself—that is, to improve the quality while preserving the UI concept.
The project was named Legacy Classic.
Legacy is a fact of heritage; players kept the game alive with mods, created a mass of content, and deserved to see one more mod—a truly necessary mod.
Classic — is a vector for preserving the spirit of the classics and the style of the original.
Since the volume 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 links from one element to several places, etc.
Nival's archives have plenty of everything—chaos, unnecessary files, errors, and links from one element to several places, etc.
And today, on the anniversary day in the CIS, I am pleased to present you with information about the first patch.
Large-scale upscale:
Almost all of the main UI has been upscaled to new sizes; the style is the same as it was in 2006.
Some small elements were drawn or redrawn from scratch, some were replaced with new ones that visually fit the designers' solution.
Buttons, backgrounds, and rendering elements for all sections in all modes (including campaigns) and options have been updated, except for the connection to Ubisoft servers for obvious reasons.
Large-scale upscale:
Almost all of the main UI has been upscaled to new sizes; the style is the same as it was in 2006.
Some small elements were drawn or redrawn from scratch, some were replaced with new ones that visually fit the designers' solution.
Buttons, backgrounds, and rendering elements for all sections in all modes (including campaigns) and options have been updated, except for the connection to Ubisoft servers for obvious reasons.
Hero and city portraits, various icons. Some gained a new but design-appropriate look, as they looked poor when enlarged.
It is important to understand that much depended on how the images were originally drawn.
A small group of old visual glitches has also been fixed.
Several Community materials were used, and my own visual solutions were implemented.
New, absolutely canonical faction coats of arms above buildings.
Launcher backgrounds upon startup and loading screens for maps outside of scenarios were created from scratch.
A small group of old visual glitches has also been fixed.
Several Community materials were used, and my own visual solutions were implemented.
New, absolutely canonical faction coats of arms above buildings.
Launcher backgrounds upon startup and loading screens for maps outside of scenarios were created from scratch.
Now you can choose the vibe of your favorite faction, drop it into the mod folder, and you will have a launcher background and polished loading screens on the general signature gray background, as is customary in the game, with the faction you like. Nival's concept arts of faction tier 7 creatures were used as a basis, with some adjustments/additions to the appropriate environment.
I recommend using this together with the mod for the castle scene in the main menu. Only materials from my mod will be provided.
Gaming experience: for owners of old resolutions, the experience will still be new. The interface will look sharper regardless, like a neater and fresher version of the original interface.
Gaming experience: for owners of old resolutions, the experience will still be new. The interface will look sharper regardless, like a neater and fresher version of the original interface.
For owners of 2K monitors and higher, this will be a new gaming experience with more noticeable quality that pleases the eye. After all, it will simply become more readable.
Some elements may receive visual updates just to demonstrate more volume on the texture. For example, the menu scrolls.
Optimization: When increasing texture multiplicity, one must of course take into account the engine and the age of the game, so as not to turn the game into a slideshow or significantly increase lag.
Most elements received 2x and 4x increases, according to the logic of the elements. In some cases, I allowed myself to increase smaller objects by 6 if they were too small icons.
At the moment, I can say that everything is quite smooth; there are no severe lags when opening categories. The only point is viewing character details in duel mode—for some reason, FPS drops by 40% there, but we will try to figure this out; other areas were successfully optimized.
Acknowledgements:
Mооnst@r for help and information at the start of the journey and for materials from the UpdatedInterfaceTextures mod (interaction menu scrolls are currently in the project)
His explanation allowed me to start working on the project, and by absorbing the material, I was later able to do a lot of work.
Vindafler for materials from the Icons Resolution Overhaul mod, which improves creature icon quality. This method uses only game resources and helped apply a similar solution in several cases. There is no point in doing this with mini-mods.
SIDE BY SIDE SCREENSHOT COMPARISON:
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=6f4470ba-6a55-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d
https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=65c0ad00-6a56-11f1-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=0c76980c-6a58-11f1-ba1b-0e6f42328d7d
1. Work is currently still being done on optimization and packing the modification. As usual, implementation is taking a bit longer than expected.
2. All screenshots are real.
3. Environment graphics and additional elements on the character panel are not included in the mod.
4. Most likely, the mod will be delivered together with the campaign fix remake, as I created a small visual update for it and there are files that overlap with the mod.
