Revision as of 22:30, 23 January 2013

For players

Installing mod

To install mod unpack archive in /Mods. This should result in such directory structure:

<data directory>/Mods/<name of mod>/mod.json

There is no need to activate newly installed mods.

List of currently available mods

Managing mods

To activate or deactivate mod open file <data dir>/config/modSettings.json. Set mod state to "false" for disabling it or to "true" for enabling.

Note that removing mod from this list will not deactivate or remove mod from the game - any mods not present in this file will be considered by game as newly installed and will be (re-)inserted in this file on startup.

To remove mod delete its folder (<data dir>/Mods/modname).

Notes

• Data directory location is system-specific:
  • Windows : Same as your Heroes III directory
  • Unix-like : Inside home directory: ~/.vcmi

For modders

Creating mod

To make your own mod you need to create subdirectory in "<data dir>/Mods/" with name that will be used as identifier for your mod.

Main mod file called mod.json and should be placed into main folder of your mod, e.g. Mods/myMod/mod.json

All content of your mod should go into "Override" directory, e.g. Mods/myMod/Override/

• TODO: support for .zip archives

Example of how directory structure of your mod may look like:

Mods/
     myMod/
           mod.json
           Override/
                    data/    - unorganized files, mostly bitmap images (.bmp, .png, .pcx)
                    config/  - json configuration files
                    maps/    - h3m maps added or modified by mod
                    music/   - music files. Mp3 is fully supported, ogg may be added if needed
                    sounds/  - sound files, in wav format.
                    sprites/ - animation, image sets (H3 .def files or VCMI .json files)
                    video/   - video files, .bik or .smk

Creating mod file

All VCMI configuration files use JSON format so you may want to familiarize yourself with it first.

Mod.json is main file in your mod and must be present in any mod. See Mod file Format for its full description.

Minimalistic version of this file:

 
{
    "name" : "My test mod",
    "description" : "My test mod that add a lot of useless stuff into the game"
}

Additional links

• Mod file Format
• Def file replacement format
• Creature Format
• Town Format
• Hero Classes Format
• Hero Format
• Artifact Format
• Object Format (Todo)
• Spell Format (WiP)