Modding guidelines
Contents
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
| Name | Download URL | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Cove town | URL | HotA Crew |
| New artifacts pack | URL | Witchking |
| High resolution main menu | URL | Dru |
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 is 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 Content directory, e.g. Mods/myMod/Content/. In future it will be possible to replace this directory with single .zip archive.
Example of how directory structure of your mod may look like:
Mods/
myMod/
mod.json
Content/
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. This file contains basic description of your mod, dependencies or conflicting mods (if present), list of new content and so on.
Minimalistic version of this file:
{
"name" : "My test mod",
"description" : "My test mod that add a lot of useless stuff into the game"
}
See Mod file Format for its full description.
Overriding graphical files from Heroes III
Any graphical replacer mods fall under this category. In VCMI directory <mod name>/Content acts as mod-specific game root directory. So for example file <mod name>/Content/Data/AISHIELD.PNG will replace file with same name from H3Bitmap.lod game archive.
Any other files can be replaced in exactly same way.
Note that replacing files from archives requires placing them into specific location:
H3Bitmap.lod -> Data H3Sprite.lod -> Sprites Heroes3.snd -> Sounds Video.vid -> Video
This includes archives added by expansions (e.g. H3ab_bmp.lod uses same rules as H3Bitmap.lod)
Replacing .def animation files
Heroes III uses custom format for storing animation: def files. These files are used to store all in-game animations as well as for some GUI elements like buttons and for icon sets.
These files can be replaced by another def file but in some cases original format can't be used. This includes but not limited to:
- Replacing one (or several) icons in set
- Replacing animation with fully-colored 32-bit images
In VCMI these animation files can also be replaced by json description of their content. See Animation Format for full description of this format.
Example: replacing single icon
{
// List of replaced images
"images" :
[ // Index of replaced frame
{ "frame" : 0, "file" : "HPS000KN.bmp"}
//name of file that will be used as replacement
]
}
"High resolution main menu" mod can be used as example of file replacer mod.
Mod with new content: Artifact
TODO
Mod with new content: Creature
TODO
Custom filesystem format. Porting Era Mod to VCMI
TODO
