Heroes Of Might And Magic 3 Windowed Mode

Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer: Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia (commonly referred to as Heroes of Might & Magic 3, or simply Heroes 3) is a turn-based strategy game developed by Jon Van Caneghem through New World Computing originally released for Microsoft Windows by the 3DO Company in 1999.

  1. Heroes Of Might And Magic 3 Gog Windowed Mode
  2. Might And Magic 3 Free Download
  3. Heroes Of Might And Magic 3 Windowed Mode Mod
  • Heroes Community - discussion forum for Heroes of Might and Magic 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 players featuring the latest Might and Magic Heroes VII news.
  • How to play Heroes 3 in windowed mode? I've tried the F4 button but it kept saying 'the game is running in 65536 color mode, switch the desktop to this mode before playing the game.'
  • Jul 05, 2011 I bought the Hom3 complete edition on gog.com. Theres only one problem. I can't put it to windowed mode. Heres what ive tried: alt+F4 when ingame (dosen't work unless you put it to 16bit which I can't) Put the heroes 3 launcher into steam and then put launch option '-windowed' and '-w' dosen't work.

Heroes of Might & Magic III is widely regarded as the best title of the series, and it has received a lot of quality community support. In addition to normal maps and modifications there are many larger mod projects which extend the core HoMM3 gameplay, add new features, creatures and even factions.

Here you can find information on some of the most popular unofficial mods and add-ons. For players looking for a simple introduction into the HoMM3 modding scene, we recommend trying out the HD mod and Horn of the Abyss, as they are fully compatible with eachother and offer a lot of modifications to the core gameplay.

HD mod | Horn of the Abyss | Era II + WoG | VCMI


HoMM 3 HD mod

Main features:

  • Enables HoMM 3 to be played with high resolutions
  • Extends UI and control elements
  • Fixes bugs from the original game

Requirements:

  • The Shadow of Death expansion or HoMM 3 Complete

Compatibility:

  • Horn of the Abyss v. 1.6.1
  • HoMM 3 WoG 3.58 (partial)
  • HoMM 3 Tournament Edition (partial)
  • HoMM 3 World Tournament (partial)
  • HoMM 3 ERA II (partial)

Heroes Of Might And Magic 3 Gog Windowed Mode

Links:

Other notes:

  • Not to be confused with the official Heroes of Might & Magic III – HD Edition.
  • Run the installer and select your HoMM3 game folder as the install destination.
  • To run the mod, launch HD_Launcher.exe found in your HoMM3 game folder.
  • Windows 10 users may need to disable display scaling (eg. h3hota.exe -> Properties -> Compatibility -> Disable display scaling on high DPI settings).


Heroes of Might and Magic III: Horn of the Abyss v. 1.6.1

Main features:

  • An unofficial “expansion pack” for HoMM 3
  • New town: Cove
  • New artifacts, map objects and heroes
  • Support for bigger map sizes
  • Fixes to balance, graphical bugs and RMG
  • Simultaneous turns in multiplayer (with HD mod installed)
  • Includes unique maps

Requirements:

  • Clean install of The Shadow of Death expansion or HoMM 3 Complete

Compatibility:

  • HoMM 3 HD Mod

Links:

Other notes:

  • Run the installer and select your HoMM3 game folder as the install destination.
  • To run the mod, launch h3hota.exe found in your HoMM3 game folder. If you have the HD Mod installed, launch HD_Launcher.exe and make sure you have h3hota.exe selected in the upmost dropdown list.


Era II + In the Wake of Gods

Main features:

  • The most popular mod system for HoMM 3, includes WoG 3.58f
  • Ability to create and use custom mods easily
  • Mod manager with a few preinstalled mods
  • Advanced map editor with support for mods and plugins
  • WoG includes a vast number of new features and customization options for players and map creators

Requirements:

  • Clean install of The Shadow of Death expansion or HoMM 3 Complete

Compatibility:

  • HoMM 3 HD mod (partial)

Links:

Other notes:

  • Run the installer and select your HoMM3 game folder as the install destination.
  • The installer creates two shortcuts on your desktop: Era Start Menu (to access mod manager, editors etc.) and Era II (launches the game).


VCMI

Main features:

Might And Magic 3 Free Download

  • Open-source project to rewrite the entire HoMM 3 engine
  • Easy configuration and mod management (several mods included)
  • Support for high resolutions
  • Linux, Mac OS and Android support

Requirements:

  • Clean install of The Shadow of Death expansion or HoMM 3 Complete

Links:

Other notes:

  • Extract the latest version (.rar file) to your HoMM3 game folder.
  • Start the VCMI_launcher.exe from your HoMM3 game folder. The launcher includes an easy-to-use mod manager and settings for the game.

This page is for the original version. For the remake, see Heroes of Might and Magic III HD.

Heroes of Might and Magic III
Developers
Linux
Publishers
Linux
Release dates
WindowsMarch 3, 1999
Mac OS (Classic)December 21, 1999
LinuxDecember 20, 1999
  • 1Availability
  • 2Essential improvements
    • 2.2Mods
  • 3Game data
  • 6Audio settings
  • 7Network
  • 8Issues fixed
  • 9Other information
⤏ Go to series page
Subseries of Might and Magic
Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest1995
Heroes of Might and Magic II: The Succession Wars1996
Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia1999
Heroes Chronicles2001
Heroes of Might and Magic IV2002
Heroes of Might and Magic V2006
Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East2007
Might & Magic Heroes VI2011
Might & Magic Heroes VI: Shades of Darkness2013
Heroes of Might and Magic III - HD Edition2015
Might & Magic Heroes VII2015
Might & Magic Heroes VII: Trial by Fire2016

General information

Heroes Of Might And Magic 3 Windowed Mode
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Celestial Heavens forums for game series

Availability[edit]

SourceDRMNotesKeysOS
Retail DRM depending on release location, usually SafeDisc v1.50.020 DRM[Note 1]
GOG.com Includes multiple bonuses
Heroes
SafeDisc retail DRM no longer functions properly on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Mac OS and Linux[edit]

The Mac OS and Linux versions of the game are no longer sold, and existing copies of those are hard to run on modern systems. The easiest solution for running the game on Linux or OS X is buying the Windows version and running it under Wine. Further information on how to do that can be found on AppDB. Alternatively, VCMI can be used to run the game.

DLC and expansion packs

NameNotes
Armageddon's Blade On Mac OS only available in Complete Edition.
The Shadow of Death On Mac OS only available in Complete Edition.

Essential improvements[edit]

Skip intro videos[edit]

Modify registry settings[3]
  1. Go to the configuration file location.
  2. Change the value of Show Intro from 0 to 1.

Mods[edit]

HoMM3 High Resolution Project[edit]

Higher resolutions along with 32-bit color support and more fixes.

In the Wake of Gods[edit]

An unofficial expansion pack adding further units, resources and easier modding possibilities. The official English website is located under Celestial Heavens. Currently isn't in development any more.

Horn of the Abyss[edit]

Another unofficial expansion pack adding more features, units, resources and another town. The official thread on Heroes Community.

VCMI[edit]

Heroes Of Might And Magic 3 Windowed Mode Mod

Not actually a mod, but an attempt at rewriting the whole engine to make it customizable, portable and fully cross-platform. The official website of the project is here.

Game data[edit]

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

SystemLocation
Windows HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEWow6432NodeNew World ComputingHeroes of Might and Magic® III1.0[Note 2]
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location[edit]

SystemLocation
Windows <path-to-game>Games[Note 3]
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

SystemNativeNotes
GOG GalaxyAs of GOG Galaxy version 1.2, and special HoMM III Complete patch 4.0 (CS)

Video settings[edit]

In-game settings.
Graphics featureStateNotes
Widescreen resolution 800x600 only; use Heroes3HD for resolutions up to 4000x4000.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen Use Heroes3HD.
4K Ultra HD Use Heroes3HD.
Field of view (FOV)
WindowedDesktop must be in 16-bit colour mode (press F4) or use the Heroes3HD mod.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Input settings[edit]

Keyboard and mouseStateNotes
RemappingSee the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller supportSee the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Audio settings[edit]

Audio featureStateNotes
Separate volume controlsMusic, Effects
Surround sound
SubtitlesCutscenes only.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

LanguageUIAudioSubNotes
English
CzechRetail only.
French
Polish
RussianOfficial localization by «Buka Entertainment». Retail and GOG-version.
SpanishFan translation, download.

Network[edit]

Multiplayer types

TypeNativePlayersNotes
Local play8 Hot seat
LAN play
Online play

Connection types

TypeNativeNotes
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed[edit]

Game crashes unexpectedly after some time[edit]

This is caused by a bug in the game, experienced only on multi-core or hyper-threaded processors. Newer GOG.com versions do not have this issue. It can also be resolved by using the HD mod.
Modify exe files[4]
  1. Download ImageCFG.
  2. Go into the installation folder and execute:
imagecfg -u Heroes3.exe
imagecfg -u Heroes3.icd
imagecfg -a 0x1 Heroes3.exe
imagecfg -a 0x1 Heroes3.icd

Notes

Another means of fixing sound can be found here.
Turn off in-game music[citation needed]
Set CPU affinity[4]
  1. Open the task manager.
  2. Set the CPU affinity for the game process to one processor.

Notes

This needs to be repeated every time when running the game.

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Middleware[edit]

MiddlewareNotes
InterfaceSDLLinux only

System requirements[edit]

Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS)95
Processor (CPU)Intel Pentium 133 MHz
System memory (RAM)32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)425 MB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7.0a compatible
Mac OS
Minimum
Operating system (OS)8.1
Processor (CPU)PowerPC 603e 180 MHz
System memory (RAM)64 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)425 MB
Linux
Minimum
Operating system (OS)Kernel 2.2.x
Processor (CPU)Intel Pentium
System memory (RAM)32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)425 MB
Sound (audio device)OSS Compatible

Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRMdoes not work on Windows 10[1] and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[2]
  2. When running this game without Administrator elevation, 32-bit programs writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWARE will be redirected to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareClassesVirtualStoreMACHINESOFTWAREWow6432Node (more details).
  3. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

  1. Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  2. Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  3. Verified by User:Expack3 on 2019-05-28
  4. 4.04.1HoMM 3 crashing quite a lot; Windows Vista - GOG.com