Heroes of Might and Magic III

This page is for the original game. For the 2015 remake, see Heroes of Might and Magic III HD.

Heroes of Might and Magic III

Developers
	New World Computing
Linux	Loki Software
Publishers
1999-2003	3DO
2003-present	Ubisoft
Re-release	Sold Out Software
Linux	Loki Software
Release dates
Windows	March 3, 1999
Mac OS (Classic)	December 21, 1999
Linux	December 20, 1999
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack, Subscription gaming service
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls	Point and select
Genres	TBS
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Heroes of Might and Magic

Heroes of Might and Magic III is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric TBS game in the Heroes of Might and Magic series.

In October 1999, the game received the Armageddon's Blade expansion, featuring new creatures, heroes, campaigns and the Conflux town. It was followed by The Shadow of Death in March 2000, with its own set of new creatures, heroes and campaigns. The Shadow of Death is a standalone release by default and includes Armageddon's Blade content, but can only access it if that expansion is installed as well. Official patches maintained feature and balancing parity between all aforementioned releases.

The Complete Edition, which contains the base game and both expansions, was released in November 2000 with a custom 4.0 build (compatible online with The Shadow of Death patched to version 3.2). It is the most widely available version of the game, and is the one which is sold on digital stores.

The game requires the GL wrapper by Verok to resolve compatibility issues. The HD mod is highly recommended and frequently used by the community, as it includes quality-of-life improvements such as high resolution support, a variety of custom graphics renderers, and an in-built modification manager.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

HoMM III section on Age of Heroes

Celestial Heavens forums for game series

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		DRM depends on release location, usually SafeDisc v1.50.020 DRM. Disc check only applies for singleplayer and multiplayer hosting.
Epic Games Store		Complete Edition.
GOG.com		Complete Edition.
Ubisoft Store		Complete Edition. Included with Ubisoft+.

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

A free demo version of Restoration of Erathia is available from GameFront: English, German.

A free demo version of the Complete Edition for Mac OS is available from Archive.org.

Mac OS and Linux

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.

Monetization

Type	Notes
Expansion pack	The expansion packs include a new town, new units, campaigns, maps, and artifacts.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Ubisoft+.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Armageddon's Blade	On Mac OS only available in Complete Edition.
The Shadow of Death	On Mac OS only available in Complete Edition. Stand-alone release, but Conflux town is only available if Armageddon's Blade is found installed, or as part of the Complete Edition.

Essential improvements

Official patches

All official patches include balance changes and bug fixes on par with each other.

• The latest official version of Restoration of Erathia is 1.4, with mirrors available here.
• The latest official version of Armageddon's Blade is 2.2, with mirrors available here.
• The latest official version of The Shadow of Death is 3.2, with mirrors available here. This version is compatible online with the Complete Edition (v4.0), the HD mod, and other modifications.

Unfortunately, the Polish version still uses patch 3.2, instead of 3.3 or 4.0, but there is unofficial patch, that updates it to the newest version.

Skip intro videos

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

HoMM3 High Resolution Project (HD mod)

Requires Shadow of Death patched to v3.2 or the Complete Edition.

Allows higher resolutions along with 32-bit color support, multiple renderers and upscaling methods, bug fixes, new multiplayer lobby, and other features.

Bypasses compatibility issues faced by the unmodified game version.

Includes Verok's GL Wrapper as one of the renderer options.

Compatible with several mods, most notably Horn of the Abyss for which it has a special multiplayer lobby and shares some developers.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\New World Computing\Heroes of Might and Magic® III\1.0
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

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Games
Mac OS (Classic)
Linux

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
GOG Galaxy		As of GOG Galaxy version 1.2, and special HoMM III Complete patch 4.0 (CS)
Ubisoft Connect		List of exceptions from Cloud save support on Ubisoft+

Video

In-game settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		800x600 only. Use the HD mod for resolutions up to 4000x4000.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen		Use the HD mod
4K Ultra HD		Use the HD mod.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Desktop must be in 16-bit colour mode (press F4) or use the HD mod.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Use the HD mod. Fullscreen toggle on launcher = Borderless window.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling		Use the HD mod for better scaling, although it doesn't have FSR or NIS.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Use Verok's GL Wrapper (part of newer releases of the HD mod).
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Framerate is capped at 33 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Effects
Surround sound
Subtitles		Cutscenes only.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost		Not applicable to Simplified Chinese version.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese				Retail only. Mandarin audio only applies for The Restoration of Erathia and Armageddon's Blade. Installation of The Shadow of Death will overwrite the audio files to English audio.
Czech				Retail only.
French
German				Retail only. Armageddon's Blade wasn't localized.
Japanese				Retail only.
Polish				Retail and GOG.com only. Download for other releases here.
Russian				Retail and GOG.com only. Official localization by Buka Entertainment. Patch for other digital release here.
Spanish				Fan translation, download (From Clan Dlan archives).

Network

Unmodified, the game requires DirectPlay to be enabled for multiplayer to work. The HD mod bypasses this requirement.

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		8	Hot seat
LAN play		8
Online play		8	The official MPlayer.com service has been shut down; the HD mod includes a community lobby.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Game crashes unexpectedly after some time

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.

Use the HD mod

Modify exe files
Download ImageCFG. 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
Open the task manager. 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

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	1
OpenGL	v1, v2 or v3	User selectable only in the HD mod

Executable	PPC	16-bit	32-bit	64-bit	ARM	Notes
Windows
Linux						64-bit and ARM require VCMI
Mac OS (Classic)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	Miles Sound System
Interface	SDL	Linux only
Cutscenes	Smacker Video, Bink Video

Mods

In the Wake of Gods - an unofficial expansion pack adding new units, mechanics, resources and easier modding possibilities.

Horn of the Abyss - popular unofficial expansion pack adding the Cove town, new neutral units, resources, campaign missions and map objects. Use this patch for compatibility with Polish version.

VCMI - an attempt at rewriting the whole engine to make it customizable, portable and fully cross-platform.

System requirements

Windows

Mac OS (Classic)

Linux

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