Planeteers assemble!
Well, where do we go now?
Heh, I’m astonished by that announcement too, but that would be bad if their remake would not have such support for custom mods or possibilities as VCMI already has.
I wonder if they will make any changes. Except for the graphical and multiplayer stuff.
@Kantor - I am double positive, that it won’t - Ubi was really clear doing the whole Watch-dogs madness, that they don’t care about modders, and it’s their (the modders) job to have their mods working with their games.
So nope, no HoTS + HoMM 3 HD in the nearest future. Unless someone rewrites the mod 
I also came across today
might-and-magic.ubi.com/universe … index.aspx
mmh7.ubi.com/en/blog/post/view/ … nouncement
Don’t think it’s a bad news because it’s might bring more interest to Heroes 3 from audience who never played the game before which isn’t bad news for VCMI, right?
Though I seriously doubt that people who used to playing classic game would just switch to this “new version” that don’t even have all features of vanilla game in. Kind a obviously that none of WoG features would work with it either.
This will give a new impetus to the development vcmi or bury it.
Although of course, given the fact that they did not start with the Shadows of death suggests that they plan to produce 3 parts to make money. By focusing on campaigns.
For me at least, this will not be an option since I do not run windows, maybe I’ll try it out on an Android tablet…
I do not know about the internal workings of vcmi, but to my understanding vcmi still uses (part of?) the original gfx from the game and could vcmi not be adapted to use the new high-res. gfx from the new game?
That would be great and maybe in the future playing vcmi on my 3200x2500 (-somthing) 13" screen would be a bit easier on my eyes…
These are great news! I hope the developers do not change much of the internal workings of the engine, so VCMI can easily support new HD graphics. Bad thing is that Android/iOS are officially supported by the HD version, this will lose some interest of our Android port.
Not bad for players 
. Also, VCMI can be usefull for those who want to play it on phones, not tablets.
I read impressions players. Over 90% of this complaint.
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On the instability of the game.
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Over the long turn of AI.
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For the inability to run on their devices.
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Paragraph already fixed.
But the main thing “instability” has not yet been solved in the project. This, in turn, many of the players are very angry and pushes.
People think this is bad news? Why?
This HD remake is not a competition for vcmi and in fact vcmi might even benefit from it because it:
- makes people interested in HOMAM3 again
- contributes improved graphics that keep the same look&feel
In contrast to vcmi, the HD remake is:
- NOT open source
- NOT running on mac os or linux or freebsd
- NOT moddable
- only ever the base game (RoE) (apparently they lost the source code for the extensions. See here)
Those who just want a higher resolution of the original game were already able to download unofficial addos like this. And nobody ever complained that things like this addon destroy vcmi’s future. I think people who want to use vcmi do want more than “HD graphics”.
I have the same question. For example Age of Empires 2 HD was one of reasons that project called openage was created and now slowly progressed.
Worst thing might happen it’s if this company will release badly working game.
I’m wondering this as well. So fat what they had shown is just H3 with upscaled graphics. Even H3 bugs are still there (e.g. shadows in battles)
As for “upscaled graphics”, take a look here:
ubistatic-a.akamaihd.net/0004/p … castle.jpg
- “+++” on hero movement - obvious artefacts from upscaling using some of pixel-art scaling algorithms (not sure which one).
- Awful Amulet of Mana near town.
- Leaf trees & mountains - obvious upscaling as well
Of course it is possible that this are just not finished but I think they will only redo main “focus areas” that everyone will notice.
Code-wise I doubt that there would be a lot of changes. Besides don’t forget that this is RoE-only release - we won’t even see AB/SoD features, not to mention something like proper modding. I guess new functions would be limited to Android support. Nothing like Baldurs Gate HD edition 
And skeleton on map has long neck
There is also some glimpse of cartoonish graphics, like Necropolis town screen resembles some flash animation look.
PS I think I’ll still buy this to my collection, when it’s out.
I am rather wondering WHY didn’t they use the VCMI source as a main base for development. Everyone would benefit from that. They would save money and VCMI would get a lot of code commits by pros. Perhaps one could still engage in talks with them?
First of all because Ubisoft just care to make more money on re-releasing game on tablets/Steam and doubt they have any plans to expand it or provide long-term support. I suppose they can recreate SOD (or just magically find the source to release it as $10 DLC), but I doubt they’ll actually rewrite entire engine.
I think this way not because I think those developers are bad or anything, but DotEmu’s portfolio clearly show that.
Even if they wanted to use VCMI code (not likely) it’s just wouldn’t work because VCMI licensed under “GPLv2 or later” which isn’t compatible with iOS App Store (e.g Google Play is compatible). You can learn more details HERE.
You are really wondering that? I wonder how it would be possible for them to “save money” and at the same time “make a lot of commits” (as you put it). If you want to “save” money, then you’d pick the codebase where you’d NOT have to do “a lot of commits”. If I were them and the choice was to either use this fan-made project with some rough edges or this other existing codebase where everything works already and one just has to apply some polish here and there… Is the answer not obvious?
As, so it-s an appstore release too. That explains it.
Yes, I am really wondering that, because other projects have done so in the past. In fact, Strife: Veteran Edtion has just been released on Steam , using GPLed Chocolate Doom as a main engine. Do you think working with an arcane codebase and port it to modern devices is easy too? I suspect the amount of work involved wouldn’t differ that much from simply supporting VCMI. However, as SXX pointed out, the appstore release prevents them from doing so.
You just found one of rare exceptions. Usually game developers don’t touch GPLed code even if it’s more expensive to use some different technology and Ubisoft it’s huge pro-DRM company just like EA or Sony. They’ll never use any technology that will force them to open even a bit of their code.
It’s a lot easier because they can do it with shittiest hacks ever and nobody will ever see their code. If there will be glitches, bugs, desyncs they can always just say something like “this is AMD fault” or “Android fault” or whatever…
When you code is open source it’s kind a hard to say that it’s work like a crap and it’s not your fault.
Yeah forgot about ubisoft. You’re right.
I guess you have a point, but does this mean we’re doomed to an eternity of shitty official remakes and ports, save for a few notable exceptions?