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  1. #1
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    Jun 2017
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    How to mod an old game?

    Hello, so I am new here and I hope this is in the right place, honestly couldn't find anywhere else for it.

    I play a game from 1999 called heroes of might and magic 3. They have recently (few years ago) released a patch for it to put it in HD and make several other changes to the game like polishing some elements of gameplay. Anyway, I am really curious how they do this. Did they get the actual source code somehow and mod it that way? Everything is integrated flawlessly to the style of t he game. They have an area for plug-ins in the mod now and I kind of wanted to try to mod it a bit myself. I have no idea how to begin. Wouldn't it be illegal to get the source code? How do they make these mods?

    SO how is it done, son?

  2. #2
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    This is a third party that made the mod (patch), not official.

  3. #3
    Arjay's Avatar
    Arjay is offline Moderator / EX MS MVP Power Poster
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Can you contact the 3rd party? Are they still around? If they allow plugins for their mod, perhaps they offer an SDK for developing a plugin?

  4. #4
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Hello, thanks for the response. I can't contact them and they do not offer anything to help developing a plugin. I was just kind of wondering how it's done, like do they go into program files and modify them or have the source code? How do they usually mod games unofficially?

  5. #5
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Bump.

  6. #6
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Quote Originally Posted by adamff View Post
    How do they usually mod games unofficially?
    There's no 'usual' way of doing it, it all depends on the specific way the game were coded. Modifing it can be as simple as editing a ( more or less hidden ) configuration file, or going into full reverse engineering, or anything in between ( SDK, editing script files, code injection into lib calls, ... )

  7. #7
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Agreed, you'll have to find out how the game is coded.

  8. #8
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Thanks for the responses. So I Would have to know what language it's written in and reverse engineer it? It's like they have the source code because it's pretty much flawlessly integrated. The mod has a launcher with several options like resolution and save after every turn, etc. It's actually an HD mod so they have made the game 1080p as well. I am hearing that they are probably just modding existing files, am I wrong in thinking that? They even fixed some bugs. Actually the company that took the game on officially released an HD mod and it's not as good as the fan made one!

    Thanks! This is really interesting to me and I appreciate the help.

  9. #9
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    no the source code is not strictly necessary and the ‘flawlessness’ of the mod has nothing to do with way it has been accomplished. As said, it depends. For example, it may suffice using a debugger and inspecting the system calls ( these can say you if/when a configuration file has been opened, if/when some graphic/support lib has been called, etc… ) or just use experience or any public info ( eg. which graphic library/SDK/libs it depends on, what are its requirements, etc… ) to guess where the data/code you’re interested in lies.
    Just to give you a basic example, suppose you want to change a texture to use a higher resolution: this can be as easy as overwriting an image file ( or locating it inside some container format ) and let the original code manage it if it can. Whether this will work depends on the specific way the texture fetching and rendering logic were implemented, it may work, it may not, it may fail instantaneously or unpredictably. A lot of things can go wrong, the code ( or the graphic api ) could assume some max or specific combos of resolutions, the full info needed to fetch the texture may be spread into different or non trivially managed sources ( eg. texture atlases ) , etc …. etc … there’s really no general rule as there are gazillions ways of programming a game ( or anything else for that matter ).

  10. #10
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Could you provide a link to the mod you're talking about? I can't understand if you're talking about the official add-on or anything else.

  11. #11
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    Sep 2017
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    Re: How to mod an old game?

    Write to moders maybe they will share mode tools with you.

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