Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition wrapper/port for PS Vita

This repository contains a loader of the Android release of Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition, based on the Android SO Loader by TheFloW. The loader provides a tailored, minimalistic Android-like environment to run the official ARMv7 game executables on PS Vita.

At the time of writing this readme, the Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition was delisted from the major Android storefronts. This loader ("port") is intended to be used only by those people who bought the game prior to the delisting and still can legally access their own copy through the Purchased Apps list on Google Play.

This software does not contain the original code, executables, assets, or other non redistributable parts of the game. The authors do not promote or condone piracy in any way. To launch and play the game on their PS Vita device, users must provide their own legally obtained copy of the game in the form of an .apk file.

Setup Instructions (For End Users)

The port has been tested only with the latest available version of the game (which is v1.1.6)

In order to properly install the game, you'll have to follow these steps precisely:

• Install kubridge and FdFix by copying kubridge.skprx and fd_fix.skprx to your taiHEN plugins folder (usually ur0:tai) and adding two entries to your config.txt under *KERNEL:  

  *KERNEL
  ur0:tai/kubridge.skprx
  ur0:tai/fd_fix.skprx

• Install libshacccg.suprx, if you don't have it already, by following this guide.

• (Optional, but recommended) Install NoTrpDrm to enable trophies support.

Note Don't install fd_fix.skprx if you're using the rePatch plugin!

Note 2 libgpu_es4_kernel_ext.skprx plugin is no longer needed since version 1.2.0.

• Legally obtain your copy of Heroes of Might and Magic III HD Edition for Android in form of an .apk file and .obb files (main.1113.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb and patch.1110.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb are located inside the /sdcard/android/obb/com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii/) folder. You can get all the required files directly from your phone or by using any APK extractor you can find on Google Play.
• Open the .apk with any zip explorer (like 7-Zip) and extract it. Copy libhomm3.so file (located in the lib/armeabi-v7a folder inside the apk) into ux0:data/homm3hd/.
• Open the main.1113.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb with your zip explorer (.obb files are zip files just like .apk files so just rename the .obb to .zip) and extract the contents to ux0:data/homm3hd/.
• Same as before, open the patch.1110.com.ubisoft.mightandmagic.heroesiii.obb with the zip explorer and extract the contents inside the zip to ux0:data/homm3hd/.
• Install HOMM3.vpk (from Releases).

Controls

• Left analog stick - Cursor movement
• Right analog stick - Map scroll
• × - Left mouse button
• ○ - Right mouse button
• R1 (hold) - Cursor movement speedup

Original touch controls are supported.

During battle ○ button is used for attack direction selection (when clicked on the enemy unit within attack range). Double × click is used for ranged attack. To view unit info during battle click on the unit with × button, wait 2-3 seconds and then click × again.

You can enable rear touchpad cursor movement in the game configuration utility (GAME OPTIONS on the bottom of the launcher screen). Use double tap to emulate LMB with rear touchpad and second finger tap to emulate RMB.

Left analog stick deadzone can be changed in game configuration utility.

Additional info

You can add custom "Restoration of Erathia" maps by copying them into ux0:data/homm3hd/data/maps/<your_language_folder>/ folder (ux0:data/homm3hd/data/maps/en/ for example). Note that ONLY "The Restoration of Erathia" maps are supported.

Known Issues

• Game takes around a minute to load (black screen right after the start).

• Buildings / units / some UI elements may flicker during gamepad cursor movement.

• The game can freeze/crash sometimes during video playback (after playing 3-4 campaign videos).

Build Instructions (For Developers)

In order to build the loader, you'll need a softfp vitasdk

Dependencies

• vitaGL

make HAVE_GLSL_SUPPORT=1 SOFTFP_ABI=1 SINGLE_THREADED_GC=1 HAVE_SHADER_CACHE=1 install

• SDL2 fork

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${VITASDK}/share/vita.toolchain.cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DVIDEO_VITA_VGL=ON
make install

• pthread-embedded fork
• kubridge
• SDL_mixer
• SDL_image

You may need to rebuild SDL_mixer and SDL_image manually after the installation of the required SDL2 fork.

After all these requirements are met, you can compile the loader with the following commands:

mkdir build && cd build
cmake .. && make

Credits

• TheOfficialFloW for the original .so loader.
• Rinnegatamante for the vitaGL, all of the related fixes to it and trophy support (NoTrpDrm).
• GrapheneCt for the PVR_PSP2, gpu_es4_kernel_ext and lots of tips.
• TheOfficialFloW, Rinnegatamante and v-atamanenko for all of the previous work on Android wrapper ports.