Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic cover
Developers
Singleplayer Arkane Studios
Singleplayer Floodgate Entertainment
Multiplayer Kuju Entertainment
Publishers
Ubisoft
Engines
Source
Release dates
Windows October 24, 2006
 
 
 
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic guide at StrategyWiki
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic at Wikipedia

Key points

Uses an older engine version so it doesn't support some newer settings, like borderless fullscreen windowed mode.

General information

Official game site
Official game series site
Might and Magic Wiki
Steam Community Discussions

Availability[edit]

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
 SecuROM 7 DRM. Multiplayer requires Steam.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require Steam DRM for multiplayer.
Some retail versions allow playing single player without Steam.

Essential improvements[edit]

Patches[edit]

The latest retail patch is v1.02 (you must install v1.01 first). The German version has a separate v1.02 patch (this includes v1.01).

Skip intro videos[edit]

Use -novid command line argument[1]

Large Address Aware[edit]

Improves stability on 64 bit systems with at least 3GB RAM by allowing the application to use more than 2GB RAM. Resolves the "Out of Memory" errors.

Unlimited Edition mod[edit]

Mod features:
  • Limited Edition weapons can be found and equipped in the game
  • New Game+ mode
  • Extra inventory for the New Game+ mode
  • Endurance difficulty for the New Game+ mode
  • Restored unused NPCs voices and audio interactions
  • Fixes for missing sound effects
  • Mini-Mods support
Only the Steam version is currently supported.

Game data[edit]

In-game general settings.
In-game general settings.

Configuration file(s) location[edit]

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\mm\cfg\config.cfg
Video settings are stored in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Source\mm\Settings

Save game data location[edit]

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\mm\SAVE\

Save game cloud syncing[edit]

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings[edit]

In-game general video settings.
In-game general video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.
In-game advanced video settings.
Graphics option Option WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
 
Multi-monitor
 
 Issues with HUD positioning.
Ultra-widescreen
 
 Stamina bar is slightly cut off
4K Ultra HD
 
 HUD does not scale well at resolutions beyond 1080p
Field of view (FOV)
Set via console. Must enable cheats (SV_Cheats 1, Fov XX)
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Up to 16x
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 4x MSAA
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS
No frame rate cap.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Rendered image uses SDR color space. In-game HDR option refers only to HDR Rendering.

Windowed[edit]

Running a game in windowed mode using console[2]
  1. Start a game and open the console (~); enable under Settings, Keyboard options, Advanced.
  2. Enter mat_setvideomode width height 1 (where width and height, enter the width and height that you want to use for your window. e.g. for 1280x720 window, type in mat_setvideomode 1280 720 1.

Notes

For borderless mode try mat_setvideomode width height 2. If it doesn't work, run a game in a windowed mode and use GameCompanion.
To go back to a fullscreen mode use mat_setvideomode width height 0.
Some issues on Windows 10 where windowed/borderless doesn't allow alt-tabbing, and stays in the foreground. Windows on other monitors can be accessed, but not on the one running the game.

No image tilting when strafing[edit]

How to disble image tilting when moving sideways, if it's causing you motion sickness. This is different from head bob, which can be easily disabled in game configuration[citation needed]
  1. Start a game and open the console (~); enable under Settings, Keyboard options, Advanced.
  2. Enter sv_rollangle 0 to disable tilting completely, a different number to change tilting strength (default is 3). Try out the changes.
  3. Once you're satisfied with the selected value, create autoexec.cfg in configuration directory and put this command into it. Set autoexec.cfg to automatically execute. The value will now be applied on every game start automatically. A longer guide is available at TweakGuides.
  4. Also disable head bobbing in game configuration dialog, otherwise your sv_rollangle value will not be respected on game start.

Input settings[edit]

In-game key map settings.
In-game key map settings.
In-game mouse settings.
In-game mouse settings.
Keyboard and mouse Native Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Settings for both smoothing and acceleration can be found in the mouse & keyboard section
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio settings[edit]

In-game audio settings.
In-game audio settings.
Audio options Native Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language UI Audio CC Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Russian
After a mistake in the Steampipe update Xana speaks German. See Xana speaks German for a fix.
Spanish

Network[edit]

Servers can optionally use Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) protection.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
32
Online play
32

Connection types

Type Native Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
For dedicated install Dedicated Server under Tools in the Steam client.
Direct IP
Open the console (~) and use connect followed by the IP and port.

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP (outbound) 27014-27050
UDP (outbound) 4380, 27000-27030

VR support[edit]

3D modes Native GG3D Notes
Native 3D
 
Nvidia 3D Vision
 
 Use Helix Mod for better 3D support.
TriDef 3D
 
iZ3D
 

Issues fixed[edit]

TweakGuides has created a comprehensive guide for fixing issues in this game. It can be found here.

Game fails to start[edit]

Disable antivirus[citation needed]
  • If you're using an antivirus, disable it and try starting the game.

Black Screen on startup[edit]

Because Steampipe update converted a game to a new format, certain glitches may appear - most common of which is Black Screen on startup.

Verify game cache[1]
  1. In Steam right click on Dark Messiah Might and Magic Single Player.
  2. Click on Properties.
  3. Go to Local Files tab.
  4. Click on Verify Integrity of Game Files...

Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll[edit]

There may be multiple reasons that can be causing this error. Below are few possible solutions of this problem.

Upgrade your drivers[1]
  • It's recommended to update CPU/graphics/sound drivers if such error pops up.
Use automatic settings[1]
  1. Go to a Steam Library and right click on Dark Messiah of Might and Magic Singleplayer.
  2. Choose Properties.
  3. In General tab, click on a button Set Launch Options...
  4. In a text box type in: -autoconfig
  5. Click OK and launch a game.
Start a game in custom resolution[1]
  1. If a previous solution won't help, go to launch options (steps 1-3 of Use automatic setting).
  2. Remove -autoconfig and type in -w XXX -h YYY, instead (where XXX and YYY is a native resolution for you screen, e.g. for 1440x900 screen it's: -w 1400 -h 900)
  3. Click OK and launch a game.

Crash when exiting the game[edit]

Enable Heap emulation for mm.exe[1]
  1. Download compatibility fix and extract it.
  2. Launch PatchInstall.bat to add a fix to compatibility database.

Xana speaks German in a Russian version of the game[edit]

Download proper Russian voice lines[1]
  1. Download the proper Russian voice lines and extract them.
  2. Copy the newly extracted folders (mm and custom_russian) to <path-to-game> overriding files if needed.

Game installs AZERTY (French) keyboard layout[edit]

Steam and retail versions of the game install AZERTY (French) keyboard layout that appears on the language bar but can't be deleted with normal means because it doesn't show in Language options.
Manually add and then delete AZERTY (French) layout[citation needed]
  1. Go to Control Panel, find Language options
  2. Add new input language French (France), choose French keyboard layout for it
  3. Delete language that you have just added

Random crashes on nVidia hardware[edit]

Disable Shadowplay

Graphical issues[edit]

Re-install all drivers, if this does not work re-install the game, reformatting or playing on a different computer has been known to fix these issues. A possible last resort: buy a new graphics card, the Nvidia 6xxx series and lower video cards have been know to not work well with the game, lower tier Nvidia 7xxx, 8xxx and 9xxx series GPUs do not work well with the game. Cards that do work are the 7800 and 7900 7 series cards. the following are 8 series cards that run the game well; the 8800gt, gts, gtx and Ultra variants. the following 9 series cards will run the game fine the 9800GT, GTX, GTX+ and GX2 variants.

Audio: Most issues have been taken care of as of the latest patches, which the Steam version will deliver automatically. View patches for information on updating manually.

Gameplay: all bugs can be fixed by starting from last save (before entering the area where you are having trouble), restarting the level or restarting the game.

Autoexec.cfg does not automatically execute[edit]

When playing the singleplayer portion of the game, the game itself does not automatically execute the autoexec.cfg file (a file that holds console commands), but it does for the multiplayer part.

Enabling The Usage of autoexec.cfg[citation needed]
  1. In Steam right click on Dark Messiah Might and Magic Single Player.
  2. Click on Properties.
  3. Under Set launch options... type in +exec autoexec.cfg
  4. Click OK.

Changing language doesn't take effect (Steam version)[edit]

Since the game is using obsolete version of Source engine, the way you set language is by changing the language of Steam itself.

Change language of Steam client too[3]
  1. In Steam open Steam client settings.
  2. Click on Interface.
  3. Select the interface language you selected for the game too.
  4. Steam will restart.

Other information[edit]

API[edit]

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 6, 7, 8, 8.1, 9
Shader Model support 2, 3
64-bit executable

Middleware[edit]

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok Heavily modified variant.
Audio Miles Sound System
Cutscenes Bink Video

System requirements[edit]

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP
Processor (CPU) 2.4 GHz 3.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7 GB
Video card (GPU) 128 MB of VRAM 256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Verified by Suicide Machine on 2016-10-17
  2. ↑ http://steamcommunity.com/app/2100/discussions/0/864976837801037787/
  3. ↑ Steamcommunity (How to change the game language to german?) - last accessed on 2017-04-15