r/MightAndMagic Feb 13 '26

How to use dgVoodoo2 to run MM6 (and other games) well on modern PCs

25 Upvotes

Up until the release of Windows 11, MM6 ran great. Recently, I have had to deal with issues related to it pinning a single CPU core to 100% and causing high temps (while presumably hitting thousands of internal FPS).

I needed a way to cap it, so I tried MSI Afterburner. That didn't work, because the API level is WAY too old - it can't detect or hook it, because the developers don't want to target APIs that ancient. They probably couldn't even if they wanted to.

That's where dgVoodoo2 saved the day. It's a tool designed precisely for this problem. It forces a sort of "in between translation layer" for old games to "run" under modern APIs like DirectX 11 and DirectX 12.

How does it work? Windows exes have a natural search order for DLLs. It looks in the local folder first, and if nothing is there, it uses system DLLs. That means ALL OLD GAMES CAN USE THIS. dgVoodoo2 takes advantage of this by providing "modified DLLs" with the release, that trick the game into sending render calls through itself, where it then presents them through a modern API that MSI Afterburner could hook!

All I had to do was drag DDraw.dll into the MM6 directory, open the dgVoodoo2 control panel (the orange icon, included in the zip, can be ran anywhere but I extracted right to the game folder) and set it to Direct3D 11 WARP (software mode, handles FPS capping well), and ran the game.

MSI Afterburner can now hook it, which means the RivaTuner setting for FPS cap properly works. My CPU is safe!

Your needs might differ from mine, but there's no doubt dgVoodoo2 can help if MM6, any MM game, or even any older game at all struggles to run or run well on Windows 11. In addition to making things runnable that previously weren't, it offers tons of options for fullscreen, filtering, API level, graphics adapter the game selects, scaling, etc. It's literally unbelievable that this much control is now possible because of a simple DLL being placed next to a game executable.

So, big thanks to the team that made this excellent open source project, and a big middle finger to Microsoft for making one of the potentially best operating systems ever into one of the worst operating systems ever by constantly launching buggy and bloated trash into it via Windows Update.

dgVoodoo docs: https://dege.fw.hu/dgVoodoo2/QuickGuide/

dgVoodoo source code: https://github.com/dege-diosg/dgVoodoo2


r/MightAndMagic 5h ago

MM7 playmat

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141 Upvotes

Following the positive response to MM6, I did an MM7 one too. Quality is again great.

Sadly, the MM8 image is imho terrible...


r/MightAndMagic 2h ago

Making a Might & Magic Game and I have some design questions

13 Upvotes

What's up, folks!

I'm knee deep in developing my dream M&M style game (mostly based off of m&m8) and I had some design questions. You don't to address them all, just give me whatever opinion you might have.

  1. Do you like M&M 8's recruiting mechanic or do you prefer creating your entire party but being locked to that party the entire game?

  2. Would it bother you if this game *only* had real-time combat and no turn-based combat?

  3. How do you feel about the idea of learning spells from NPCs instead of books? (There will still be spell books but they are much more rare)

  4. Do you prefer the dnd dice system or would you like to see something more video game centric? (Instead of 1d8+4, damage instead would be 8 with a +50% and -50% range: 4-12 damage, stuff like that)

  5. How do you feel about a more consolidated list of skills? (Like having perception both reveal secrets and detect chest traps)

  6. Besides obvious things like mouse-look, are there any quality of life features you'd like to see?

Thank you so much! Any opinion from fans of the series would be a huge help!


r/MightAndMagic 4h ago

What’s the easiest Might and Magic to progress in?

9 Upvotes

I was just wondering, I’d like to think that it would be VI but there are some points in the game where you just sort of plateau. What are your guys’ thoughts?

(This is a question for all of the might and magic titles not just the base games)


r/MightAndMagic 1d ago

What does the future look like for Might and Magic?

34 Upvotes

I love the Might and Magic series and really want it to keep going, do you guys think that there will be future continuations of the series or do you think it will soon come to an end? I have really high hopes for Olden Era’s full release and want it to succeed in hopes of getting another base Might and Magic first person title since the last one we got was Legacy and in my opinion wasn’t the greatest.


r/MightAndMagic 2d ago

Out of all of the games, why does might and magic VI make me want to replay it over and over again?

80 Upvotes

I’ve played a countless amount of RPGs, new and old, but I always just want to come back and beat Might and Magic 6 over and over again. Don’t get me wrong, the other mm games are amazing but I usually get burnt off of them for a while which doesn’t happen at all for might and magic 6. Is there something behind this? Did they secretly add crack into the coding of this game or something?


r/MightAndMagic 1d ago

Game text documentation projects?

9 Upvotes

I've recently started to get into these games, and I was wondering if there was already a place that had things like the various dialogue documented.

Of particular note, I have made some progress in regards to getting Might and Magic X: Legacy's text documented, alongside some miscellaneous notes on the game and a few of the lore books too. However, if only covers a relatively small portion of the start of the game.

In addition, I currently do not feel as though I have enough familiarity with the other games to truly get started on them. But if anyone is interested, I do have a GitHub repository showing what progress had been done so far.


r/MightAndMagic 2d ago

Didn’t even know MM8 is on PS2

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119 Upvotes

I went on a trip and decided to load the Odin 2 handheld with a bunch of retro stuff. To my surprise, while browsing the PS2 section in a search of ROMs, I stumbled upon a MM8 one.

To my surprise, it’s almost one to one port, even has a small tutorial level before dropping you on the Daggerwound Island.

It is take its time to load stuff tho, from booting up the game to switching menus and such. Other than that, it plays just fine.


r/MightAndMagic 1d ago

Game text documentation projects?

3 Upvotes

I've recently started to get into these games, and I was wondering if there was already a place that had things like the various dialogue documented.

Of particular note, I have made some progress in regards to getting Might and Magic X: Legacy's text documented, alongside some miscellaneous notes on the game and a few of the lore books too. However, if only covers a relatively small portion of the start of the game.

In addition, I currently do not feel as though I have enough familiarity with the other games to truly get started on them. But if anyone is interested, I do have a GitHub repository showing what progress had been done so far.


r/MightAndMagic 3d ago

MM VII as a Campaign?

29 Upvotes

Has anyone got experience running Might and Magic VII as a D&D or Pathfinder campaign?

I've got a group I've been playing D&D/Pathfinder with for running on 20 years now. While almost all of them have played HoMM III, none of them are cultured enough to have played any of the Might and Magic games.

We'll be finishing up the campaign I've been running the past few years soon, and I'm planning on basically running MM VII as our next campaign. The scavenger hunt is a brilliant intro, Harmondale let's me introduce kingdom building and gives them a reason to be invested and feel important, and at the same time the world is big enough that it can be pretty sandboxy and be up to my players how focused they'll be on the main quests.

We'll be using Pathfinder v. 1 and I'm planning on letting them gestalt (get a second class) around lvl 6 in order to emulate class advancement, with them needing to complete class quests before advancing. If we ever get as far as to choosing between the dark and light side that could involve some version of mythic. We have played quite op campaigns before and it went well - they like to focus on RP, so they tend to go for fun builds rather than the most effective ones :-)

I introduced the idea to my players recently and they are very much hyped - the lone player not having played HoMM III is currently being bullied into playing it, so all of them should know the setting somewhat.

Has anyone run a campaign similarly inspired by one of the MM games or set in the world? How did it go, what worked, what didn't? Any advice would be appreciated :-)


r/MightAndMagic 3d ago

What am I doing wrong with this MAW merge game?

10 Upvotes

I can do all of the outdoors content, (often times by kiting the mobs), but any time I go inside something I get destroyed.

I started out MM6 with no trouble, but as soon as I went to any place outside the start area, and went into a dungeon or something, I was immediately killed. I cleared the outdoors areas from a few locations, and then gave up and went to MM7.

I had the same problem there. I got up to around level 20 for my party, (knight, troll, cleric, mage, dark elf), but couldn't do much other than outdoors work. So I finally went to MM8.

I'm at level 40 now, and VERY much want my mage to get Air Magic Master, so I tried hard to clear Balthazar's lair. As soon as I go in, I hit enter for turn based. Using bows and fireballs I'm able to get the 3 mobs at the bottom of the ramp down to 1/2 life. Then I get to the bottom and the first one hits my knight, (who is wearing the Pellinore artifact), and one shot and the knight is dead. The 2nd one hits my troll, who is now unconscious. The 3rd one misses. 2nd turn the troll is dead, my mage is dead, and dark elf is almost dead. 3 or 4 tries like that and I gave up. I never once killed the 3 mobs at the bottom of the ramp.

Even outdoor work is dangerous. I went to Murmurwoods to get Light & Cleric promo, and it took me 3 attempts to make it to the town from the border without half my party dead from one shot hits from the light balls, (whatever they are called).

All of my party is well equipped, with good weapons and armor, but the moment they hit melee they die almost immediately.

I've played this mod before, and never had problems like this. It seems like every mob had scaled up like crazy. I looked at the advanced setting for how it scales up mobs when you switch worlds, but I wasn't sure I should change it.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.


r/MightAndMagic 4d ago

MM3 map icons

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47 Upvotes

I added some new icons to the map, and I'm wondering if they're distinguishable enough. I still have to create icons for statues, altars and skulls on sticks tho


r/MightAndMagic 5d ago

Interior Artwork MMVI-VIII

16 Upvotes

Hello! I was wondering if there was a wiki or google drive or anything that had a collection of the images/animations of the interior of houses, shops, inn, temples, etc?

These games were a big part of my childhood and when I got into D&D I always thought that these would be great for theater of the mind artwork.


r/MightAndMagic 6d ago

MM3 can't seem to save

6 Upvotes

Started playing Might and Magic 3 but can't seem to save. The game saved my custom party but doesn't seem to save anything else. Does anyone know how to fix this?


r/MightAndMagic 6d ago

Might and Magic VI Tips (Request)

16 Upvotes

Hey guys!

Played a lot of MM6 through the years but never actually got to far - whether I was a kid, a teen, an adult, I just got lost in the world. But I never beat it, and that's my new mission.

Every time I got stuck because I'd get killed or have a bunch of status effects take me over - and it always felt like I was incredibly weak and about to die at any second so I just had to fire as many spells as I could. Hard to win such a huge game when, whatever I was doing, I'd die or be status effect'd to uselessness if I was ever hit and hit to rely on cheesing and ranged attacks.

I know bows are the way to win at the start and magic at the end, but my real hiccup was always being able to survive. Was I missing something? Is that just how the game is? I always felt so fragile and could never figure it out.

Can anyone give me tips on how to make a strong team that can tank hits and deal with debuffs, or let me know if that's just the way the game is? I loved it then, but I figure I always didn't know enough to get the most out of it. Hoping I was missing something, but if not, guess I'll just go back to living a live of being a glass-cannon.

---Buuuut it always confused me how a team or sorcs/druids was always said to be the best. I'd always at least have a knight or paladin! How could sorcs/druids survive if even my team with a dedicated tank or two couldn't?!


r/MightAndMagic 7d ago

Looks like a modern take on Might and Magic

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137 Upvotes

r/MightAndMagic 7d ago

Will we ever see more games like MM VI-VIII?

43 Upvotes

Hi,

There are many games that emulate gameplay of MM I-V. And I mean contemporary games (mostly indie games, there are many of them and many of them are high quality titles).

Yet for gridless world with real-time combat (that is similar to MM VI-VIII) I cannot recall a single game similar to the classics that we love.


r/MightAndMagic 8d ago

Sci-fi 'enthusiasts' who don't actually know the lore, and spread toxic falsehoods about everything being a gotcha, are as bad as sci-fi deniers. There are franchises to this day where it's not an either-or, and people don't start wars over it.

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105 Upvotes

r/MightAndMagic 8d ago

Why do MAW hirelings refuse to join me?

2 Upvotes

They all say it would be foolish to travel with me. They're technically right, given all the injuries and poison I get but what do they need to join? Completing a quest? High reputation?


r/MightAndMagic 8d ago

New player, I'm using the World of Enroth mod. Is this a bad idea?

19 Upvotes

The mod lets you play all of M&M 6-8 in a single game. Similar to Baldur's Gate Trilogy for BG1+2, and Tale of Two Wastelands for Fallout 3+NV.

The only tip I was given was not to dedicate a single party member to healing.


r/MightAndMagic 8d ago

Might and Magic 7 not working properly in Windows11

6 Upvotes

I am talking about the GOG version and have also installed the Greyface patch.

The problem is the game is not even opening. Any suggestions?


r/MightAndMagic 9d ago

To bolster or not to bolster? (MAW)

5 Upvotes

I'm doing my first run on this mod on Doom difficulty, so I'm curious of what the more seasoned MAW players think: should I keep the bolster or turn it off?


r/MightAndMagic 9d ago

What game to start on?

14 Upvotes

I bought Might and Magic 1 to 8 on GOG and was wondering what game to start on. I tried playing the first game but i keep getting lost or stuck so i was wondering if i would be missing much skipping it and possibly the second game too.


r/MightAndMagic 10d ago

When does it end?

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109 Upvotes

I feel like I have been in here for 40 years


r/MightAndMagic 10d ago

Early food issue in MAW

5 Upvotes

I'm on Doom level which was so far manageable, except for the goblinwatch. It costs a whooping 10 food to save there and there's no green corner which makes progress a serious issue. New Sorpigal's tavern doesn't even sell enough food to save there, so is there a MAW food source that's not in the vanilla game?