Rebuilding Heroes of Might & Magic 1 [Episode 9]: Coding the Hero Screen from Scratch

Описание: In this episode of rebuilding Heroes of Might and Magic 1 from scratch, we tackle one of the most visually rich parts of the game: the hero screen. Using a combination of reverse-engineered game data and AI-assisted C++ development, we walk through how the hero screen was designed and implemented — from decoding the ICN asset files (hero portraits, crests, morale/luck icons, creature backgrounds) to rendering stat labels, army slots, and artifact rows with correct pixel offsets.
Along the way, we dig into some of the trickier details: fixing faction ordering mismatches across the Knight/Barbarian/Sorceress/Warlock lookup tables, using the correct high-resolution monster ICN files instead of the minimap tiles, and bottom-aligning creatures based on per-monster offset specs. We also cover the SDL2 + TrueType font integration, CMake build fixes for cross-platform (Windows/Mac) support, and the growing challenge of working with AI assistants as source files start hitting larger context sizes.
Other improvements covered: mouse hover helmet cursor triggering the hero screen, auto-scrolling on the map, spellbook spawning for Sorceress/Warlock heroes, and a look at what's coming next (event interactions, warlock scouting range).