Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Multiplayer — Dedicated Server (Docker) - Base Image Project

A Dockerized dedicated server for Dark Messiah of Might & Magic Multiplayer, running via Wine on Ubuntu 24.04 with Large Address Aware (LAA) patch applied for improved memory handling.

Docker Hub link

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Requirements

• Docker (23+ recommended, BuildKit enabled by default)
• A valid Steam account that owns Dark Messiah of Might & Magic

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Getting Started

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/xelot12/dark-messiah-mp-docker.git
cd dark-messiah-mp-docker

2. Build the Docker image

docker build -t dark-messiah .

3. Run the server

On the first run, the server will automatically download the game to a persistent volume. Subsequent runs will start immediately without re-downloading.

docker run -d \
  --privileged \
  --ulimit nofile=524288:524288 \
  -p 27015:27015/udp \
  -p 27015:27015/tcp \
  -e STEAM_USER=<your_login> \
  -e STEAM_PASSWORD=<your_password> \
  -e MAP=clsm_circus \
  -e MAXPLAYERS=16 \
  -v dark-messiah-data:/home/steam/darkmessiah \
  dark-messiah

⚠️ Steam credentials are passed as environment variables at runtime and are never stored in the image.

4. Connect via Steam

Open Steam → View → Game Servers → Favorites → Add a Server → your_ip:27015

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Configuration

Server parameters can be passed as environment variables at runtime:

Variable	Default	Description
STEAM_USER	—	Steam login (required)
STEAM_PASSWORD	—	Steam password (required)
MAP	clsm_circus	Starting map
MAXPLAYERS	16	Max player count
PORT	27015	Server port
TICKRATE	128	Server tick rate

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How It Works

SteamCMD

The image includes SteamCMD which downloads Dark Messiah Multiplayer (App ID 2145) at first runtime to a persistent Docker volume using the Windows platform flag (+@sSteamCmdForcePlatformType windows).

VPK Extraction

vpks_extraction.py extracts all *_dir.vpk game archives into the server directory so the game files are available at runtime.

LAA Patch

laa_patch.py sets the Large Address Aware flag (0x20) in the PE header of srcds.exe, allowing the 32-bit process to access up to 4 GB of RAM instead of 2 GB when run under Wine on a 64-bit host.

Wine + Xvfb

The server runs as a Windows executable via Wine (wine32). A virtual framebuffer (Xvfb) is started first since Wine requires a display even for headless server processes.

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Ports

Port	Protocol	Purpose
27015	UDP	Game traffic
27015	TCP	RCON / Steam

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Security Notes

• Steam credentials are passed at runtime via environment variables and are never written to any image layer.
• The server runs as a non-root steam user inside the container.

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License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2026 Preston

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic is property of Ubisoft / Arkane Studios.