Good news: the Dark Messiah of Might and Magic community has won official backing from Ubisoft and Valve to produce a Community Edition.
The codebase is being moved onto the current Source engine. The intent isn't to rewrite the mood — it’s to keep that familiar atmosphere while adding Steam Workshop integration so mods and maps are easier to share.
Dev teams are cooperating on both SP and MP sides (yes, both campaigns). They're folding in standout fan-made work as they go; content integration has already started and contributors are invited to help speed things up. The immediate focus: consolidate every system into a single, stable build — i.e., fewer crashes, less weird behavior.
Mechanically, relics will be replaced by rune-based systems. Runes will toggle mutators that alter difficulty or gameplay flow, and the SDK will expose that system so modders can use it in custom content.
On the graphics front the RTX branch continues in parallel. All level textures have seen a first-pass treatment and a new tonemapper has pushed lighting closer to what the original authors aimed for (admittedly, that phrasing is a bit dramatic). Now the Lite public test is opening: players can poke at the updated visuals and lighting. The devs want feedback — if something looks off, tell them.