Blizzard releases WarCraft 3 assets for StarCraft 2 modding

[Dr Super Good]

I was hoping they'd look a lot more improved.

Some are, others are not. It still gives you a good base for adding fantasy to your maps.

 

[Linaze]

The ones showcased by Blizzard beforehand looked as expected. But those ships above look ripped right out of 2002.

 

[istvan921]

I have to agree with this we were hoping for something brand new.

 

[Rui]

The greatest issue is the timing. They could have had this idea before people lost faith in SC2. I know I called attention to the lack of artistic resources before SC2 even went Beta. I'm glad they ported, it helps, even if the models will sometimes look out of place.

 

[Dr Super Good]

The ones showcased by Blizzard beforehand looked as expected. But those ships above look ripped right out of 2002.

That is because they are "ripped right out of 2002". They are the exact same geometry as they were in Warcraft III. Only some models have been updated, not all.

 

[Tya]

The HD models look great though!

BEST HERO IN WARCRAFT.

 

[Dr Super Good]

That Dark Ranger was firing a bit fast...

 

[Tya]

Agility capped attack speed!

So many nerdchills about this whole wc3 asset stuff. I loved wc3 so damn much.

 

[BlackEnvyX]

LAN option, playing maps vanilla BNet style (create your own game from a local mapfile of your choice), not having to log into your BNet account to use the editor, just to name some.

These are just a few of the reasons I'm so hesitant to try out SC2's editor and why I've stuck with WC3's editor for all these years.

But adding these resources is definitely a start.

 

[Tya]

Oh wow I missed the WarCraft UI... feels good.

It's been a while though, and it's my first UI. Feedback appreciated!

 

[Dr Super Good]

Try moving the portrait above the health, shield and energy. You can then hide the frame display.

 

[Rui]

I've been thinking: perhaps the models used for the Ultimate Terraining Map would fit well in SC2?

 

[Dr Super Good]

I've been thinking: perhaps the models used for the Ultimate Terraining Map would fit well in SC2?

They will fit with most of the WC3 assets very well. They will not fit with the SC2 assets well. This is because they lack specular and normal maps so will appear noticeably out of place.

On the other hand most assets from Diablo III should be portable to SC2 as I would imagine that they have normal maps.

 

[Rui]

I meant assuming they had the necessary textures of course.

 

[oger-lord]

Someone tried to convert the models to wc3?

 

[BlackEnvyX]

Someone tried to convert the models to wc3?

This actually would be a fantastic idea, converting the HQ models from SC2 to WC3. I remember Blizzard saying something about converting certain models being illegal though, or was that just for World of Warcraft?

 

[Tya]

This actually would be a fantastic idea, converting the HQ models from SC2 to WC3. I remember Blizzard saying something about converting certain models being illegal though, or was that just for World of Warcraft?

I'm sure that you're free to port them from sc2 to wc3 without reprisal. WoW and D3 models are certainly free to use. Blizzard has hinted that they wouldn't be too happy for sc2 maps to use Heroes of the Storm models, but a few are doing it anyway and haven't been banhammered.

TL;DR it'll be fine for sure.

It's worth noting that the models are a bit rough when it comes to attachment points though. You can get around this in sc2 but wc3 is a lot more rigid when it comes to such things. Auras and some overhead buffs may not display in the right place or display at all, but if that's not a problem then the models will be fine!

Also I'm a little sketchy on how imports worked in wc3, but you can literally just export the .m3 and texture files in a second from the sc2 editor.

 

[BlackEnvyX]

I'm sure that you're free to port them from sc2 to wc3 without reprisal. WoW and D3 models are certainly free to use. Blizzard has hinted that they wouldn't be too happy for sc2 maps to use Heroes of the Storm models, but a few are doing it anyway and haven't been banhammered.

TL;DR it'll be fine for sure.

It's worth noting that the models are a bit rough when it comes to attachment points though. You can get around this in sc2 but wc3 is a lot more rigid when it comes to such things. Auras and some overhead buffs may not display in the right place or display at all, but if that's not a problem then the models will be fine!

I'm surprised, I remember from a while ago that someone got in a bit of trouble for using a converted model of a dragon from World of Warcraft but it might have been from another game I'm not too sure.

 

[Tya]

I'm surprised, I remember from a while ago that someone got in a bit of trouble for using a converted model of a dragon from World of Warcraft but it might have been from another game I'm not too sure.

I don't think that's the case. At least not anymore. I mean, like half of the top sc2 maps use WoW models. One even won a Blizzard contest!

 

[Xonok]

Who are they going to sue for that? They own the rights to those maps and they own the rights to WoW, so should they sue themselves?

 

[Tya]

You don't get sued. You get your cd key deactivated so you have to buy a new copy of sc2/wc3/whatever.

 

[Xonok]

The thing is that it makes no sense for them to fight people for using the content that blizzard made. It's already theirs, so there are no legal issues with that anyway.

 

[Dr Super Good]

This actually would be a fantastic idea, converting the HQ models from SC2 to WC3. I remember Blizzard saying something about converting certain models being illegal though, or was that just for World of Warcraft?

Blizzard does not mind. You can use any of their models in any of their other games as they own it and are not going to sue themselves. They have on multiple occasions for both WC3 and SC2 highlighted Arcade games using resources from other of their games with grate praise. This is why the "no WoW port" rule was removed under my recommendation.

 

[JCarrill0]

Curious, but was the wc3 assets ever removed? I seem to think so after Warcraft 3 reforged.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Curious, but was the wc3 assets removed?

As far as I am aware the Warcraft III asset mod was not removed. It might have been renamed or moved due to last minute changes to make StarCraft II more Warcraft III like.

 

[JCarrill0]

As far as I am aware the Warcraft III asset mod was not removed. It might have been renamed or moved due to last minute changes to make StarCraft II more Warcraft III like.

I only ask since I can’t seem to find any maps that have them anymore, it makes me saddened

 

[Dr Super Good]

The mods are still there at the bottom of the dependency list.

 

[Wiimeiser]

They seem to be erroring in recent versions. All but a few sounds* fail to load due to an invalid object type.

[1/13/2023 9:42:55 AM] Warning: XML: GameData\ActorData.xml(10546,9) : Unable to write value: GoblinZeppelinMovement; reason: Core: invalid object type identification Source: Mods/WarCoop/WarClassic.SC2Mod/ Entry: nzep Scope: CActorUnit Field: SoundArray[7]

And the command cards are a bit broken, too. I think several buttons are also missing. Not sure what else is missing, but I have an error log of the whole thing, if anyone wants to see what's up.

*The sounds that do work seem to be outright replacements/overrides of SC2 sounds. These are the error sounds, the button click sound, and a few ambient sounds.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Possibly you are missing a dependent mod or using the wrong parent mod.

 

[Wiimeiser]

Creating a new map without the Starcraft stuff (beyond the base WoL which is mandatory) causes no errors. Trying to copy it over silently fails. Even copying over the XML data directly not only fails, but causes all further attempts at editing in XML mode to fail, even when quitting without saving and reloading the document. The duplicate function refuses to duplicate sounds now, too. Making a new sound worked, but the editor crashed when trying to view its data. Essentially, the file is now corrupt.

So installing any non-default Starcraft data changes the format, meaning that they're completely incompatible.

EDIT: Whenever I try to edit the XML it just deletes the sound index. This means that the file is most likely corrupt.

EDIT2: For all I know I'm actually getting the formatting wrong. I have no idea how to script in XML...

EDIT3: If I copy over the "DefaultEAXON" into a map with the Star2 Coop it works, at least for Furbolg Death. But there's definitely an undiagnosed conflict going on in there somewhere...

EDIT4: Specifically it's "War3.sc2mod" that's causing issues on the War3 end. There must be some hardcoding going on when War3.sc2mod is loaded.

EDIT5: It's a conflict with the Co-op Expansion itself, I think. Though Void gives this error:

[1/13/2023 5:08:22 PM] Warning: XML: GameData\ValidatorData.xml(3647,5) : Unable to create entry with incompatible parent TargetNotStunned Source: Campaigns/Void.SC2Campaign/ Scope: CValidatorUnitFilters

Incompatible what, exactly?

EDIT6: Is load order a thing? If so, then loading the War3 Coop mod second seems to stop the War3 sounds disappearing, but balloons the loading tome to several minutes due to practically every SC2 asset now throwing an error. The result is 6MB of plaintext errors. I don't know what's going on anymore.

EDIT7: Even just copying the XML data over into one big separate sc2mod doesn't work.

EDIT8: Going to the lines in the actor data that the errors in the Messages window shows lines with hashes (#) which may or may not be the cause of the invalid object errors. Clearing the actor data fixes the sounds disappearing, so the conflict does lie in there...

At this point I think I should just give up. The two obviously aren't compatible whatsoever, best case scenario I could remake the data/XML stuff from scratch, otherwise, this is no better than TMPE/Shicho.

Okay, I'm gonna stop for now.

 

[Dr Super Good]

EDIT6: Is load order a thing? If so, then loading the War3 Coop mod second seems to stop the War3 sounds disappearing, but balloons the loading tome to several minutes due to practically every SC2 asset now throwing an error. The result is 6MB of plaintext errors. I don't know what's going on anymore.

Yes load order is a thing. Maybe the mod alters some default templates?

As far as I am aware the behaviour of the data is not hard coded, so it treats every mod the same. However depending on incompatible mods can cause data errors due to how the XML data system works.

I would recommend posting your map with the original, broken WC3 sound, state so it can be looked at. In the past such data errors were often caused by including melee balance patch data along with campaign data due to double declarations. However since SC2 development froze, data generally has become less stable, likely due to poor patching practices and last time I checked at least some errors were now unavoidable.

 

[Wiimeiser]

In the past such data errors were often caused by including melee balance patch data along with campaign data due to double declarations.

And the editor explicitly states that they're incompatible. Which is a pain if you want to include the new Nexus abilities. No way to get the Shield Battery Overcharge one to work AFAIK.

That said, I'm willing to post a test map I've just quickly thrown together. Should I just upload it as an attachment?

 

[Dr Super Good]

That said, I'm willing to post a test map I've just quickly thrown together. Should I just upload it as an attachment?

Yes attachments should work as long as the map is a reasonable size.

 

[Wiimeiser]

45kb should be small enough, right? It doesn't say what the limit is, though...
Placed some things to get an idea of what's being used.

 

[Wiimeiser]

Any updates?

Relatedly, I was testing some mods I downloaded and one of them featured Warcraft Classic as a dependency. It didn't require Star2Coop, but it required all of that mod's dependencies plus Nova Ops. And sound errors occur then but are primarily stuff like "attack" sounds (like YesAttack) but other sounds are affected too, like many of the interface sounds.

However since SC2 development froze, data generally has become less stable, likely due to poor patching practices and last time I checked at least some errors were now unavoidable.

This could be relevant. I'm not sure when the game was updated last, but the mod I tested was this one, which last updated just last December.

 

[Dr Super Good]

It seems which ever of those two mods loads second gets a lot of sound errors due to sound data not loading which propagate to where the sounds are used. Best the SC2 mapster discord could offer is...

Alevice — 18/01/2023 05:54
I think there is some alien bug that affects the sound catalog based on the number of definitions
Several users gave reported issuesa like that
I ah wmt done due research on it
Wether it is just a foxed amount of sound entries or smth else

I could not find an obvious cause as to why out of all data just the sound data fails to load past the first mod chain. There must be some small conflict somewhere, or a bug in the sound data code.

 

[Wiimeiser]

I think there is some alien bug that affects the sound catalog based on the number of definitions

a bug in the sound data code.

Some sort of limit? So I'm hitting the maximum number of units allowed at once?
One thing I found was changing the name of the parent common to all War3 actors fixed the issue, but if I re-parented the actors the problem returned. Pasting multiple actors at once seems to freeze the editor. I'll have to try and see which actor is causing the freeze, if it's anything specific or what.

EDIT3: It turns out I needed to completely close the editor to allow sounds to function again. Seems legit.

Also, what does this error mean?

[1/21/2023 12:38:08 AM] Warning: XML: C:\Users\wiime\AppData\Local\Temp\StarCraftIITemp\GameData\SoundData.xml(1,1) : m_comment == nullptr Source: C:\Users\wiime\Documents\StarCraft II\Maps\CrossoverTest00000000000000000000000.SC2Map

I've also attached a screenshot of the actor data in case it helps for something.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Some sort of limit? So I'm hitting the maximum number of units allowed at once?

Seems to have nothing to do with units and entirely just sound data. For some reason it refuses to load the sound data of mods which cause all kinds of missing sound reference errors to propagate that eventually make it to actors.

Also, what does this error mean?

Some internal error where something is a null pointer is my best guess.

 

[Wiimeiser]

Seems to have nothing to do with units and entirely just sound data. For some reason it refuses to load the sound data of mods which cause all kinds of missing sound reference errors to propagate that eventually make it to actors.

Hmm... That's interesting, because if I delete the global parent actor from the XML data the sounds work fine but the actors report no parent (as expected); copying actors in some cases has caused freezing, so I might need to do some more research on that front...