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Blizzard's Bugged Resources

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Gryphon Rider has a high quality 512x512 fully team colored unused texture within MPQ archive. The normal texture (currently used by Gryphon Rider) is 256x256 and has some parts of alpha removed.

I have modified Gryphon Rider to use high quality unused texture and added back team colored material previously removed.

Comparison:
9fv795.png

307udsz.png
 

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Dr Super Good

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I have modified Gryphon Rider to use high quality unused texture and added back team colored material previously removed.
Outside of the dwarves' trousers and shirt being team coloured, I cannot really notice a difference. And this is zoomed in as well (usually much smaller on screen) This is probably why they reduced the texture size since the GPU memory savings out weighed any graphic quality benefit at the time (GPUs have very little memory back then).

I am not even sure if all the added team colour improves the model. The wings are quite clear as it is although I guess some on the soldier is also good since it would conform more with other units (soldiers wearing colour of player).
 
Outside of the dwarves' trousers and shirt being team coloured, I cannot really notice a difference. And this is zoomed in as well (usually much smaller on screen) This is probably why they reduced the texture size since the GPU memory savings out weighed any graphic quality benefit at the time (GPUs have very little memory back then).

The unused texture was 512x512 and a lot cleaner than the compressed default, it also had team coloring. You won't notice it much by viewing above, but the wings should be a lot smoother and cleaner.

PS: There are no trousers or shirt, the back is his skin with team colored tatoo and his bracelets are team colored. Did you even download the model and viewed it in Magos Model Editor?
 

Dr Super Good

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The unused texture was 512x512 and a lot cleaner than the compressed default, it also had team coloring. You won't notice it much by viewing above, but the wings should be a lot smoother and cleaner.
Which you would not (or barely) notice due to them being animated almost continuously. Sure it looks better but maybe they decided the extra saving of video memory was worth the loss in quality. GPUs had a lot less memory back then so texture size/number was a real problem.

There are no trousers or shirt, the back is his skin with team colored tatoo and his bracelets are team colored. Did you even download the model and viewed it in Magos Model Editor?
No I looked at the images you posted.
 
Which you would not (or barely) notice due to them being animated almost continuously. Sure it looks better but maybe they decided the extra saving of video memory was worth the loss in quality. GPUs had a lot less memory back then so texture size/number was a real problem.


No I looked at the images you posted.

It looks more noticeable than those crappy pictures in Model Editor or in-game. They could have made high quality setting use the high quality 512x512 textures, it is not justified that they left it out entirely.
 

Dr Super Good

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Ok let us solve this.
I have modified Gryphon Rider to use high quality unused texture
The texture is not unused. It is used by the Gryphon Rider Missile model. The missile model uses the hammer part of the texture. This is why the texture is bundled with the hammer missile as it was intended for the hammer missile.

The error was that they did not re-wrap the hammer missile to use a lower resolution texture containing just the high resolution hammer part. Instead they included the high resolution version of the Gryphon Rider texture and only used the hammer part of it.

The Gryphon Rider is not the problem and does use the correct texture (the finished one intended for him). The bug is that the Gryphon Rider Missile either did not recycle his texture or use a high resolution extract of the hammer.

I am investigating further into this. For example what about StarCraft II version of him? I will post my findings.
 
Ok let us solve this.

The texture is not unused. It is used by the Gryphon Rider Missile model. The missile model uses the hammer part of the texture. This is why the texture is bundled with the hammer missile as it was intended for the hammer missile.

The error was that they did not re-wrap the hammer missile to use a lower resolution texture containing just the high resolution hammer part. Instead they included the high resolution version of the Gryphon Rider texture and only used the hammer part of it.

The Gryphon Rider is not the problem and does use the correct texture (the finished one intended for him). The bug is that the Gryphon Rider Missile either did not recycle his texture or use a high resolution extract of the hammer.

I am investigating further into this. For example what about StarCraft II version of him? I will post my findings.

Well technically it is used by the hammer but why would they put high quality unoptimized texture for such a small thing? Anyway, I just made Gryphon Rider use a higher quality texture, that's it.

I don't think SC2 has anything to do with this.
 

Dr Super Good

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I don't think SC2 has anything to do with this.
It does because they have the same Gryphon Rider model there as well. Would be interesting to know if this error is present there as well, or if they fixed it.

Unlike WC3 where textures were generally bundled with their models making cross-linking textures sometimes painful, SC2 throws all textures into a single folder.

Ok so far...
The actual Gryphon Rider texture is 256*256 (GryphonRider.blp).
The RoC Gryphon Rider texture was overwritten by TFT. Both RoC and TFT versions of the texture are pixel identical. This means that technically the texture is included twice in the WC3 install (a waste of space).
The Gryphon Rider Missile uses a 512*512 version of the Gryphon Rider texture (Griffon.blp).
Analysis of the 512*512 Gryphon Rider texture with respect to the 256*256 version shows nothing more than down sampling and compression artefacts meaning that the 512*512 is likely the original painted texture.
SC2 includes both 256*256 Gryphon Rider (war3_gryphonrider.dds) texture and 512*512 Gryphon Rider Missile (war3_griffon.dds) texture complete with correct normal maps.
In SC2 the Gryphon Rider model and portrait use the 256*256 texture. One should be able to use texture overrides to replace this with the 512*512 hopefully.
In SC2 the Gryphon Rider Weapon model uses the 512*512 texture.

Conclusion? Blizzard is quite lazy I guess...
 
It does because they have the same Gryphon Rider model there as well. Would be interesting to know if this error is present there as well, or if they fixed it.

Unlike WC3 where textures were generally bundled with their models making cross-linking textures sometimes painful, SC2 throws all textures into a single folder.

Ok so far...
The actual Gryphon Rider texture is 256*256 (GryphonRider.blp).
The RoC Gryphon Rider texture was overwritten by TFT. Both RoC and TFT versions of the texture are pixel identical. This means that technically the texture is included twice in the WC3 install (a waste of space).
The Gryphon Rider Missile uses a 512*512 version of the Gryphon Rider texture (Griffon.blp).
Analysis of the 512*512 Gryphon Rider texture with respect to the 256*256 version shows nothing more than down sampling and compression artefacts meaning that the 512*512 is likely the original painted texture.
SC2 includes both 256*256 Gryphon Rider (war3_gryphonrider.dds) texture and 512*512 Gryphon Rider Missile (war3_griffon.dds) texture complete with correct normal maps.
In SC2 the Gryphon Rider model and portrait use the 256*256 texture. One should be able to use texture overrides to replace this with the 512*512 hopefully.
In SC2 the Gryphon Rider Weapon model uses the 512*512 texture.

Conclusion? Blizzard is quite lazy I guess...

Yes Blizzard is lazy, this whole thread proves that. The fact that they failed to fix missing texture part from Main Menu of RoC shows that War3 was a rushed product by itself.
 
Cryptlord when selected has a free-floating all direction point light always positioned at 0,0 on the map. This only applies when selected meaning that it is likely part of the portrait that is leaking out into the game world in some nonsense way.

I noticed that Jaina also has this. I checked the model and it is linked to portrait of Jaina.
 
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Cryptlord when selected has a free-floating all direction point light always positioned at 0,0 on the map. This only applies when selected meaning that it is likely part of the portrait that is leaking out into the game world in some nonsense way.

That's pretty ridiculous. I had a good laugh. Never realy noticed it, but this is funny.
 

Ardenian

A

Ardenian

You are welcome, Raider Neoh

For future questions of this kind, i recommend the following:
Open the different MPQs with the http://www.hiveworkshop.com/forums/tools-560/warcraft-iii-viewer-62878/ and search for the path in the MPQs using key words like 'Haunted'. Then you find the path.
Next time create a new thread in requests, this thread is not about providing paths.

That would be pretty much .. too much, in my opinion. Should be alright to ask here once so you know how to find the paths.
Ujimasa Hojo could add a small explanation, like mine, how to get the paths or write down the paths themselves ( and the correct MPQ).
 
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The Obsidian Destroyer portrait has an unused, more normal looking Portrait Talk animation. In my opinion it's better than the weird lip twitching (the model is a skull, for fuck's sake) that's used ingame.
 

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Dr Super Good

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Wrong. It's all about optimization, actually.
Wrong, it is actually about optimization, clarity and overall general visual quality. Basically all of what refers to as "revisions" to the model which is what I said.

Quality control or other restrictions meant that they failed to catch all inconsistencies at the end. For example the Dread Lord still refers to his pre-beta model in one of his pissed VOs despite his release model being completely different. This is still the case, with games as recent as Heroes of the Storm still having inconsistencies. Most noticeable is Tychus's pissed VO where he drops a cigar into his marine suit, something which makes no sense now that he no longer smokes.

Being an RTS game a big requirement is that the units are visually distinct and easy to discern. Having fields of units which all look like peasants would make it confusing to play. This is why most units are so unique in Warcraft III.
 
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Why did you write all that? I think it's fairly clear that, let's say, peasant of goblin shredder have portraits different to their ingame models simply because their faces are too small to be visible from ingame camera. Those low-poly lower quality versions are purposefully done to save computer power back in 2001.

The inconsistency is a thing among blizz games, that's for sure, but not everything it caused by it. Optimizing units via cutting polygons of tiny ingame heads is a fairly decent decision to me.
 
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Guys, you're both very pretty, now kiss. Yes, Blizzard overlooked a crapton of things in the graphical department, did a crapton of other things such as cutting polys on purpose, it's the way they roll. Things can almost always be restored somehow if the scrapped version was better.

Btw, two things:
1) In the War3x MPQ, the snow owl's portrait is a more detailed model with a complete animation set.
2) The pack horse model has a TempWalk animation in which it runs, in addition to its normal (kind of good for Blizz's standards) slow walk animation.
 
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It's a convoluted one circle of 4x8x3 billboarded green glows each (96 planes in total) which splits into 4 circles in a reverse swastika-like manner and disappear. Looks more wizard-y than berserk-y. The model was broken, but MdlxConv fixed it.

Also, the stag critter model. It has an Attack Ready animation instead of Stand Ready. This causes the normal attack animation to only play on an initial attack, and on every consecutive attack on the same unit the Attack Ready is used. Thought it might have some uses.

Anyway, here's the fixed model.
 

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cryptlord when selected has a free-floating all direction point light always positioned at 0,0 on the map. This only applies when selected meaning that it is likely part of the portrait that is leaking out into the game world in some nonsense way.

i noticed that jaina also has this. I checked the model and it is linked to portrait of jaina.

I have created a list of models that cause this bug because the portrait models have OmniLights. I didn't check any Building models.

Units\Creeps\Harpy\Harpy_portrait.mdx
Units\Creeps\HarpyQueen\HarpyQueen_Portrait.mdx
Units\Creeps\HarpyWitch\HarpyWitch_Portrait.mdx
Units\Creeps\ThunderLizard\ThunderLizard_Portrait.mdx
Units\Creeps\ThunderLizardSalamander\ThunderLizardSalamander_Portrait.mdx
Units\Creeps\ThunderLizardVizier\ThunderLizardVizier_Portrait.mdx
Units\Critters\Shoveler\Shoveler_Portrait.mdx
Units\Demon\ChaosKotoBeast\ChaosKotoBeast_Portrait.mdx
Units\Human\Arthas\Arthas_portrait.mdx
Units\Human\ArthaswithSword\ArthaswithSword_portrait.mdx
Units\Human\Jaina\Jaina_portrait.mdx
Units\Orc\KotoBeast\KotoBeast_portrait.mdx
Units\Orc\KotoBeastNoRider\KotoBeastNoRider_Portrait.mdx
Units\Other\Proudmoore\Proudmoore_Portrait.mdx
Units\Undead\Anubarak\Anubarak_Portrait.mdx
Units\Undead\HeroCryptLord\HeroCryptLord_Portrait.mdx
 
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Not sure if anyone's already mentioned this, but the human barracks model is gonna be a PITA for cinematics since you can see right through the doorway and through the back wall of the building since there's no internal wrap. I'm trying to find a way to fix this, maybe seal off the inside of the barracks with a simple black box. Anyone know how I could do that without messing up the build animation?
 
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Yeah I thought of that, and it should be easy enough to do, I just want to make sure it doesn't interfere with the build animation. I'm not animator, and I have almost NO clue when it comes to editing Warcraft 3 models beyond texture recolors at this point. I'm willing to learn, though. :3
 
Not sure if anyone's already mentioned this, but the human barracks model is gonna be a PITA for cinematics since you can see right through the doorway and through the back wall of the building since there's no internal wrap. I'm trying to find a way to fix this, maybe seal off the inside of the barracks with a simple black box. Anyone know how I could do that without messing up the build animation?
Yeah I thought of that, and it should be easy enough to do, I just want to make sure it doesn't interfere with the build animation. I'm not animator, and I have almost NO clue when it comes to editing Warcraft 3 models beyond texture recolors at this point. I'm willing to learn, though. :3
You can "fix" this without making changes to the model's geometry by: opening the barracks model in Magos's Editor, then select the geoset that is the main part of the building, then edit its material and check the Two-Sided box in the layer's properties.
It doesn't really count as "bugged" because Blizzard intentionally enabled backface culling (one-sided rendering) on most building models. As buildings are static objects, there will be sides of building models that need no visibility by default, such as the Barracks' inner back wall that you described. Obviously, this is an efficient way to conserve rendering power for 2002-era computers.
Next time, just set whichever material layer that you can't see from an angle to Two-Sided, then you should be able to see it clearly.

201d7134d3.png
 
I've just found this after browsing through the MPQ files:
- The Hero Defence Type had only one interface icon and this one had no upgrade indicator.
- There is a separate interface icon for the Divine Defence Type. This even had an upgrade indicator. However the one without upgrade indicator doesn't exist. In the end they used the Hero defence type icon (that had no upgrade indicator) for upgradeable Divine defence type and Divine defence type icon (that had upgrade indicator) for upgrade-less Divine defence type. This info can be found in Advanced -> Game interface.

EDIT: Looks like this isn't even the case in-game. Both upgradeable and upgrade-less Divine defence types use the Hero defence type interface icon. Wtf, Blizzard?
7d2b7496f1.png
 
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Trying to open the hidden resource "Doodads\Ashenvale\Structures\PillarsRuined\PillarsRuined.mdl" in Magos's MPQ Browser yields the (perhaps the only one of its kind) error message "Normal count mismatch, 0 normals for 20 vertices!"
Fortunately, loading this in WE doesn't cause a crash.

153325-albums2005-picture15484.jpg
 
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