Converting Unreal Engine 3 Model for use in Warcraft 3

[StormyG7]

I found Heroes of Might and Magic 6 and 7 have some neat-looking models and textures that are very much in the same style as Warcraft 3 Reforged. The new HoMM games by Ubisoft seem somewhat uninspired and take very little stylistically from the original games, but they do have a style that seems like it'd be much more fitting in a Warcraft game. I know I can't upload content from HoMM 6 or 7 without a licensing agreement or something, but for my personal use, I'm curious to see if it's possible to use them in Warcraft 3 Reforged.

If I finish my little map for Reforged, if converting models from HoMM 7 is as easy as converting them via a simple program, it might be possible to share my project and simply instruct the user to convert files and drop them into Warcraft 3's directory with local file use turned on.

I'd imagine that a converted model and texture file isn't quite so simple to have them working in-game. I don't know if the unreal engine 3 model file contains the metadata on the animations, and textures the model requires or if that kind of thing can be so easily converted for use in Warcraft 3. I'm extremely excited about the mere possibility that I can use models from HoMM 6 and 7 since I didn't enjoy the games enough to finish them, but I still enjoyed some of the artwork.

I simply don't know how to do this, but after many searches, I've found a few tools, but I don't know which one to use. What do I do?

 

[ThompZon]

I assume that there exists a tool for Blender to open such a model. This should be very googlable.

If so, you can use GitHub - tw1lac/mdl-exporter: Warcraft MDL exporter for Blender to export it from Blender to mdl (There is a thread by Twilac there: Blender 2.83 MDL/MDX importer). Note that you probably need to do several adjustments in Blender to make it export nicely.
Then use RMS to do last touches to make it play nice in Warcraft 3: Releases · tw1lac/ReterasModelStudio
You also probably need to convert textures to usable formats, but I don't know details there.
RMS is very useful to make the materials work as expected.

RMS on hive is here: Retera's Model Studio
And for more RMS and/or modelling questions, the dedicated RMS discord is active and fairly helpful: Join the Retera Model Studio Users Group Discord Server!

Also: this is not a "World Editor" question, rather a modelling question.
Modeling & Animation exists for that

 

[Dr Super Good]

It is not really legal to convert models from other games to Warcraft III. Blizzard has traditionally made an exception when those models are from one of their other products but that is because they can. Companies like Ubisoft are less likely to be compassionate about you "stealing" their models.

 

[StormyG7]

I assume that there exists a tool for Blender to open such a model. This should be very googlable.

If so, you can use GitHub - tw1lac/mdl-exporter: Warcraft MDL exporter for Blender to export it from Blender to mdl (There is a thread by Twilac there: Blender 2.83 MDL/MDX importer). Note that you probably need to do several adjustments in Blender to make it export nicely.
Then use RMS to do last touches to make it play nice in Warcraft 3: Releases · tw1lac/ReterasModelStudio
You also probably need to convert textures to usable formats, but I don't know details there.
RMS is very useful to make the materials work as expected.

RMS on hive is here: Retera's Model Studio
And for more RMS and/or modelling questions, the dedicated RMS discord is active and fairly helpful: Join the Retera Model Studio Users Group Discord Server!

Also: this is not a "World Editor" question, rather a modelling question.
Modeling & Animation exists for that

Thanks, I have found a tool to unpack the UPK file to get the textures and models exported

It is not really legal to convert models from other games to Warcraft III. Blizzard has traditionally made an exception when those models are from one of their other products but that is because they can. Companies like Ubisoft are less likely to be compassionate about you "stealing" their models.

Thanks for the legal advice, but you don't know what you're talking about or you didn't read. I own a copy of the game, and I don't redistribute the assets; I'm taking assets from one game I own, using them in another game I own and I'm not sharing them with anyone else.

 

[Dr Super Good]

Thanks for the legal advice, but you don't know what you're talking about or you didn't read. I own a copy of the game, and I don't redistribute the assets; I'm taking assets from one game I own, using them in another game I own and I'm not sharing them with anyone else.

As long as you do not share the resulting map with anyone else that is fine. However if you upload a map containing such ripped models to a site like Hive Workshop or host it in multiplayer to the public you might get into trouble.

 

[StormyG7]

As long as you do not share the resulting map with anyone else that is fine. However if you upload a map containing such ripped models to a site like Hive Workshop or host it in multiplayer to the public you might get into trouble.

I don't think you understand, in my original post I made it clear that if I were to share the map, I would remove any Copywrite protected materials from the map. The alternative to removing them altogether being that I might be able to include instructions and/or a tool that allows whoever downloads the map and owns a copy of the game I'm taking the models from, to use that tool and/or instructions to take the models from the game and use them in the map.

 

[paulo101977]

I don't think you understand, in my original post I made it clear that if I were to share the map, I would remove any Copywrite protected materials from the map. The alternative to removing them altogether being that I might be able to include instructions and/or a tool that allows whoever downloads the map and owns a copy of the game I'm taking the models from, to use that tool and/or instructions to take the models from the game and use them in the map.

Very interesting what you propose. If I'm not mistaken, a fan would be creating a reforged version of warcraft 3 with urnreal engine 4 and importing the wc3 editor assets. That is, he is doing the opposite way. Maybe you can research with this guy. I just won't cite sources here.

Apropos of what I said above, I'm starting to work on something in a slightly different direction: I'm going to study machine learning to create an alternative AI for the game. I still don't know which way to go. And I'm still helping the AMAI project. Maybe I'll work with them on this AI.