HiveWE - World Editor 0.10

HiveWE

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HiveWE is a fully custom 3rd party world editor. It's completely separate from the original editor and is open-source!

Features:
  • Open and view Warcraft III maps.
  • Terrain/Unit/Doodad/Pathing palettes with numerous options.
  • Ergonomic Object Editor
  • Improved Trigger Editor
  • Edit the pathing map directly!
  • Change the tileset to up to 64 tiles.
  • Manage your imports with folders
  • Edit global tile pathing
  • Edit map loading screen information
  • Import heightmaps
  • Jass/Lua support
Limitations
  • There can be some rendering differences compared to the game
  • The unit palette is quite limited
Required for running HiveWE:

HiveWE 0.10 - 2026/05/18

Thanks you @BogdanW3 and Super.Skill for your contributions in this version!

Performance Improvements
  • Map loading is now much faster. My Reforged test map went from 32s to a whopping 4s load time.
  • Map rendering is now also much faster. Frame rates more than doubled. Check out MDX Rendering if you're interested in the technical details.

Added
  • Gameplay constants editor
  • Asset manager
Showing all imported game files and their usage. Useful for deleting unused files or finding out which unit/doodad/ability is using it
  • Map resizing. Thanks @Super.Skill!
  • Improved terrain palette. Thanks @Super.Skill!
- You can now directly add/remove water and change its height.
- Ramp editing is now added and enabled!

Fixed
  • Sometimes TRIGSTR_xxxx would be visible in the object editor
  • Doodad palette height input didn't allow decimals
  • Fixed some unit fields not being properly saved
  • Changing tilesets wouldn't update the terrain palette
  • Newly added tiles couldn't be placed
  • An incorrect doodad variation would sometimes be loaded
  • Display the correct stand animation. Thanks @BogdanW3


HiveWE 0.9 - 2025/12/14

Added

  • Global search menu that you can call anywhere by double pressing shift
    • Allows you to instantly search units, items, doodad, destructibles, abilities upgrades, buffs and common editor actions from anywhere
  • Ability insights directly in the Object Editor.
  • Render all teamcolors instead of always only red
  • The unit palette now checks if it can place the unit or whether there is another unit/doodad there

Fixed
  • Some models vertices/uvs would clip
  • Fixed AABB frustrum culling
  • Ability data fields weren't correctly written
  • Deleting a doodad with a large pathing map wouldn't clear the whole pathing
  • Sometimes the shortcut to switch selection mode wouldn't work
  • Even brush sizes (2, 4, 6, etc) didn't properly center around the cursor
  • Deleting/moving a doodad with large pathing wouldn't update the pathing properly

HiveWE 0.8 - 2025/10/20

Added

  • Toggle to hide click helpers
  • Billboard rendering
  • Revived trigger editor from an earlier build
  • Pathing map import/export

Fixed
  • HD (or other setting) toggle(s) didn't work
  • Water didn't load in HD (but is still non shader based)
  • Fix models clipping if they are too big
HiveWE 0.7

This version has been a long time coming and thus I forgot a lot of what I've changed. The list below should roughly encompass most of the changes.

Added
  • Reforged support
  • Lua support
  • Object Editor
  • Unit Palette
  • Unit/doodad animation support
  • Unit/doodad lighting
  • Reposition units by dragging
  • Reposition doodads by dragging
  • Doodad scaling UI
  • Select units/doodads in Palette/OE buttons
  • Shortcuts for opening palettes (same as regular WE)
  • Load proper tileset blight texture
  • Doodads follow terrain pitch/roll
  • Doodads properly scale and rotate

Changed
  • Improved reset camera shortcut to center on current location
  • Improved transparency rendering
  • Default theme is now Dark
  • Selection circle autosize for doodads/units

Fixed
  • Doodad palette is very buggy all around
  • Trees show incorrect texture
  • Unit fly height is ignored
  • Wrong sequence extents cause incorrect culling
  • Windows will stay open when main window is closed (Thanks insanity_ai)
  • Custom tilesets load in the wrong color format (Thanks TriggerHappy)
  • Object editor crashes in invalid race (Thanks TriggerHappy)
  • Boats don't float on water (Thanks insanity_ai)
  • Unit fly height incorrect above water (Thanks insanity_ai)
  • Water does not occlude objects (Thanks insanity_ai)
  • Stand sequence not properly detected due to case sensitivity (Thanks insanity_ai)
  • FPS does not match vsync (Thanks Triggerhappy)
  • RGBA water textures were treated as RGB (Thanks LazZ)
  • Doodad are sometimes placed too high/low (Thanks insanity_ai)
  • Lava cracks are black/green due to RGB/BGR mismatch (Thanks insanity_ai)
  • MPQ export misses files (Thanks danielsheartbeat)

HiveWE 0.6

Additions
  • Map script generation!
  • Improved Jass highlighting
  • Improved Jass autocomplete
  • Tabs in the trigger editor now configurable
  • Trigger comments shown and editable
  • Rudimentary find window in trigger editor
  • Move camera with arrow keys
  • Shortcuts for opening/saving maps
  • Improved doodad pathing placement
  • Cool application icon
  • Doodad copy and paste
  • Doodad positioning with numpad
  • Improved themes

Changes
  • Camera is now a trackball type instead of TP/FP hybrid
  • Camera drag now proportional to distance
  • Camera now changes with terrain height
  • Doodads height after terrain change now interpolated
  • Doodads now selected with one click instead of two

Fixes
- Clicking on minimap now moves you to the correct location

HiveWE 0.5
Additions
  • Minimap
  • Full undo/redo for terrain/pathing/doodads
  • Show destructibles pathing
  • Visiblity/Solidity flags for doodads
  • Pathing map preview for doodads
  • Cliff lighting
  • A functioning JASS editor (with some limitations)
  • Dark theme
  • Doodad palette functionality
Changes
  • Check for empty warcraft directory path
  • Default doodad palette to Trees/Destructibles
  • Tries to run on the fastest GPU
  • Now also shows RoC (.w3m) maps in the open map dialog
Fixes
  • Can now launch HiveWE while Warcraft is running
  • Deep water for terrain palette has proper height
  • properly applies water pathing

HiveWE 0.4
Additions
  • Warcraft 1.30 support!
  • Full BLP1 support
  • Loads the shadowmap file (implementation waiting)
  • Import a heightmap (PNG, TGA, JPG and many others)
  • Load and edit map information! (loading screen/description)
  • Trigger viewer! View GUI and JASS triggers
  • An option to disabled enforcing water height limits
  • Added an experimental doodad palette
Changes:
  • Now uses the OS temporary folder instead of the "Data/Temporary" folder
  • Greatly increased pathing map contrast
  • Trigger and Import editor window modality changed
  • Now uses a ribbon instead of the old menu
Fixes:
  • Properly set the pathing for water and blight
  • Tilesetter now properly enforces 16 tiles
  • The correct ground texture variation is now chosen
  • Properly scale units and items
  • Properly scale doodads
  • Saving now chooses the right target

HiveWE 0.3
Additions:
  • Warcraft 1.29 support
  • Added a Tile Pathing setter
  • Added a Terrain Palette.
  • Added an Import Manager
  • Now shows the pathing texture on cliffs too
  • Added a first person camera and allow switching between them
  • Added terrain shadows
  • Reset camera using CTRL + Shift + C
Changes:
  • Removed war3Patch.mpq from the hierarchy
  • Added deprecated.mpq (from 1.29) to the hierarchy
  • SLK loading is now roughly 4x as fast (improved map load time)
  • Hides the brush when palette is inactive
  • Some small quality of life improvements
  • Improved RoC compatibility for unit loading
  • Changed terrain rendering to support different ground texture sizes
  • Now remembers your last open/save location
  • Further increased rendering performance for doodads a lot
  • Now remembers your Warcraft 3 directory if you previously located it

Fixes:
  • Fixed tileset/map hierarchy order
  • Fixed loading items placed on the map
  • Fixed a bug with the terrain being off by one (64x64 became 63x63)

HiveWE 0.2
  • Instanced rendering for Doodads and Cliffs provide a massive speed upgrade
  • Added tooltips to all buttons
  • Centered brush on mouse
  • Some code refactoring
  • Added tilesetter
  • Fixed blocky pixels under oblique angles
  • Added terrain saving
  • Allow running multiple instances
  • Fixed tile variation bug
  • Fixed tile texture UV bug
  • Added unit rendering
  • Very rudimentary animation parsing and geoset hiding
  • Improved RoC file format compatibility
HiveWE 0.1
  • Initial release
  • Draws terrain and doodads
  • Editing the pathing map

Technically a Warcraft installation is not required since the editor relies only on the game CASC files. We cannot distribute these due to legal reasons. Just point the editor at the folder containing them when it asks and you should be good to go!

If you encounter any issue with HiveWE then do ask for help! You can post here, reach me on the Hiveworkshop Discord eejin#4240 or message me on GitHub.

Many thanks to Ghostwolf for without him I wouldn't have gotten anywhere near as far. Also thanks to the rest of the Hiveworkshop community for supporting the creation of this editor.

Backup your map before using HiveWE
Previews
Contents

HiveWE 0.10 (Binary)

Reviews
Retera
This is a state of the art open source World Editor that draws on all of the community's knowledge of how to make Warcraft III maps. This current build is great for drawing terrain and doodads -- and new features are clearly under active development...
@Dr Super Good @eejin @Kyrbi0

Careful guys! It has come to my attention that since several posts by now, we are dangerously off-topicing from a Tools / third-party World Editor discussion thread, to another topic. Possibly a technical discussion about computers, or which might eventually lead to it. I have also just read opinionated stuff. Things may therefore be escalating dangerously, and get the readers of THW confused.

Be aware that such posts might be considered by some as garbage and/or secret knowledge which in the end does NOT matter. I am pointing out that we also already have one user confused and I also can read at least one conflicting statement atm. More may follow.

Even though it has also been said that most people probably won't read such comments, it might be advisable to post a link pointing to the Wikipedia page about Conchita Wurst, to prevent such posts from deletion. Or such comments might be moved to our Computer Tech sub-forum by a moderator. Or it may be advisable to put such off-topic contents between spoiler tags, to improve the readability of the thread overall.

Some people also might suggest talking [sic!] a good look at how/what they post here, or their posts may get reported.


...
...
... oh, I was just about to forget the most important thing:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conchita_Wurst

(hey, I am learning from my experience, don't I?)
:mwahaha:
 
i have stopped working error after opening it how do i fix it :(

Loading CASC data from: ""
Error opening "Data" with error:2
Unable to find file in hierarchy: "filealiases.json"
 
I got a problem when i run exe

Loading CASC data from: ""
Error opening "Data" with error:2
Unable to find file in hierarchy: "filealiases.json"
 
i have stopped working error after opening it how do i fix it :(

Loading CASC data from: ""
Error opening "Data" with error:2
Unable to find file in hierarchy: "filealiases.json"
I got a problem when i run exe

Loading CASC data from: ""
Error opening "Data" with error:2
Unable to find file in hierarchy: "filealiases.json"
This means that somehow it could not find the CASC files (where WC3 stores game data).

If you open the Windows Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/HiveWE/HiveWE then the warcraftDirectory key should point to your Warcraft 3 folder. If it does not then you can try changing it there too.
 
So i added the address to warcraftDirectory value and now i get a "Select a folder window" i have to select warcraft 3 folder, so i did and it loops and gives me the same window again, i did this 10 times not working.
 
So i added the address to warcraftDirectory value and now i get a "Select a folder window" i have to select warcraft 3 folder, so i did and it loops and gives me the same window again, i did this 10 times not working.
same situation :(
Be sure you are on Warcraft 1.30 otherwise it will not work! Also be sure that the folder you are trying to select contains a folder named "Data" that has the following subfolders:
upload_2018-11-26_11-36-20.png
 
Well it seems that i am using 1.26 and i don't have that folder "Data" in my warcraft 3 folder, i guess its because i am using 1.26 not 1.30.
 
i using latest version , win 64 , OpenGL 4.5 support , with installed vredist 2017.
exe stop working , already point warcraft 3 location contain /data sub folder .
any idea why?
 
i using latest version , win 64 , OpenGL 4.5 support , with installed vredist 2017.
exe stop working , already point warcraft 3 location contain /data sub folder .
any idea why?
Did you close Warcraft and the normal WE before opening HiveWE? It's a limitation of 0.4, but in version 0.5 you will be able to have HiveWE open alongside the game and normal editor.
 
Do you mind putting a paint bucket? that can replace a tile with another tile in the boundaries of other tiles

also it would be cool ifyou can put there some map-splitting square shapes that serve to help the mapmakers to create mirrored melee maps.

and be able to copy-paste multiple types at the same time (terrain,units,doodads)
 
Did you close Warcraft and the normal WE before opening HiveWE? It's a limitation of 0.4, but in version 0.5 you will be able to have HiveWE open alongside the game and normal editor.
yes , both are close
 
i have a openGL 3.3 support. does this mean i can't use hiveWE? :/


Possibly a false positive? Either that or your computer is infected and so malware infected the download the instant downloading completed.

You can literally check the source code if you are concerned.
where could i find the v1.29 to download?? i'd recommend you to keep this version because the 1.30.2 sucks if you want to create jass scripts :/ please bring me your patch!
 
i have a openGL 3.3 support. does this mean i can't use hiveWE? :/
There exists a separate branch with OpenGL 3.3 support
stijnherfst/HiveWE

Credit goes to @karaulov for the hard work
Opengl 3.3 support. (all old video cards) · Issue #5 · stijnherfst/HiveWE
:thumbs_up:


** Update **

where could i find the v1.29 to download?? i'd recommend you to keep this version because the 1.30.2 sucks if you want to create jass scripts :/ please bring me your patch!
Do you mean the version of HiveWE with WC3 v1.29 support? In which case, here it is:
stijnherfst/HiveWE 0.3
 
Last edited:
There exists a separate branch with OpenGL 3.3 support
stijnherfst/HiveWE

Credit goes to @karaulov for the hard work
Opengl 3.3 support. (all old video cards) · Issue #5 · stijnherfst/HiveWE
:thumbs_up:


** Update **


Do you mean the version of HiveWE with WC3 v1.29 support? In which case, here it is:
stijnherfst/HiveWE 0.3
oh man, what a great apport :) but this guy gives a strange software that i can't obtain without being a manager or something alike :goblin_jawdrop: all of this just in order to use a program.
 
i have a openGL 3.3 support. does this mean i can't use hiveWE? :/



where could i find the v1.29 to download?? i'd recommend you to keep this version because the 1.30.2 sucks if you want to create jass scripts :/ please bring me your patch!
Unfortunately the minimum required version is OpenGL 4.5. The 3.3 branch has never been updated past the initial commit and is thus very old (HiveWE 0.2).

As for the script editing. I am currently working on a Trigger Editor.
upload_2019-2-10_17-9-7.png
 
It's been a while, but
HiveWE 0.5 is out!

The major additions/changes this release are:

Trigger Editor
upload_2019-3-27_12-30-22.png


With syntax highlighting, autocomplete, tabs, dark mode, column selection, proper undo/redo and much more!

There are some limitations though. It currently only allows for modifying (v)JASS, thus GUI is still read-only. HiveWE will also save any JASS you changed, but will not regenerate the map script which means that you will have to open and save your map in the regular World Editor once before you can test your map ingame.

Map script generation is something that is being worked on and a generator for JASS is almost done. Expect more of this in either version 0.6 or 0.7!

Dark Theme and Minimap

upload_2019-3-27_12-36-22.png

You might have already noticed it for the trigger editor, but the whole of HiveWE now has the option for a dark theme!. You can change this in the new settings menu located under the File button. If you want to make your own theme then you will find the theme files under "Data/Themes". More documentation is inside those files.

The minimap can also be moved anywhere you want by holding CONTROL and dragging it!

Changelog
Additions
- Minimap
- Full undo/redo for terrain/pathing/doodads
- Show destructibles pathing
- Visiblity/Solidity flags for doodads
- Pathing map preview for doodads
- Cliff lighting
- A functioning JASS editor (with some limitations)
- Dark theme
- Doodad palette functionality
Changes
- Check for empty warcraft directory path
- Default doodad palette to Trees/Destructibles
- Tries to run on the fastest GPU
- Now also shows RoC (.w3m) maps in the open map dialog
Fixes
- Can now launch HiveWE while Warcraft is running
- Deep water for terrain palette has proper height
- properly applies water pathing

Download the new version at the top!

And thank you to BogdanW3 for the many additions and fixes to HiveWE!

Backup your map before using HiveWE!
 
@eejin

I love the dark theme. Keep adding stuff, man!

1. I don't like that in the doodad palette you have to double click! Why not single click like in vanilla??
2. it would be amazing if you make the palettes be able to be docked!
3. I like that you can show/hide the minimap,but why not also move it around to adjust it to your taste??
4. I'd liek to see you add hot-key-combinations for esier navigation like ctrl+mouse-move(rotate camera), ctrl+up/down(close/far camera)
5. with drag-selection be able to at once select objets with different type(ex. dooad+unit)
 
Last edited:
@eejin

I love the dark theme. Keep adding stuff, man!

1. I don't like that in the doodad palette you have to double click! Why not single click like in vanilla??
2. it would be amazing if you make the palettes be able to be docked!
3. I like that you can show/hide the minimap,but why not also move it around to adjust it to your taste??
4. I'd liek to see you add hot-key-combinations for esier navigation like ctrl+mouse-move(rotate camera), ctrl+up/down(close/far camera)
5. with drag-selection be able to at once select objets with different type(ex. dooad+unit)

Thank you for your feedback!
1. I will change this to a single click
2. How do you mean?
3. You can. Hold Control while hovering it and then click drag it.
4. I will add a bunch more shortcuts in 0.6. A lot are missing indeed
5. Some kind of super selection will be added at some point.

When i try to open a map, the editor closes.
Could you send the map to me so I can test?
 
Suggestion:
Please add a support to completely add/edit/delete object data by codes. For example, in world editor or HiveWE, one creates an ability by copying the existing one, edits some data items, and then adds it to a hero. If these operations can be accomplished by writing codes, this would be great.
To realize this functionality, the editor can give some commands to compile like what Grimex does in JNGP.
 
It seems you do need to restart the editor when changing themes for it to be applied.
Yes. Currently you can also press F5 to reload the style. Will fix it for 0.6

@eejin maybe you'd want to make the window of the autocomplete have a 1px border. When is GUI coming in the trigger editor? There's only code editor.
Good one, visibility is a little bad. GUI is a bit more work and most users of HiveWE will probably be power users. definitely at some point though.

@eejin can you also add function lists for autocomplete as well ? That would allow us to write more efficient code without having to check .j files.
It already suggests functions when you start typing. Do you mean autocomplete specifically for the arguments?

This doesn't work on 1.26?
No. A lot has changed since 1.26 so it would be difficult to support them both and not really worth it.
 
Yes. Currently you can also press F5 to reload the style. Will fix it for 0.6


Good one, visibility is a little bad. GUI is a bit more work and most users of HiveWE will probably be power users. definitely at some point though.


It already suggests functions when you start typing. Do you mean autocomplete specifically for the arguments?


No. A lot has changed since 1.26 so it would be difficult to support them both and not really worth it.
Yes
 
It's an amazing work, don't get me wrong, but I kind of prefer the standard WE. The only thing missing from it is JASS function list and highlighting. Other than that, the upgraded WE of 1.30+ patch has everything one could currently need from it.

Of course, maybe I am just a noob. But still, I just want to finally see TESH in 1.30 WE...
 
It's an amazing work, don't get me wrong, but I kind of prefer the standard WE. The only thing missing from it is JASS function list and highlighting. Other than that, the upgraded WE of 1.30+ patch has everything one could currently need from it.

Of course, maybe I am just a noob. But still, I just want to finally see TESH in 1.30 WE...
You are incredibly wrong
 
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