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...
Hm.

I downloaded it to my flash drive, unpacked it, and clicked the .exe; didn't work (command prompt opened, beeped a while, then a "this isn't working" error message. Readme indicated there would be a point at which it asked me to point to the MPQs but nothing like that happened.

Tried again after copy/pasting the MPQs into the folder with the .exe, still doesn't work.

Windows 7: 64bit.
 
Unfortunately does not work for me, I click on the HiveWe, and the command prompt opens up, but then it closes, and nothing happens after that.
same as he.
Hm.

I downloaded it to my flash drive, unpacked it, and clicked the .exe; didn't work (command prompt opened, beeped a while, then a "this isn't working" error message. Readme indicated there would be a point at which it asked me to point to the MPQs but nothing like that happened.

Tried again after copy/pasting the MPQs into the folder with the .exe, still doesn't work.

Windows 7: 64bit.
Does the console (black window) output anything? What CPU/GPU do you have? Does your computer support OpenGL 4.5?
 
1) Completely Empty

2) CPU is View attachment 300393
GPU is Intel(R) HD Graphics

3) Any way to find out? dixdiag doesn't provide the info, I believe.
Unfortunately your GPU doesn't support OpenGL 4.5 which HiveWE requires.
My GPU don't support OpenGL 4.5. (Only 4.4), any chance to get this to run with earlier versions of OpenGL?
There is an older OpenGL 3.3 branch which was created by Karaulov. He stopped developing at a certain point because how I implemented terrain rendering meant it was not possible to backport easily. I have since changed the terrain rendering so with some work one could get HiveWE to run for OpenGL 3.3 again, but I don't intend to spent much time on this. If you would like to do an OpenGL 3.3 then I suggest starting from the newest main branch instead of continuing the old 3.3 branch. Hit me up on discord if you need some guidance in the conversion.
 
Out of curiosity, how would terrain made with this work if I opened the map in the standard world editor?

EDIT:
I had time to try it out. It appears opening a map edited with this tool doesn't save the pathing, but DOES allow you to bypass the tile limits in the standard editor.
 
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Out of curiosity, how would terrain made with this work if I opened the map in the standard world editor?

EDIT:
I had time to try it out. It appears opening a map edited with this tool doesn't save the pathing, but DOES allow you to bypass the tile limits in the standard editor.

Yes, World Editor automatically rewrites pathing data when saving your map, thus it's better to edit pathing with Hive World Editor after you've finished editing or working on it via normal editor. eejin mentioned that he'll eventually port all functionalities of normal editor to HiveWE.
 
EDIT: @eejin does use (modified) versions of these icons, disregard.
Regardless, this looks great! I'm looking forward to the editor not freezing with every edit to a player or unit's data

The unused World Editor icons from war3.mpq\ReplaceableTextures\WorldEditUI for the lazily inclined:
we_strip4-png.303492
 

Attachments

  • we_strip4.png
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For some reason when I try to open my map, the editor crashes. But when I try to open a new map, freshly created it works perfectly fine, any ideas why is that?
 
@Julius Are you using this third-party editor for all your stuff? Did you swap editors? I'd be careful if the prior and make a back-up file, since this editor is not fully functional yet.
Nope on the contrary I rarely use something else than the vanilla editor, maybe another colorizing and line synching program but that's all. I just wanted to add extra tiles, but no need anymore, just upgraded to patch 1.30 which adds an option to add up to 16 tiles. And yes always save a back-up file, thanks for replying :)
 
It took a while again, but here is 0.4!
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

I also attached some new screenshots to the main post, but here is a screenshot of the trigger viewer
upload_2018-10-17_0-5-44.png
 
is it worth to update wc3 to 1.3x and use this editor or should i stick to my 1.29 version with the older working editors? are there some main features missing that would still require me to use the older ones?
Right now HiveWE is a more specialized world editor that has some features that the normal WE doesn't, but it is also missing features that the WE does have. Unless you have a specific need that fits in the existing features I would recommend to keep using the normal WE. At some point HiveWE will be a complete replacement though.
 
Right now HiveWE is a more specialized world editor that has some features that the normal WE doesn't, but it is also missing features that the WE does have. Unless you have a specific need that fits in the existing features I would recommend to keep using the normal WE. At some point HiveWE will be a complete replacement though.

+1 keep working hard though eejin, your editor will definitely be the new jass new gen pack once it's finished.
 
Right now HiveWE is a more specialized world editor that has some features that the normal WE doesn't, but it is also missing features that the WE does have. Unless you have a specific need that fits in the existing features I would recommend to keep using the normal WE. At some point HiveWE will be a complete replacement though.

ah okay, then ill just stick to my 1.29 version with working older editors for now, thank you for your reply :D
 
Loading CASC data from: ""
Error opening "Data" with error:2
Unable to find file in hierarchy: "filealiases.json"
 
Unfortunate side effect of Casclib at the moment is that you have to close the World Editor and Warcraft if you want to sue HiveWE. I will update the main post with some more info.
I didn't open the world editor and Warcraft.
 
It is a revolution of world editor. Great work!

Suggestion:
1. a meaningful feature for HiveWE could be the support to custom plugins.
2. ability to custom the GUIs of the trigger editor.
3. quick editing of map data like GMSI.
4. quick terrain generation like terrain tool.
 
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