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HiveWE - World Editor 0.10

HiveWE

Visit project page

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...
Ok, I tried to open the HiveWe but it didn't work. Can you explain to me what is OpenGL and what does used for? Do I really need that?
OpenGL is an API (software) that makes rendering 3D things possible. HiveWE needs a fairly new version of OpenGL for it to work. What CPU and GPU do you have?
is there gone be 32bit version?
Unfortunately not. Most hardware should support 64 bit though so you could try updating your Windows.
@eejin what will you do when Reforged gets released?
Reforged seems to be purely graphical and thus I will only need to rewrite some of the rendering code. The rest should still work.
Is there a jass compiler in this version? Because that would be neat. I've been trying to get old code working with my map.
Not in this version, but I am aiming to include one in the next version.
 
When I changed the theme to Dark. It did not change on the initial screen, but when I open new windows, this windows works correctly. And when I closed the program and reopened it, it is now working correctly. Reporting the error if someone did not.

Do you already have plans for the program's icon?
Is there somewhere to tell the script you are going to do while developing the program?
Will the program support addons?
Will it be program-only for user programmer, or will it have space for GUI users?
 
When I changed the theme to Dark. It did not change on the initial screen, but when I open new windows, this windows works correctly. And when I closed the program and reopened it, it is now working correctly. Reporting the error if someone did not.

Do you already have plans for the program's icon?
Is there somewhere to tell the script you are going to do while developing the program?
Will the program support addons?
Will it be program-only for user programmer, or will it have space for GUI users?
Thanks, the theme problem is known and has been fixed for future versions.

What do you mean with "tell the script you are going to do while developing the program"?
There will probably be some addon system in the future, but not anytime soon.
Gui support is also planned.
 
@eejin
What will be the path (steps) that the project will do? What next version will implement, etc?

GUI could be more powerful, since people could do full conversion from Jass to GUI, and the opposite.
 
It still crashes when I try to execute, what should I do?
Make sure your drivers are fully updated. Are you on Warcraft 1.30? What is the output of the console window (the black window with text)? Refer to this document.

@eejin
What will be the path (steps) that the project will do? What next version will implement, etc?

GUI could be more powerful, since people could do full conversion from Jass to GUI, and the opposite.
Loads of things, but first being able to make maps fully in HiveWE. So things like an object editor, better doodad palette, unit palette, region palette. You name them.

@eejin it would be amazing if you can make the combination [ctrl+right click] to allow you to multi-select many units manually like you can select parts of text in the text editors and the folders and files in Windows.
Improved selections is coming at some point. Maybe not per se in 0.6.

This doesn't work on Windows 7. Works fine on windows 10
I haven't tested on Windows 7, but it should work. Check that your computer supports OpenGL 4.5, that you are running Warcraft 1.30 and what does the console window say? Refer to this document.
 
Last edited:
Make sure your drivers are fully updated. Are you on Warcraft 1.31? What is the output of the console window (the black window with text)? Refer to this document.


Loads of things, but first being able to make maps fully in HiveWE. So things like an object editor, better doodad palette, unit palette, region palette. You name them.


Improved selections is coming at some point. Maybe not per se in 0.6.


I haven't tested on Windows 7, but it should work. Check that your computer supports OpenGL 4.5, that you are running Warcraft 1.31 and what does the console window say? Refer to this document.


1.30.4 :P
 
Hey. Can't get the thing to work. It just displays a console window for a second with no text on it and closes. Running Win10 x64, double checked my OpenGL and C++ redists, and everything is up to date.
 
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. The current userbase will likely consist of those who wish to draw directly to their pathing map or customize their terrain outside the standard limits of the editor.

However, I foresee that the open source nature of this tool leaves it open to continue becoming an even more powerful tool as time goes on. I was able to download a copy of the code and upgrade it so that units and items were animated in my local build, by simply adding in a bunch of animation code that I put together by reading other sources. Open source is the way of the future!

Approved!
 
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. The current userbase will likely consist of those who wish to draw directly to their pathing map or customize their terrain outside the standard limits of the editor.

However, I foresee that the open source nature of this tool leaves it open to continue becoming an even more powerful tool as time goes on. I was able to download a copy of the code and upgrade it so that units and items were animated in my local build, by simply adding in a bunch of animation code that I put together by reading other sources. Open source is the way of the future!

Approved!
Hey that's a great addition to the editor, animated units.

@eejin you should add an option to turn on/off animated units/doodads in the editor. Simple tick will do.

@eejin consider endless terrain height increase/decrease and
Coroled text generator and
Attack damage calculator and armor calculator.
 
Last edited:
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. The current userbase will likely consist of those who wish to draw directly to their pathing map or customize their terrain outside the standard limits of the editor.

However, I foresee that the open source nature of this tool leaves it open to continue becoming an even more powerful tool as time goes on. I was able to download a copy of the code and upgrade it so that units and items were animated in my local build, by simply adding in a bunch of animation code that I put together by reading other sources. Open source is the way of the future!

Approved!

Hell, It's about time
 
Doesn't work with WINE on Mac. Not switching to Windows, any other suggestions? Parallels, maybe?
Mac doesn't support OpenGL versions higher than 4.2 and will soon drop support for OpenGL as a whole thus HiveWE doesn't support MacOS.
How do I install it? I want to use it but I do not know how to install it
There is no installation. You just download the zip, unzip it and then run HiveWE.exe. What does the console window(the black window with text) output? Check this page
 
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