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...
I tried to run this since the new world editor messed up all my string data. When i start it, it crashes and says "unable to find file in hierarchy: filealiases.json". Before i update my graphics drivers, can someone confirm that it works with the latest patch of warcraft? Thanks in advance.
 
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@Clanzion @hexhound Patch 1.31 has changed the whole CASC structure and much more so you will have to wait for the new HiveWE version to be released if you want to use it with the latest patch.
I almost repeat the same question like the others...
upload_2019-7-30_17-12-42.png

It seems it goes as you said... CASC was changed, therefore many important files got messed/missing...

Well, let's just hope it gets working once again after some fixes
 
@LordHatchet95 CASC format, w3i and wtg file formats have all changed; the first two are simple to overcome, but wtg seems to have been changed completely. It is all being worked on, and you can use the version without wtg (trigger) support if you build it yourself from the github repo.
The CASC local storage format used by Warcraft III has not changed since it was introduced to Warcraft III. I wrote a Java CASC local storage access API to allow data retrieval from Warcraft III CASC local storage and no modifications to the code were required for it to support 1.31.

What has changed is the file structure within the CASC archive. The folders and TVFS files are named and structured differently. Any hard coded file paths may require modification to support 1.31.
 
Anyone knows how to change the path?
2xfKClr.png
I gave it wrong path, tried reinstalling, yada yada. I have no idea where to change it.
 
You can change it in the registry by going to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HiveWE\HiveWE"

Thanks a lot for the quick answer.

I have one last question. Will HiveWE support local files? As in, my map has some of its files in a folder in the WC3 Directory. They are not loaded in with HiveWE - so some doodads are missing.

Is it also possible to import custom doodads? The normal World Editor supports it afaik.
 
Last edited:
application developers I need your help, what if showing this error?
 

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application developers I need your help, what if showing this error?
Same problem as me. Go to registry as mentioned above and change the path for the tool.
Warcraft 1.31 changed some thing regarding the game data layout. HiveWE 0.6 will work again with 1.31.
Thanks a lot for the quick answer.

I have one last question. Will HiveWE support local files? As in, my map has some of its files in a folder in the WC3 Directory. They are not loaded in with HiveWE - so some doodads are missing.

Is it also possible to import custom doodads? The normal World Editor supports it afaik.
It should load local files, but I will look into it.

What exactly do you mean with importing custom doodads? If you mean exporting from one map and importing in the next then that's something I'm planning on doing in the future (but not soon).
 
Warcraft 1.31 changed some thing regarding the game data layout. HiveWE 0.6 will work again with 1.31.

It should load local files, but I will look into it.

What exactly do you mean with importing custom doodads? If you mean exporting from one map and importing in the next then that's something I'm planning on doing in the future (but not soon).

Alright, sweet.
 
It's been almost a billion years, but
HiveWE 0.6

Big stuff this time around:

Fancy Trigger Editor
More highlighting, more colors, more buttons. Now you can create new categories, (vjass) scripts and comments. It not also generates map script which allows you to do end to end scripting fully in HiveWE!
TriggerEditor.png


You can create as many tabs as you want and put them in any configuration you feel like. Big thanks to Daniel-Atanasov for submitting the improved syntax highlighter!

The rest of the changes have to do with a lot of quality of life changes and small improvements to the doodad palette which should be a bit more usable now.

Changelog
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
- Changed theme for palettes to make the design flatter

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

Download the new version at the top of the page!

And lots of thanks to BogdanW3 for relentlessly fixing bugs and adding features!

Backup your map before using HiveWE!
 
Hello, I like your tool I have problem to change the route, when you start the program it does not ask for it back I understand that it uses casclib if it is possible to put that option to change the route
 
There is a "switch folder" option if that's what you mean. After pointing to a different folder, restart HiveWE.
Also, if you are using an older version, you can use regedit to specify the folder you want the files to be loaded from (String value called "warcraftDirectory" inside of 'Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HiveWE\HiveWE')
 
For me the application just crashes for some reason. Dont know why and I am using it for the first time.

Here's the log:
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: HiveWE.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 5d98fba0
Fault Module Name: ucrtbase.DLL
Fault Module Version: 10.0.14393.2990
Fault Module Timestamp: 5caeb96f
Exception Code: 40000015
Exception Offset: 000000000006e01f
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 3c0c
Additional Information 2: 3c0c65f53e4c94731671d30577ce3c59
Additional Information 3: 51c3
Additional Information 4: 51c38ae863078804c30ce1c90385e5ac

Read our privacy statement online:
Windows 7 Privacy Statement

If the online privacy statement is not available, please read our privacy statement offline:
C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt


Untitled.png


Edit:
Windows version is 7 premium
With 64-bits.
 
Can I just say that this is actually pretty awesome?
WE Editor 1.jpg

WE Editor 2.jpg
I'm rarely checking the progress of HiveWE and every time I'm impressed!

Definitely didn't expect it to support the UI natives so soon.
I did some fast testing and everything seemed to work fine.

I could actually use this editor for jass coding :D

Suggestions:
-since Ctrl+S already exists I would also recommend the Ctrl+F9 shortcut for test map (it's a lot more convenient for me at least)
-make it able to delete triggers with Delete key, also is the delete confirmation necessary?

-when making a new trigger shouldn't this code be added by default?
JASS:
function Trig_NewTrig_Actions takes nothing returns nothing
endfunction

//===========================================================================
function InitTrig_NewTrig takes nothing returns nothing
    set gg_trg_NewTrig = CreateTrigger(  )
    call TriggerAddAction( gg_trg_NewTrig, function Trig_NewTrig_Actions )
endfunction
I'm not exactly a pro coder lol but I think it might be useful for some people? (beginners like me)


Also when I open it, this error appears but everything works fine:
Error.jpg

keep up the good work guys! :grin:
 
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So this doesn't work for older wc3 versions? I am wondering if there is a version I could download that supports below 1.29?

this was from the github
  • You are running Warcraft 1.31 or newer.
    HiveWE does not and will not support anything lower than the most current Warcraft version. If you need support for an older version then you can download an older HiveWE version.
    HiveWE version to game version mapping:
HiveWE Version Warcraft Version
0.6 1.31
0.4, 0.5 1.30
0.3 1.29
0.1, 0.2 1.28.5
 
yep, is worked, i have problems when the model collide
i can't see behind models doodads blah blah of model light
Granted, I don't know much about how hiveWE actually works, but it sounds strange to me that this is so incompatible to Reforged, considering its still based on the same engine.

But thanks for all your hard work. Can't wait to try 0.7 when its out! :)
 
Granted, I don't know much about how hiveWE actually works, but it sounds strange to me that this is so incompatible to Reforged, considering its still based on the same engine.

But thanks for all your hard work. Can't wait to try 0.7 when its out! :)

Sorry I didn't explain it clearly, i'm test on 1.31 patch :v
 
That post is no longer valid as the old library just didn't support the beta, it is the massive change in the Casc files that prevents the old version from working, but anyway:
Version 0.7 is being worked on and on a github issue I've seen a time estimate of next week
As always, the Hive community is doing the gods work. Can't wait to try it out.
 
Hello there.

Never had the privilege to test this editor. When I left wc3, the only 3rd party WE that existed was Zepir's, W3ZMap Edit, and of course it does not work properly with reforged maps, even for basic editing like terrain.

Having a standalone editor that does not depend on wc3 WE is an amazing thing. I suppose some people don't understand why, but a long time ago, Zepir's tool was the only thing that allowed you some specific changes in maps, that no customized version of WE would allow.

Anyways, I hope you guys are not giving up, Reforged editor still has many limitations, even if it is an improvement from the old WE. I would really like to be able to test a vJass version of this HiveWE that would be 100% compatible with Reforged.

Tried version 0.6, but it fails to open the Casc storage so I gave up for the moment.

This said, keep the good work, it really looks like it has immense potential.
 
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