[Solved] Is it possible to manually edit shadowmap?

[Blood Raven]

Hey there, I have a quick question.
When you select "Calculate shadows and save map", the WE creates a shadowmap texture file and saves it (somewhere?) within the map file. My question is, is it possible to extract said file, edit it manually like you would a texture, then reimport it back?

 

[Dr Super Good]

Yes it is completely possible. With exception of the header, the file is basically a big bitmap, with 1 byte per pixel.

Extract it using MPQ edit or any other MPQ API as Warcraft III map archives are MPQ. It is the .shd file. If one opens it with notepad one can vaguely see the structure. I would advise writing a program to manipulate it since it is technically a binary file that just happens to make sense as text.

 

[Blood Raven]

Yes it is completely possible. With exception of the header, the file is basically a big bitmap, with 1 byte per pixel.

Extract it using MPQ edit or any other MPQ API as Warcraft III map archives are MPQ. It is the .shd file. If one opens it with notepad one can vaguely see the structure. I would advise writing a program to manipulate it since it is technically a binary file that just happens to make sense as text.

Okay, got as far as extrating it. Any suggestions what kind of program I could edit it with besides (painstakingly) editing it with notepad? I don't have any programming knowledge whatsoever, so writing one is out of the question

 

[TriggerHappy]

There's no tool available that converts a shadow map to an image or vice versa. However there is a tool which can generate shadowmaps for you, and it has some configuration options for generating shadows so maybe that will help you.

Shadowmap Calculator (Made by Oger-Lord)

Otherwise you will have to learn the format and create a program to automate what you need because it's probably too difficult to do manually.

 

[Blood Raven]

ShadowCalculator will automaticly ignore and exclude alpha tile shadows in calculation; if you want alpha tiles to draw a shadow, replace them with a different tile temporarily, then switch back after calculation

Okay, seems like this thing has what I needed, thanks a lot :3
Still, a program that can convert shadowmaps to images and back could be useful to a few people.