Object Editor showing too much data?

[Soul Reaver]

This is a bit of an odd thing I've noticed in my Object Editor...

The Object Editor in Warcraft 3 (specifically, the Ability editor) is showing me FAR more data fields for abilities than it needs to - for every single ability, it has a ton of fields that I will never ever need to use, and that make it very hard to find the fields relevant to that specific ability.

I remember that when I first installed the World Editor, it only showed relevant fields (eg, Evasion would only show chance to evade, levels, etc), but for some reason that's no longer the case.

Can someone advise how to get back my 'original' view of the Object Editor so I dont' have to trawl through hundreds of fields just to find something like the chance to evade?

EDIT: To clarify a bit further: only my custom abilities seem to be affected, and it's basically that it's displaying a ton of 'Data' fields - even those not relevant to the ability I'm looking at.

 

[WaterKnight]

Have you any extensions like UMSWE? Sounds like the AbilityMetaData.slk has been modified.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Have you any extensions like UMSWE? Sounds like the AbilityMetaData.slk has been modified.

Nope, I'm not using any extensions...

I took two screenshots to show what I mean:

Screenshot 1: What the Object Editor is SUPPOSED to look like. Here are the data fields for the non-custom 'Dispel Magic' spell (showing the Damage to Summoned Units field highlighted)
http://i.imgur.com/tirFU.jpg

Screenshot 2: Whan all my custom abilities now look like. Same field highlighted as before, but there's a ton of other (useless) fields showing.
http://i.imgur.com/VzxS9.jpg

I'm pretty sure this is a problem in the World Editor's saved/cached settings for how to view my map, rather than a problem with the map itself. The reason I think this is because I have the World Editor installed on a laptop and on my desktop. It started doing this on my laptop quite some time ago, but if I copy/pasted my maps to my desktop, they displayed just fine, and I was able to edit/change things without issues...... until now, that is.

Nonetheless, not all maps are affected - only the ones I'm currently working on. Older ones I've made, or any new ones I create, seem to be fine too.

 

[WaterKnight]

Is it map-specific? Can you upload an example?

 

[Soul Reaver]

Is it map-specific? Can you upload an example?

Sorry, I think I was editing my post as you were answering...

Sort of map specific. But when I copied the non-working map to a different computer running Warcraft 3, there weren't any issues (at least, not for many weeks).

EDIT: Found out this seems to have happened to some other people too... see here:
http://www.thehelper.net/threads/unique-object-editor-bug.107273/
and
http://www.thehelper.net/threads/really-weird-object-editor-bug.31760/

They suggest exporting and importing my data, but I had no luck with that. I tried exporting, then importing (in one go)... error remained. Maybe I need to save/reopen? Trying that now.

EDIT 2: Nope, problem remains. Note that this IS a map in a campaign archive (just like in the cases detailed above)

 

[Soul Reaver]

Ok, some further testing done. Some interesting results:

1. Exporting one of the maps from the campaign archive and then opening it causes no issues.

2. Importing the map back into the campaign archive and opening it (from the campaign editor) does have issues.

3. Creating a new map has no issues

4. Importing this new map into a newly created campaign has issues.

So I'm guessing this is a problem with how my Warcraft III is handling Campaign editing. I haven't found a way of fixing it yet (short of exporting the individual maps and working with them from there, but that's pretty hard to when they share some resources from the campaign archive).

The issues is new in the sense that it wasn't happening on this computer before, but suddenly started (for no apparent reason) earlier today.

I may need to try reinstalling Warcraft III.... not looking forward to that, I can tell you.

EDIT: Damn! Even a full reinstall didn't fix the problem! I can create a new map (and check it, everything looks fine), create a new campaign archive, then import the map into the campaign archive, then try to edit the map... and the issue's still there!

 

[WaterKnight]

Can you upload the campaign then? There is a map-specific and a campaign-specific object editor btw.

 

[defskull]

campaign-specific object editor btw.

I've faced this before, this could be the problem for your case I think.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Can you upload the campaign then? There is a map-specific and a campaign-specific object editor btw.

I noticed this problem not with the Object Editor that appears when you click the 'Custom Data' tab in the Campaign Editor - rather, it's the Object Editor that you get when you open one of the maps in the Campaign archive itself. Does that open some sort of Campaign-specific object editor too?

In any case, I can't upload the campaign where I first noticed this, because it's almost 90 Mb in size and the only version on Hiveworkshop of it is 'optimized' and thus a pain to open. But since it happens with every single campaign that I create, I've created a (tiny) one and attached it below - I've confirmed that I get the same issue with this one.

Assuming you're able to recreate the problem, do the following:

1) Open the World Editor
2) Open the Campaign Editor
3) Open TestCampaign.w3n
4) Click on the map called Test
5) In the Campaign Editor, click the Edit Map button (ctrl+M). The map will open.
6) Open the Object Editor.
7) Click the Ability tab. There's one custom ability there (Test). If you view the values, it should have a ton of 'junk' fields. If you view any non-custom ability though, they look normal.

If you export the test map out of the campaign though, open it, and view the custom ability in the Object Editor, it looks normal.

 

[WaterKnight]

I can reconstruct the problem and yes, it is editor-sided and even in normal editor. Maybe was introduced via a patch because it was not known to me earlier. Then there would not be much you could do without modifying the editor, only deactivating all data fields from View menu item when you do not need them or editing the map outside of the campaign or using the campaign object editor. It is just a false display and does not save anything more than needed if you do not set the extraneous fields.

 

[Soul Reaver]

I can reconstruct the problem and yes, it is editor-sided and even in normal editor. Maybe was introduced via a patch because it was not known to me earlier. Then there would not be much you could do without modifying the editor, only deactivating all data fields from View menu item when you do not need them or editing the map outside of the campaign or using the campaign object editor. It is just a false display and does not save anything more than needed if you do not set the extraneous fields.

I thought it might be patch-related too, but I also tried doing a re-install of Warcraft III and TFT, then not patching it and trying it out, but it still did this even with no patches.

Very annoying - looks like I'll need to do all my Ability editing via exported files rather than within the Campaign file itself.

 

[darwin]

I noticed the same thing with my campaign when I tried making a new ability in the object editor for a map embedded in my campaign. I've also noticed 2 or 3 times values reverting to their campaign settings rather than map-specific settings, for example:

1. I took my cannon tower in the object editor and made it use both attacks, while that same tower in the campaign editor uses only attack 1. When I run the map, the tower only uses attack 1, and when I save, close, and reopen the campaign and map the cannon tower has been switched to only use attack 1 in my object editor.

2. I have an ability whose icon is positioned at X:1, Y:0 in the campaign editor. In the object editor for this map, I made it X:0, Y:1. When I save, reopen, or run the map the ability appears in: X:1, Y:1 for the unit. When I reopen the map, sure enough, the object editor for the X field has been reset. Oddly, the Y field remains modified.

I had this happen years ago for an upgrade, so I just switched the upgrade I was using and it worked okay.

 

[RedLord]

So, did you fix it? or not ?

I solved this case.

 

[Soul Reaver]

Not exactly, just a workaround.

The only fix I can see is not to open the maps through a campaign archive - if I export them and work on them individually it works just fine, so that's what I've been doing. It's a bit of a pain because I have to re-import to test things properly (since there are also shared campaign resources) but them's the breaks.

If you've found a solution, why not share it?