Archian
Site Director
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2006
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sure, since you ask.I noticed some people were upset or making fun of the new patches, myself included. But I had a new idea. Can folks make fun of my Warsmash project instead? By making fun of it, we show what we wish it would or could be. If a lot of people produced content on social media making fun of how I tried to rewrite Warcraft 3, but it's a buggy and unfinished rewrite, we might motivate me to get more work done:
![]()
Warsmash Mod Engine (Alpha)
Warsmash is a mostly "clean-room engineered" rewrite of Warcraft III. A combination of LibGDX game engine, and the "mdx-m3-viewer" by Ghostwolf (used in "View in 3D" button on Hive model download section) are used to emulate the Warcraft III experience without running the actual Warcraft III...www.hiveworkshop.com
Here's a video where I make fun of using Reforged graphics on my rewrite of the game:
Whilst I understand Warsmash is your pet project, this thread is to talk about the patch/hotfixes released so I'd ask that we try and keep things on topic.I noticed some people were upset or making fun of the new patches, myself included. But I had a new idea. Can folks make fun of my Warsmash project instead? By making fun of it, we show what we wish it would or could be. If a lot of people produced content on social media making fun of how I tried to rewrite Warcraft 3, but it's a buggy and unfinished rewrite, we might motivate me to get more work done:
![]()
Warsmash Mod Engine (Alpha)
Warsmash is a mostly "clean-room engineered" rewrite of Warcraft III. A combination of LibGDX game engine, and the "mdx-m3-viewer" by Ghostwolf (used in "View in 3D" button on Hive model download section) are used to emulate the Warcraft III experience without running the actual Warcraft III...www.hiveworkshop.com
Here's a video where I make fun of using Reforged graphics on my rewrite of the game:
it's seems that... not today...But I was worried about the map editor with custom models…
I have reported it here: Settings reverting to ReforgedEdit: The annoying issue of Wc3 switching from classic graphics to Reforged after entering a custom campaign menu and then leaving is still present in 2.0. This is an issue back from 1.32+, I think.
Of course. So, I rewrote my own spinoff of the War3 game and have not been indulging much in Patch 2.0 content but I reckon the fundamentals have not changed. Because the fundamentals would have likely not changed, here's where we stand:Is there any tool to automatically update all buildings portrait model fields with the current custom model field?
Custom_V1/Units
folder), and the other updates in melee games for balance (default Units/
folder). Then, Reforged updated both of them, because it doesn't care about you, nor about respecting the original source material, because it's changing hands to different managers all the time.None
as their Art - Portrait Model File
setting, except for units whose name starts with the letter A
, in which case those units with a name starting with "A" should have the Sheep unit portrait?they should have simply set the default to nothing like for units and take the model from the model field of a unit, so nobody has to do anything and all old maps still work fine ....Of course. So, I rewrote my own spinoff of the War3 game and have not been indulging much in Patch 2.0 content but I reckon the fundamentals have not changed. Because the fundamentals would have likely not changed, here's where we stand:
If the game itself adds a new unit editor field then makes that field incorrect for the default units, your map data is stored as a "changeset" against default units. So if they change, your map appears to change. To prevent this, there are 2 copies of all standard units and stuff in War3 -- one of them is locked on Frozen Throne patch 1.07 (Custom_V1/Units
folder), and the other updates in melee games for balance (defaultUnits/
folder). Then, Reforged updated both of them, because it doesn't care about you, nor about respecting the original source material, because it's changing hands to different managers all the time.
Assuming then that both versions of the unit data updated, what you are looking at now is a case where you want to make custom content but your map's content is a changeset against incorrect standard units, who include changes you don't want.
This presents two obvious possible options: either
There was already someone on Hive who published a tool for "old maps" to do option 1 above. But personally, I would not run their EXE code unless it was Open Source and you could read how it worked. I think that after 20 years of War3 modding, the technologies that have lasted us were typically the ones that were shared for us to understand how they work, and to maintain in the face of patches. So if someone gives you a closed source technology such as an EXE, and if it does not include the code for reconstructing a modified form of that EXE on your own, then the person posting that is probably either extremely uncaring or actually wants to take advantage of you. This is my opinion, and there will be some people who disagree with it, but I am simply describing why I personally will not use the tool linked above, even though I think I already suggested it to someone to solve their problem, as something they could look at, because it looked like it was probably designed to solve their problem.
- hack in a replacement for the standard units in your custom map, wherein they all have the settings you originally intended and so a "changeset" against them is likewise how you intend
- run an automated program on your custom map to modify all units (or perhaps all necessary custom units) to have a change applied to "change" them back to what you wanted
Your other solution is option 2 from above - automation for Unit Editor. Of course, as long ago as 6 years ago I wrote my own mimic of the object editor so that I could change it in any way, similar to what I just described above, and add any feature. But when I created that, I was not doing novel creative work other than a lookalike user interface. The underlying technology for object editor automation that I used was written by PitzerMike as far back as the 2000s and was also available in Jass NewGen Pack world editor, wherein you could write a lua script in the editor and execute that script to generate any number of unit editor changes that you like, in an automatic way.
More recently, the Wurst team in their WurstScript programming language also provided users with automation for defining unit editor changes that would happen at map script compile time in that system as well. I'm sure other projects like w3x2lni would have likewise written their own "object editor changeset" file parsers, which can do automation on that format.
There are so many people who have done this! But in my opinion, the best solution is to get handy with at least one of them.
For example, here I propose a challenge - how would you automate assigning all units to haveNone
as theirArt - Portrait Model File
setting, except for units whose name starts with the letterA
, in which case those units with a name starting with "A" should have the Sheep unit portrait?
This is an idea that can be expressed in two sentences of English. With a transformer like ChatGPT, it can also be expressed in two sentences of code, translated for you. I don't use the ChatGPT for that, because I already was bilingual in this way, but I wrote a couple of lines of code on my own to do this, and I will attach an example map that the computer generated by executing the code that I typed. I think this is something, if I were making a Warcraft 3 map today, that I would very much want to have a mastery over being able to do. It really is as simple as just the two sentences, as long as you train yourself to have or build a foundation upon which to express those sentences.
Open CASC Viewer or Retera Model Studio (seen in the picture), locate "war3.w3mod/_hd.w3mod/terrainartold":Can anyone explain where exactly it is? I can't find it.
- Add Old Reforged Terrain under TerrainArtOld in the file directory for mapmakers.
Thanks!Open CASC Viewer or Retera Model Studio (seen in the picture), locate "war3.w3mod/_hd.w3mod/terrainartold":
View attachment 500009
This would be like Pete Stilwell on the 2018 stage talking about getting inspired, and how Warcraft 3 changed him, and made him who he is, and all this passionate stuff. Adding a new race requires being inspired.new official campaigns/expansions and a new race?
I think they still need to finish what the OG team didn’t. I always wondered why was there a fel orc burrow but no other fel orc buildings? Or in reforged there was just the elven barracks? If Lorecraft and the WC3 team can come up with a collaborated solution to finish some of the custom races in WC3 and also add proper tile sets/doodads for some locations in the campaign like hellfire citadel, broken isles, Mulgore, Dustwallow marsh, Tomb of Sargeras, just to name a few. Lorecraft has created the elven tech tree which looks fantastic and even added Kul Tiras as a custom faction and is lore friendly to the story. They should just purchase such things from the modders and add it to the base game. Saves time on their end and add more variety and replayability for melee maps kind of like SC2 custom sub-factions.You know what? I'm positively surprised, for once.
If they keep up with this tempo, I'd not be surprised that by the end of 2025 we will have a 3.0 which will actually be the best version available.. and maybe.. just maybe.. new official campaigns/expansions and a new race?
Edit! I have a feeling someone is reading THW and community feedback throughout. So I'll just say my wants here:
1. New campaign/expansion
2. New race, or new set of races (for multiplayer purposes/balance purposes, we could have a Classic mode (with the standard four races) and New mode (with four completely new races which come with the new expansion/campaign), thus, we get 8 total playable races, imagine the extasy of map makers.
3. If possible, create a Warcraft IV.
People have confirmed numerous bugs with 2.0.1 PTR: PTR Discussion and Bug ReportNeed to fix:
1. Laggy menu
2. Advanced Observer with cinematic mode
3. Portraits for all custom maps (cursed forever?)
4. Still a bit glitchy icons
5. Separate entirely classic hd/reforged, toggles causes bugs with textures, sounds, some visual bugs like spikes on orcish buildings etc
6. Add new options for WE, like sd/sd+/hd, some maps cant hold hd due to bugs or perma crashes.
Wew. Thank God they're making some good texture changes.
I'm also surprised with the patches on the PTR which were very often in the last 10 days.Just wanted to say that Blizzard's recent changes have ranged from totally lame to mediocre, but we're slowly reaching a point where it doesn't matter anymore. Community Edition and Re-Reforged are way further ahead than I every expected and I'm now no longer cynical about how far they'll progress. CE actually really impressed me with how good it's working so far, the fixes it needs aren't nearly as insurmountable as I once thought. And Re-Reforged is looking better with every update.
If Blizzard ever manages to fix the official client, it'll be nice, but after a long period of cynicism and anger, I'm finally starting to feel hope again, with or without them.
Didn't @Kam say that in 2019 when the Female Death Knight and Female Demon Hunter were created, that the technology to create those was run on some extremely old thing where they tried to fire up the 2002 tech stack and determined it wasn't worth it, or something?Hopefully we will get a classic models variations for the dreadlords, paladins...
They could give like $50 per model to gluma perhaps and we'll have the models' equivalents for classic clientDidn't @Kam say that in 2019 when the Female Death Knight and Female Demon Hunter were created, that the technology to create those was run on some extremely old thing where they tried to fire up the 2002 tech stack and determined it wasn't worth it, or something?
I know maybe this sounds extraordinary and silly coming from me, because my life might be the opposite of Blizzard corporate, but is it possible that in their office:
- Nobody knows how to modify MDL/MDX legacy format files, and the new Reforged ones were created with the "maya export plugin" in the CASC leaked notes which is a one way export for creating new files and not a technology for hacking old MDL/MDX files
- Corporate computer security policy prohibits the execution of a program such as Retera Model Studio on an official corporation computer, ergo all Hive Workshop model editing technology is seen as the wild west by technologists and is probably not allowed
- Existing MDL/MDX files on the Hive cannot adequately have their original author or ownership rights tracked down, and so to avoid any possible lawsuits they unilaterally cannot be included into the game
If all of these points hold true, it may be literally impossible for Brad Chan to create "classic variations of the dreadlords" as you describe, because this would require dozens and dozens of man-hours of work, getting paid $50 per hour, to even catch up to a level of understanding where the new assets could be authored.
I do not know exactly if we should blame them over there in the California headquarters for this reality, and I don't see any reason to assume this isn't reality. As such, Brad Chan and his team might be so deeply locked behind red tape that their hands are tied, just like the hands of the people who came before them.
We may simply... literally... be 22 years ahead of them. Because some of us retained focus on this game's tech stack, when a lot of society at large did not -- including the Blizzard HQ.
Ah, but you see, the Hive caused the Reforged problem and is the reason why the game was so poorly received, so interacting with any warcraft 3 creators there should be unilaterally dismissed, according to the people in power. YouTube says it's so, so how can this information be false?They could give like $50 per model to gluma perhaps
"Hiveworkshoppers are out of touch with corporate reality?" What the hell is that supposed to mean? Someone should ask him to clarify.Ah, but you see, the Hive caused the Reforged problem and is the reason why the game was so poorly received, so interacting with any warcraft 3 creators there should be unilaterally dismissed, according to the people in power. YouTube says it's so, so how can this information be false?
What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Fixed the crash on resizing of a map in the editor because of an invalid mouse terrain intersection
Also, I have no idea where they hid the "Classic HD" terrain now because my Reforged terrain is now back to pre-2.0 Reforged but the slider in the option still has only 2 options (Classic & Reforged).Seems a new version just dropped, Bnet downloaded some 1 gb stuff, wonder what they've cooked this time
Edit: there it is Warcraft III: Reforged Patch Notes - Version 2.0.1
View attachment 501701
Thank God I was afraid I was the only one who cared about the cameraI don't have screenshots but classic icons are much, much cleaner now. But I would rather the Reforged camera was kept intact.
My current theory is that an exec Blizzard saw all the AI generated assets and got angry, because the company draws the line at that, of all things. So they had to go back and take anything AI generated out, and it's possible the "Classic HD" grass was one of those assets.Also, I have no idea where they hid the "Classic HD" terrain now because my Reforged terrain is now back to pre-2.0 Reforged but the slider in the option still has only 2 options (Classic & Reforged).