WoW-Converter: export all WoW models to Warcraft 3

[Rommel]

Hello!

I noticed that some models just fail to export online from NPC link, like sheep or classic goblins, like:

Rix Xizzix

Rix Xizzix is a level 45 NPC that can be found in Stranglethorn Vale. This NPC can be found in Stranglethorn Vale. In the NPCs category. Always up to date.

www.wowhead.com

Sheep

Sheep is a level 3 NPC that can be found in Uldum, Gilneas, Howling Fjord and 3 additional zones. This NPC can be found in Elwynn Forest, Redridge Mountains, Howling Fjord, Gilneas, Gilneas City, and Uldum.

www.wowhead.com

They give an error: Model export failed for all files

Any idea what might that be? Thank you again.

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

Unfortunately this video is no longer availabe, at least, not in my country (Brazil).

Also, the option to open Local Files is not available for me in the website, I can only find two options: "Wowhead URL" and "Display ID". Those two optios should be enough for me, but I'd also like to tweak the creatures' appearance, change colors and etc., like it's possible for some creatures inside Wow Exporter. Maybe I'd also like to export characters, therefore, I kind of need the "Local " Option.

Other than that, I can't stress enough how long I waited for someone to come up with a marvel like that! I've been doing this for years needing half a dozen programs and going through way too many steps. It may be doable for a few rips, but terrible for as many as I'd like to. I'm extremely grateful for this solution!

The Local input is only available when you run wow-converter locally (not on the website version). You will need to open wow.export, find the model, select the right skin color, then export as OBJ there first. Then press Ctrl + C, it will copy the mode's local path, e.g. "creature/northrendghoul2spiked/northrendghoul2spiked.m2[1579537]". Paste that to wow-converter's input then it will show you all exported skins for you to choose (note: unexported skins won't show):

Spoiler: Screenshots

@NotACat @Purplehorror In today's new version, I added BLP mipmap to textures. Unfortunately I don't have pre-Reforged WC3 so cannot test myself if your issue is fixed. Please try the new version and let me know if it works for you at least on 1.30/1.31. About WE 1.27, it's too old so I won't be able to invest time to debug. But if you can investigate by e.g. gradually remove stuffs from MDL files, and tell me the exact root cause then I can fix the tool.

Also in this update, SD 800 models will no longer have all materials auto-marked as Unshaded. Previously it was specifically applied only to SD models (HD 1000 models were correct). This was a requested feature but arguably also a bug, so now I remove it. This should fix your shading issue @RatzRatzzz @NotACat

@Rommel your first link Rix Xizzix is a classic-only model, you need to use WoW Classic 1.15 to get it (not MOP classic nor retail). About the sheep, I can export it fine on retail (link: Huy's wow-converter, though its color is a bit off), so not sure what's wrong on your side.

Spoiler: Screenshots

Summary of this update:

• Add texture mipmap.
• SD 800 models no longer have all materials auto-marked as Unshaded.
• Fix the auto-generated camera in WMO models causing issue in Reteras Model Studio.

 

[Kasu1338]

I'm having some issues exporting my character and her nightsaber. Every export loads... but it shows just the saber. When I load it into Retera, it gives me two separate files with the mounted character, and then the saber.

It is entirely possible the program is behaving as it should, and I'm just confused as to what I'm supposed to do with the results to get them imported to WIII correctly. This is my first time messing around with porting and the WE so any help would be appreciated!

Dressing room link for character: https://www.wowhead.com/dressing-room#fm8zq0zJ89c8X8ri8W8Mj08Y8rt8Z8zmq8bn8MIi8bx8MIU8bl8MNY8bF8MAq858ft8bU8MLk8qP8MfI818fR8bW8ML58zYA8dAX8bh8MuD8bb8Muh8bw8Mut8br8MuL8Mtc80848fL8oy8wTL838wTv8ft8M0V8fH8M5C8wh8mEs8wn8mlV8wC8mBz8fZ8M4q8Meb8wxk8MeG8wxY8Med8wxf8Mew8wxt8Mei8wxB8Meh8wxF8Meu8wxQ8MeI8wx48Mer8wxi8MeN8wtm8Mef8wxj87NV0r8MDD87mRul87qwZF87d

Dressing room link for mount: https://www.wowhead.com/item=166803/umber-nightsaber

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

I'm having some issues exporting my character and her nightsaber. Every export loads... but it shows just the saber. When I load it into Retera, it gives me two separate files with the mounted character, and then the saber.

It is entirely possible the program is behaving as it should, and I'm just confused as to what I'm supposed to do with the results to get them imported to WIII correctly. This is my first time messing around with porting and the WE so any help would be appreciated!

Dressing room link for character: https://www.wowhead.com/dressing-room#fm8zq0zJ89c8X8ri8W8Mj08Y8rt8Z8zmq8bn8MIi8bx8MIU8bl8MNY8bF8MAq858ft8bU8MLk8qP8MfI818fR8bW8ML58zYA8dAX8bh8MuD8bb8Muh8bw8Mut8br8MuL8Mtc80848fL8oy8wTL838wTv8ft8M0V8fH8M5C8wh8mEs8wn8mlV8wC8mBz8fZ8M4q8Meb8wxk8MeG8wxY8Med8wxf8Mew8wxt8Mei8wxB8Meh8wxF8Meu8wxQ8MeI8wx48Mer8wxi8MeN8wtm8Mef8wxj87NV0r8MDD87mRul87qwZF87d

Dressing room link for mount: https://www.wowhead.com/item=166803/umber-nightsaber

View attachment 564996

It is working as expected, you just need to import both files into WE, set the unit to the mount model. How it works internally is that the rider is an attachment model on top the the main mount.

 

[Rommel]

Thank you!

 

[Billyboy]

Great tool!

i just wanted to ask why it doesnt import some animations in my case for example its from sha boss animations named ReadyUnarmed and AttackUnarmed

 

[RatzRatzzz]

Great tool!

i just wanted to ask why it doesnt import some animations in my case for example its from sha boss animations named ReadyUnarmed and AttackUnarmed

If I understand you correctly, you mean exporting all animations for the model, right? If so, you need to check the box next to «keep cinematic animations» and then all the model's animations should be saved

 

[Billyboy]

If I understand you correctly, you mean exporting all animations for the model, right? If so, you need to check the box next to «keep cinematic animations» and then all the model's animations should be saved

I did but the 2 animations mentioned do not get saved with the model

 

[Rommel]

Web version seems to be down, what can that be? It either flat out gives various errors or times-out on any and all exports.

 

[Greenbeam]

I am getting this error message: "ENOSPC: no space left on device, write" when trying to view models on wow.quangdel.com. Any solutions?

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

@Rommel @Greenbeam Fixed now, the server's disk was full again. This will happen from time to time until I add automated weekly cleanup.

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

Great tool!

i just wanted to ask why it doesnt import some animations in my case for example its from sha boss animations named ReadyUnarmed and AttackUnarmed

I see the Sha of Anger boss has animations "Stand Ready" and "Attack" which were essentially renamed from "ReadyUnarmed" and "AttackUnarmed" for WC3.

Model Viewer | Huy's wow-converter

Easily export WoW NPC models into Warcraft 3 MDL/MDX

wow.quangdel.com

You might be using an older version of the app if your local export doesn't have these anims.

 

[Billyboy]

I see the Sha of Anger boss has animations "Stand Ready" and "Attack" which were essentially renamed from "ReadyUnarmed" and "AttackUnarmed" for WC3.

Model Viewer | Huy's wow-converter

Easily export WoW NPC models into Warcraft 3 MDL/MDX

wow.quangdel.com

You might be using an older version of the app if your local export doesn't have these anims.

Im using the new version i also tried using wowhead url but it doesnt make any difference.

I see the Sha of Anger boss has animations "Stand Ready" and "Attack" which were essentially renamed from "ReadyUnarmed" and "AttackUnarmed" for WC3.

Model Viewer | Huy's wow-converter

Easily export WoW NPC models into Warcraft 3 MDL/MDX

wow.quangdel.com

You might be using an older version of the app if your local export doesn't have these anims.

Okay Display Id did work now i got it not sure what the problem was with the other methods.

 

[albumzero]

Some models become very bright after export, I hope it can be fixed

 

[skywalker97]

Man, what a fantastic tool! I now can rip models by myself. Looking forward for the animated mounted model feature.

 

[Shadi]

Great Tool! and simplified.

However, I have a problem, if I cannot get the Model's ID from WoW export or wowhead but I know the model itself, I could've chosen the .obj option, but it always keep saying "Local file not found".

could use some help.


p.s is there a way to let the textures be in .dds format instead of blp?

modern WC3R uses .dds files for HDRI.

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

View attachment 573873View attachment 573871Some models become very bright after export, I hope it can be fixed

Yeah this is due to the heuristics for converting more advanced wow materials to wc3 less advanced one. In some rare case, it will be incorrect, and you will need to open and edit the material yourself. Making it works well 100% of the time is infeasible at the moment.

Great Tool! and simplified.

However, I have a problem, if I cannot get the Model's ID from WoW export or wowhead but I know the model itself, I could've chosen the .obj option, but it always keep saying "Local file not found".

could use some help.


p.s is there a way to let the textures be in .dds format instead of blp?

modern WC3R uses .dds files for HDRI.

You can use the Browse tab to search. Also if you see "Local file not found", still try to click export and see if the tool can guess and automatically pull the model from wow.export with your input.

 

[Shadi]

Yeah this is due to the heuristics for converting more advanced wow materials to wc3 less advanced one. In some rare case, it will be incorrect, and you will need to open and edit the material yourself. Making it works well 100% of the time is infeasible at the moment.


You can use the Browse tab to search. Also if you see "Local file not found", still try to click export and see if the tool can guess and automatically pull the model from wow.export with your input.

I'm afraid I didn't quite get the workflow.


also what about my texture format comment?

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

I'm afraid I didn't quite get the workflow.


also what about my texture format comment?

So if you have the model obj path but doesn't have the ID, you can still use the browse page to search, e.g. searching for all models with "arthas" http://localhost:3000/browse?s=arthas then you can find the model ID, or just directly download from the page. Note that this is model ID, not the Display ID.

If you want to export given some .obj path, go to wow.export, search for it, and export it there first, then copy the path to wow-converter to export.

I can add DDS in the next major release.

 

[Dnister]

I found a bug when converting the Mayla Highmountain model where her head looks normal in WoW, but when converted in WoW Converter, the shoulder pad is out of place.

 

[Purplehorror]

Excuse me, but is it possible to extract buildings like Xenodar or Exodar in this program?

 

[Power]

Excuse me, but is it possible to extract buildings like Xenodar or Exodar in this program?

Yes, they are under wmo. But consider that they are huge buildings, they might need editing to fit the map

 

[Sleepless]

When i launch i get Cannot connect to wow.export at http://127.0.0.1:17752. Is it running?

Any help?

edit: the online version gives me Job Timeout after few minutes of Exporting loading

 

[Uraman]

Hello, the tool is great! It helps us all immensely.

The online version has been giving us the "Model export failed for all files" message for 2 days.

 

[Maximal]

Yeah, can you please look into the web version, It was very helpful to my project

 

[KitsuneTailsPrower]

I tried offline version and it fails with this error edit: The lich king NPC still works

 

[Shadi]

unfortunately it still gives "job time out" for any conversion attempt.

 

[Power]

Are you planning on updating this tool further? Like midnight haranir support and support for the latest wow exporter?

 

[Smooapalooza]

Yesterday I was able to use the WoW Converter to export models from WoWHead URLs, now however I'm getting the following error when trying to extract a model from any model source (WoWHead URL, OBJ, etc) using the Standalone Local Installed Version of this converter;

When I try to access the online site, I get this error;

 

[skywalker97]

Yesterday I was able to use the WoW Converter to export models from WoWHead URLs, now however I'm getting the following error when trying to extract a model from any model source (WoWHead URL, OBJ, etc) using the Standalone Local Installed Version of this converter;

View attachment 580274


When I try to access the online site, I get this error;
View attachment 580275

I have the same problem too. I'm unable to export models from WoWHead URLs, i can do it fine for like 3 days ago

 

[Shadi]

so...given this website being still down, are there plans to...address this?

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

Hi folks, long time no see. I have fixed the online version, it is now working again. Also uploaded a new version of the tool that fixes some problems caused by new wowhead changes. If you see any other critical issues, please report details.

Are you planning on updating this tool further? Like midnight haranir support and support for the latest wow exporter?

Great questions. Right now, I don’t have capacity for Midnight Haranir or a full catch-up with official wow.export (it's a big task since the official wow.export had received a huge codebase rewrite). The project has grew far beyond my original vision when it started; back then it was targeting only WotLK models. That said, I’m not abandoning the project, I’ll keep an eye on issues and PRs, and ship critical bug fixes when I can. Meanwhile, the codebase is open under MIT license; if anyone would like to contribute new features, I’ll do my best to support that.

 

[Power]

Hes back finally!


Thaaank you!

 

[Atlassian]

Hello! I have a question: Why it won't port Emote Talk animations for models ? I tried different creature/character and they always miss the Talk animation.

Emote Talk animation is useful as it translates to Portrait Talk in Warcraft 3

(Yes, I did select to keep cinematic animations)

 

[SoyMante]

Hi folks, long time no see. I have fixed the online version, it is now working again. Also uploaded a new version of the tool that fixes some problems caused by new wowhead changes. If you see any other critical issues, please report details.


Great questions. Right now, I don’t have capacity for Midnight Haranir or a full catch-up with official wow.export (it's a big task since the official wow.export had received a huge codebase rewrite). The project has grew far beyond my original vision when it started; back then it was targeting only WotLK models. That said, I’m not abandoning the project, I’ll keep an eye on issues and PRs, and ship critical bug fixes when I can. Meanwhile, the codebase is open under MIT license; if anyone would like to contribute new features, I’ll do my best to support that.

Happy to see you back! Take your time, this tool is really good!

 

[IronBladeClan]

I have 3 questions

I’ve put together a quick video walkthrough:

Is there an updated video tutorial? I'm a complete modeling noob, and like someone else said, this video is unavailable now

Now the tool is able to export all animations that were previously missing.

Does this mean the tool will export takeoff and landing animations for mounts that can walk and fly, like dragons?

I'm asking because I'm trying to make a unit that has both a flying version and ground version that it transitions (morphs) between. I guess unless the mount has attack and spell animations for some reason, that I'd still have to figure out how to add those (again, I have no experience with modeling), but if your tool can get the flying/walking/transition animations at least, that would be an incredible start for me!

Preserves fidelity when export highly complex WoW models to WC3's SD 800 legacy format

So, just confirming, this works to make models that are compatible with wc3 classic??

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

Hello! I have a question: Why it won't port Emote Talk animations for models ? I tried different creature/character and they always miss the Talk animation.

Emote Talk animation is useful as it translates to Portrait Talk in Warcraft 3

(Yes, I did select to keep cinematic animations)

Those Emote Talk animations are renamed to "Portrait Talk", e.g Huy's wow-converter. If you find it's missing in some model that should have, please share more details.

Does this mean the tool will export takeoff and landing animations for mounts that can walk and fly, like dragons?

I'm asking because I'm trying to make a unit that has both a flying version and ground version that it transitions (morphs) between. I guess unless the mount has attack and spell animations for some reason, that I'd still have to figure out how to add those (again, I have no experience with modeling), but if your tool can get the flying/walking/transition animations at least, that would be an incredible start for me!

Yes it can. There is a "Add Mount" button that allows you to combine a mount model with a character model. The landing/take off animations will automatically converted to Morph and Morph Alternate. For example: Huy's wow-converter

Or if you want to just get those animations yourself, then export just the mount model and the fly animations will be Morph and Morph Alternate. E.g. Huy's wow-converter

So, just confirming, this works to make models that are compatible with wc3 classic??

Yes it should, on best effort. Might not work with very old version of WC3 but it should work for Retail's Classic.

 

[IronBladeClan]

I have 2 more questions:

1. Is there a way to get something like Goblin Rocket Pack attached to a humanoid model? It's not a mount, right...? When I try to export with it as a mount, I get an error "Found no model found for item 9182" and when I try attaching it as a regular item to the character's back, I get an error like "Cannot extract displayId from wowhead url"

I feel like there ought to exist takeoff/land morph animations for any model that's able to equip this, right? I don't know whether attacks/spells are possible to use while this is attached in WoW (b/c I don't think I've ever played with it in WoW to check haha), but if there's something like this that I can extract from the game, I'd be interested in using it for my dual ground/flying wc3 unit idea.

2. Also, is there a way to export the attack animations from the base unit (the rider) in addition to the mount ones? When I try combining the below two models, the only attack animations the export has are from the mount. That's good enough for my purposes (I'm trying not to be picky), but I'd prefer if there were animations from the character that is riding (the orc in this case). If I export models without mounts added, they seem to have some kind of joust animations (e.g., "MountAttackJoust1"), so I'd like to still include those in the export when there's a mount (not sure if their availability depends on the mount)

Reins of the Purple Netherwing Drake

A mount collection item. It is a quest reward and sold by NPCs. In the Mount Items category. Added in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

www.wowhead.com

Orc Guard

The location of this NPC is unknown. In the NPCs category. Added in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Always up to date with the latest patch.

www.wowhead.com

 

[Atlassian]

@Warcraft Sandbox

the model's name is satyr2, but it's not the only one

 

[IronBladeClan]

I have 2 more questions:

1. Is there a way to get something like Goblin Rocket Pack attached to a humanoid model? It's not a mount, right...? When I try to export with it as a mount, I get an error "Found no model found for item 9182" and when I try attaching it as a regular item to the character's back, I get an error like "Cannot extract displayId from wowhead url"

I feel like there ought to exist takeoff/land morph animations for any model that's able to equip this, right? I don't know whether attacks/spells are possible to use while this is attached in WoW (b/c I don't think I've ever played with it in WoW to check haha), but if there's something like this that I can extract from the game, I'd be interested in using it for my dual ground/flying wc3 unit idea.

2. Also, is there a way to export the attack animations from the base unit (the rider) in addition to the mount ones? When I try combining the below two models, the only attack animations the export has are from the mount. That's good enough for my purposes (I'm trying not to be picky), but I'd prefer if there were animations from the character that is riding (the orc in this case). If I export models without mounts added, they seem to have some kind of joust animations (e.g., "MountAttackJoust1"), so I'd like to still include those in the export when there's a mount (not sure if their availability depends on the mount)

Reins of the Purple Netherwing Drake

A mount collection item. It is a quest reward and sold by NPCs. In the Mount Items category. Added in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade.

www.wowhead.com

Orc Guard

The location of this NPC is unknown. In the NPCs category. Added in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Always up to date with the latest patch.

www.wowhead.com

Also, could you add a way to retry failed exports? It usually seems to happen as a fluke like a timeout, but once it does it seems to cache that result and it doesn't seem possible to retry unless I change some aspect of what I'm exporting.

(I still hope you will be able to add the MountAttackJoust1 animation to mounted models, and look into attaching things like rocket packs!)

 

[FeelsGoodMan]

Seems like the hosted version is down. Connection times out when going to wow.quangdel.com.

 

[KitsuneTailsPrower]

Seems like the hosted version is down. Connection times out when going to wow.quangdel.com.

If you download it does it still work? edit: I checked and it doesn't ) :
It says "job timeout" if you run locally but the files are still generated.

 

[IronBladeClan]

Ah, dang, the website was working before, even after this post (I checked and considered commenting, but assumed anyone who cared would check themselves and see that it was working, so I didn't say anything). Right now it's giving a 502 Bad Gateway. Maybe it's only up sometimes. Will check back later.

Guess I'll try the local version for now.

 

[Power]

Ah, dang, the website was working before, even after this post (I checked and considered commenting, but assumed anyone who cared would check themselves and see that it was working, so I didn't say anything). Right now it's giving a 502 Bad Gateway. Maybe it's only up sometimes. Will check back later.

Guess I'll try the local version for now.

The website is very slow, why don't you use the local version that he has? its so quick and reliable!

 

[Rommel]

It appears that website's down, which makes me wonder. How do you set up a local version anymore?

Previously we used WoW Export, but since it got upgraded to version 2.0, I can't find a way to launch it with the Converter anymore.

Alternatively, is there a way to load a local M2 file (not out of the game repository) in the offline converter?

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

The website is up again. To run the local version, simply download the zip file in this Hive post and run both wow-converter.exe and wow.export.exe. The file wow.export is not 2.0 version, and I don't plan to upgrade it because the official 2.0 wow.export is a major codebase rewrite.

 

[Rommel]

The website is up again. To run the local version, simply download the zip file in this Hive post and run both wow-converter.exe and wow.export.exe. The file wow.export is not 2.0 version, and I don't plan to upgrade it because the official 2.0 wow.export is a major codebase rewrite.

Thanks it worked... Never realised you include your own build of WoWExport.

Thank you again.

 

[IronBladeClan]

Is there any way to export spell animation models? Like, e.g., Holy Fire

 

[Warcraft Sandbox]

Thanks it worked... Never realised you include your own build of WoWExport.

Thank you again.

Yeah local version will only work with my custom wow.export build

Is there any way to export spell animation models? Like, e.g., Holy Fire

You can try to search by model names, e.g. Huy's wow-converter
But the internal model names might be different than the in-game ability name, so try different phrases e.g. "fire", "holy"...

 

[Aardwolf]

Hello, I've got the following questions:
1. Is it possible to attach any armor item to a model? I tried to export a model with the chest attachment. Tried few item models, but each time I got the "no model found for item [number]" error.
2. Can I export just the weapon/armor piece? I seem to be missing the option like this.

What I basically aim to do is import a specific model into WC3 engine and then add (replace) armor by attaching a model, so it would change the look.
Not sure if this will work, or if it only works for weapons.