Aqua IV 0.11
Documentation Editor Engine API

Getting started

Aqua IV (spoken "Aqua Vier", formerly Omicron W4) is two programs. The editor makes maps: terrain, units and buildings, imported models, players and the map's Go script. The engine plays them, from the editor's Play button or on its own. This section takes you from the download to a map you made yourself, with its own rules. It takes about an hour.

The editor with a map open: the 3D view in the middle, the module panel on the right, History and Activity floating.
The editor with a map open

What you need

  • Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. The Mac build is not published yet.
  • A graphics card that is not ancient. Aqua IV animates units on the GPU and draws shadows in real time. A recent integrated GPU should manage with the quality set to Low.
  • Go, only if you want to script a map. The editor tells you where to get it; see your first script.
  • Models to use. Aqua IV plays Warcraft III models, and if you own the game the editor imports from it with one click. Nothing of the game ships with Aqua IV.

Install

  1. Download Editor + engine from the downloads. The zip holds w4-editor.exe and w4-engine.exe; the editor needs the engine beside it for Play, so keep them together.
  2. Unpack the zip anywhere, for example C:\W4. There is no installer and nothing is written to the registry; delete the folder to uninstall.
  3. Start w4-editor.exe. The first start plays a short fanfare (you can turn it off in Settings) and shows the welcome screen.

Windows warns about an unknown publisher the first time, because the alpha builds are not signed. Click More info, then Run anyway. If a download is blocked, write to the author (the address is in the footer) and you get the file another way.

The engine zip alone is for players: someone who only wants to play a .a4m file you send them does not need the editor.

Where things live

What Where
Your maps Documents\W4 Maps, one folder per map, until you export a .a4m file
The editor's settings %LOCALAPPDATA%\W4\settings.toml (recent maps, panel places, theme)
The Go API %LOCALAPPDATA%\W4\go-sdk\<version>\w4, written by the editor
Logs activity.log inside every map, and the game's log window (F12)

Alpha means alpha

Aqua IV is early. Things are missing and things break. The editor migrates old maps itself and tells you what it filled in, but a map made today may still need touching up later. If you get stuck, the Activity panel in the editor and the log window in the game (F12) say what happened. Write to the author with what you tried.

Where to go next

  1. Your first map: paint, place, play. Fifteen minutes.
  2. Your first script: install Go, write a few lines, see them run in the game.
  3. Export and share: one .a4m file that any Aqua IV engine plays.
  4. Then the tutorials for the things people ask about most, and the editor and engine references for everything else.

In this section

Your first map Make a map, paint the ground, raise a cliff, place a few units for two players and play it.Your first script Install Go, create the map's script, spawn a unit and print to the game log, with completion in your own editor.Export and share Turn the map folder into one .a4m file, play it in the engine alone, and what happens to old maps in new versions.