Units from Warcraft III models

Warcraft III models work in W4 as they are, with animations, particles and team colour. This tutorial brings a model in from the game, from a file and from a custom model pack, and makes a unit of it.

From the game you own

1. Open Imports (Ctrl 4) and click From Warcraft III….
2. The editor looks for your installation: the registry, the usual folders, then a quick scan of your disks; it recognises a copy by the archives the game reads, whatever the folder is called. If it finds nothing, a box offers three cards: choose the folder yourself, search every disk in the background (with a live count and Cancel), or get the game. A folder you choose is remembered.
3. The picker lists the game's models with a search field. Type grunt, pick units\orc\Grunt\Grunt.mdx. The animation list on the right plays each animation in the preview: Stand, Walk, Attack, Death, and the variants.
4. Import copies the model and the textures it uses into the map's assets/.

Nothing of the game ships with W4; the import reads your copy.

From a file

Drop an .mdx or .mdl file onto the Imports list, or Import files…. The editor brings the textures the model names, found next to the file or in the usual texture folders beside it, and keeps the stored paths so the model finds them.

Two models, one texture name

Custom model packs often ship a Textures\Shield.blp each, with different pictures. Import both: W4 asks nothing and keeps both. The second texture gets a name with a short fingerprint (Shield_1a2b3c.blp) and the model you just imported is rewired to it, binary or text. Nothing already in the map is touched; the Activity entry lists every rename.

The same holds for the game's own imports: two models that bring a texture of the same name both work in one map.

Check the model

Click the model in the list: the preview on the right orbits with the right button, zooms with the wheel, lists the animations and lets you pick a background. The large preview button opens it big. If a model shows white or pink patches, a texture is missing: Fetch missing textures looks for the ones it names that the map lacks, in the game or next to the model.

The Unused filter (the funnel beside the search) shows what no model and no definition uses, to clean up before an export.

Make a unit of it

1. Objects (Ctrl 2), New definition, kind unit, name Grunt.
2. Model: pick the imported model from the list; the definition's preview plays it.
3. Numbers: health 700, speed, attack power 19, attack speed, range 1 (melee), sight. Scale makes a model larger or smaller on the map.
4. Hit sound: pick a sound from Imports (drop a WAV, MP3, OGG or FLAC file on the list first) and set its volume in percent. The Imports module's sound preview shows a waveform, length, peak and RMS, and Normalise stores a gain so all your hit sounds sit at the same level without changing the files.

Place a few with the Place tool, give them owners, and Play: the models animate with their own Walk and Attack, carry their owner's colour on the team-colour parts, and their particles (a torch, a glow) run in the game.

Renames that rewire

Rename a texture or move a model to a folder (the pencil button in Imports): models that name a renamed texture are rewritten, definitions that name a renamed model follow, all in one History entry. You can tidy assets/ at any time without breaking a thing.

What does not work yet

Model particles (PREM), event objects that spawn effects, attachments as points, lights and cameras inside models are read but not yet drawn; Reforged (v1000) models are not supported. The list of what the renderer covers is in the engine reference.