Importing Models (without importing them)

Right, bear with me on this tutorial as this will be my first tutorial ever and its 5:41 AM at the start of writing this and I have been up all night playing around with Wacraft lol.

This is for Windows and any version of it that plays Wacraft III.

I use Windows XP.

THIS IS NOT INTENDED FOR BATTLE.NET PLAY! THINGS COULD GO WRONG IF YOU HOST A MAP LIKE THIS, OR AT THE VERY LEAST YOU MIGHT DISCONNECT FROM THEM. THIS IS INTENDED FOR LAN MAPS, WHERE YOU HAVE ACCESS TO ALL THE PCs ON THE LAN AND ALL THE RESOURCES CAN BE COPIED TO THE CORRECT PLACES.


STEP 1: First we need to enable Local Files.

ONLY EDIT THE REGISTRY KEY I TELL YOU TO, DO NOT MESS AROUND WITH THE REGISTRY, IT CAN CAUSE YOUR PC TO NOT START PROPERLY OR AT ALL. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED...

To do this we click on the start menu and do the following:

Windows 98/98SE/2000/ME/XP



Run... --> Type (without quotes) "regedit" and click OK



Windows Vista/7

Type (without quotes) and click on "Run" --> Type (wihtout quotes) "regedit" and click OK.

A screen similar to below will appear (Vista will ask for Admin Privileges):



Navigate like so: HKEY_CURRENT_USER --> Software --> Blizzard Entertainment --> Warcraft III

You will end up with something like below:



In the area to the right, Right-Click and click New --> DWORD Value

Name it (without quotes) "Allow Local Files"

Change its value to 1 (Hex or Dec)

It should look like below:



STEP 2: Using recources without importing them.

ALL PCs MUST HAVE THE SAME RESOURCES UNDER THE SAME FOLDERS FOR THIS TO WORK!

BY CREATING FOLDERS WITH THE SAME PATHS AS IN THE MPQs YOU CAN OVER-RIDE MOST RESOURCES. WHILE YOU MAY INTEND ON DOING THIS, IT MIGHT END UP IN SOME ODD RESULTS (SUCH AS DISCONNECTS ON LAN IF YOU REPLACE UNIT/ABILITY/ETC. DATA) SO DON'T IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

Right, now we have Local Files enabled we can start importing without importing!

To start, open C:\Program Files\Warcraft III\ (Where C is your drive letter which Warcraft III is on and the rest of the path is the path to Warcraft III.)

I am going to import my Re-coloured Illidan with Particles.

To make it easier to import (and less space on duplicate models) each model, use a fixed path such as all hero units under "Custom Heros" and all buildings under "Custom Buildings".

Because my Illidan model is a hero I will create the folder "Custom Heros".
I'm then going to create another folder called "WoW Illidan" and copy all the files (Model + Skins) into this directory.

So the path of this Illidan is "Custom Heros\WoW Illidan\Illidan Stormrage"

Now I need to update the paths of the model to the current directory. (THIS IS NECESSARY)
Open up MDX Pather (Download here: MDX Pathetr @ Hiveworkshop.com
and navigate to your model.

You will get a screen similar to this:



All the textures that are in the folder for the model shown below MUST be renamed with the custom path you specified in folders:



In this case the only one that does NOT need to be renamed is "Textures\Green_Glow3.blp".

Click on each one and rename them to the correct paths like shown below:



Now your all set to "import" the model.

Start World Editor up.

Open a map or create a new one.

Navigate to the unit who's model you want to change using the Object Editor.

Double-Click on their model name and in the custom box type the name of your model, e.g.:

"Custom Heros\\WoW Illidan\\Illidan Stormrage" (Without quotes and the double backslashes might be necessary!)

Before the "Import":

Spoiler:

After the "Import", notice how there are NO Imports!:

Spoiler:

The map size stays small and as long as everyone has the files then everyone can play the map.

I hope that this tutorial helps you, feel free to ask any questions.

As I stated earlier its my first Tutorial ever and also it was 5:41AM when I started this, by about 6AM I had fallen asleep (by accident) and now have finished this at 2:35PM.

Everyone has to have the files? It sounds to me like very few poeple would be able to play your map. But for personal use this would be incredible!! Nice Work.

Chaos. wrote:Everyone has to have the files? It sounds to me like very few poeple would be able to play your map. But for personal use this would be incredible!! Nice Work.

I was thinking mainly for LAN play because I can give the files to family on my LAN beforehand.

But yeah I would make an installer if I ever made any maps, that extracts the resources to the right locations and changed the registry for them. So people wouldn't even realise that they have extra files in their WCIII directory.

I don't know if you know Chaos, but everytime you save a map it saves all the resources all over again!

With no imported resources maps save quicker!

You also DON'T need to restart the world editor to make the models appear which is GREAT! (If you change things to do with the model, then a restart is required to see the changes, such as a skin)