SC2Mapster

Hi all, first tutorial. It's not super fancy with pictures or video, but maybe someone else can do one and post it here. I will do one tomorrow I think if I can get some video capturing software. It's late and I just typed this up as soon as I figured out how to do this, so some of it might be a bit rough but I think it's complete (almost anally so). You should probably also read this thread for some background/basic info: http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/third-party-tools/5119-world-of-warcraft-model-m2-importer-for-3ds-max/

For this tutorial, you will need:

• MPQ Editor: http://www.zezula.net/en/mpq/download.html - I downloaded the "MPQ Editor with listfiles"
• Warcraft Model Viewer (WMV): http://www.wowmodelviewer.org/
• NiNtoxicated01's 3ds Max plugin: http://www.sc2mapster.com/assets/m3-export-plugin-3ds-max/files/17-m3-plugins-v1-6/
• Adobe Photoshop (or equivalent if you know how to use it)
• Autodesk 3ds Max

1. Download MPQ viewer, WMV, plugins
2. You will need Photoshop and 3ds Max
3. There is no step 3
4. Open MPQ Editor
5. Browse to your WoW directory
6. Go to Data\enUS and open patch-enUS-3.MPQ (your files/folder will be different if you are EU)
7. Inside of MPQ Editor, go to DBFilesClient
8. Extract AnimationData.dbc. Remember the location you extract it to
9. Close MPQ Editor important
10. Open WMV, select a model. Choose something easy, like a monster (I used Malygos - he's under the second "Creatures")
11. File -> Export Textures
12. Click Export All
13. Click Export All to TGA
14. The model and textures are now in WMV/Export. Close WMV
15. Open 3ds Max
16. Click the hammer ("utilities") on the top right
17. Click "MAXScript" (second from the bottom)
18. Click "Run Script" and find the 3ds Max scripts that you downloaded
19. Open the file m2_import_v0.303.ms
20. Click "Run Script" again
21. Open "m3_export_v0.19b.ms"
22. Under the dropdown menu labeled "Utilities" (the default selection is "Convert to mr Area Lights", select WoW M2 Import/Export
23. Click "Import"
24. Click Paths/Settings
25. Hit "browse" and select where you exported your animation data from the mpq in step 8
26. Make sure the three checkboxes on the left are all checked, and set m3 scale to .5 if it isn't already and hit save
27. Hit "browse" under Model Filename
28. Browse to where you exported your files from MWV in steps 10-14 (should be WMV/Export). Open the .m2 file
29. Hit "browse" under Skin Filename
30. Select a skin in that same directory. I'm not sure if it matters which one you select if there are multiples
31. Click Open
32. A screen with meshes will pop up. You should probably leave this alone unless you are importing a character model (player model), just hit Import. It will likely take a little bit to load the model
33. Back under the Utilities dropdown menu, select M3 - Export
34. Leave the settings alone and hit Export
35. Export it to wherever you want. You should probably put this one in your project folder if you have one, to keep it organized. This will also take a little while
36. Close 3ds Max
37. Go to the folder you put the model in. Create a folder there called Assets, and in that folder make another called Textures. If you note, the file path name is the same one that was in the edit box when you exported the m3. If for some reason you want to have a different one, you must put your textures in the appropriate spot. For instance, if instead of Assets/Textures/ you decided to erase it and leave it blank, the textures would need to be in the same folder as the model.
38. Open photoshop and browse for files
39. Browse to the folder you exported the textures to (probably WMV/Export) and open all the .tga files
40. Ctrl Shift S to save as, don't change the name, hit save, and check 32 (for all the textures). For some reason the textures need to be resaved. Make sure you're overwriting the files, don't change the names.
41. Once you've resaved all the textures, close out of photoshop
42. Copy (or cut) all of the resaved textures (.tgas), and go to the folder with your exported .m3 in it. Remember those 2 folders you made (Assets/Textures/)? Put them in Textures. Make sure Textures is a folder inside of Assets, and the Assets folder is in the folder your .m3 is in.
43. Open the SC2 Editor
44. Press f9
45. Right click and press import
46. Select the .m3 file and all of the textures and press ok. Don't be scared if your .m3 has a purple model. Make sure the file structure is intact (your model should be in one directory, with your .tgas in (your model directory)/Assets/Textures/
47. Check to make sure the textures were properly imported. They should be pictures in the little previewer - if they're pink/black triangles, you probably didn't resave the textures in photoshop correctly
48. Save. Make sure you save on the screen that has your imports, or your changes won't be saved.
49. Close your editor. Restart it after it's done shutting down. this is important!
50. Go to the data editor, select a unit. Select its main actor. Find Art-Model and double click it. Click View.
51. Find "Model". Double click. Browse. Find your model. It should be textured in the previewer. Click ok, ok. Close data editor. You should now be able to place the unit that you just edited, and it should have the correct model and associated textures.

Closing remarks - I'm a total newbie to this kind of stuff, I got really frustrated and I hope to spare my fellow newbies the same pain. It took me a really long time to figure out about the /Assets/Textures/, which is why I repeated it like 3 times. If you see any mistakes or skipped steps let me know.

The animations seem to be quite choppy, I'm sure if you know anything about 3ds Max you will know how to fix that. If you know , please post. Likewise, I don't yet know how to do character models+armor and stuff. Simple monster models are cool, but I think we'd all like a customized hero for our rpgs. If you find out how to do this, please post.

I've made a few custom (round) icons for my map, but I'm having trouble importing the .tgas.

I made the image in Photoshop, saved as tga. Made sure it had an alpha layer (required for tgas for Photoshop) and saved it in both 24 and 32 bits per pixel.

The images come out to squares a light pink/purplish color, which I guess means no texture.

Tried using GIMP. Same issue.

I have had success in importing images, but not with transparency.

Has anyone gotten this to work?

@MotiveMe: Go

That did indeed work, thanks :)

So I've been trying to get this trigger to work for the better part of a day, and I've finally given up and decided to ask for help.

This is what I am trying to do:

Say you have two regions, ControlRegion and BigRegion. BigRegion contains some enemy buildings, one of which is invulnerable. If your unit moves into ControlRegion, the game checks to see if any non-invulnerable enemy units are contained in BigRegion. If there are no such units, you gain control of the invulnerable building. If there are enemy non-invulerable units/structures in BigRegion, you do not gain control of anything in the area, and you must destroy the remaining units in BigRegion before you can capture the invulnerable building.

The preset function titled "Units In Region With Alliance To Player" seemed to be exactly what I was looking for. The parameters I chose are:

(Units in BigRegion having alliance Enemy with player (Triggering Player) matching (Excluded: Missile, Dead, Hidden, Invulnerable, with at most Any Amount) == (Enemy Unit Group)

But this doesn't work. Even if I put no units at all in BigRegion, it still doesn't work. I've messed with the exclusions, and the amounts. The only way I've gotten it to somewhat work is switching the == to !=, which defeats the entire purpose of the trigger. So I assume that the first section (Units in BigRegion...) returns a unit group that is not empty.

Am I an idiot and using this trigger wrong or is it a bug of some kind? Or am I not understanding what unit groups are? Or possibly (and I doubt that this is true...and hope it isn't) that the == is literal and is testing to see if the two unit groups are the same group, rather than contain the same information (nothing)?

Help :(