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war3map.w3e — Terrain / Environment

The terrain file stores the complete heightmap and tileset data for the map. The map is a grid of tiles; each tile has 4 corners called tilepoints. All geometry derives from tilepoints, not tile centres.

For a map of size W×H tiles there are (W+1)×(H+1) tilepoints, stored row by row from the bottom-left corner going right then up (when viewed from above).

File version

Version WC3 era
11 Classic RoC, TFT, pre-Reforged, Reforged 1.32
12 Reforged 2.0+ 
char[4]  file ID              "W3E!"
int      version              0x0B = 11 (classic/TFT/Reforged), 0x0C = 12 (2.0+)
char     main tileset         single character (see table below)
int      custom tilesets      1 = using custom tilesets, 0 = standard
int      a                    number of ground tilesets used  (max 16)
char[4][a]  ground tileset IDs   e.g. "Ldrt" = Lordaeron Summer Dirt
int      b                    number of cliff tilesets used   (max 16)
char[4][b]  cliff tileset IDs    e.g. "CLdi" = Lordaeron Cliff Dirt
int      Mx                   map width  + 1  (number of tilepoint columns)
int      My                   map height + 1  (number of tilepoint rows)
float    center offset X      typically -(Mx-1)*128/2
float    center offset Y      typically -(My-1)*128/2

Main tileset codes

Code Tileset
A Ashenvale
B Barrens
C Felwood
D Dungeon
F Lordaeron Fall
G Underground
I Icecrown
J Dalaran Ruins
K Black Citadel
L Lordaeron Summer
N Northrend
O Outland
Q Village Fall
V Village
W Lordaeron Winter
X Dalaran
Y Cityscape
Z Sunken Ruins

Ground tileset IDs are found in TerrainArt\Terrain.slk inside war3.mpq.
Cliff tileset IDs are found in TerrainArt\CliffTypes.slk.
OpenRealm uses the authored cliff list directly. Do not rebuild or sort it by the ground palette: Undead04 stores CLgr,CVdi. Index 15 means no explicit type at that vertex. Retail checks a cell's SW, SE, NW, NE corners, then a 5×5 vertex window centred on its SW corner (ascending X, then Y). The first non-15 index wins; if none exists, retail uses index 0. OpenRealm logs that unresolved case. Undead04's river cells resolve to grass slot 0, not dirt slot 1. Descriptions of the World Editor deriving a cliff list from ground tiles do not establish a runtime reordering rule. See Undead04 material verification.

Center offsets

The in-game coordinate origin (0,0) is placed at the map center. The offsets translate the tilepoint grid (whose raw origin is bottom-left) to this centered space:

center_offset_x = -(Mx - 1) * 128 / 2
center_offset_y = -(My - 1) * 128 / 2

One tile = 128 world-space units.

Tilepoint data (7 bytes each)

Total tilepoints = Mx * My. Each tilepoint:

short   ground height       raw value; see formula below
short   water level + flag  high bit (0x8000) = boundary flag 1; low 15 bits = water level
nibble  flags               upper 4 bits of next byte (see flag table)
nibble  ground texture      lower 4 bits — index into ground tileset table
byte    texture details     sub-tile detail texture (rocks, bones, holes, etc.)
nibble  cliff texture       upper 4 bits of last byte — index into cliff tileset table
nibble  layer height        lower 4 bits — cliff layer (0..N)

Byte layout: bytes 3–4 are a short for water level. Byte 5 packs flags (high nibble) and ground texture (low nibble). Byte 6 is texture detail. Byte 7 packs cliff texture (high nibble) and layer height (low nibble).

Ground height formula

display_height = (ground_height - 0x2000 + (layer - 2) * 0x0200) / 4
  • 0x2000 (8192) = ground zero level
  • Layer 2 = layer zero; each layer step = 0x0200 (512) raw units
  • Range: 0xC000 (min, −16384) to 0x3FFF (max, +16383); normal = 0x2000

Water level formula

display_water_level = (water_level - 0x2000) / 4 - 89.6
  • −89.6 = water zero (from Water.slk, height −0.7, scaled by 128)

Tilepoint flags (4-bit field, shown as 16-bit positions in the short)

Bit (in the full 2-byte group) Value Meaning
Bit 15 of water short 0x8000 / 0x4000 Boundary flag 1 (WE shadow on map edge)
Bit 4 of flag nibble 0x0010 Ramp flag
Bit 5 of flag nibble 0x0020 Blight flag (Undead ground appearance)
Bit 6 of flag nibble 0x0040 Water flag (enables water rendering)
Bit 7 of flag nibble 0x0080 Boundary flag 2 (camera bounds area)

Example tilepoint decode

Raw bytes: 51 21 00 62 56 84 13

ground height: 0x2151 = 8529
  → display = (8529 - 8192 + 1*512) / 4 = 212.25

water short:   0x6200
  boundary flag 1: 0x6200 & 0xC000 = 0x4000 → SET
  water level:     0x6200 & 0x3FFF = 0x2200 = 8704
  → display water = 8704/4 - 89.6 = 2086 - 89.6 = 38.4   (below ground, invisible)

byte 0x56:
  flags nibble = 5 → water flag (0x40) + ramp flag (0x10) both set
  ground texture = 6 → ground tileset index 6

byte 0x84:
  texture detail = 0x84 = 132

byte 0x13:
  cliff texture = 1 → cliff tileset index 1
  layer height  = 3

References

  • Ground texture IDs: TerrainArt\Terrain.slk in war3.mpq
  • Cliff texture IDs: TerrainArt\CliffTypes.slk in war3.mpq
  • Water zero level: TerrainArt\Water.slk
  • Version 12 changes (Reforged 2.0): see ChiefOfGxBxL/WC3MapSpecification Terrain/12.md