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.
The cliff tile list in the header is largely informational — the engine derives it from the ground tile list automatically.

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