Rendering scene workflow
For campaign loading and asset diagnostics, see WC3 loading and assets.
Use these commands to launch a selected game's UI or model scene without entering a full gameplay session. Build the target first, then pass the scene command as a late + command.
Warcraft III
The main menu is the model-backed UI smoke scene:
For text-only layout inspection, which does not require a display:
The 3D portrait is created by the MainMenu3d UI scene in games/warcraft-3/ui/screens/main_menu.c.
White MDX geometry diagnosis
If menu scenes or in-game MDX models retain geometry but render large white regions, log a failed
MDLX_GetTexture result in games/warcraft-3/renderer/mdx/r_mdx_geoset.c and inspect the
g_textures chain in renderer/r_texture.c. A valid mdxTexture_t.texid with no
R_FindTextureByID result means the texid index was truncated; it is not an MPQ lookup or BLP decode failure.
ADD_TO_LIST(VAR, LIST) expands to two unbraced statements. Never use it as the sole body of an
unbraced if: only VAR->next = LIST becomes conditional while LIST = VAR always executes. This is
especially destructive when a runtime cache returns an object already present in an intrusive list,
because assigning that old object as the head discards every newer entry. Reproduce the WC3 menu path with:
World of Warcraft
The character-create scene is the fastest character renderer test:
The scene can also be selected through the character-select flow with +menu_character_select. Race, gender, class, and appearance are initialized by the WoW UI and passed through wow_playerinfo; for a gameplay-model test without the UI use:
build/bin/openwow -data data/world-of-warcraft \
+map World/Maps/Azeroth/Azeroth.wdt \
+set wow_playerinfo '\race\Human\sex\Male\class\1\appearance\0'
The character-create model is assembled in games/world-of-warcraft/ui/ui_xml.c and rendered through the M2 path in games/world-of-warcraft/renderer/m2/r_m2.c.
For default appearance, starter-outfit, saved-character, and DBC diagnosis, see WoW Character Display.
Make shortcuts
Build and launch in one step:
If the binary is already built, skip the rebuild:
make run-wow # same map, no rebuild
make run-wow ARGS="+map 0" # pass extra args (e.g. Eastern Kingdoms)
Per-race playercreate spawns (build + run):
make build-run-wow-human
make build-run-wow-orc
make build-run-wow-dwarf
make build-run-wow-undead
make build-run-wow-tauren
make build-run-wow-nightelf
make build-run-wow-gnome
make build-run-wow-troll
StarCraft II
The default map is Maps/TerranTest.SC2Components — a flat 96×96 Mar Sara terrain with a Terran
Command Center, 2 SCVs, 2 Marines, and a Vespene Geyser for player 1.
SC2 UI and map rendering are separate from the WoW character scene; do not use a WoW-style character command unless a future SC2 screen registers one.
Make shortcuts
make build-run-sc2 # build + launch TerranTest
make run-sc2 # launch TerranTest, no rebuild
make run-sc2 ARGS="+map Foo" # override map
Screenshots
Use the engine screenshot [frame-delay] command rather than desktop capture. It writes screenshots/shotNNNN.png; with a delay,
the Nth fully rendered frame after command execution is captured. This makes bounded command-line QA deterministic:
build/bin/openwow -data data/world-of-warcraft +map playercreate +screenshot 10 +com_frame_limit 20
build/bin/openwarcraft3 -data 'data/Warcraft III' +menu_main +screenshot 10 +com_frame_limit 20
Place +screenshot N after the map/menu selector and keep com_frame_limit larger than N. +screenshot 1 captures the first
rendered frame; bare +screenshot captures the next rendered frame. On macOS Retina displays, capture uses the GL
viewport/drawable size rather than SDL's logical window size, so the PNG includes the complete framebuffer.
Headless / no-focus-steal mode
Pass +vid_hidden 1 to create the GL window without ever showing it. The window never appears on screen and the
application does not steal keyboard focus from the IDE. All rendering and screenshot capture work normally because
glReadPixels reads from the GL framebuffer regardless of window visibility.
# Screenshot without window appearing — VS Code keeps focus
make run-sc2 ARGS="+vid_hidden 1 +screenshot 5 +com_frame_limit 20"
make run-wow ARGS="+vid_hidden 1 +screenshot 5 +com_frame_limit 20"
+vid_hidden 1 sets the vid_hidden cvar before the renderer initialises. It is implemented in
renderer/r_main.c by substituting SDL_WINDOW_HIDDEN for SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN at window creation.
For bounded startup or stdout diagnostics, add +com_frame_limit N; do not use it when manually inspecting a scene unless N is large enough to reach the scene.