--add-quest creates a quest shell but quests with no objectives never
complete in-game. This fills the gap:
wowee_editor --add-quest-objective <zoneDir> <questIdx> \
<kill|collect|talk|explore|escort|use> <targetName> [count]
Workflow:
Z=custom_zones/MyZone
wowee_editor --add-quest $Z 'Hunt Wolves' 100 100 250 5
wowee_editor --add-quest-objective $Z 0 kill 'Wolf' 5
wowee_editor --add-quest-objective $Z 0 collect 'Wolf Pelt' 3
Auto-generates a description from type+count+name so addons and
tooltips show something sensible ('Slay 5 Wolf', 'Collect 3 Wolf
Pelt', 'Talk to Mayor'). Designers can hand-edit quests.json after
the fact for bespoke prose; the auto-text is the floor, not the
ceiling.
Quest index matches --list-quests output (0-based). Out-of-range
index, unknown type, or missing quests.json all error with clear
messages and exit 1.
Verified: scaffolded zone, added 2 quests + 3 objectives across
them; --info-quests reports '1 kill, 1 collect, 1 talk'. Bad type
and bad index both rejected.
The natural counterpart to --diff-wcp (which compares two .wcp
archives) — operates on the unpacked side of the workflow. Shows
exactly what changed across zone.json fields, creature roster,
object placements, and quest list:
wowee_editor --diff-zone custom_zones/Base custom_zones/Variant
Diff: custom_zones/Base vs custom_zones/Variant
manifest : 2 field diff(s)
~ mapName: 'Base' -> 'Variant'
~ displayName: 'Base' -> 'Variant'
creatures : 2 vs 2
- Bear
+ Tiger
quests : 1 vs 2
+ Defeat the Tiger
Pairs naturally with --copy-zone: template a base zone, fork a
variant, then diff to see exactly what was customized. Useful for
PR review when a designer modifies a zone — diff against the
upstream version to scope the change.
Comparison strategy: sorted set diff on stable identifying fields
(creature.name, object.path, quest.title). This intentionally hides
position/orientation changes since those are continuous and would
flag every pixel-perfect tweak as a diff — content-level changes
are the signal here.
Exit 0 if identical, 1 otherwise (so CI can gate). JSON mode emits
per-category onlyA/onlyB arrays + manifestDiffs list + totalDiffs
count for programmatic consumption.
Verified: diffed two zones forked from a common base (one with
creature swap + new quest); reported 5 diffs across manifest +
creatures + quests with exit 1. Same zone vs itself reports
IDENTICAL with exit 0.
Closes the open-format authoring loop:
asset_extract # M2 -> WOM (open binary)
--export-obj # WOM -> OBJ (universal text)
... edit in Blender / MeshLab / ZBrush / Maya ...
--import-obj # OBJ -> WOM (back to engine format)
The same WOM file ships in custom zones, gets validated by
--validate-wom, and renders identically through the existing pipeline
— no proprietary M2 ever needs to touch the authoring path.
Parser handles:
- v / vt / vn pools, deduped on (pos, uv, normal) triples so the
resulting WOM vertex buffer stays compact
- 1-based AND negative (relative) face indices
- f tokens in v, v/t, v//n, and v/t/n forms
- Triangles, quads, and convex n-gons (fan-triangulated)
- CRLF line endings
- Reverses --export-obj's V flip (1.0 - v) so UVs round-trip exactly
- Auto-computes boundMin/Max/Radius from positions (renderer culls
by these — wrong values make the model disappear)
- Output WOM is WOM1 (static); bones/anims/material flags don't
exist in OBJ and stay empty by design
Verified end-to-end: WOM -> OBJ -> WOM -> validate-wom yields a
5-vert, 6-tri pyramid back identical to the input. Bounds, vertex
count, index count, and name all preserved.
WOM is our open M2 replacement, but it's still a custom binary format
no DCC tool understands out of the box. OBJ is the universally
supported text format that opens directly in Blender, MeshLab,
ZBrush, Maya — basically every 3D tool ever made:
wowee_editor --export-obj Tree # writes Tree.obj
wowee_editor --export-obj Tree out.obj # custom output path
This closes the loop for content authors:
asset_extract -> WOM (open binary) -> OBJ (universal text) ->
edit in Blender -> back to WOM via a future --import-obj.
Layout details that matter for downstream tools:
- 1-based face indices (OBJ standard)
- UV V flipped (1.0 - v) so texturing matches between Vulkan
top-left and Blender bottom-left conventions
- Per-batch groups when WOM3 batches exist, named with the
texture basename so material assignment carries through
- Single 'mesh' group for WOM1/WOM2 models
- Header comment preserves provenance (source, version, counts)
Verified on a synthesized 5-vert pyramid (4 base + apex, 6 tris):
output OBJ has 5 v / 5 vt / 5 vn entries, 6 f lines, opens cleanly
in MeshLab. Build green, ctest 31/31.
Verbose enumeration of every entry, complementing the existing
--info-* (summary counts) and unblocking --remove-* (which takes a
0-based index).
wowee_editor --list-creatures custom_zones/Z/creatures.json
creatures.json: custom_zones/Z/creatures.json (2 total)
idx name lvl display pos (x, y, z)
0 Wolf 7 11430 (100.0, 200.0, 50.0)
1 Black Bear 12 11445 (110.0, 210.0, 55.0)
The 'idx' column is exactly what --remove-creature/object/quest
takes, closing the workflow loop:
wowee_editor --list-creatures $Z/creatures.json |
grep -i 'wolf' | awk '{print $1}' |
xargs -I{} wowee_editor --remove-creature $Z {}
Each command has matching --json mode that emits per-entry records
with index, key fields, and position. Verified on a synthesized
zone with 2 creatures + 2 objects + 2 quests; tables align, indices
match, JSON is well-formed and round-trips through jq cleanly.
Symmetric counterparts to --add-{creature,object,quest} from earlier
batches:
wowee_editor --remove-creature <zoneDir> <index>
wowee_editor --remove-object <zoneDir> <index>
wowee_editor --remove-quest <zoneDir> <index>
Index is 0-based and is reported in the corresponding --info-* output;
nothing identifies entries reliably across reloads, so name-based
removal would silently delete the wrong row when duplicates exist.
Pair them in scripts:
idx=$(wowee_editor --info-creatures $Z/creatures.json --json |
jq '.spawns | map(.name) | index("Wolf")')
wowee_editor --remove-creature $Z $idx
Each prints the removed entry's name/path and the new total so
scripts can verify the right row went away. Out-of-range indices
exit 1 with a clear message.
Verified end-to-end: scaffolded zone, added 3 creatures + 2 objects
+ 2 quests, removed one of each by index, totals correctly went
3->2/2->1/2->1. Bad index 99 properly errors out.
--info-extract reports sidecar coverage % per format, but doesn't say
which files are missing. This makes it actionable:
wowee_editor --list-missing-sidecars Data/
Output: one path per line, prefixed with the missing extension so
shell tools can filter:
png Data/Textures/Skybox/Sky01.blp
json Data/DBFilesClient/SoundEntries.dbc
wom Data/Character/Human/Male/HumanMale.m2
Pipe into xargs to drive a targeted re-extract:
wowee_editor --list-missing-sidecars Data/ |
awk '/^png/ {print $2}' |
xargs asset_extract --emit-png-only
Skips WMO group files (Foo_NNN.wmo) since only the parent file gets
a .wob sidecar — they would otherwise inflate the missing list with
hundreds of false positives per WMO.
Exit 1 when anything is missing (so CI can gate). JSON mode emits
arrays per format type for programmatic consumption. Verified
against synthetic dir with 5 files (4 lacking sidecars + 1 with
.png present): all 4 reported, the one with sidecar correctly
omitted.
Round out the per-format validator suite. Open-format zone validation
now covers all four binary formats:
--validate-wom Tree
--validate-wob House
--validate-woc terrain.woc
--validate-whm Zone_28_30
--validate-all custom_zones/Zone1 # runs everything
WOC checks: finite vertex coords on every triangle, no degenerate
triangles (two verts identical), known flag bits only (0x0F mask),
tile coords within WoW grid (< 64), bounds.min <= bounds.max.
WHM/WOT checks: finite heights across all 145 verts/chunk, finite
chunk position vectors, tile coord in [0, 64), reasonable height
envelope ([-10000, 10000] is a generous outer bound — beyond that
suggests units confusion), placements have finite positions and
nameId within doodadNames/wmoNames table size.
validate-all now reports all four format counts (WOM/WOB/WOC/WHM)
and aggregates errors. Verified end-to-end: a fresh scaffolded zone
with --build-woc yields 256/256 chunks loaded, 32768 walkable
triangles, validate-all PASSED. Synthesized WOC with 0xFF flags
correctly fails with 'unknown flag bits 0xFF' and exit 1.
Walks a directory recursively and runs the deep validators on every
.wom and .wob it finds. Single CI gate for an entire zone tree:
wowee_editor --validate-all custom_zones/MyZone --json
Reports per-file failures (capped at first 20 to keep output bounded)
plus aggregate counts so you know which file to drill into with
--validate-wom or --validate-wob individually.
Refactor: pulled the validation bodies out of --validate-wom and
--validate-wob into static helpers (validateWomErrors / validateWobErrors)
returning vector<string>. The per-file commands now share the same
logic as --validate-all — fix one, fix all three. ~200 lines of
duplicate validation code consolidated.
Verified end-to-end: seeded /tmp dir with 2 WOMs (1 with DAG bone
violation) + 1 valid WOB, --validate-all reports 'WOM: 2 total, 1
failed' / 'WOB: 1 total, 0 failed' with the bad file's full path and
error printed below. JSON mode emits per-file failure list for CI.
Companion to --validate-wom; same load-is-lenient story for buildings:
wowee_editor --validate-wob House [--json]
Cross-references checked per group:
- indices.size() divisible by 3
- every index < vertices.size()
- material textures non-empty
- group boundMin <= boundMax per axis
Building-level:
- portal groupA/groupB references real groups (or -1 = exterior)
- portal polygon has >= 3 vertices
- doodad modelPath non-empty
- doodad scale finite and > 0
- boundRadius >= 0
Errors batched (caps to 3 listed plus '... and N more') so a thousand
bad indices in one group don't drown the report. JSON mode emits the
same error list for CI consumption. Exit 1 on any failure so shell
scripts can gate on it.
Verified against a synthesized 2-group building with intentional
flaws across every category — caught all 4 (group indices count,
empty material texture, short portal polygon, empty doodad model)
and exited 1.
The WOM loader is intentionally lenient — it clamps out-of-range
indices to 0, resets bad bone parents to -1, and skips invalid
batches. That keeps broken files from crashing the renderer, but
also hides corruption that authoring scripts should catch BEFORE
the file ships.
wowee_editor --validate-wom Tree [--json]
Cross-references checked (none auto-fixed by load()):
- bone DAG order: parent must be strictly less than self index
- animation boneKeyframes count == bone count when both nonzero
- batch indexStart+Count <= total indexCount
- batch indexCount divisible by 3
- batch textureIndex < texturePaths size
- boundMin <= boundMax per axis, boundRadius >= 0
- header version in [1,3], indices count divisible by 3
Verified against a synthesized 3-bone model with parent=self+1
(invalid DAG order) — load() preserves it as written, validator
reports 'bone 1 parent=2 not strictly less (DAG order)' and
exits 1. JSON mode emits errorCount + errors[] + passed boolean
for CI scripts to gate on.
Duplicate an existing zone to a new slug:
wowee_editor --copy-zone custom_zones/Original "My New Zone"
Workflow this enables: scaffold one base zone, populate it with
creatures/objects/quests, then copy-zone N times to create variants
without re-scaffolding each. Designers can template a 'forest base'
zone and stamp it into Dark Forest, Frozen Forest, etc.
What it does:
- Recursive copy preserves any subdirs (e.g. data/ for DBC sidecars)
- Reads source slug from zone.json (not the dir name) to know what
prefix to rewrite — handles users who renamed dirs without
touching the manifest
- Renames slug-prefixed files (Original_28_30.whm -> NewSlug_28_30.whm,
matches both _-suffixed and .-suffixed forms)
- Saves a fresh zone.json via ZoneManifest::save which rebuilds the
files-block from mapName, so the manifest references the renamed
files correctly
Verified end-to-end: scaffolded Original, added creature + quest,
copied to 'My New Zone'. Result: 2 files renamed, zone.json
mapName/displayName/files all updated, creatures.json + quests.json
copied verbatim.
Third headless authoring command, finishing the trio:
wowee_editor --add-quest <zoneDir> <title> [giverId] [turnInId] [xp] [level]
Optional positional fields are read in order; omit from the right.
Bare 'wowee_editor --add-quest zone Title' produces a valid quest
with default values, matching the editor GUI's New Quest behavior.
Verified: appended 3 quests (250+100+0 XP) to a scaffolded zone,
--info-quests --json reports total=3, totalXp=450, withReward=3.
Mirrors --add-creature for the object placer:
wowee_editor --add-object <zoneDir> <m2|wmo> <gamePath> <x> <y> <z> [scale]
Lets shell scripts populate objects/buildings without the GUI:
for tree in 100,200 150,250 200,300; do
x=${tree%,*}; y=${tree#*,}
wowee_editor --add-object "$zone" m2 'World/Doodad/Tree.m2' $x $y 0
done
Loads existing objects.json first then appends, so multiple
invocations build up. Optional scale slot lets the caller set
non-default size (clamped to >0 by the load-time guard).
Verified end-to-end: scaffolded zone → added m2 + wmo → info-objects
reports total=2 with the correct scale range.
Appends a single creature spawn to a zone's creatures.json. First
real authoring tool that doesn't need the GUI placement system —
useful for batch-populating zones via shell script:
for npc in goblin spider wolf; do
wowee_editor --add-creature "$zone" "$npc" 100 200 50
done
Args: <zoneDir> <name> <x> <y> <z> [displayId] [level]
- displayId 0 → SQL exporter substitutes 11707 (generic humanoid)
- level defaults to 1
- Coordinates are render-space (renderX=wowY, renderY=wowX)
Loads any existing creatures.json first then appends, so multiple
invocations build up the file. The standard NPC spawner caps
(50k creatures) protect against runaway scripts.
Adds --json to --info-creatures, --info-objects, --info-quests so
the per-content inspectors match the per-zone aggregator. Schemas
match the existing --zone-summary --json sub-objects.
Now 9 inspectors support --json:
--info-extract --info-wcp --validate
--info-creatures --info-objects --info-quests
--zone-summary --list-zones --diff-wcp
CI can now drill into per-content reports the same way as the
top-level summary, e.g. fail a build if a zone's quests have any
chain errors:
wowee_editor --info-quests "$zone/quests.json" --json \
| jq -e '.chainErrors | length == 0'
Adds JSON mode to the zone discovery scanner. Returns an array of
zone objects, each with name/dir/mapId/author/description/tiles/
hasCreatures/hasQuests.
Lets CI scripts iterate every available zone and run a per-zone
gate, e.g.:
for zone in $(wowee_editor --list-zones --json | jq -r '.[].directory'); do
wowee_editor --validate "$zone" --json | jq -e '.score == 7'
done
Fifth and last commonly-used inspector to gain --json mode (after
--info-extract, --validate, --info-wcp, --zone-summary).
Adds --json output to the one-shot zone-summary aggregator. Refactor
also moves creature/object/quest data reads to a shared step before
either branch so both human and JSON outputs use the same numbers.
Schema:
{
"zone": "custom_zones/Foo",
"score": 3, "maxScore": 7,
"formats": "WOT WHM zone.json ",
"counts": { "wot":1, "whm":1, "wom":0, "wob":0, "woc":0, "png":0 },
"creatures": { "total":N, "hostile":N, "questgiver":N, "vendor":N },
"objects": { "total":N, "m2":N, "wmo":N },
"quests": { "total":N, "chainWarnings":N }
}
Now CI can gate on any combination — open-format coverage, NPC
counts, quest chain health — from a single command. Fourth and
last commonly-CI'd inspector to gain --json mode (after
--info-extract, --validate, --info-wcp).
Mirrors --info-extract --json and --validate --json. Schema:
{
"wcp": "/path/to/zone.wcp",
"name": "Wj",
"author": "...",
"description": "...",
"version": "1.0",
"format": "wcp-1.0",
"mapId": 9000,
"fileCount": 3,
"totalBytes": 177671,
"categories": { "terrain": 2, "data": 1 }
}
Lets CI scripts inspect packed zones — e.g. fail a release if a
zone's WCP doesn't include a creature category, or auto-tag a
release with the totalBytes field.
Adds an optional --json flag that emits a structured nlohmann JSON
object instead of the human-readable text. Schema:
{
"dir": "...",
"totalBytes": N, "proprietaryBytes": N, "openBytes": N,
"overallCoverage": 100.0,
"blp_png": { "proprietary": N, "sidecar": N, "coverage": % },
"dbc_json": { ... },
"m2_wom": { ... },
"wmo_wob": { ... },
"adt_whm": { ... }
}
Lets CI scripts gate on coverage:
cov=$(wowee_editor --info-extract Data --json | jq .overallCoverage)
if [ "$cov" != "100" ]; then asset_extract --upgrade-extract Data; fi
Adds two summary lines so users can see how big a 'purge proprietary
after open conversion' workflow would shrink their tree (or how
much extra a dual-format extraction costs):
proprietary bytes: 18432.4 MB
open-format bytes: 21340.7 MB (115.8% of proprietary)
Counts every BLP/DBC/M2/WMO/ADT into the proprietary bucket and
every PNG/JSON/WOM/WOB/WHM/WOT/WOC into the open bucket. The
ratio surfaces things like 'PNG is bigger than DXT-compressed BLP'
or 'JSON DBC is much smaller than the binary' without the user
having to run du themselves.
Walks an extracted asset tree and reports per-format counts plus
how many proprietary files have a wowee open-format sidecar.
Lets users (or CI) see at a glance whether asset_extract was run
with --emit-open and how complete the open-format coverage is:
BLP textures : 12340 (12340 PNG sidecar = 100.0% open)
DBC tables : 240 (240 JSON sidecar = 100.0% open)
M2 models : 8500 (0 WOM sidecar = 0.0% open)
...
overall open-format coverage: 41.2%
(run `asset_extract --emit-open` to fill missing sidecars)
Skips _NNN group sub-files when counting WMOs (only the root WMO
ships with a WOB sidecar). The headless CLI is now at 22 commands.
applyBrush already early-outs on NaN brush position, but the stored
worldPos_ would still capture NaN and surface it to UI panels and
the brush-circle indicator (which renders a NaN ring). Reject NaN
at the setter so the editor state itself stays sane.
ADTTerrain.chunks is std::array<MapChunk, 256> — out-of-range
indexing is undefined behaviour. Reject indices outside [0, 255]
and return empty / no-op rather than crashing on a stale undo
record from a future-version terrain layout.
EditorCamera::setSpeed accepted any float, including NaN/inf and
values outside the wheel-zoom clamp range [10, 2000]. NaN speed
would propagate into the per-tick position update (NaN * dt =
NaN) and corrupt the camera view matrix. Match the wheel clamp
so external setters can't bypass the UI's bounds.
Loads + immediately re-saves zone.json, creatures.json,
objects.json, and quests.json. The load-time scrubs (NaN,
out-of-range, oversize) and save-time caps fire on the round-trip,
producing a cleaned-up zone without ever opening the GUI.
Useful when an old zone was created before recent hardening
batches — running this once normalizes the on-disk state to match
what the current loaders expect.
Same defense pattern as the other editor JSON loaders. WoW only
supports 65535 maps total and the editor loads one tile at a
time; 1024 zones per project is plenty. Stale autosave or hand-
edit could otherwise grow zones unbounded and slow the project
picker UI.
readInfo iterated the info JSON's files array without bounding;
a malicious WCP could declare more entries than the header
fileCount allows and grow info.files unbounded. Cap to 1M
matching the header check so both readInfo callers and
--list-wcp/--info-wcp stay bounded.
Same defense pattern as QuestEditor (4096) and ObjectPlacer (100k).
A stale autosave or scatter-runaway could carry millions of NPCs;
each emits creature_template + creature + optional addon/waypoint
rows, drowning the SQL output and the M2 marker mesh.
Every editor JSON loader now has a matched-to-cost upper bound
(NPCs 50k, quests 4k, objects 100k, waypoints 256).
A stale autosave or hand-edited JSON could carry an unbounded list:
- 100k quests would emit 100k quest_template + queststarter/ender
INSERTs (huge SQL, slow validate, slow chain walks).
- 1M+ objects bloats the M2 instance SSBO and drags editor framerate
to single digits.
Caps mirror the 256-waypoint cap added in the previous batch — log
a warning and drop the rest so the editor stays responsive.
A stale autosave or hand-edited creature.json could carry an
unbounded patrolPath. The SQL exporter would emit one waypoint_data
INSERT per entry and produce huge SQL files. 256 waypoints covers
any realistic route.
Same defect as the empty-Patrol case: Wander behavior with 0
radius would spawn a creature that pretends to wander but never
moves. Downgrade to stationary so the export reflects the actual
in-game behavior, matching the Patrol-without-waypoints fix.
A creature with behavior=Patrol but an empty patrolPath would emit
movement_type=2 (waypoint) without any waypoint_data rows.
AzerothCore would log 'creature X has no waypoints' on every spawn
and the NPC would behave erratically. Fall back to stationary so
the spawn appears cleanly; user can fix the missing path after.
Pre-scans the quest list and emits a single header note when any
quest uses ExploreArea / EscortNPC / UseObject — those have no
direct quest_template column and need AzerothCore script_quest
hooks. Prevents silent dropping of objectives leaving an unfinished
quest in-game; the user sees the warning once at the top of
02_spawns.sql instead of having to grep through editor logs.
fs::relative can return '../foo' when the pack source is a symlink
that resolves outside the pack root. The unpacker rejects '..' or
absolute paths wholesale, so a single rogue symlink would ruin the
whole archive. Skip the offending file at pack with a warning so
the rest of the zone still ships.
Quest.nextQuestId was captured by the editor and used by
validateChains for cycle detection, but never made it into the
AzerothCore quest_template SQL. Now resolves the editor-relative
ID to the matching SQL entry (startEntry + nextQuestId) and
writes it to the NextQuestInChain column. Players can now
auto-progress through quest chains in-game.
Quest.reward.itemRewards entries were captured in the editor JSON
but never made it into the AzerothCore SQL export. Parse each
entry as a numeric item ID and emit RewardItem1-4 + count columns;
unparseable entries become 0 (skipped at quest grant time). 4 slot
limit matches AzerothCore's quest_template schema.
Previously only KillCreature and CollectItem objectives translated
to SQL. AzerothCore reuses RequiredNpcOrGo for talk objectives
(count=1 indicates an interaction rather than a kill), so wire that
through and add a comment about which objective types need server
scripts (ExploreArea/EscortNPC/UseObject).
Mirrors the other --info-* family inspectors. Accepts either a
zone directory or the zone.json path directly. Prints every
manifest field: name, mapId, biome, baseHeight, tiles, flags,
audio config. Useful when diffing two zones or auditing the
audio/flag setup before packing.
Same per-cell range-check pattern as the JSON DBC fix: if a
waypoint's waitTime field is negative or > UINT32_MAX, the
.get<uint32_t> throws json::type_error and the outer try-catch
aborts the entire NPC file load on a single bad waypoint. Read
as int64, clamp to [0, 600000ms = 10-min cap].
Pack previously trusted recursive_directory_iterator to terminate
naturally — fine on most zones but a hostile symlink loop or a
giant accidental subdirectory would produce an archive with > 1M
files, which the unpack header check rejects wholesale. Cap at the
unpack limit and log a warning so the resulting WCP is at least
loadable, even if incomplete.
Pack previously accepted any file < 4GB and wrote it raw. Unpack
caps at 256MB and rejects the whole archive on overflow — so a
huge file in the source dir would silently produce an unpackable
WCP. Cap at pack and skip the body (size=0 entry) so the rest of
the pack remains usable.
The CLI grew from 6 to 19 commands across recent batches —
catalogue them in FORMAT_SPEC so users can discover the headless
workflow without grepping --help. Grouped by purpose: inspection,
validation, authoring, packaging, discovery.
Walks a zone directory recursively, finds every WHM file, and
rebuilds the matching WOC. Useful after batch terrain edits when
you want to refresh collision for many tiles in one shot. Reports
per-tile triangle counts and exits 1 if any rebuild failed.
Combines validate + creature/object/quest counts in a single
output. Useful for CI reports and quick sanity checks. Exits 0
if open-format score is 7/7 (full coverage), 1 otherwise.
Source tile's chunks[0].position[2] could be NaN if mid-edit
terrain hadn't run stitchEdges yet. Fall back to 100.0 so the
adjacent tile doesn't start with poisoned base.
