Map Editing

The overworld map in World of Warcraft consists of something called a “heightmap”, which is a two-dimensional grid that makes up the “terrain” of the world. This is the ground, hills, mountains and roads that you can walk on in the game. This “map” is distinct from other 3D models in the game, like houses, caves and capitals.

Map editing is commonly categorized into three parts:

• Sculpting, which involves creating the shape of the game map
• Texturing, which involves painting textures on the sculpted heightmap.
• Prop placement, which involves placing out 3D models like houses, trees, bushes, fences and so on into the world.

Map editors often work with the open source map editor “Noggit” to manually sculpt and paint the game terrain and place map models. Advanced map editors have also figured out different methods to automatically import sculpting and texture data from other sources, such as World Machine or Gaea.

Map editors often show proficiencies in:

• Level design
• Using the “Noggit” map editor
• Sculpting and painting
• Model editing, as many parts of the games map consists purely of 3D models, such as buildings, caves and capitals.
• Problem solving for more advanced uses, because things can easily go wrong with them.

Noggit is the most popular map editor for the game.

WoW Machinima Tool is a popular tool used to preview light settings inside of the game