🌑 Warcraft 3 Map Project Seed With Lua

A Warcraft 3 map project template using Lua scripting language that allows code splitting and editing code while the World Editor is open. Powered by Node.js.

• Features
• Installation
• Usage
• Caveats

Features

• Bundling and code splitting (via Luabundle)
• File watcher (via nodemon)
• Bundle contents of the src/ (and lib/ for external libraries like damage-engine.lua) folder and inject them in the map.w3x/war3map.lua file
  • Thus enabling editing the map using the World Editor whilist editing lua with code editors like VSCode without having to neither copy/paste code in the editor nor create a clone project
  • See Caveats
• Code minification using Luamin
• Bundle file size check (warning if > 100KB)

Installation

• Install Node.js
• Clone or download this repository, or click [https://github.com/rodolfoThePig/war3-lua-seed/generate](Use Template)
• run npm install inside the directory
• Put your map in map.w3x/ directory (already comes with an example map)

Usage

Development

• run npm start to bundle and watch for changes
• run npm run bundle to bundle only

Production

• run npm run bundle.prod to watch for changes with minification enabled
• run npm run watch.prod to watch for changes with minification enabled

Caveats

• Map bundle injection or loading may fail if:
  • Run Map immediatly after save: World Editor saving takes a small amount of time, and change detection / bundling also has a small execution time. So if you test the map before bundling is done it won't work. Wait a few seconds after save or wait for the bundling complete message in the console
  • TestMap used istead of map.w3x/: Unsaved changes in the World Editor cause it to create and run a temporary map TestMap. Since the path to TestMap is not known, it's not injected with lua bundle. Workaround: If you change anything in the World Editor (an asterisk appears on the World Editor window label map.w3x*), then you need to first SAVE in the editor and wait for change detection + compilation (~ 1 second) before clicking Test Map
  • Map save detection fails: watcher not runnig / watcher didn't wait before map save was complete (thus bundle was overwritten)
  • Write was denied: map.w3x/war3map.lua file is in use by another process or has read only permissions
• Files not required by the src/main.lua (__root) module or it's submodules are not included in the bundle, thus not acessible anywhere (including external libs at lib/)

Enhancements to consider:

• Map source backup option
• Use lua Global Initialization instead of hooks
• .env or equivalent
• Fix TestMap TempFolder caveat
• Make it easier to include external Lua libraries
  • LuaRocks
  • lua-loader
• Typescript to Lua
• Make into npm package
• Make into npm package
• Create release mode that minifies the map completely (smaller) but is irreversible, and should instead create a new file in a /dist folder or create a backup file

---

License

MIT