WDL/v18

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WDL files contain a low-resolution heightmap for a world. This is probably what the WoW client uses to draw the solid-colored mountain ranges in the background ('in front of' the sky, but 'behind' the fog and the rest of the scenery). It can also be conveniently used to construct a minimap - however, since no water level information is present, the best guess is 0 (sea level) - this results in some lower-than-sea-level areas being blue on the WoWmapview minimap. Oh well. :)

This section only applies to version Wrath (3.3.5.12340).

The WotLK parser is very picky about the files it reads. It assumes that if there is a #MWMO chunk as the first chunk, the #MWID and #MODF chunks follow in that order. Otherwise, or after the three, it *will* be #MAOF, and after that it only uses the offsets in that chunk to parse #MAREs.

Object related chunks

This section only applies to versions ≤ WoD.

MWMO, MWID and MODF chunks seem to have been added to every WDL and contain information about low resolution WMO used to create a silhouette.

MWMO

  • Filenames for WMO that appear in the low resolution map. Zero terminated strings.

MWID

  • List of indexes into the MWMO chunk.

MODF

  • Placement information for the WMO. Appears to be the same 64 byte structure used in the WDT and ADT MODF chunks.


This section only applies to versions ≥ Legion.

In Legion it seems MWMO, MWID and MODF were removed from this file. And MLDD, MLDX, MLMD, MLMX were added instead. They seem to have same structure as in _obj1.adt files

MLDD

  • Placement information for the M2. Reference: MLDD

MLDX

  • Defines bounding box and radius for visibility detection for M2 from MLDD. Reference: MLDX

MLMD

  • Placement information for the WMO. Reference: MLMD

MLMX

  • Defines bounding box and radius for visibility detection for WMO from MLMD. Reference: MLMX

NOTE: as there is no chunks with file names for WMO, both MLDD and MLMD use FileDataId from CASC storage for referencing the file with model

MAOF chunk

  • Map Area Offset.

Contains 64*64 = 4096 unsigned 32-bit integers, these are absolute offsets in the file to each map tile's MapAreaLow-array-entry. For unused tiles the value is 0.

/*000h*/ UINT32 areaLowOffsets[4096];
or
/*000h*/ UINT32 areaLowOffsets[64][64];

MSSN

This section only applies to versions ≥ SL.

32 bytes per entry (At a cursory glance)

uint at start ties this entry to SkySceneXPlayerCondition.db2::SkySceneID

 struct mssn_t
 {
     uint32_t SkySceneID;
     uint32_t unk_1;        // Number of records in SkySceneXPlayerCondition?
     int16_t msscIndex;
     int16_t msscRecordsNum;
     uint16_t mssoIndex;
     int16_t mssoRecordsNum;
     uint32_t unk_4;
     uint32_t unk_5;
     uint32_t unk_6;
     uint32_t unk_7;
 };

MSSC

This section only applies to versions ≥ SL.

28 bytes per entry (At a cursory glance)

This chunk defines SkySceneCondition

 struct mssc_t
 {
     uint32_t unk_0;
     uint32_t unk_1;
     uint32_t conditionType; // 1 - conditionValue is id into AreaTable.db2 (current player's area should be parent to this one)
                             // 2 - conditionValue is id into LightParams.db2
                             // 3 - conditionValue is id into LightSkybox.db2 (target skybox should be assigned as current one)
                             // 5 - conditionValue is id into ZoneLight.db2 
     uint32_t unk_3;
     uint32_t unk_4;
     uint32_t unk_5;
     uint32_t conditionValue;
 };

MSSO

This section only applies to versions ≥ SL.

48 bytes per entry (At a cursory glance)

uint at 0x08 is a m2 filedataid

 struct msso_t
 {
     uint32_t unk_0;
     uint32_t unk_1;
     uint32_t fileDataID;
     C3Vector translateVec;
     C3Vector rotationInRads;
     float scale;
     uint32_t unk_2;
     uint32_t unk_11;
 };

MapAreaLow array

WoD (cata?): if neither MAHO nor MARE present: CMapAreaLow::CreateOceanInstance()

MARE chunks

  • Map Area

Heightmap for one map tile. Contains 17*17 + 16*16 = 545 signed 16-bit integers. So a 17 by 17 grid of height values is given, with additional height values in between grid points. Here, the "outer" 17x17 points are listed (in the usual row major order), followed by 16x16 "inner" points. The height values are on the same scale as those used in the regular height maps.

MAOC chunk (<Legion)

This chunk appears to define vertices for an occlusion mesh. The values are passed in to CMapAreaLow::CreateOcclusion.

This section only applies to versions ≤ WoD.
// optional
struct MAOC
{
  short[];
}

MAOE chunk (Legion+)

This section only applies to versions ≥ Legion.
// optional, but shall be before MAHO else ignored
// This defines ocean (float?) texture (m_ocean or AreaOceanAlphaTexture)
struct
{
  // ??? fixed size 0x20, some mask?
};

MAHO chunks

After each MARE chunk there follows a MAHO (MapAreaHOles) chunk.

This chunk is an array of 16 uint16_t values. Each one is a bitmask, representing a boolean value that determines whether or not there is a hole at that position - if the bit is set, there is a hole at that position.

If the MAHO chunk is missing, the client will treat that map area as having a MAHO chunk with all values set to 0. In Blizzard's files, the chunk is always included no matter what the values are. This behavior is most likely a form of backwards compatibility to allow the client to load WDL files from before Wrath of the Lich King. Blizzard seems to set a WDL hole entry if all 16 holes in an ADT chunk are set.

The holes positions seem to be ordered like this :

Values : Y axis, flags(values flags) : X axis. Each flag set for each value is a whole chunk.

Example : Value #4 has bit 8 set, this means the chunk Y4,X8 is a hole. (simplified, id positions start at 0).