WDL/v18

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WDL Files

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. :)

Edit: does anyone have an idea where the minimap as shown in the top right in the client is stored?

   * The images are in Textures\Minimap\*.blp in texture.mpq, and the list of their filename-md5 pairs is in Textures\Minimap\md5translate.trs in misc.mpq - Z. 
   * Someone told me that the use of WDL files was actually to determine pathing (especially for NPCs). We still need a confirmation on what they're for though. 

-DG


MAOF chunk

Contains 64*64 = 4096 unsigned 32-bit integers, these are absolute offsets in the file to each map tile's low-res heightmap contained in a MARE chunk. For unused tiles the value is 0.


MARE chunks

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.