Translator: Starcraft II - UA-ScriptEase/scriptease GitHub Wiki

ktssh Ahh that's the stuff!

-- Starcraft Marines

In 2010, we looked at creating a translator for Starcraft II as a replacement for CMPUT 250's use of the NWN engine. However, it was deemed untenable, as Blizzard has EULA sections that conflict with the university's copyright requirements (Blizzard would own all student work). These are the notes for that inquiry.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPQ

  1. Download the MPQ Editor tool:
    • Starcraft II packages it's map files into .SC2MAP files. These are archives which contain all the necessary files to play that map/mod. In order to open them and view the individual files you will need to use an MPQ editor tool (one can be found here http://sc.nibbits.com/assets/mpq-edit/)
  2. Open the SC2MAP file in the MPQ Editor
    • Depending on the editor, open using the default options. You may have to select view all files, as it might not recognize .SC2MAP as a MPQ format.
  3. Typical .SC2MAP contents (The following is a brief decription of each of the files found in a typical .SC2MAP file):
    • enUS.SC2DATA -> LocalizedData -> GameStrings.txt : Contains localized names of important game strings such as the author, description, player names
    • enUS.SC2DATA -> LocalizedData -> TriggerStrings.txt : Contains localized names and unique trigger ID numbers for each trigger in the map
    • (attributes) : Contains extended file metadata. Currently known attributes are file creation date, CRC32 checksum and MD5 checksum.
    • (listfile) : Contains a list of the archive's files, one filename per line. May or may not be exhaustive.
    • ComponentList.SC2Components : XML document containing a list of components in this map including text, info, map info, triggers, terrain
    • DocumentHeader : Contains the header for the document, seems to take heavily from the information found in GameStrings.txt
    • DocumentInfo : XML document containing dependencies to the map (possibly used for includes)
    • MapInfo : Unknown
    • MapScript.galaxy : Script file generated by Triggers and/or custom scripting from the editor. Contains all the scripting for the map.
    • Minimap.tga: picture to use for the minimap in game (or possibly for showing in the game lobby)
    • Objects: XML document containing a list of all objects on the map (including information such as their variation, position, unique id, scale, type, color)
    • PaintedPathingLayer: Unknown (I assume it has to do with pathfinding in the map).
    • Preload.xml: XML document containing resources to preload? including terrain ID
    • Regions: XML document containing a list of all the user defined regions in the map (including information such as their name, area, unique id, shape)
    • t3 Files (Has to do with the physical terrain, terrain textures, and terrain heights)
      • t3CellFlags: Unknown (I assume it has to do with cells in the terrain/map)
      • t3FluffDoodad: Unknown (I assume it has to doodad placement on the terrain/map)
      • t3HardTile: Unknown (I assume it has to do with the terrain/map)
      • t3SyncCliffLevel: Unknown (I assume it has to do with cliff levels on the terrain/map)
      • t3SyncHeightMap: Unknown (I assume it has to do with the height mapping of the terrain/map)
      • t3Terrain.version: Unknown
      • t3Terrain.xml: XML containing (linking) all relevant information to the terrain and tileset of the map
      • t3TextureMasks: Unknown (I assume it has to do with the texturing of the terrain/map)
      • t3VertCol: Unknown (I assume it has to do with the terrain/map)
      • t3Water: Unknown (I assume it has to do with water tiles in the terrain/map)
    • Triggers: XML file containing a list of all the variables, triggers, function calls, libraries used and their unique IDs.
    • version Files
      • DocumentInfo.version : Unknown
      • GameText.version : Unknown
      • MapInfo.version : Unknown
      • Objects.version: Unknown
      • Regions.version: Unknown
      • Triggers.version: Unknown

More information can be found here http://www.sc2mapster.com/api-docs/game-files/ and here http://code.google.com/p/vgce/source/browse/trunk/docs/Blizzard/Starcraft+II/