Getting Started
From WoWModelViewer Wiki
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How you get the model viewer and map viewer running on your PC
1) Download World of Warcraft and install it onto your PC. If you had not already downloaded it, download it from the link below.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/downloads/files/pc/wowclient-downloader.exe
2) Download the most recent Model Viewer and the Map Viewer from the download section of this site.
You can download the Model Viewer from this link:
http://www.wowmodelviewer.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=35&func=select&id=1
You can download the Map Viewer from this link:
http://www.wowmodelviewer.org/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=35&func=select&id=2
3) Create 2 new folders on your desktop and name one "WoW Model Viewer" and the other "WoW Map Viewer"
4) Extract each of the .ZIP files' contents into their own separate folders as you had created in step 3.
To extract the .ZIP file contents, simply double click on the zip file, select all the files inside and do a drag/drop of the selected files into the newly created folder.
5) Double click on wowmodelview.exe and you will be presented with a dialog box asking you to select a language. Select one out of of the list and click OK.
Note: This completing this step is no longer necessary in the latest version of the model viewer.
6) Another dialog box should pop up after that notifying you that the model viewer cannot locate the necessary .MPQ files stored on your computer and so there are no models to show. (Notice that your file list on the left hand side of the window is empty.) This is very easy to fix as you shall find out in the next step.
Note: In the latest version of the model viewer, if the model viewer cannot find your .MPQ files or your game files are too old, an assertion error will be thrown at you.
7) Click on Options on your menu bar at the top of the screen and then click on Settings from the drop down menu. A menu titled Settings should pop up and half way down you should see that your list of MPQ archives to load is empty so lets add some.
Note: Steps 7 & 8 are no longer required as the current model viewer automatically loads the files if it can find the World of Warcraft install path. These two steps are only for TBC model viewers.
8) Click on the Add button and you will be presented with yet another menu asking you to choose an MPQ file to add. Simply go to your World of Warcraft folder and then find the Data folder (C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Data) where you should come upon common.MPQ and patch.MPQ. Click on common.MPQ and click Open and should should notice that the .MPQ file now appears on the files to load list. Do the same for patch.MPQ. There are more .MPQ files to add in the enUS folder (C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Data\enUS) so add patch-enUS.MPQ, Locale-enUS.MPQ, Base-enUS.MPQ, and Expansion.MPQ if you have the expansion pack installed.
Warning: Do not add multiple versions of the same .MPQ files in the WOTLK model viewer. Doing so will cause it to crash! This warning does not apply to TBC model viewers.
9) Click on the Display tab and at the very bottom, click on the Apply Settings button. If you do not save your settings before quitting, they will be lost! Restart your model viewer for changes to take effect.
How you get the map viewer running on your PC
Note: The map viewer has not been tweaked to view WOTLK maps. Only use the map viewer for viewing TBC maps.
10) If you have not created your "WoW Map Viewer" folder from Step 3, create one now.
11) Extract each of the .ZIP files' contents into their own separate folders as you had created in step 10.
To extract the .ZIP file contents, simply double click on the zip file, select all the files inside and do a drag/drop of the selected files into the newly created folder.
5) Double click on wowmapview.exe and you will be presented with a window that looks something like this:
* Not actual size
How to use the model viewer
10) Congratulations, you had now successfully set up your model viewer! After you restarted the model viewer, you will now notice that in the File List at the left hand side of the window, there is a tree of "folders" just like in Windows Explorer. If your window is blank, click on File at your menu bar and then click on Reset Layout. Double click on Character and you shall see that more options appear. Double click on one of the folders such as Human and you will be presented with two more options: male or female. Choose male and you will see a file called humanmale.m2. If you double click on the m2 file, a model will appear on the stage and a panel appears at the right hand side of the window. Under character, you can cycle though the skin colors, face types, hair colors, hair styles, facial features, and facial colors. Feel free to experiment!
Below that, you can specify what equipment you want your character to wear. There are two options to help you find what you are looking for quicker. For example, click on the head button and at the top is a checklist which you can use narrow down to several categories of headgear simply by unchecking the boxes. To further narrow down the huge list, you can use the filter option below that. By typing a word inside the filter box, the list instantly shrinks to only show the results containing the word you typed in. The number of equipment sets you can create are limitless so be creative and use your imagination!
For some weapons, enchants can be applied. To do so, select a weapon and at the menu bar, click on Effects then Apply Enchants. A menu will pop up asking which hand you want to apply the enchants to and to select an enchantment from the list.
Further down you can customize how your character's tabard will look like. Your character must be wearing an item called a "Guild Tabard" in order for those customization options to work.
Maximize your window and you will notice there is a button called Choose mount that was previously hiding away from your sight. (Sneaky sneaky ) By default, only the Known ridable models checkbox had been checked. You can optionally check the other models checkbox but some of those models do not show up or are not meant to be mounted. This can result in some interesting images.
11) Okay, you had finished your model and you want to save your equipment. Simply click on Character on your menu bar and then click on Save Equipment which will pop up a box asking you what you want to call the file and where you want to save it. Remember to name and save the file to something that you know what it is and where you will not have trouble finding it as it will be required in order to reload the equipment. To reload the equipment, go to Character/Load Equipment.
To save your character (including the equipment), go to Options on your menu bar and click on Save Character. To reload the character, go to Options/Load Character.
12) How about if you are too lazy to select each piece of equipment one by one for a predefined equipment set? Simply go to Character on your menu bar and click on Load Item Set. A list of armor sets will be presented to you for your convenience.
13) How about if I have an Official WoW character? Can I import it into the model viewer? Certainly you can!
Open up a new web browser or a new tab and paste the link below into the address bar:
At the Quick Search, Select Characters from the drop down menu and type in your character's name and press Search. A list of characters under the name you search for will be listed. Click on your character's name and you will be taken to your character's profile page. Copy the link from the address bar and back at the model viewer, click on Options at the menu bar and then click on Import Armory Character. Paste the link that you copied into the box and click OK. If you did it correctly, a model with your character's armor should appear.
14) Great now we have a character but we are missing a background aren't we? Well if you want a solid background, click on view on your menu bar and then select Background Color... and pick a color.
If you want something more sophisticated for a background such as an image, skybox or a .AVI movie clip then from View click on either Load Background or Skybox.
Before loading a background or a .AVI movie clip, make sure you have the file already saved on your computer and ready to go. After clicking on Load Background, you will be presented with a box asking you to locate the image file. Notice at the bottom of the window, you are not limited to just .BMP images but also files in .TGA, .JPG, .PNG, and also .AVI file formats. Setting a .AVI movie clip as your background takes up considerable amounts of computer resources depending on the length and size of the movie clip.
If you want an animated background but want to save on your computer's resources, select a skybox by going to View/Skybox and by selecting a Skybox from the list.
15) Perfect...Now we have a character and a background. What a we waiting for? Lets get a huge render or a movie clip of our character! To do this, go to File on your menu bar and click on Saved Sized Screenshot. A box will appear asking you to give your render a name and to select a file format. (I recommend you to use .TGA as the file format. Click OK and then type in the Canvas Height and Width with the Maximum height and width capped at 4096 pixels. Check the Lock Aspect checkbox if you want the model viewer to automatically scale each side equally based on what you typed in as either your width or height. (You do not want a squashed render do you?) Click OK when you are done and give your computer a few moments to generate the render.
If you want to create an animated .GIF of your character, go to File/Animated GIF and choose a name for the animation and where you want to save it. Choose how many frames you want the animation to have, the size of the canvas, the time delay per frame and, if you want transparency or greyscale. When you are ready, press start to begin the recording.
If you want to export the animation as a .AVI file instead then go to File/Export AVI. You will again be asked to name your file and select a location in which the file will be saved. After clicking OK, another box will appear asking which compression technique should be used and the compression quality. Press OK to being the .AVI recording.
This is a bit glitchy but if you want to Export your character as a 3d model to be edited in another 3d modeling application, click on File on your menu bar and then click on Export Model. A box will pop up asking you to name the model and to choose a model format. Milkshape 3d is the most developed of the few so far. Click save and wait for the model to be exported. Do no expect the model to turn out exactly as you see it in the model viewer as the exporters are still not anywhere near perfection.
More to come: Animation Panel, NPC stuff, Lighting (Someone needs to help me on this as I am not quite sure how to use it.)
How to use the model viewer
Note: The map viewer has not been tweaked to view WOTLK maps. Only use the map viewer for viewing TBC maps.
Using the model viewer is very simple. Once you launched your map viewer, you will be presented with a window that looks something like this:
* Not actual size
A list of maps is shown on the left hand side of the window. A list of bookmarks, when created by pressing F5 while viewing a map, will be listed in the middle of the window. The controls are listed on the right hand side of the window for reference.
To view a map, simply choose a map from the list and select your starting point by clicking somewhere on the mini map.
Toggle Models - F1Toggle Doodads - F2
Toggle Terrain - F3
Toggle Stats - F4
Toggle Map Objects - F6
Toggle Shaders - F7 image Reload Shaders - F8 gif image Toggle Skybox - F9 image Disable Hi-res Terrain - H image Quick 180 Degree Turn - R
Toggle Fog - F image Adjust Fog Distance - +/- image
