Custom Lightning Effect Creation Tutorial

[Master]

[1]. What you will be needing:
1. Only TFT World Editor, RoC is unaffected by this tutorial
2.Microsoft Excel
3.WinMPQ
4.Paint Shop Pro or similiar program
5.Warcraft 3 Viewer



[2]. Starting the texture:

We start by creating a texture in your Paint Program to be used by your lightning you are about to create. It is recommended that you use a 256x64 24bit image simultaneously using black background (so that it will cover the matters of transparency). For example, let us use an already existing lightning texture used by the Forked Lightning spell.
Reference: All of the Lightning textures can be found in the ReplaceableTextures\Weather\ folder.
After you edit the lightning texture to how you please, convert it to a .blp file using the Warcraft 3 Viewer.



[3]. Review and customize the texture table:

Extract the LightningData.slk file from War3x.mpq file located in your Warcraft install folder. Open the LightningData.slk file in Microsoft Excel and hopefully you will see a table full with descriptions of the table headings. These headings must not be changed in any way possible.
Name - The name used by you in the World Editor to define the Lightnig effect.
Comment – You can add your own description there. Can be left blank.
Dir – It means the Directory path of the Texture. There, you will be saving your lightning texture(s).
File – The name used by you in your computer's folders.
AvgSegLen – It means Average Segment Length, which means how long one segment of the lightning can be.
Width – Makes the Lightning either thick or pale.
R G B – It means Red, Green, Blue. It is used to let you change the colour of the lightning. without having lots of different textures for different coloured lightning.
A – It means Alpha Value. It changes this specific value of the lightning e.g - the transparency.
NoiseScale – It scales the noise of the lightning.
TexCoordScale – It is used to change the size of the texture, similar to the previous value AvgSegLen.
Duration – It shows how much time in seconds the lightning will be shown on screen.
Version – It is used to define the Warcraft3 version used.

On the next open line of the table enter a name or code that you can remember later on in the Name column and anything you want in the Comment - you can left it blank if you are in a hurry.
In the Dir column enter the directory path where you want to put the texture. Insert the name of the texture file including the .blp extension in the file column.
Change the value in AvgSegLen to change the length of the lightning's segments.
Change the values in Width column in order to set your lightning's thickness. The lower the value, the more pale the Lightning. The bigger the value the thicker the lightning.
Change the value R G B column to a number between 0 and 255 (255 is the colour maximum and 0 leaves the lightning black). This value (R G B) exist just because you will not have to create lots of different textures for different coloured lightning.
Change the A value column to from 0 a value to 255 again, with 255 the maximum and 0 the leat.
Change the NoiseScale to a value of your liking between 0.00 and 1.00 .The larger the value you use the more magnificent is the sound of the effect. Also change the TextCoordScale to a value different than 0.
As for the Duration, set it to 0 for Reign of Chaos (though RoC does not need it) and 1 for The Frozen Throne. Save the file.



[4]. Import and Test your texture:

Open World Editor and go to the map you want to use the lightning in at the same time. Open the Import Manager to import your texture(s) and the LightningData.slk file into your map. Change the file's custom path to Splats\LightningData.slk.
Also change the textures' paths to those used in the file.
Go to the Object Editor and then to the Abilities Category. Find the spell you want to add the lightning in. Find the Art - Lightning Effects or LightningEffects – property. Press and hold down shift button then double click on it. Enter the name of the lightning here (remember, four characters only). Save your map and test it in warcraft3 anytime.
If you followed all instructions precisely everything will work fine and you will be having your first own custom lightning effect without any tire to edit existing ones.



[5]. What you didn’t do right:
FAQ:
1.

I imported the lightning, but nothing would show up when I test it

Did you change your texture’s custom path from LightningData.slk to Splats\LightningData.slk?
Did you customize some things in the table of values correctly?
You may look at the tutorial again.
2.

The Lightning looks cool in my map, but no sound will come out of it. What did I do wrong?

Probably you set the NoiseScale value (from the table) to 0.00 . You must set it to a value between 0.00 and 1.00 – 1.00 is maximized sound.
3.

I tried to import the texture, but it says that I am trying to import something invalid for TFT

You probably set the Version value to 0. Try to change it to 1, which means that it will be valid for The Frozen Throne Editor.


I hope that this tutorial helped you see your own works of art in action.

Be sure to leave feedback, improvements and opinions.

~Thanks for reading, and have a nice and comfortable day.

 

[Master]

Bump.
Feedback, improvemets comments and suggestion appreciated.
Fixed typos and value order. Rearranged some things.

 

[LordOglog]

OOH AHHH Cool Tutorial Very good concise and well writtten but you should maybee include some pics, but make sure they're good pics not ones that havent got red airbrush all over them and big arrows that say click.

 

[Evan1993]

Will I already new about this from here but yours seems like it has more details.

 

[Master]

*ahem*
Bump.
Keep the feedback coming.

 

[Sooda]

If the tutorial is about special effects some pics could be useful.

 

[SFilip]

Agreed.
Apart from that I see no reason why not to approve this.

 

[MakoInfused]

Good tutorial but...

This is a good tutorial, however when i used this tutorial to try to make a custom lightning effect everything seemed fine i imported just like mentioned and all of that...the only thing is it crashes EVERYTIME i try to use the ability i attached the lightning to. The error message crashed wc3 when i try to test play it something about a sharing violation. Please help...i really don't know what to do.

 

[Master]

1. Read the FAQ.
2. Did you use the correct path? the final pathing must be Splats\LightningData.slk

 

[MakoInfused]

ya i read the faq and followed it to the t.
also yes i did use that path, apparently there is something wrong with what i did with the splats\LightningData.slk because now everytime i use any lightning chain in any of my spells the game crashes...

 

[Master]

Maybe your ability is rigged?
e.g a chain lightning with the custom lightning effect and more than 20 bounces can crash the game.
Also, if you added some values to very high, e.g the R G B column to higher than 255?
Finally, did you add 1 in the value version column?

 

[Master]

Bumpity bump...