ScmDraft 2 - Alternative starcraft map editor

General Discussion
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What is it:
ScmDraft is an un-official map editor for StarCraft. It supports all map-making features available using the default map editor (StarEdit), but also supports additional features such as non-isometrical and extended terrain (Most common example of this is creating backwards ramps and wider ramps) which are used in most pro maps, direct sprite placement, copy+paste, brush management, extended map-debugging capabilities, and many more.

The latest official (stable) release is available here:
Installer
Stand alone ZIP
SC:R 1.23 support is included starting with release 0.9.9.

More up to date versions are also available, these contain newer features before they are finalized, bug-fixes for reported bugs, but may occasionally also contain newly introduced bugs. These are available here, along with the changes present in each build:
Dailies

A quick visual overview of the available features may be viewed here:
Screenshot Gallery

Configuration:
When starting scmdraft the location of the starcraft data files should be automatically detected. If this is not the case, then click “Edit” in the profile select screen to access the profile options, and set the starcraft path in the corresponding field.

See this screenshot for an example manual configuration:
Example
When using the editor with a 1.16.1 installation the fourth MPQ will need to be removed from the MPQ list.

To skip the profile select screen, add ‘-profile=Default’ to the shortcut used to launch ScmDraft. (Update the name of the profile as desired).

System Requirements:
I have not tested the editor on anything older than Windows 7, it may run on windows XP.
Other OSes:
A guide to running the editor under WINE for mac and Linux users is located here:
WINE guide

Reporting bugs:
In order to simplify bug reporting, please provide as many details as possible. If you run into a reproducible issue, either launch the program with the –console command line switch (e.g. via shortcut properties), or open the console from the debug menu located at the right. Include any warnings and errors which are printed to this window. If you encounter a crash, include a full dump if possible (Task manager → process details → scmdraft → right click, create dump file), or include the automatically generated minidump if not.

Changes between ScmDraft 0.8.0 and the current release:

  • Support for SC:R 1.22 doodads

  • Vastly extended the overlay options. It is now possible to visualize the terrain height, whether terrain counts as cover (provides dodge chance), building and unit placibility, set creep to transparent, and many other settings.

  • Visualize unit attack, detect, and vision ranges

  • Pathfinding region display. This is what the game uses to determine a rough path from point A to point B. This tool helps resolve unusual mining and pathing behavior.

  • Cut / Copy / Paste fog of war data

  • Cut / Copy / Paste a location

  • Various symmetrical terrain options. Use this if you want to make a map with mirrored or rotational symmetry without creating the rough design by hand.

  • Added new unit, unit-sprite, and pure-sprite palette windows.

  • Reworked palette windows for doodad palette, and user-defined brush palette. * Use the user-defined brushes to share predefined map chunks such as extended ramps.

  • Reworked the tileset palette to be resizable in all modes

  • Completely reimplemented the map settings window. Also added string filtering, multiple wav import, more…

  • Updated the UI in general to use more modern controls.

  • 4K (HiDPI) support

  • Fix player fog of war preview to take obscuring doodads into account

  • Many many bug fixes, stability improvements, performance enhancements, and internal structural improvements. (90%+ of the code has been extensively rewritten since the last 0.8.0 release in 2009)

  • Many other minor changes.

Note: Some options available in ScmDraft 2 are provided for backwards compatibility with StarCraft 1.16.1 and may not function with 1.18+ (Such as extended player colors).

Note: This project is developed in my free time, so development pace varies depending on commitments with my job, PhD, and other factors. I do try to check up on the forums at least once a day.

Use this thread to post feedback, suggestions, and report bugs.

Configuring profile manually

If the starcraft path is not autodetected, configure the settings as follows: profile settings. Note: The autodetected path may be empty or display not found.
Set the custom path option and enter the path where you have starcraft installed. This is not the starcraft directory under my documents, most common case is “C:\program files (x86)\StarCraft”. It should include a “data”, “x86”, and “x86_64” folder among other files. Make sure to set the starcraft version to 1.23 or to autodetect in the profile settings. If your settings dialog looks like this: example settings, then you are still using an older incompatible version.

The editor may not launch if the game is open. You will then get an error: “Unable to access the CASC data!”. It is possible to start the editor first, and then launch the game.

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3

Hey! Unsure whether you’d like questions in this thread, if not let me know. But i’m currently using v0.9.08 and the text based trigger editor won’t save any changes. Any idea what’s wrong?

1 Like
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Questions, comments, etc are fine here.

Make sure to hit the checkmark like icon in the toolbar (“Compile triggers”).

1 Like
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Awesome thanks : ) As a new user I never would have known you have to compile them like that in order to save. If you can’t save without compiling, maybe changing the menu option to Compile & Save would be a better way to handle that?

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Ya, the text trigedit needs a revamp. Its a plugin I have been maintaining but didn’t originally write myself, so for a long time I didn’t touch the code to let the original author work on it. Lately I have done a lot of work on the internals for EUD support, but not the UI.

There are also additional trigger plugins such as trigeditplus you may want to try.

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I have maybe an unrelated question, but when saving a map in SCMdraft I get a ton of options that I don’t recognize. What’s the difference between Remastered Hybrid Map, Broodwar Map, and Remastered Broodwar Map? I am specially confused by those last two sharing a file type. Likewise, what are the Raw variants used for?

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Originally there was only the 1.00 map format. This was the pre brood war map format (.scm).

With broodwar release there were two new ones: hybrid map (does not require broodwar, but did require 1.04 because it supported new features that were also added to the base game), and broodwar maps.

The SC:R 1.22 patch added new doodads to the game data (and a few other minor changes). So two new map formats were introduced to ensure that maps that used the new features were not used by 1.16.1 installs.

The raw variants are the map data without a MPQ which contains sound files - they are occasionally used in modding.

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Yep, very nice i got a big problem after changin something in one of missions briefings and after saving, it showed me an error and closed the programm, since than i can no longer open the map, i worked the hole day on this map please help me …
I cant open the map neither in SC nor in any of the editors …
Every time i try to open it, it displays " Error reading the “scenario.chk” file from the map MPQ. the utilized map MPQ format is not supported.". After pressing OK…
IT says “Could not load selected map (than it show the location). (hr =0x80004005)”
Thx for the effort…

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Do you know what the exact error message was?

You can check if an autosave copy of the map is in the backup database. (Menu -> advanced -> open backup database).

Temporary copies of the map are also saved as ‘ScmXXXX.tmp’, you can try renaming that to scm/scx and seeing if it opens.

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Doesnt let me to access the Back up database… and gives me a error message …

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And can you perhaps share the error?

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well, here it is… For the people who might get somethings from it … iave for my part have moved on…:
Error message after Advanced- open Backup Database:
Error:
22:46:13.0744- Error::Unable to display the backup database window.

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Sinsanity I’m not sure if ScmDraft2 is recognizing the StarCraft directory after the 1.23 patch. Every time I select the StarCraft directory when launching a profile it brings the directory browser back up.

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My update was a bit delayed, but now is available on the alpha page here. This has 1.23 support and a new, simpler, profile UI:

ScmDraft Alpha Releases

Please let me know if anything is not working. If no bugs show up in the next day or three it will become the next official release.

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Seems the Alpha release works great thanks!

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Ya I cant open maps now dafuc… I just tried to dl the .9 alpha and still not working… Which alpha download do you recommend

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buncha numbers followed by “Error::Unable to access the CASC data!”

This is from the 09’s release candidate alpha, when I press launch in the startup screen.

klauskervin which alpha did you install homie

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I can’t even open the map editor, it keeps asking me to locate the SCMDraft folder even though I already locate it!

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FOR SC:R 1.23 SUPPORT:

Make sure you are using the july 9th (or newer) version from here: Download list. You can unzip it and replace an existing install, or run it as a portable version from any folder.

If the starcraft path is not autodetected, configure the settings as follows: profile settings. Note: The autodetected path may be empty or display not found.
Set the custom path option and enter the path where you have starcraft installed. This is not the starcraft directory under my documents, most common case is “C:\program files (x86)\StarCraft”. It should include a “data”, “x86”, and “x86_64” folder among other files. Make sure to set the starcraft version to 1.23 or to autodetect in the profile settings. If your settings dialog looks like this: example settings, then you are still using an older incompatible version.

If you get an error message “Unable to access the CASC data!”, then the configuration is correct but the install is corrupt. You will need to scan/verify your installation using the bnet app.

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