World Builder

World Builder

The World Builder (WB) is Relic's official map editor for Dawn of War 2. Initially released during the 1.4.1 patch beta test over Steam on July 3rd, 2009. TASK3r (a Relic developer) has stated that the WB is nearly identical to what they use internally despite its instability. The WB works with .wb-scenario files and associated .info, .layers, .scenariomarker, .xml and .scar files. These files together compose of a single map.

Using the WB

The WB is located is DoW2's root directory: WorldBuilder.exe. Relic has included a simple reference map: “4p_SmallDemo”.

If using MS Vista operating system the WB will require administrative privileges. To start the WB with admin privileges, right-click WorldBuilder.exe and select ‘Run as administrator’.

The WB runs at the highest visual quality. Therefore, it’s recommended to use a machine that can run DoW2 at High to Ultra visual settings. Lower specification machines will potentially render maps incorrectly.

The WB will crash without warning. Save often!

Opening an existing map

The WB opens the .wb-scenario file type. Maps correctly placed within the work environment should be located in the ”<root>/Assets/Maps/PvP” directory.

Opening an existing official DoW2 map requires extra steps.

You will need to extract the maps from the gamemaps.sga SGA archive.
Then place the .scenario file and all associated files in the correct aforementioned directory.
Lastly rename the .scenario file to .wb-scenario. There are reportedly a few compatibility issues, but the map should open without issue.

See the SGA file and modding tools articles for more information

Creating a new map

How to create a new map:

Select File→New in the menu.
Choose an appropriate size for the map.
Name the map by selecting Scenario→Scenario Properties and write the name in the 'Map Name' field.
Save the map for the first time using File→Save As… and save to the ”<root>/Assets/Maps/PvP” directory.

By making the Terrain size larger than the Playable Area the outskirts of the map can be made more aesthetically appealing.

A DoW2 official 1 vs 1 map never has a smaller playable area than 256 by 256, and a 3 vs 3 map never larger than 512 by 512.

Saving a map

The World Builder will save by default to <root>/Assets/Maps. If maps are not saved to the <root>/Assets/Maps/PvP folder they will not be baked to the correct location for the game. For now it is assumed custom campaign maps also go into this location.

Make sure you have named your map before you save it (see Creating a new map). Save a map for the first time using File→Save As… in the menu. It is very important to save to the correct directory (see note above).

Subsequent saves should use File→Save & Bake. This will save additional changes to the map and bake the files, making the map ready to be played.

If the WB crashes while saving you may have placed too many entities on the map or too many entities in close proximity. There should be no more than 40 000 pathfinding sectors and no entity can cover 200 sectors.

Tutorials

Getting a map ingame

See the tutorials article for a list of all DoW2 tutorials