Maya WarTex (BLP Image Loader)

This is a small Autodesk Maya plugin written using the .NET API. It adds support for loading BLP (a legacy texture format used by Warcraft III and World of Warcraft) image files via MPxImageFile, allowing them to be opened as regular image files inside Maya.

There's no direct GPU loading (the glLoad() method) here, only the MImage instance is initialized. Mipmaps are ignored.

Dirty MEL hack

The project also demonstrates how image file extensions can be registered in Maya’s Image Types list at runtime using MEL from managed code.

Maya does not provide a public API for this in MPxImageFile, so a MEL-based workaround is required.

Target DCC

Made for .NET 8 compatible versions of Maya (Maya 2025 or later), Windows only.

For Maya 2024 and earlier, plugin requires a BLP reader library compatible with .NET Framework 4.8. The image format integration code remains relevant for these versions, but adjustments to syntax may be necessary.

Installation

1. Download a build for your version of Maya from the releases page, or build it yourself using the dependencies.
2. Copy all dll files to ...\Maya202x\bin\plug-ins.
3. Start Maya and load the plug-in using the MEL command loadPlugin -qt wartex.nll.dll, or open the Windows -> Plug-in Manager menu, find wartex.nll.dll, and check both Loaded and Auto load.

Dependencies

• War3Net.Drawing.Blp by Drake53. Used as a NuGet package for reading and decoding BLP textures.
• openmayacs.dll. Maya .NET API assembly provided with Autodesk Maya.