MPQ Archives

Storm.dll

Dynamic Library "Storm.dll"

Procedures for reading files from archives are stored in the dll "Storm.dll", which is deployed with all current Blizzard games. This DLL contains also memory management functions, network games support and other. The library exists also for Mac, named Storm.bin.

But a DLL can be used with any application, which violates the original request on secure archives. If you use a tool for listing exported functions from a DLL, (e.g. Depends.exe from MS Visual C++), you can use the listed procedure names to found which ones serve for file extracting. Because of this, its authors made some restrictions in Storm.dll to make its using more difficult.

• The Storm.dll library contains only archive reading functions. Archive writing functions (saving games, creating maps etc.) are present in the executable files directly (Game.exe, StarEdit.exe), where is very hard to use them.
• From the game Diablo, version 1.04, the Storm.dll library does not export function names, but only their ordinals. This make function using more difficult, at last is not obvious the function usage at the first sight.
• Since the same game version, Storm.dll can be used only when it is linked statically, using import library. If it is attached using LoadLibrary, the library will corrupt internal decrypt buffer and functions for file reading will not work anymore. Using Storm.dll by non-Blizzard programmers is thus more dificult.
• Since shipping the game of World of Warcraft, Blizzard stopped using this library. The code necessary for reading MPQ archive is linked directly into the main executable.

You can find detailed description of functions which work with archived files in the chapter StormLib library functions.

Using Storm.dll

If you want to use Storm.dll in your applications, you have to link it using import library. This import library with header file (containing function prototypes) is available for download in the Download section.

Staredit.exe

StarEdit is the map editor, released with the game of StarCraft. Maps for StarCraft (and also for WarCraft III) are nothing else than MPQ Archives. This means, that StarEdit.exe contains procedures, which can create and edit MPQ archives.

But StarEdit is not a DLL, so you cannot load it using the LoadLibrary API. A Russian programmer Andrej Lelikov has written a code which loads StarEdit to memory, performs necessary relocations and allows to call functions for creating MPQs. You may find detailed description in the LMPQAPI Functions chapter.