HWMAP Converter

Extract text from Hedgewars drawn maps (HWMAP)


Drop or upload your .HWMAP file
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How to extract text from your HWMAP file

  1. Click the "Select File" button above, and choose your HWMAP file.
  2. You’ll see a preview, if available.
  3. Click the "Convert file to..." button to extract text information.

Convert HWMAP to another file type

To convert HWMAP drawn maps to another format, you need Hedgewars or other Game software.

Convert a file to HWMAP

To convert other file formats to the "Game Map File" file type, you need software like Hedgewars or a similar tool.


About HWMAP files

A .HWMAP file is a proprietary game map file created by the open-source turn-based strategy game Hedgewars. It stores terrain data for custom levels drawn by players using the in-game map editor. Instead of standard image pixels, the file contains a mathematical sequence of coordinates and special points that define polylines (shapes and lines) that form the game's destructible terrain. The main disadvantage of the .HWMAP format is its highly specialized nature. It is not a standard image file. Under the hood, the raw polyline data is base64-encoded and then compressed using Qt's qCompress algorithm. Because of this custom encoding, you cannot open a .HWMAP file in standard image editors like Photoshop, nor can you view it natively in web browsers. It requires the Hedgewars engine to unpack, render, and play the map. If you want to share your custom Hedgewars map outside the game or use it in other graphic design projects, you will typically need to convert it into a standard raster or vector format, such as PNG, JPG, or SVG. However, because this is a closed, game-specific format, standard online image converters fail to process it. If our analysis detects the base64 or Qt-compressed data, viewing or conversion may still be possible.

Convert.Guru analyzes your HWMAP file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.


FAQ

If you want to convert HWMAP file to SHP, KML, KMZ, GPX, GEOJSON, TOPOJSON, TIF, TIFF, ECW, SID, IMG or DEM, you can use Hedgewars or similar software from the "Game Terrain Map" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….

To convert LAZ, KMZ, DTM, CSV, DEM, PRJ, LAS, GPX, DSM, SHP, DBF or KML files to HWMAP, try Hedgewars or another comparable tool in the "Game Terrain Map" category.



The HWMAP Converter Story

The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our HWMAP converter.