World of Warcraft®

As many of you have already discovered, one of the focal points of the new World of Warcraft community site is, well… you! Not only do you have a variety of controls at your fingertips, but you’re now represented by unique 3D renders of your in-game characters. These new character images will appear in your Armory profile, in the character card once you’re logged in, and whenever you post a comment or reply.

A number of players have been asking for more information about how these 3D renders, so we’ve put together an FAQ to explain how they work and how they’re created.

Q. How are the character images featured on the new community site generated?
A. We created an image rendering platform (which we'll refer to as a static renderer) that uses game data to render 3D images of your character.

Q. How many images are rendered for a given character?
A. We render four different images:

• An Armory profile image
• An Armory inset image
• An avatar image
• And a character card image

Q. When are these images rendered?
A. Whenever a character logs out of the game, a request is automatically sent to the static renderer for a new set of website images. These requests are processed in the order they are received and will typically be completed within 3 to 5 minutes. During peak gaming hours, however, when character populations can change rapidly, it may take longer for your character images to update and appear on the community site.

Q. Why doesn’t my character show the same pose that I have set for the old Armory?
A. Currently, we're only rendering characters in preset poses. Following the final launch of the Armory, though, we’re considering allowing characters to set positions and animations through Adobe® Flash® or a similar site component. We’ll provide more information as the development process continues.

Q. Why are my item enchant effects not displaying?
A. The image rendering platform does not currently support particle effects, so this may cause some minor inconsistencies between how your character appears in-game and on the community site -- including the display of item enchant effects.

Q. My avatar is just a plain silhouette? What gives?
A. If your character avatar is displaying as a generic silhouette, this can mean one of two things:

• Your selected character is under level 10.
• You have not recently played the selected character.

If your character is above level 9, be sure to log into the character and then back out. This should queue a request for the static renderer and allow your character images to update appropriately.

Q. Okay. I logged into my character and then backed out, but neither my profile image nor my avatar has updated. What now?
A. If you logged out during peak gaming hours, keep in mind that it may take a while for your new image to render. Check back in few hours and your character images should be refreshed.

Q. What if I want to use a bank alt or some other character that isn’t level 10 yet? Am I stuck with the silhouette?
A. If a character is under level 10, it will only receive a default silhouette avatar to be used on the forums as well as in page comments. Consider this a motivation to level that character, or an opportunity to remain dark and mysterious.

Q. Why does my death knight have a silhouette of a human? My death knight isn’t human.
A. Typically, default silhouettes are based off of race, not class. Death knights are a special case, however, as we provide their avatars a custom class background. Until an image is rendered for a death knight, the death knight silhouette will default to human.

Q. What if I want a special pose, item, or background to appear in my character’s image. Is that possible?
A. No. We're unable facilitate one-off requests or custom renders. You can still customize how your character appears on the community site by using things like holiday items and lower-level quest rewards, however. Get creative -- you may be surprised at the results!

Q. What if there appears to be something wrong with my character images?
A. If you believe you've encountered a possible issue with the website, you can submit a report in the Website Bug Report thread. Before posting, we ask that you please use the integrated search function located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen to check to see if your issue has already been reported by another player.

Q. Where I can leave feedback?
A. If you would like to provide feedback on the website or recommend additional features and/or functionality, please visit the Website Features Request thread.