Explanation of the WLD/SWD format used in Settlers 2 Written and mostly decrypted by Xaser Thanks: First of all --> FloSoft from the "Return to the Roots"-Team Others --> Vesa Piittinen, Andre Dahmen
Header Information
Offset Length Content 0 10 WORLD_V1.0 10 20 name of the map --> incl. the ending '\0' 30 2 width of the map, but this value is not necessarily the "right" width, it can be zero, so don't trust this data 32 2 height of the map, but this value is not necessarily the "right" height, it can be zero, so don't trust this data 34 1 type of the map: 0 = greenland, 1 = wasteland, 2 = winterland 35 1 number of players, reaches from 1 to 7 36 20 name of the author --> incl. the ending '\0' 56 14 seven "two-byte" values for x-positions of the players headquarters, if 'FFFF', player is not in game 70 14 seven "two-byte" values for y-positions of the players headquarters, if 'FFFF', player is not in game 84 8 unknown 92 2250 250 items with 9 Byte for area information: 1 Byte "Type", 2 Bytes "X", 2 Bytes "Y", 4 Bytes "Area" 2342 6 Hex 11 27 00 00 00 00 --> introduces any kind of 'sub-header' with the right information about width and height 2348 2 width of the map 2350 2 height of the map
In this big map header (250 items * 9 Bytes = 2250 Bytes) we have information about areas (land or water). This is important for seafaring. If this block isn't correct or has only 0x00, the ships won't move. The 9 Byte values are separated into:
0x01 land 0x02 water
Snow, swamp and lava are not counted and therefore have no type.
2 Bytes for the x-coord
2 Bytes for the y-coord
4 Bytes for the area
Example 1: 32x32 map only with water type = 0x02 x = 0x0000 y = 0x0000 area = 0x00040000 = decimal 1024 = decimal 32*32
Example 2: 32x32 map with water and a little hexagon with meadow that we set at position 8x8 water: type = 0x02 x = 0x0000 y = 0x0000 area = 0xF9030000 = decimal 1017 = decimal 32*32 - 7 (7 vertices for the meadow) meadow:type = 0x01 x = 0x0700 y = 0x0700 area = 0x07000000 = decimal 7
Now you could wonder why meadow is at 7x7 and not 8x8. If you save the map then the editor walks from the top to the bottom of the map and if it hits land it walks to the most left position of the land while not changing Y. Water is only counted if it is surrounded by land (a lake). So we could say every lake is counted, especially the biggest lake that is sourrounded by the map edges. NOTE: Water is only counted if it is at least a small hexagon. So the vertex has to be surrounded by water to be count. One thing may confuse you if you test with the editor: If you set textures and after that delete them, the editor doesn't delete x, y and area, it deletes only the type (sets it to 0x00).
From now the file is divided into 14 blocks with informations for the vertices, every block has a header. First block header starts always on 2352.
Note that i assume every triangle has a width of 56px and a height of 28px. (You can check this when you use the original editor to create a 32x32 map and then save a 1:1 picture of this pic. The new picture will have a width of 32x56 and a height of 32x28.) If i say RSU-Triangle, i mean RightSideUp-Triangle. This is a triangle that has the bottom point up. If i say USD-Triangle, i mean UpSideDown-Triangle. This is a triangle that has the bottom point down.
Position Length Content 1 6 HEX 10 27 00 00 00 00 --> introduces each header 2 2 width of the map 3 2 height of the map 4 2 always 01 00 5 4 length of the following data block, this equals width*height After this informations the data block follows. Every data block has 1-Byte values.
This block contains the altitude information of each vertex. It is necessary to calculate the y- and z-coordinates of the vertex. Minimum is 0x00. Maximum is 0x3C. Standard is 0x0A. (even)
This block contains the texture information for the RSU-Triangles.
This block contains the texture information for the USD-Triangles.
POSSIBLE TEXTURE VALUES: (for harbour you only need to add 0x40)
TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE_MEADOW1 0x00 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE_MEADOW1_HARBOUR 0x40 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MINING1 0x01 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_SNOW 0x02 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_SWAMP 0x03 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE 0x04 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_WATER 0x05 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_WATER_ 0x06 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE_ 0x07 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MEADOW1 0x08 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MEADOW1_HARBOUR 0x48 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MEADOW2 0x09 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MEADOW2_HARBOUR 0x49 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MEADOW3 0x0A TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MEADOW3_HARBOUR 0x4A TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MINING2 0x0B TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MINING3 0x0C TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MINING4 0x0D TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE_MEADOW2 0x0E TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE_MEADOW2_HARBOUR 0x4E TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_FLOWER 0x0F TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_FLOWER_HARBOUR 0x4F TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_LAVA 0x10 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_COLOR 0x11 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MINING_MEADOW 0x12 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_MINING_MEADOW_HARBOUR 0x52 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_WATER__ 0x13 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE__ 0x80 TRIANGLE_TEXTURE_STEPPE___ 0x84
These are the greenland textures. Wasteland and winterland have the same values but other names.
road informations
This data block tells us what a road to render from the vertex to its right vertex, lower left vertex or lower right vertex.
0x00 no road 0x01 normal road 0x02 main road (darker than normal road) 0x03 water road
At first the road from the vertex to its lower left vertex: -->Calculate 'RaodInformation/16' (only the integer value) and decide.
Now the road from the vertex to its lower right vertex: -->Calculate '(RaodInformation%16)/4' (only the integer value) and decide.
At least the road from the vertex to its right vertex: -->Calculate '((RaodInformation%16)%4)%4' and decide.
Minimum is 0x00 Maximum is 0x3F
The following blocks 5 and 6 belong together. The first block contains an object type like 'tree' or 'granite' and the second block contains an object information that classifies the object type. It is some kind of 'category'.
object type
Don't worry about the "or's", cause what kind of tree it really is depends on block 6
0x30 - 0x37 pine or palm2 or fir 0x70 - 0x77 birch or pineapple 0xB0 - 0xB7 oak or cypress 0xF0 - 0xF7 palm1 or cherry Wasteland and winterland have the same values, but other names.
Why are there 8 pictures for every tree? Remember the trees are moving (otherwise it would look boring), so there are 8 pictures for each tree with little differences. Drawing picture after picture let's the tree look like there is wind. Now you could ask, why save different values for each picture and not only one value for every tree and drawing from picture 1 to 8 for each tree instead? The answer is simple: the trees would move synchronous and that would look boring too. So the editor sets random values for each tree and make the trees moving asynchronous that way.
0x01 - 0x06 granite
0x00 mushroom1 0x01 mushroom2 0x02 stone1 0x03 stone2 0x04 stone3 0x05 trunk of dead tree 0x06 dead tree 0x07 bone1 0x08 bone2 0x10 bush2 0x11 bush3 0x12 bush4 0x0A bush1 0x0C cactus1 0x0D cactus2 0x0E shrub1 0x0F shrub2 0x13 shrub3 0x14 shrub4 0x18 stalagmite1 0x19 stalagmite2 0x1A stalagmite3 0x1B stalagmite4 0x1C stalagmite5 0x1D stalagmite6 0x1E stalagmite7 0x22 mushroom3 0x25 pebble1 0x26 pebble2 0x27 pebble3
If we have a 0x80 in the block 6 "object info", then we have the player number here, from 0x00 to 0x06.
object info
0xC4 pine, birch, oak, palm1 0xC5 palm2, pineapple, cypress, cherry 0xC6 fir Wasteland and winterland have the same values, but other names.
0xC8 landscape objects, see list in block 5 beginning with mushroom1 (0x00) and ending with pebble3 (0x27) 0xCC granite 0xCD granite
0x80 headquarters of a player
animal data
0x01 rabbit 0x02 fox 0x03 stag 0x04 roe 0x05 duck 0x06 sheep
unknown
build informations
This data block tells us what can be built at each vertex. Calculate 'BuildInformation%8' and decide: 0x00 no building 0x01 flag 0x02 small house 0x03 middle house 0x04 great house 0x05 mine 0x06 no building 0x07 no building
If you want to know how the original settlers 2 editor and game calculates the BuildInformation, take a look at: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~xaser/%2Bjunk/s2mapeditor/annotate/head%3A/CMap.cpp The function called 'modifyBuild(.....)' is what you need.
unknown - always 0x07
unknown
resource data
0x21 water 0x87 fish
0x41 - 0x47 coal 0x49 - 0x4F ore 0x51 - 0x57 gold 0x59 - 0x5F granite
Shading values.
Minimum is 0x00. Maximum is 0x80. Standard is 0x40. (even)
The editor calculates shading (light) values for each vertex. Note that the gouraud shading in settlers 2 is precalculated. The game trusts this data and uses it to get the right color value from one of the GOUx.DAT-files (x = 5-Greenland, 6-Wasteland, 7-Winterland). This files contain a color value for each of the light values the editor set. If you plan to change this block to see what happens, you have to load this map in the game to see it. The editor is not interested in this block cause it calculates the values from scratch.
If you want to know how the original settlers 2 editor and game calculates the ShadingInformation, take a look at: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~xaser/%2Bjunk/s2mapeditor/annotate/head%3A/CMap.cpp The function called 'modifyShading(.....)' is what you need.
In the GOUx.DAT files there are color values ( = color indices = mapped rgb data 8bpp). If you want to shade a pixel, you have to read it from the tileset (the 8bit pixel value) and you need the shading value from this block (more specifically the interpolated value at the point you want to draw). The GOUx.DAT files are two-dimensional arrays, for every of the 256 possible shading values (0x00 - 0xFF) every shaded palette is saved in this array. So do the following to get the new color value for a given color value and a given shading value:
new_color_value = $GOUx.DAT[$shading_value][$color_value]
unknown