FF8/PlaystationMedia

By myst6re

FF8DISCX.IMG File Format

Almost all of the game files are hidden in the FF8DISCX.IMG (with X=disc number) file.

Root Files

In the case of a Japanese iso, the file begins directly with a list of file location and size, with the following format:

Offset	Size	Data
0	4	Location of file in sectors (relative to the start of the iso)
4	4	Size of file in bytes

In the case of a PAL iso, there are 5 unknown sectors (a sector = 2048 bytes in data, 2352 bytes in disk) before this list of files.

Notes:

• I do not have the American iso, please fix this article if you can.
• We do not know how many files there are in the list, neither file names!
• Each file in FF8DISCX.IMG are relative to the start of the iso!

ID	Filename (from PC version)	Notes
0	? + packcode.bin	Contains a font file (tim format)
2	field.bin	LZSed
3	wm2field.tbl	size= 72*24 bytes
4	? + mmagic.bin + mitem.bin + areames.dc1 + ?
7	? + pet_exp.bin + ?
9	? + mwepon.bin + mwepon.msg + shop.bin + price.bin + ?
11	? + mmag.bin + mthomas.bin
12	? + magsort.bin
15	? + mmag2.bin + cyocobo.bin
16	? + cardanm.sp2
17	? + mtmag.bin
21	mngrp.bin
22	init.out
23	Triple Triad (in ff8.exe in PC version)	Some Triple Triad tims (LZSed)
25	battle.bin (not present in PC version)
26	world.bin (not present in PC version)
30 -> 127	AKAO files (music)
128	kernel.bin
129	sysfnt.tdw
130	icon.tim
131	namedic.tim

Field Files

In the list of root files, the third file is in fact the "FIELD.BIN". This file is LZS compressed, and contains some informations, like the list of field files position and size.

Find the file list is approximate, I am trying to find some bytes: "\x04\x00\x05\x24\x18\x00\xbf\x8f\x14\x00\xb1\x8f\x10\x00\xb0\x8f\x20\x00\xbd\x27\x08\x00\xe0\x03\x00\x00\x00\x00" (size=28), normally, there is the list right after this sequence of bytes, and before the "\x00\x00\x01\x00\x02\x00\x03\x00" (size=8) sequence.

Order of files (sorted by id):

• D000.MCH -> D075.MCH files [id=0 -> id=76]
• Field files (MIM, DAT and LZK) [id=77 -> id=last]

There are three LZSed files for each field: EXAMPLE.MIM, EXAMPLE.DAT and EXAMPLE.LZK (Extension names *.MIM, *.DAT and *.LZK found in PC version, field.fs > mapdata.fs > map1.bak). If you want to convert Playstation fields to PC fields format, this is a concatenation of some PC files.

First file (*.MIM)

Offset	Size	Data
0	4	Location of section 3 in PSX RAM
4	4	Location of section 4 in PSX RAM
8	4	Unknown data [PVP]
12	438272	Background data [MIM]
438284 (section 3)	Varies	Font data [TDW]
Varies (section 4)	Varies	Particle Image Data [PMP]

Second file (*.DAT)

Offset	Size	Data	Section Data
0	4	Location of section 1 in PSX RAM	Triggers & gateways [INF]
4	4	Location of section 2 in PSX RAM	Camera [CA]
8	4	Location of section 3 in PSX RAM	Walkmesh [ID]
12	4	Location of section 4 in PSX RAM	Background infos [MAP]
16	4	Location of section 5 in PSX RAM	Movie cam [MSK]
20	4	Location of section 6 in PSX RAM	Battle rate [RAT]
24	4	Location of section 7 in PSX RAM	Battle formations [MRT]
28	4	Location of section 8 in PSX RAM	Sounds/AKAOs
32	4	Location of section 9 in PSX RAM	Texts [MSD]
36	4	Location of section 10 in PSX RAM	Particle Infos [PMD]
40	4	Location of section 11 in PSX RAM	Scripts [JSM]
44	4	Location of the end of file in PSX RAM
48	varies	Triggers and gateways
...	...	...	...

Third file (*.LZK)

Almost like the chara.one file. The main difference is that the models data are compressed.