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→PC to PSX comparison
The files and data formats used in the PSX version of FF7 and it's PC port are conceptually the same thing, and accomplish the same tasks. That being said, they both have wildly different formats. Both ofwhich were derived from a third original format that is also somewhat different that the first two.
The original PSX FF7 was created in part using Sony's Psy-Q development library. This library usescommon formats that are "native" to the PSX. Often times a toolkit was used to convert commondevelopment- based formats, such as a TGA bitmap or a palleted GIF file, to something a little more suited to Psy-Q, which would be a [[PSX/TIM_fileTIM_format|TIM file]].
During the porting process to the PC, some of the original artwork, (and artists for that matter), wereno longer available. This resulted in the port team having to use the Psy-Q versions of many files,which were ill suited for the PC architecture. In our example, the [[PSX/TIM_fileTIM_format|TIM file]] was converted to a TEX file,which would be manipulated in the PC's video memory a little more efficiently. Sometimes the original artwork was available, such as the pictures of the characters within the menu, or the original MIDI files. Most often times it was not.
To make things a little more confusing, both systems also archive their data files in different ways, making the extraction and rendering of each file a bit of a bear. For the most part the data within each file is the same thing, just a little switched around. This manual will cover the more generic files first,and then common files used in each module.
