FF8/FileFormat MIM

MIM Files

MIM files in the PC version of FF8 are a bit different from the MIM files found in the PSX version of FF7, there are no headers, no size information anywhere, the format seems to be fixed. Some files do not follow the pattern described below, presumably because they aren't paletted. Trying to load them using this scheme will result in a completely garbled display. These files can be identified by looking at the total filesize, paletted files are always 438272 bytes while non-paletted ones are 401408 bytes.

Palettes

The first section contains the palettes, always 24 palettes of 256 colors in native PSX format (R5G5B5 with one mask bit) for a total of 0x3000 bytes. The first 8 palettes are always the same, a repeating pattern of some basic colors, these palettes are never used, only the remaining 16 palettes can be accessed from the MAP file(?)

Image Data

The actual image data can be read as a single 1664x256 pixels image (always 0x68000 bytes) where one byte is one pixel and pixel values of 0 are transparent. FF8 splits the image into 13 textures, each one 128x256, this is not necessary on modern hardware.

The image contained in the MIM file is just a jumble of 16x16 tiles, to draw them properly you have to read the tile data from the .map file.