FF8/WorldMap rail

By MaKiPL

Info

Rail.obj is a file containing key locations of train movement. It stores location on world map, and the train automatically rotates, gives power and calculates needed info (like cargo rotation and etc.) This file cannot be compressed. Doing so makes the game don't recognize the file.

File scheme

The file is built the similiar way as World map WMX.obj. The engine is loading animation for specific train every 0x800 bytes (2048). Always. Animation cannot be larger than 2048, and if is smaller than 2048 bytes, then what's left is filled with 00. One animation frame is 16 bytes.

• Looks like the game is ignoring frame counts and just reads it as is.

Offset	Length	Description
0	Byte	Count of animation frames
1	Byte	Unknown
2	10 bytes	Unknown
varies	count * 16 bytes	Animation frames
varies	varies	Padding / 00

Animation key frame

Offset	Length	Description
0	4 Bytes signed*	X Axis
4	4 Bytes signed*	Z Axis
8	4 Bytes signed*	Y Axis
12	4 Bytes	Unknown/ some text**

• Location on world map (global) is saved upon 4 bytes. To better understand this (and in fact-operate/hack) just convert it to decimal. Vars are in big-endian.

00 00 FE FF is far west. FF FF 01 00 is far east.

• • If filtered out, represents some plaintext, like C:\FF8... - probably encoded dialogs/text. TO BE CHECKED USING CHARMAP!