Reference · Formats

DBnnMOD.BIN, a database's models

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A database's models (DB22: 215): character parts, props, furniture. Loaded by load_models(db) (0x80044d00, file 242 + db), drawn by the hand-written model renderer (0x80010000) through an object's draw (0x80031b84 and others).

Layout

Little-endian.

u32  0xc0de0001
u16  count, u16 pad
u32  at[count]          low 21 bits: offset from the table's end;
                        high 11: the model's id, ascending; 0xffffffff: none
model
  +0x00 u32  link
  +0x04 u32  unknown_04          the loader writes the index here
  +0x08 u16  radius              the culling test's (0x80031834)
  +0x0a u16  unknown_0a
  +0x0c u32  bounds_at           16 bytes (s16 x, y, z, pad twice)
  +0x10 u16  vertices
  +0x12 u16  colours
  +0x14 u32  vertices_at         s16 x, y, z, w each
  +0x18 u32  colours_at          r, g, b, pad each (none when colours is 0)
  +0x1c u32  faces_at
faces: sections u16 kind, u16 count, records
  0x20 F3   0x28 F4    u32 flags, u8 v[4], u8 r, g, b, code     12 bytes
  0x30 G3   0x38 G4    u32 flags, u8 v[4], u8 colour index[4]   12 bytes
  0x24 FT3  0x2c FT4   u32 flags, u8 v[4], u8 r, g, b, pad,
  0x34 GT3  0x3c GT4     u8 u0, v0, u16 clut, u8 u1, v1, u16 tpage,
                         u8 u2, v2, u3, v3                       24 bytes
  0xff the end

The loader (0x80044c98) turns the four offsets into pointers and writes the index at +0x04. Everything else names a model by id, not by table position: model(id) (0x80044b74) binary-searches the table's high 11 bits. Hierarchy parts (through 0x80044e7c) and templates use it. Ids and positions agree in DB22 only up to 78 (position 79 holds id 102).

The search's upper bound starts at the count, not the count less one, and it ends by looking at its last two candidates; an id it misses gives offset 0, the first model stored. Models::get follows it and is checked against the original for every id 0-2047 of every MOD file. DB22's LP names models 519, 761, 818, 819 and 905, which only other databases have; those objects get offset 0 and the class-0 constructor hides them (see lp). The face kinds are the GPU's primitive codes, which the renderer switches on.

Measured

All 6286 models in the 31 readable MOD files parse to their last byte with these sizes (DB08MOD.BIN has no 0xc0de0001). Faces by kind: G3 95689, FT3 72490, F3 38346, G4 7123, FT4 6199, GT3 5220, F4 1594, GT4 231.

Drawing

An object's model is at object +0x88; draw_object (0x80031b84) sets the GTE to its transform (0x8001eb4c), tests the model's radius, and calls the renderer with the depth buckets (0x800ce238) and the context at 0x800de3b0; the projected vertices go to the scratchpad when the model has fewer than 126, to a buffer otherwise. Character textures are in CHARACTR.RAW, which main loads to VRAM (576, 256), 384 x 256, beside the database's A.RAW.

The renderer (0x80010000, hand-written) builds each packet's code from the face kind, ORs in (flags & 0x80) << 18 (bit 7 makes the face semi-transparent) and the word at context +0x48, and ORs the word at +0x4c into the tpage word. An untextured semi-transparent face is preceded by a draw mode (0x800106c0), E1 0x200 | (flags & 0x60), whose blend is the flags' bits 5-6. A textured one blends by its page. The opening's lens splash (model 1039, flags 0x80) is the case seen.

The face test (0x80010174 and kin):

• A face whose three projected vertices share an outside flag (the AND of their words, bits 16-20) is dropped.
• Flags bits 8-9 pick the depth that sorts it into the ordering table: neither, the average (AVSZ3, kept under 16000); bit 8, the farthest vertex; bit 9 alone, the nearest. The depth is then shifted right 2.
• Flag bit 0 skips the back-face test (NCLIP), so the face shows from both sides. The opening's milk spray (model 953) and hair strands use it.

Unknown

• The vertex's fourth halfword, the bounds block, unknown_0a, and the face flags' other bits.
• How GT faces' colours and the lighting combine (the renderer was not read past the vertex pass).