Item Placement

Item Placement

IPL Sections: 2DFX • AUZO • BLOK • CARS • CULL • ENEX • GRGE INST • JUMP • LINK • LODM • MLO+ • MULT • OCCL PATH • PICK • RTFX • SLOW • TCYC • VNOD • ZONE

Item placement files, usually identified by the file extension .ipl, are a part of the map system and used to create and place (for example) different objects, zones of special behavior or paths in the world. All games support standard item placement files which are mostly stored in plain text format that can be opened and edited using any text-editing program (like Notepad), but there are tools to simplify editing of the newly introduced Binary Ipl in San Andreas. Most of the placement information in GTA IV is stored inside of binary files (see WPL).

Text Format

The structure and format of the plain text item placement files are similar to that of the item definition files. The game searches for these files in gta.dat.They allow comments by the character #.Lines starting with this character simply get ignored by the game & empty lines are also allowed. Since these files contain different types of data a keyword is required for the game to recognize each set of data.

 <keyword>
 *lines*
 end

More information about these keywords can be found below in the Fomats section.

See also: Item Definition § Overview

Binary Format

San Andreas introduced a simple binary format of item placement files. They are stored as "streaming files" inside the archive files. Editing them requires an special editor (see below). The format is pretty simple and their possibilities are not completely used by Rockstar. By default they do only support inst and cars sections. It is unconfirmed if other sections also can be used or if they are just stubs which are not implemented. Anyway, their binary format is completely unknown.

This section is incomplete. You can help by fixing and expanding it.

Header

Each binary placement information file starts with a 4-Byte identifier followed by a header containing information about the content of the files.

4b  - CHAR[4]   - Always "bnry"
4b  - INT32     - Number of item instances
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 1 (CULL ?)
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 2 (GRGE ?)
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 3 (ENEX ?)
4b  - INT32     - Number of parked cars
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 4 (PICK ?)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of item instances (0x4C by default)
4b  - INT32     - Size of item instances (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 1
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 1 (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 2
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 2 (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 3
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 3 (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of parked cars
4b  - INT32     - Size of parked cars (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 4
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 4 (unused - always 0)

The header is followed by the arrays of the entries.INST arrays have a size of 40 bytes per structure, and cars have 48 bytes.

INST

4b  - FLOAT    - Position X
4b  - FLOAT    - Position Y
4b  - FLOAT    - Position Z
4b  - FLOAT    - Rotation X
4b  - FLOAT    - Rotation Y
4b  - FLOAT    - Rotation Z
4b  - FLOAT    - Rotation W
4b  - INT32    - Object ID (as an index to the IDE)
4b  - INT32    - Interior
4b  - INT32    - LOD index

CARS

CARS is one of the known sections which can be used in binary format inside streaming files. It's format is similar to the plain text format:

4b  - FLOAT    - Position X
4b  - FLOAT    - Position Y
4b  - FLOAT    - Position Z
4b  - FLOAT    - Angle (Around Z-Axis)
4b  - INT32    - Object ID (an index to an vehicle definition)
4b  - INT32    - Primary color
4b  - INT32    - Secondary color
4b  - INT32    - Force spawn (Windows BOOL - see WinDef.h)
4b  - INT32    - Alarm probability
4b  - INT32    - Locked probability
4b  - INT32    - Unknown1 (Could be tertiary color)
4b  - INT32    - Unknown2 (Could be quarterdeck color)

Load a custom file

A basic comparison between a normal .ipl and a binary .ipl.

Normal:

15072, PLS_carpark, 0, 2579.8796445, 645.50208432, 9.93, 0, 0, 0, 1, -1

Binary:

15072, dummy, 0, 2579.8796445, 645.50208432, 9.93, 0, 0, 0, 1, -1

The object name is basically ignored in .ipl

Now for converting a text .ipl to binary .ipl and vice-versa,we can use fastman92-processor.Its a pretty simple program we can get most of the work done by editing the fastman92_processor.bat(Or can use Binary (De-)Compiler).

After converting to binary form we have to create a normal .ipl file and index it in Gta.dat.Lets suppose the name of our .ipl is

test.ipl

So the name of our binary .ipl would be as below,

test_stream0.ipl 
test_stream1.ipl 
test_stream2.ipl 
...
etc

Then we'll need to import them in any of the IMG Archives.

For a detailed tutorial see here.

Format

The following table contains all known sections in the item placement. The supported games column lists games that support the sections but it doesn't necessarily mean they're functional in the games.

Section	Supported games	Description
inst		Places objects defined in objs, tobj, anim, or tanm into the world.
zone		Creates map, navigation, and info zones.
cull		Creates zones with special attributes.
pick		Creates pickups. This section is only functional in San Andreas.
path		Creates waypoints for random NPC spawns. Note: this section is also present in San Andreas and GTA IV. It is used as a base for Rockstar's paths compiler, but gets ignored by the games. For more information see: Paths.
occl		Creates occlusion zones.
mult		This section is not functional.
grge		Creates garages.
enex		Creates entry-exit markers.
cars		Creates car generators (parked cars).
jump		Creates stunt jumps. This section is not functional in GTA IV.
tcyc		Creates time cycles modifiers.
auzo		Creates audio zones. This section is not functional in GTA IV.
mzon		–
vnod		Extended format of path – apparently only used for multiplayer mode.
link		–
blok		This section is not functional. Appears to be used to allocate responsibilities during the development stage of GTA IV, but also could be used to place decision makers.
mlo+		mlo placement – Used to place offsets for GTA IV's interiors. The interiors themselves get placed inside the IDE file section mlo.
2dfx		Used to make many game effects, for example - Particle.
lodm		–
slow		Unknown for what it is responsible, used very rare and only in two extended .WPL. Section contains a box.

Tools

• KEd – By JernejL
• MEd – By Tonywob
•  GTAForums: IPL Helper – By Xmen
• Binary (De-)Compiler – By ocram88
•  GTAForums: SA Binary IPL Exporter for 3DS Max – by Gforce
• fastman92processor – By fastman92

See also

• Item definition
• WPL – Major GTA IV item placement file.

External links

•  GTAForums: GTA3/VC Map File Documentation and Troubleshooting - Topic by Opius covering general features of IPL files in GTA3 and GTA VC.
•  GTAForums: GTA SA IPL Documentation - Topic by spaceeinstein covering details of the IPL format in GTA SA.