Item Definition

Item Definition

IDE Sections: 2DFX • AMAT • ANIM • CARS • HIER • HAND • MLO • OBJS PATH • PEDS • TANM • TOBJ • TREE • TXDP • WEAP

Item definition files, usually identified by the file extension .ide, are used to declare many different aspects for the map system or to specify special behaviour rules for one of the aspects. They are stored in plain text format, so that they can be opened by any text editing program (like Notepad), but there are also some tools to simplify editing.

Overview

The item definition files are split up into several sections. There is no order on how you arrange the sections. Also you do not need to use all the sections in a file.

Format and syntax description

The basic structure of the different sections is pretty simple. Each section starts with a four-character section identifier indicating how the content of the section gets interpreted by the game. The identifier is followed by the definition entries. Each entry takes one line and every line follows certain rules which are described in the articles handling the sections in detail (see below). However lines can also be empty or commented. If so they get ignored by the games' parser. The end of every section are indicated by the terminating string "end". Both (section identifier and terminating string) are not case sensitive, but by default they are written in lower case.

Comments are usually indicated by the character # (number sign). It is possible to add comments to the end of a line, but breaking the line format for the current section using comments may cause the game to crash during loading. It is recommended that a comment should be placed on a separate line. Comments can also be placed outside of sections.

Lines itself are always formatted in the same way differing only in the number of their parameters describing the semantical content of the line. Parameters are usually separated by the character , (comma). Whitespace characters at the beginning or the end of an parameter get trimmed but they are usually used to give the content a more clear structure to make it more easier to read for human. Strings can be encased by the character " (quotation mark), but this is optional and rarely used by default. Also the games' parser uses an invariant culture to parse numerical values and strings. Which means strings are ASCII encrypted and the decimal separator is . (period).

Section example

objs
...
end

Sections

The following table contains basic information about all known sections. For additional information read the articles itself.

Identifier	Supported games	Description
OBJS		Most important section: defines objects for the map. These objects are placed through the INST section of the item placement files.
TOBJ		Functions similarly to OBJS, but it has two additional parameters defining the ingame time range the object can get rendered. These objects are placed through the INST section of the item placement files.
ANIM		Functions similarly to OBJS, but it has one additional parameter indicating an IFP or WAD animation file to assign an animation to the object. These objects are placed through the INST section of the item placement files.
PEDS		Used to define "pedestrians" (Random NPC's).
WEAP		Used to define weapons.
CARS		Used to define vehicles.
HIER		Used to define objects for use in cutscenes.
TXDP		Used to virtually extend texture dictionaries.
2DFX		Used to add particle effects and simple ped behaviors to defined objects.
PATH		Used to create waypoints for random NPC spawns (Paths).
TREE		–
TANM		Used to combine TOBJ and ANIM sections. Those objects get placed inside the INST section of the WPL.
MLO		Used to create interiors. This section does also contain information about portals (previous ENEX connections) and dimensions of the interior which influences certain aspects, like the weather, for example. All objects are placed relative to an offset placed using MLO+ inside the IPL or WPL file.
AMAT		This is Audio Materials. Possible Used to make a sound effect at the model. Usually used for dynamic objects.
HAND	VC XBOX	–

IDE Flags

Flags are used in order to specify the behaviour of objects. They are interpreted as signed 32-bit integer values where each bit describes a boolean value of a different aspect. The following table shows the standard flags used for objects defined in OBJS, TOBJ and ANIM section.

Flags are used to specify the behaviour of objects. They are signed 32-bit integer values where each bit describes a boolean value of an special aspect.

Flag	Supported games	Binary	Description
-1	–	1111 1111 1111 1111 1111 1111	Enables all flags.[a] Never used by default.
1		0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0001	Wet effect (objects appear darker).
2		0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0010	Do not fade the object when it is being loaded into or out of view.
4		0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 0100	Allow transparencies of other objects to be visible through this object.
8		0000 0000 0000 0000 0000 1000	Alpha transparency 2
16		0000 0000 0000 0000 0001 0000	Opposite to flag 2
32		0000 0000 0000 0000 0010 0000	Indicates an object to be used inside an interior.
64		0000 0000 0000 0000 0100 0000	Disables the shadow mesh to project a shadow; allow transparencies of other objects, shadows, and lights to be visible through this object.
128		0000 0000 0000 0000 1000 0000	Object surface will not be culled.
256		0000 0000 0000 0001 0000 0000	Disables draw distance (Only used for LOD objects with an LOD value greater than 299).
512		0000 0000 0000 0010 0000 0000	Object is breakable (like glass – additional parameters defined inside the object.dat file, otherwise there is no effect).
1024		0000 0000 0000 0100 0000 0000	Similar to flag 512: object first cracks on a strong collision, then it breaks (does also require object.dat registration).
2048		0000 0000 0000 1000 0000 0000	Indicates an object as an garage door (for more information see GRGE – requires object.dat registration).
4096		0000 0000 0001 0000 0000 0000	Indicates a multi mesh object (Object switches from mesh 2 to mesh 1 after collision – requires object.dat registration).
16384		0000 0000 0100 0000 0000 0000	Indicates a vegetation object (Object moves in wind).
32768		0000 0000 1000 0000 0000 0000	Uses object brightness from the current weather definition (See timecyc.dat – PoleShd).
65536		0000 0001 0000 0000 0000 0000	Object explodes after getting hit (requires object.dat registration).
131072		0000 0010 0000 0000 0000 0000	Unknown – apparently some flag for the Script.
262144		0000 0100 0000 0000 0000 0000	Unknown – only used 1 time in San Andreas.
1048576		0000 1000 0000 0000 0000 0000	Object will switch from mesh 2 to mesh 1 after getting sprayed by the player (graffity flag).
2097152		0001 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000	Disables backface culling – as an result the texture will be drawed on both sides of the model (Always enabled for GTA III and Vice City)
4194304		0010 0000 0000 0000 0000 0000	Unknown – apparently related into physics.
edit

• ^ Two's complement

GTA III

Bit	Value	Name	Description	Examples
0	1	NORMAL_CULL	Cull model if player doesn't look at it. Ignored in GTA 3.	Fences
1	2[1]	DO_NOT_FADE	Do not fade the object when it is being loaded into or out of view.	Some lampposts
2	4[1]	DRAW_LAST	Model is transparent. Render this object after all opaque objects, allowing transparencies of other objects to be visible through this object.	Trees
3	8	ADDITIVE	Render with additive blending. Previous flag must be enabled too.
4	16[1]	IS_SUBWAY	Model is a tunnel, i.e. set the object as invisible unless the player enters cull zone flag 128. This flag works only with static models.	Tunnels, some dynamic objects
5	32	IGNORE_LIGHTING	Don't use static lighting, we want dynamic if it's possible.	Some lampposts and trafficlights
6	64[1]	NO_ZBUFFER_WRITE	Model is a shadow. Disable writing to z-buffer when rendering it, allowing transparencies of other objects, shadows, and lights to be visible through this object.	Shadow

For flags defining different aspects of different definitions read the articles about their sections.

Difference between GTA III and GTA IV engines

GTA IV not only uses different formats to the previous games, it also does not use IDs to identify objects anymore. While GTA III era games use an ID as an index inside an array of definitions, GTA IV uses the hashes of the model name as a key inside a hash table. For more information about this see Map System.

Tools

• KEd – By JernejL
• MEd – By Tonywob
•  GTAGarage: IDEditor – By Xmen
•  GTAForums: IDE-IV in GTA-IV script centre – by Gforce
• FlagValue Calculator – By Aschratt - Calculates all flagvalues (even those unknown).

See also

• Item placement
• Map System
• Dynamic Object

References

• ^  GTAForums: Screenshots of flags in GTA III

External links

•  GTAForums: GTAVC IDE Definitions - topic by ODIE covering specific details of IDE files in GTA VC
•  GTAForums: GTA3/VC Map File Documentation and Troubleshooting - topic by Opius covering general features of IDE files in GTA3 and GTA VC
• ID Flagvalue Decoding Project - project to decode all missing flag values