Difference between revisions of "Item Placement"

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(syntax same as IDE)
(lowercase section names)
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=== Binary format ===
 
=== Binary format ===
  
''San Andreas'' introduced an simple binary format of item placement files. They are stored as ''"streaming files"'' inside the [[IMG|archive files]]. Editing them requires an special editor (see [[IPL#Tools|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.
+
''San Andreas'' introduced an simple binary format of item placement files. They are stored as ''"streaming files"'' inside the [[IMG|archive files]]. Editing them requires an special editor (see [[IPL#Tools|below]]). The format is pretty simple and their possibilities are not completely used by ''Rockstar''. By default they do only support <code>inst</code> and <code>cars</code> 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.
  
 
{{Incomplete}}
 
{{Incomplete}}
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!Description
 
!Description
 
|-
 
|-
|[[INST]]||{{Icon|3}} {{Icon|VC}} {{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Most important section: places objects defined in [[OBJS]], [[TOBJ]], [[ANIM]] or [[TANM]] in the world.
+
|<code>[[INST|inst]]</code>||{{Icon|t}} {{Icon|4}}||Places objects defined in <code>[[OBJS|objs]]</code>, <code>[[TOBJ|tobj]]</code>, <code>[[ANIM|anim]]</code>, or <code>[[TANM|tanm]]</code> into the world.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[ZONE]]||{{Icon|3}} {{Icon|VC}} {{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates ingame regions.
+
|<code>[[ZONE|zone]]</code>||{{Icon|t}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates map, navigation, and info zones.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[CULL]]||{{Icon|3}} {{Icon|VC}} {{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates zones with special behaviour and influences to e.g. [[wikipedia:Non-player_character|NPC's]] or [[timecyc.dat|weather]].
+
|<code>[[CULL|cull]]</code>||{{Icon|t}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates zones with special attributes.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[PICK]]||{{Icon|3|16||GTA III (not functional)}} {{Icon|VC|16||Vice City (not functional)}} {{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Creates [[WEAP|weapon]] pickups.
+
|<code>[[PICK|pick]]</code>||{{Icon|3|16||GTA III (not functional)}} {{Icon|VC|16||Vice City (not functional)}} {{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Creates pickups.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[PATH]]||{{Icon|VC}}||Creates waypoints for random ''NPC'' spawns.<br>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]].
+
|<code>[[PATH|path]]</code>||{{Icon|VC}}||Creates waypoints for random ''NPC'' spawns.<br>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]]||{{Icon|VC}} {{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates occlusion zones for separated rendering.
+
|<code>[[OCCL|occl]]</code>||{{Icon|VC}} {{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates occlusion zones.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[MULT]]||{{Icon|SA|16||San Andreas (not functional)}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||&ndash;
+
|<code>[[MULT|mult]]</code>||{{Icon|SA|16||San Andreas (not functional)}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||&ndash;
 
|-
 
|-
|[[GRGE]]||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates zones for in-game garages.
+
|<code>[[GRGE|grge]]</code>||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates garages.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[ENEX]]||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates entrance and exit markers.
+
|<code>[[ENEX|enex]]</code>||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates entry-exit markers.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[CARS (IPL Section)|CARS]]||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates [[CARS (IDE Section)|car]] generators.
+
|<code>[[CARS (IPL Section)|cars]]</code>||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates car generators (parked cars).
 
|-
 
|-
|[[JUMP]]||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Creates unique stunt jumps.
+
|<code>[[JUMP|jump]]</code>||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Creates stunt jumps.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[TCYC]]||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates timecycle modifiers.
+
|<code>[[TCYC|tcyc]]</code>||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4}}||Creates time cycles modifiers.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[AUZO]]||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Creates zones playing an [[Stream|audio stream]] if the user enters it.
+
|<code>[[AUZO|auzo]]</code>||{{Icon|SA}} {{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Creates [[Stream|audio]] zones.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[MZON]]||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;
+
|<code>[[MZON|mzon]]</code>||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;
 
|-
 
|-
|[[VNOD]]||{{Icon|4}}||Extended format of ''PATH'' &ndash; apparently only used for [[Multiplayer#GTA_4|multiplayer]] mode.
+
|<code>[[VNOD|vnod]]</code>||{{Icon|4}}||Extended format of <code>path</code> &ndash; apparently only used for [[Multiplayer#GTA_4|multiplayer]] mode.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[LINK]]||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;
+
|<code>[[LINK|link]]</code>||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;
 
|-
 
|-
|[[BLOK]]||{{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Apparently ignored by the game &ndash; appears to be used to allocate responsibilities during the development stage of ''GTA IV'', but also could be used to place [[Ped_Event|decision makers]].
+
|<code>[[BLOK|blok]]</code>||{{Icon|4|16||GTA IV (not functional)}}||Apparently ignored by the game &ndash; appears to be used to allocate responsibilities during the development stage of ''GTA IV'', but also could be used to place [[Ped_Event|decision makers]].
 
|-
 
|-
|[[MLO+]]||{{Icon|4}}||MLO placement &ndash; Used to place offsets for ''GTA IV's'' [[interior]]s. The ''interiors'' themselfes get placed inside the [[IDE]] file section [[MLO]].
+
|<code>[[MLO+|mlo+]]</code>||{{Icon|4}}||<code>mlo</code> placement &ndash; Used to place offsets for ''GTA IV's'' [[interior]]s. The ''interiors'' themselves get placed inside the [[IDE]] file section <code>[[MLO|mlo]]</code>.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[2DFX (IPL Section)|2DFX]]||{{Icon|4}}||Used to make many game effects, for example - Particle.
+
|<code>[[2DFX (IPL Section)|2dfx]]</code>||{{Icon|4}}||Used to make many game effects, for example - Particle.
 
|-
 
|-
|[[LODM]]||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;
+
|<code>[[LODM|lodm]]</code>||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;
 
|-
 
|-
|[[SLOW]]||{{Icon|4}}||Unknown for what it is responsible, used very rare and only in two extended .WPL. Section contains a box.
+
|<code>[[SLOW|slow]]</code>||{{Icon|4}}||Unknown for what it is responsible, used very rare and only in two extended .WPL. Section contains a box.
<!--|[[RTFX]]||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;-->
+
<!--|[[RTFX|rtfx]]||{{Icon|4}}||&ndash;-->
 
|}
 
|}
  

Revision as of 06:51, 1 September 2017

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 behaviour 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. San Andreas is the first game to introduce a binary format for item placement files. Most of the placement information in GTA IV is stored inside of binary files (see WPL).

Overview

The structure and format of the item placement file is similar to the format of the item definition files.

Format and syntax description

See also: Item Definition § Format and syntax description

Binary format

San Andreas introduced an 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 an 4-Byte identifier followed by a header containing information about the files content.

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. For more information about their format see the articles about the sections.

Sections

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 means they're functional in the games. Mouse over the game icons to see if the games are supported.

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

Tools

See also

External links