RpGeometry

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RenderWare Stream Section
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Module	{{{MODULENAME}}}
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Versions	All
Hierarchy
Parents: None
Children: None
Extensions: None
File Format

Geometry is a container section used in DFF files as child of a Geometry List section. The section itself does not store any data at all. All additional information get stored inside a struct section which directly follows this one as a child. Geometry is one of the most important sections inside a .dff model file. It stores geometry information for models (like the mesh and the texture maps).

Structure

The structure differs for most files, but it always gets introduced by the following set of values:

2b - WORD   - Flags (See below)
1b - BYTE   - Number of UV coordinates (up to 8 sets of UVs, GTA default is 1, 2 for vehicles with reflection maps)
1b - BYTE   - Geometry native flags
                // 0x01 rpGEOMETRYNATIVE
                // 0x02 rpGEOMETRYNATIVEINSTANCE
4b - DWORD  - Triangle count
4b - DWORD  - Vertex count
4b - DWORD  - Number of morphing targets (blend shapes). Morphing is not used in GTA series, so only one "target" is presented.

For all versions below 3.4.0.3 also some lightning color values are stored.

4b - float  - Ambient
4b - float  - Diffuse
4b - float  - Specular

Flags

The following flags descripe the behaviour of the mesh during the rendering progress. Some of the flags indicate the existance of data inside the following file format.

Flag	Binary	Description
1	0000 0000 0000 0001	Is triangle strip (if disabled it will be an triangle list)
2	0000 0000 0000 0010	Vertex translation (D3DFVF_XYZ)
4	0000 0000 0000 0100	Texture coordinates 1 (D3DFVF_TEX1)
8	0000 0000 0000 1000	Vertex colors (D3DFVF_DIFFUSE)
16	0000 0000 0001 0000	Store normals (D3DFVF_NORMAL)
32	0000 0000 0010 0000	Dynamic vertex lightning (?)
64	0000 0000 0100 0000	Modulate material color
128	0000 0000 1000 0000	Texture coordinates 2 (D3DFVF_TEX2)

All of those flags (except the first) are used to build up the flexible vertex format (FVF) ^[2].

Prelightning/Vertex colors

If flag 8 is enabled vertex color information for each vertex get stored up next:

4b - DWORD  - Vertex color (RwRGBA)

With San Andreas Rockstar's engine is able to change the vertex colors for ingame nights. Therefor there is an custom section called Night Vertex Colors. This prevents the game from loading new models at different times and increments the performance of the engine. Previous games stored copies of the model with different prelightning information and defined it inside the TOBJ IDE section.

Texture/UV coordinates

If flag 4 or 128 is set texture coordinates are following next. If both are set then the texture coordinates for the first texture of all vertices are listed before the texture coordinates for the second chanel of all vertices. There's a maximum of 8 sets for texture coordinates, but GTA games use only first (diffuse map) or second (reflection map) set.

4b - FLOAT  - Texture coordinate U
4b - FLOAT  - Texture coordinate V

Triangles

The following array holds indices and material IDs for each triangle. The number of indices is represented by the third multiple of the triangle count value. So for each triangle the following format gets used:

2b - WORD   - Index of second vertex
2b - WORD   - Index of first vertex
2b - WORD   - Material ID
2b - WORD   - Index of third vertex

NOTE! Since vertex index number is limited within 16 bits value, it's not possible to store more than 65535 vertices in Geometry.

Bounding information

The bounding information are used to check weather the mesh is visible for the camera, or not. It only exists once per geometry section.

4b - FLOAT  - Center X
4b - FLOAT  - Center Y
4b - FLOAT  - Center Z
4b - FLOAT  - Radius of bounding sphere
4b - DWORD  - Has positions
4b - DWORD  - Has normals

The central vector (RwV3d) describes the center of the bounding sphere as an offset from the placement of the object inside the real world.

Vertex translation info

The number of vertices gets defined inside the geometry structure. If flag 2 is set the translation information gets stored for each vertex as a RwV3d:

4b - FLOAT  - Position X
4b - FLOAT  - Position Y
4b - FLOAT  - Position Z

The position values are an offset relative to the mesh pivot.

Normals

In case flag 16 is set the normal vectors are the last part of the geometry data structure. They are also stored as a RwV3d for each vertex:

4b - FLOAT  - Direction X
4b - FLOAT  - Direction Y
4b - FLOAT  - Direction Z

Child sections

• Material List

Extension

The extension of an geometry usually holds the following sections in the order they are listed in here:

• Bin Mesh PLG
• Native Data PLG – (Only for consoles)
• Skin PLG
• Mesh Extension
• Night Vertex Colors
• Morph PLG
• 2dfx

See also

• Geometry List
• RW file format specification

References

^ * http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172518%28VS.85%29.aspx
^ * http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb172559%28VS.85%29.aspx