Saves (GTA SA)
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Location and Format Overview
- 3 Format Details
- 3.1 Data Blocks
- 3.1.1 Block 0: Miscellaneous
- 3.1.2 Block 1: Script
- 3.1.3 Block 2: Objects
- 3.1.4 Block 3: Garages
- 3.1.5 Block 4: (Unknown)
- 3.1.6 Block 5: Disabled Pathnode Cubes
- 3.1.7 Block 6: Pickups
- 3.1.8 Block 7: (Unused)
- 3.1.9 Block 8: Restart Locations
- 3.1.10 Block 9: Radar Blips
- 3.1.11 Block 10: Zones
- 3.1.12 Block 11: Gang weapons
- 3.1.13 Block 12: Car Generators
- 3.1.14 Block 13: (Unused)
- 3.1.15 Block 14: (Unused)
- 3.1.16 Block 15: Player data
- 3.1.17 Block 16: Stats
- 3.1.18 Block 17: Police trigger zones
- 3.1.19 Block 18: Models
- 3.1.20 Block 19: Ped Acquaintances
- 3.1.21 Block 20: Tags
- 3.1.22 Block 21: IPL
- 3.1.23 Block 22: Shopping
- 3.1.24 Block 23: Gang wars
- 3.1.25 Block 24: Unique Stunt Jumps
- 3.1.26 Block 25: ENEX Connections
- 3.1.27 Block 26: Missions data
- 3.1.28 Block 27: Entrance markers
- 3.2 Padding
- 3.3 Checksum
- 3.1 Data Blocks
Introduction
This article deals with the format of a saved game file for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (GTASA). It is specifically geared towards the PC version(s) but much of it may be applicable to console versions too.
Location and Format Overview
By default, GTASA places its saved game files into the folder "GTA San Andreas User Files" which is located in the current user's Documents folder. The location of this folder varies depending upon the version of Windows installed. Some typical locations for a user with an account named "Fred" would be:
- C:\My Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files -- Windows 98 Example
- C:\Documents and Settings\Fred\My Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files -- Windows XP Example
- C:\Users\Fred\Documents\GTA San Andreas User Files -- Windows Vista Example
Obviously those locations can vary based upon different Windows configurations or installation options. Note also that the executable can be modified to use a different file location through the use of a hex editor and special registry key in a process outlined at GTAForums
The save files themselves are named in the format GTASAsfX.b where X represents the in-game slot number. So, the game saved in slot 1 will be stored in the save file GTASAsf1.b and the game saved in slot 5 will be stored in the save file GTASAsf5.b. There are 8 slots available in the game (1-8). GTASA save files are always 0x31800 bytes long (202,752 in decimal) and are not compressed or encoded in any way.
Format Details
A GTASA save file consists of 28 "blocks" of data followed by some duplicated data for padding and then ending with a checksum value. Each of these elements is described below.
Data Blocks
Each data block consists of the 5 characters BLOCK followed by a variable amount of data; in general, each block has its own unique internal format. The format descriptions in this article only deal with those internal block formats which follow the initial BLOCK identifier and all offsets start at the byte following the BLOCK identifier for the given block.
Note that many of the blocks contain data structures. These structures are aligned along 4-byte boundaries; thus if there's a field with size 1 or 2 bytes in the end of structure, there are also additional unused bytes present at the end of the structure which pad it to fill the remaining space. This type of gap can also occur in the middle of a structure. The convention used by this article is to mark such gaps as an array of bytes with the description (Align) .
Block 0: Miscellaneous
Game "meta-information" giving the overall state of things. This block has a constant length of 0x138 bytes
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x0000 dword version ID (checksum of a string describing the time of compilation. See note 1 below) 0x0004 char[100] save name (long names are truncated on the save/load screen. See note 2 below) 0x0068 byte current mission pack 0x006C dword current town (island) 0x0070 float[3] camera coordinates (x,y,z) 0x007C dword length (ms) of in-game minute 0x0080 dword weather timer 0x0084 byte current in-game month 0x0085 byte current in-game month day 0x0086 byte game hour 0x0087 byte game minute 0x0088 byte weekday 0x0089 byte current in-game month (copy) 0x008A byte current in-game month day (copy) 0x008B byte game hour (copy) 0x008C byte game minute (copy) 0x008D byte time copy flag (See note 3 below) 0x008E word (unknown) 0x0090 byte has ever cheated flag 0x0094 dword global timer 0x0098 float game speed 0x009C float (unknown) (FPS?) 0x00A0 float tick time (time of an iteration of the major game loop) 0x00A4 dword (unknown) 0x00A8 word (unknown) 0x00AA word (unknown) 0x00AC word weather ID 0x00B0 dword (unknown) 0x00B4 dword (unknown) 0x00B8 dword (unknown) 0x00BC dword vehicle camera view (opcode 09AD) 0x00C0 dword onfoot camera view 0x00C4 dword current interior 0x00C8 byte (unknown) 0x00CC dword original interior color (?) 0x00D0 byte interior color flag (?) 0x00D4 dword (unknown) 0x00D8 dword changed interior color (?) 0x00DC dword (unknown) 0x00E0 byte riot mode flag (opcode 06C8) 0x00E1 byte (unknown) 0x00E4 dword max wanted level 0x00E8 dword max chaos (See note 4 below) 0x00EC byte (unknown) 0x00ED byte is german lang (?) (opcode 040C) 0x00EE byte (unknown) 0x011C byte times left to display a cinematic camera help (see note 5 below) 0x011E word SYSTEMTIME wYear 0x0120 word SYSTEMTIME wMonth 0x0122 word SYSTEMTIME wDayOfWeek 0x0124 word SYSTEMTIME wDay 0x0126 word SYSTEMTIME wHour 0x0128 word SYSTEMTIME wMinute 0x012A word SYSTEMTIME wSecond 0x012C word SYSTEMTIME wMilliseconds 0x0130 dword Player target marker handle (handle of the red target icon in the map menu) 0x0134 byte Boolean: the vehicle stealing help was shown (See note 6 below) 0x0135 byte Boolean: All taxis have nitro (opcode 0572 flag) 0x0136 byte Boolean: Prostitutes pay you (opcode 0A3D flag) 0x0137 byte (Align)
Notes:
- Version 2.0 of GTASA will not load a save file if the Version ID String does not match its own Version ID String. Thus if a game was played on a version 1.x exe using the exact same set of mission scripts as a version 2.0 installation, the version 2.0 game will refuse to load the save unless this ID is changed. Version 1.x exes make no Version ID String check and will attempt to load any non-corrupted save. Some known Version ID String values (listed as consecutive bytes):
- 0x75 0x81 0xDA 0x35 -- Version 1.00 Unmodified EXE
- 0x83 0xE5 0xF3 0x65 -- Version 1.00 Modified EXE
- 0x58 0xBE 0x6E 0x9A -- Version 1.01 Unmodified EXE
- 0x5E 0x76 0x45 0x93 -- Version 1.01 Modified EXE
- 0xF6 0x8D 0x14 0xFD -- Version 2.00 Unmodified EXE
- While the save name can be changed here to pretty much anything, that name will not persist the next time the game is saved, even if no missions were completed during the play session. This is because each time the game is saved this name string is reset based upon the GXT entry for the Last Mission Passed key stored in Block 15.
- Time copy flag shows whether the time data was saved using opcode 0253.
- Chaos is a value need to be gained to get one more star. MaxChaos is a limit for current wanted level.
- This is a number of how much times the cinematic camera help (about switching display modes) will be shown. Initially this value equals to 2. When it reaches zero, the help does not appear on cinematic camera enabling.
- This is a flag, which is set to 1 when player first time stealing a vehicle and get a help message about it, to prevent displaying this message again.
Block 1: Script
Information pertaining to the Mission Scripts in use when the game was saved. Includes all global variables and information about running threads including thread pointers and local variables. A minor size difference between the MAIN section of the version 1 and version 2 scripts is the primary cause of incompatibility between version 1 and version 2 saves because it forces the other threads to be at slightly different memory locations. One can adjust the thread pointers in this block and (if converting from 1 to 2) the Version ID String from block 0 to convert a save between the two versions; this applies to either completely unmodded or identically-modded installations of v1 and v2.
As the first section in this block can vary in size, offsets given are from the current section.
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x0000 dword Size of Global Variable space 0x0004 dword[] Global Variable Space -- every var is 4 bytes; the types can vary ... 0x0000 ExternalScriptTrigger[70] each is 0x14 bytes in size; see details below 0x0578 dword OnMissionFlag offset -- address of the global variable set by opcode 0180 0x057C dword time when last mission was passed (when either opcode 0318 or 0595 is executed) 0x0580 byte[898] (unknown) + main.scm parameters (missions count, main size, etc) ... 0x0000 dword Number of Running Threads 0x0004 Thread[] Thread structures -- each is 0x106 bytes in size; see details below
ExternalScriptTrigger 0x00 word Index in the script.img 0x02 byte Attach type (actor or object) 0x03 byte Type? -- only for ObjectTrigger 0x04 dword Status? 0x08 dword Radius -- vary only for ObjectTrigger (ActorTrigger uses a pre-defined radius of 5.0) 0x0C word modelID 0x0E word priority 0x10 dword (unknown) 0x14 end
Note:
Thread Structure: 0x00 word Index/Handle 0x02 byte[224] Thread Memory Dump -- see details below 0xE2 byte[36] Relative Addresses -- see details below
Thread Memory Dump: 0x00 dword Next Pointer 0x04 dword Previous Pointer 0x08 char[8] Thread Name 0X10 dword Absolute Base Address 0x14 dword Absolute IP 0x18 dword[8] Absolute Return Stack 0x38 word Stack Pointer 0x3C dword[32] Local Variables 0xBC dword[2] Local Timers 0xC4 byte (Unknown) 0xC5 byte 'if' statement result 0xC6 byte (Unknown) 0xC7 byte Is External Script 0xC8 byte (Unknown) 0xC9 byte (Unknown) 0xCA byte[2] (Align) 0xCC dword Wakeup Time 0xD0 word 'if' parameter 0xD2 byte 'not' flag 0xD3 byte 'wb_check' flag 0xD4 byte[4] (Unknown) 0xD8 dword Skip Scene Pos (opcode 0707) 0xDC byte Is Mission 0xDD byte[3] (Align) 0xE0 end
Relative Addresses -- Necessary here because the absolute addresses used in-game depend on memory layout 0x00 dword Relative IP 0x04 dword[8] Relative Return Stack
Block 2: Objects
Mission-script placed objects such as doors, etc.
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x0000 byte[552] (Unknown) 0x0228 dword Number of Objects 0x022C Object[] Object structures -- each is 0x3C bytes in size; see details below
Object Structure: 0x00 byte[4] (Unknown) 0x04 dword Model ID 0x08 byte[4] (Unknown) 0x0C float[3] Coordinates (x,y,z) 0x18 byte[36] (Unknown)
Block 3: Garages
Information defining all garages (including bomb shops, pay & sprays, etc.) and also describing the cars stored in safehouse garages. This block can vary in size although in the unmodified game it will always be 0x23C7 bytes because there are 50 garages defined. The 80 saved vehicles (4 each in 20 garages) is a fixed number and probably cannot be exceeded. Also, the arrangement of the Garage Car structures in the save is non-intuitive: they follow the pattern Garage 1/Car 1, Garage 2/Car 1, ... Garage 20/Car 1, Garage 1/Car 2, Garage 2/Car 2 ...
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x0000 dword Number of Garages 0x0004 byte[35] (Unknown) 0x0027 GrgCar[20][4] Garage Car structures -- each is 0x40 bytes in size; see details below 0x1427 Garage[] Garage structures -- each is 0x50 bytes in size; see details below
Garage Car Structure (GrgCar): 0x00 float[3] Coordinates (x,y,z) 0x0c byte[52] (Unknown)
Garage Structure: 0x00 byte Garage Type 0x01 byte[3] (Unknown) Flags 0x04 float X Coordinate for Lower Left Front 0x08 float Y Coordinate for Lower Left Front 0x0c float Z Coordinate for Floor 0x10 float[4] Rotation (Quaternion Rx, Ry, Rz, Rw) 0x20 float Z Coordinate for Ceiling 0x24 float Width (dimension parallel to door in xy plane) 0x28 float Depth (dimension perpendicular to door in xy plane) 0x2c float Minimum X Coordinate 0x30 float Maximum X Coordinate 0x34 float Minimum Y Coordinate 0x38 float Maximum Y Coordinate 0x3c float (Unknown) 0x40 float (Unknown) 0x44 char[8] Garage Name -- can be used by mission script to access garage 0x4c word (Unknown) Possibly Original Type
Block 4: (Unknown)
Unknown data. Block can vary in size depending on number of entries; number of entries may be zero.
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x0000 dword Number of Entries 0x0004 byte[7] (Unknown) 0x000b Blk4Entry[] Entry structures -- each is 0x10 bytes in size; details unknown
Block 5: Disabled Pathnode Cubes
0 dword count 4 entries Entry structure: 0 float[6] x1,x2,y1,y2,z1,z2 18 byte[4] bools that somehow indicate which pathtypes are enabled 1c end
Block 6: Pickups
0x0000 Pickup[620] Pickups 0x4D80 word Number of pickups being picked up (up to 20) 0x4D82 byte Weapon pickup message counter (see note 1 below) 0x4D83 dword[20] Pickups being picked up (they don't exist, but could be checked by opcode 0214 0x4DD3 end
Pickup structure: 0 float current asset value 8 dword ammo (or max asset value) c dword(float?) unknown (timestamp?) 10 word[3] x,y,z, all multiplied by 8 16 word asset rate 18 word model 1a word unknown (handle?) 1c byte type 1d byte unknown (flags?) 20 end
Notes:
- When you walk across over a weapon pickup having a weapon of same type, the game will propose you to replace this slot with new weapon by pressing Action key. Initially number of this message showing times equals to 10. Each time you see the message, this counter is decreased. This field stores how much times left to display the message.
Block 7: (Unused)
(Usually empty)
Block 8: Restart Locations
---- wasted: 0 word count 2 restart structures ---- busted: 0 word count 2 restart structures ---- unknown things: 0 some bytes, floats, and dwords 37 end Restart structure: 0 float[3] coords c float heading 10 dword island 14 end
Block 9: Radar Blips
0 Blip[175] blips
Blip structure: 8 float[3] coords 28 end
Block 10: Zones
4 word count for first array 6 word count for second array 8 word count for third array a end ---- the three arrays: See structure descriptions below. First = info.zon, third = map.zon. ---- unknown: 68 end
First and third array structure: 0 char[8] zone name 8 char[8] zone group name 10 word[6] x1,y1,z1,x2,y2,z2 (rounded to ints) 1c word id 1e byte type 1f byte island 20 end Second array structure: 11 end
Block 11: Gang weapons
0 byte unused 4 dword weaponID A 8 dword weaponID B 0c dword weaponID C
Notes:
- Blocks count 10
- Data can be changed by opcode 0237
Block 12: Car Generators
0 dword count 6 car generators ---- numberplates: 0 dword num entries used 4 Numplate[15] number plates f4 end
Car generator structure: 0 word handle (0..499) 2 word model 4 byte[2] colors 6 word[3] x,y,z, all multiplied by 8 c byte heading/360*256 d byte alarm chance e byte locked chance f byte flags: bit 2=force spawn, bit 8=player owned 12 word monetary value 16 dword timer 1c word cars to generate 22 end Numplate structure: 0 dword car generator handle 4 char[8] numberplate string 10 end
Block 13: (Unused)
(Usually Empty)
Block 14: (Unused)
(Usually Empty)
Block 15: Player data
00 dword size of block (always 28h) 04 dword money 08 word (unknown) 0A byte is wasted_or_busted flag 0C dword (unknown) 10 dword amount of money shown on screen ... 20 byte infinite run (opcode 0330) 21 byte (unknown) 22 byte fireproof (055D) ... 2c end
Block 16: Stats
0 float[82] float stats (numbered 0..81 in scm) 148 dword[223] int stats (numbered 120..342 in scm) 4c4 dword[32] 544 char[8] last mission passed (gxt key) 54c byte[56] 584 dword[100] 714 byte[128] 794 end
Block 17: Police trigger zones
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x0000 dword Number of Police trigger zones 0x0004 PoliceTriggerZone[210] Trigger structures -- each is 0x20 bytes in size; see details below 0x1A44 end
PoliceTriggerZone 0x0000 dword trigger last activation time 0x0004 word[2] player vehicle zone point 1 (x,y) -- all multiplied by 8 0x0008 word[2] player vehicle zone point 2 (x,y) -- all multiplied by 8 0x000C word[2] police vehicle 1 zone point 1 (x,y) -- all multiplied by 8 0x0010 word[2] police vehicle 1 zone point 2 (x,y) -- all multiplied by 8 0x0014 word[2] police vehicle 2 zone point 1 (x,y) -- all multiplied by 8 0x0018 word[2] police vehicle 2 zone point 2 (x,y) -- all multiplied by 8 0x001C byte type -- unknown meaning, various requirements for the trigger to be activated 0x001D byte[3] (align) 0x0020 end
Notes:
- Police trigger zone is a special zone consisting of 3 rectangles. When player drive into the first rectangle (defined by 2 ends of the rectange diagonal set by the first 2 XY pairs) having a certain wanted level (depends on the 'type' field), two police cars appear there: one in the second rectangle, the second car in the third rectangle. These rectangles are defined in the same manner as the player's one.
- Trigger zone can be created using opcode 04F8
- Trigger zone is activated only once per 40 seconds (the first field is used to control this).
- http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=260803
Block 18: Models
66cc end
Block 19: Ped Acquaintances
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x000 PedAcquaintance[32] PedAcquaintance structures, each is 20 bytes in size -- see details below 0x280 end
PedAcquaintance -- See notes below 0x00 dword respect bitmask 0x04 dword like bitmask 0x08 dword (unused) 0x0C dword dislike bitmask 0x10 dword hate bitmask
- This structure stores information about how a ped of given pedtype (each entry in PedAcquaintance[32] is separate pedtype, starting from 0 (PLAYER1) to 31 (MISSION8)) behaves toward any ped of other type. Five dwords in this structure (only four of them are used) are the bitmasks, where a bit sets a flag of acquaintance type (respect, like, dislike, hate) to the pedtype of given index (=number of bit). Say, if the 4th bit (counting from zero) in PedAcquaintance[5].respect is set, it means that a ped of type CIVFEMALE (pedtype=5) respects a ped of type CIVMALE (pedtype=4).
- These structures are filled with data from the file ped.dat. The acquaintances flags could be changed via scripts (using opcode 0746 and similar).
Block 20: Tags
0 dword total number of the tags 4 byte[] tags paint status (0-255)
Block 21: IPL
0 dword 4 byte[255] 103 end
Block 22: Shopping
0 dword count 4 entries (8 bytes each) ---- 0 dword size 4 bytes
Block 23: Gang wars
0 dword size of block (always 58h) 5c end
Block 24: Unique Stunt Jumps
OFFSET TYPE DESCRIPTION 0x0000 dword Number of Unique Stunt Jumps (USJ) 0x0004 StuntJump[] Jump structures -- each is 0x44 bytes in size; see details below
StuntJump -- See note below 0x00 float[3] Start zone point 1 (x,y,z) 0x0C float[3] Start zone point 2 (x,y,z) 0x18 float[3] Land zone point 1 (x,y,z) 0x24 float[3] Land zone point 2 (x,y,z) 0x30 float[3] Camera coordinates (x,y,z) 0x3C dword Reward amount (can be negative) 0x40 byte Boolean: is USJ done 0x41 byte Boolean: is USJ found 0x42 byte[2] (Align)
The starting and landing zones are cubes; each is defined by 2 points -- point 1 is the lower, left, front of the cube and point 2 is the upper, right, rear. These cubes are aligned with the coordinate axes and not rotated at all. If a vehicle enters the starting zone while airborne, the USJ triggers (and is marked as 'found'); if the vehicle then lands inside the landing zone, the USJ is successful (and is marked as 'done') and the reward is given.
Block 25: ENEX Connections
0 dword count 4 array of words ---- Structure: 0 word source id 2 word flags 4 word destination id ---- Followed by a weird array: 1. Read a word. 2. If it is -1, you've reached the end of this block. 3. Otherwise, it's an index. Read two more words for this entry and go back to 1.
Block 26: Missions data
0 Structure[14] ee0 byte[28] efc end
Structure: 0 byte[20] 14 dword[8] 34 dword[40] d4 dword[15] 110 end
Block 27: Entrance markers
00 CEntranceMarker[5] see details below 8C end
CEntranceMarker 00 dword existance status 04 float[3] position 10 dword color R 14 dword color G 18 dword color B 1C end
Notes:
- markers can be created by opcode 0A40
Padding
Following the last data block is a variable amount of padding. Since every save file is exactly 0x31800 bytes in length this padding is necessary to fill the space between the data blocks which start the file and the checksum value which ends it. Because GTASA internally uses a buffer of 0xC800 bytes for writing a save, each byte of padding data is simply a repetition of the data located 0xC800 bytes before it. While it is not strictly necessary to follow this convention for the padding when writing a modified save file, it is consistent with the original game and makes modifications harder to detect.
Checksum
The final four bytes of a save file are an unsigned integer checksum value. This checksum is simply the sum of all the preceding 0x317FC bytes. If the checksum value does not match the calculated sum of those bytes, the game will consider the save file to be "corrupted" and refuse to load it. Thus, any time you make any changes to a save file you must remember to update the checksum when you are finished.
