This appendix contains detailed information about the non-program specific formats used in VPW Studio and described in the main portion of the manual.
These formats are shared by multiple games in the series.
These formats specifically target Nintendo 64 hardware. All formats in this section are big endian, unless otherwise stated.
These formats specifically target PlayStation 1 hardware. All formats in this section are little endian, unless otherwise stated.
TMD, being a highly complex format, is outside the scope of this document.
WCW/nWo Revenge
WWF No Mercy
AkiAnimation defines animation frames, and is used in all six of AKI's Nintendo 64 wrestling games. It is a relatively complex format to explain.
The animation header data is often called "Toki 2" in the hacking community. Tokidoim originally called it "Animation stats mods 2".
The VPW Studio source code mentions "divide by 2 and add 1 to get actual number of frames".
Each frame of animation consists of multiple components. These components are represented using one of three possible data types:
The Pivot/Rotation values are four bytes long, but read in a non-standard manner. Pivot/Rotation data consists of three components:
To understand the data format, start by thinking of the values as four bytes, as they exist in the animation data:
00 00 00 00 |__||_||__| | | | | | +--- Pivot Z | +------- Rotation +----------- Pivot X
Next, re-arrange the values to account for the number of bits used by each component, to make it easier on your eyes:
000 00 000 |_| || |_| | || | | || +--- Pivot Z | ++------ Rotation +---------- Pivot X
This data layout is mentioned in the VPW Studio source code as "3/2/3", which represents the number of nibbles (groups of 4 bits) each value has.
The Overall Movement XYZ values are four bytes long. They possibly define a shared displacement for all body parts. Like the Pivot/Rotation data, they are stored in "3/2/3" format, and consist of three components:
As they would appear in the animation data:
00 00 00 00 |__||_||__| | | | | | +--- Overall Z | +------- Overall Y +----------- Overall X
And split out based on the number of bits used:
000 00 000 |_| || |_| | || | | || +--- Overall Z | ++------ Overall Y +---------- Overall X
The Movement XYZ values are three bytes long, and mercifully, map out that way:
The actual animation frame data follows the header, in this order:
| Name | Value Type |
|---|---|
| Pelvis | Pivot/Rotation |
| Overall Movement | Overall Movement XYZ |
| Lower Abs | Pivot/Rotation |
| Lower Abs Movement | Movement XYZ |
| Upper Body | Pivot/Rotation |
| Upper Body Movement | Movement XYZ |
| Neck | Pivot/Rotation |
| Head | Pivot/Rotation |
| Lower Left Leg | Pivot/Rotation |
| Upper Left Leg | Pivot/Rotation |
| Left Leg Movement | Movement XYZ |
| Left Foot | Pivot/Rotation |
| Left Hand | Pivot/Rotation |
| Left Fingers | Pivot/Rotation |
| Lower Left Arm | Pivot/Rotation |
| Upper Left Arm | Pivot/Rotation |
| Left Arm Movement | Movement XYZ |
| Lower Right Leg | Pivot/Rotation |
| Upper Right Leg | Pivot/Rotation |
| Right Leg Movement | Movement XYZ |
| Right Foot | Pivot/Rotation |
| Lower Right Arm | Pivot/Rotation |
| Right Hand | Pivot/Rotation |
| Right Fingers | Pivot/Rotation |
| Upper Right Arm | Pivot/Rotation |
| Right Arm Movement | Movement XYZ |
AkiArchive packs multiple files into a single file. It is up to the game to determine how the contents are handled, meaning it's not easy to figure out what each entry is meant to be.
AkiModel stores mesh data. The format is largely the same between the six AKI N64 wrestling games, though some implementation details may differ.
The topmost bit of this value has meaning, so the actual maximum amount of vertices you can have in a single AkiModel is 127.
The topmost bit of this value also has meaning, so the actual maximum amount of faces you can have in a single AkiModel is 127.
Vertex Data immediately follows the header.
Whether or not the last three values represent Vertex Colors or Normal Vectors is dependent on the top bit in either Number of Vertices or Number of Faces... probably.
After the Vertex Data comes a list of vertices that make up the polygon faces. Each face consists of three bytes, representing vertex indices.
AkiText is an archive of strings with a table at the beginning, pointing to the location of the strings in the file. It is only used in the last three AKI N64 wrestling games (WWF WrestleMania 2000, Virtual Pro-Wrestling 2, and WWF No Mercy.)
The location table starts at the very first byte (offset 0x00). Values are two bytes, big-endian, and represent the offset in the file where the relevant string is located.
String encoding depends on the game. WWF WrestleMania 2000 and WWF No Mercy use (mostly) ASCII. Virtual Pro-Wrestling 2 uses mostly Shift-JIS.
Strings in AkiText files typically end with a null/0x00 byte, but if a string is at the end of the file, it may not have a terminating byte.
AkiTexture is a wrapper around CI4/CI8 texture and palette data. It is typically used for user interface graphics in the menus.
0x00 (0x54, 0x45, 0x58, 0x00)0x00.Image Format has only two known values:
0x04 – CI40x08 – CI8Number of bytes per color. (Description might not be accurate, but it seems to work for existing files. Perhaps 32bpp color modes were planned to be supported, but this is not confirmed, since only two known Image Format values are known.)
Palette Data starts at offset 0x10. Colors are the same format mentioned in the Ci4Palette section.
Image Data directly follows the Palette Data. In CI4 mode, one byte is equal to two pixels. In CI8 mode, one byte is one pixel. This is the same as the relevant CI4/CI8Texture format(s).
Nintendo 64-specific format for defining a 16-color palette. These files only contain palette data, no headers or anything else.
Each palette entry consists of two bytes, stored in big endian format.
byte #1 byte #2 FEDCBA98 76543210 |___||____||___|| | | | +-- Alpha (0 or 1) | | +----- Blue (0-31) | +---------- Green (0-31) +---------------- Red (0-31
The developers sometimes stored multiple sets of 16-color palettes in a single Ci4Palette file, so some extracted palettes may have more than 16 colors.
Similar to Ci4Palette, but with 256 color entries instead of 16. Color format is the same as Ci4Palette.
Nintendo 64-specific format for defining a 16-color texture. Paired with a Ci4Palette to show desired colors.
Image Data uses one byte for two pixels. Values represent the palette entry,
and range from 0x0 to 0xF.
76543210 |__||__| | | | +---- Second palette entry +------- First palette entry
Nintendo 64-specific format for defining a 256-color texture. Paired with a Ci8Palette to show desired colors.
This format is largely similar to Ci4Texture, but image data uses one byte per pixel, since there are 256 possible colors instead of 16.
Nintendo 64-specific format for defining a 16-step "intensity" texture.
Unlike the CI texture formats, I*Texture does not use a header. It is up to the game to use the correct width and height values when loading the texture.
Other intensity formats exist (I8, IA4, IA8), but it's unsure if any of them are used in AKI's N64 games.
PlayStation 1-specific texture format. Often paired with a CLUT, either externally or internally.
A single file may contain multiple TIM files, and this is often the case in AKI's wrestling games on PlayStation 1.
0x10)0x00)0x00If the image has an internal CLUT, it starts at offset 0x08. Data then continues as follows:
The actual pixels follow the header data. See the "Image Formats" section below for more information.
Only the four least significant bits are used:
3210 ||_| | | | +-- Image Format +---- Has internal CLUT
The "Image Format" section accepts the following values ("one uint16 value" is two bytes):
0 – 4bpp CLUT/paletted (one uint16 value = 4 pixels)1 – 8bpp CLUT/paletted (one uint16 value = 2 pixels)2 – 15bpp direct color (one uint16 value = 1 pixel)3 – 24bpp direct color (one uint16 value = 2/3rds of a pixel; three uint16 values = 2 pixels)4 – "Mixed" (not supported by VPW Studio)Values 5-7 are presumed unused, or are at least assumed to be unused by AKI's PS1 games.
CLUT is short for "Color Look-Up Table", but it's really just a fancy term for a palette.
Note: This only describes CLUT data as found in TIM files. Standalone CLUT files exist, but have a slightly different format.
Actual color data follows the header, with each color entry in the following format:
FEDCBA9876543210 ||___||___||___| | | | | | | | +--- Red | | +-------- Green | +------------- Blue +---------------- (Semi-)Transparent
Alpha/transparency calculation is slightly more complicated than just checking the relevant bit. If the Red, Green, and Blue values are 0 and (Semi-)transparency is also 0, it's fully transparent. However, if any of the RGB values are non-zero, the color is only semi-transparent.
DoubleTex contains two AkiTexture images in one file. Both images are 64x64 pixels. They are only used for the credits sequence.