KCL flag

This page describes the flags of KCL files.

Mario Kart Wii Collision Flags

In Mario Kart Wii the collision flag values are normally split. The 5 least significant bits determine the basic type of the flag. The next 11 bits determine the variation upon the type. The list below describes these types and their variants. The numerical relation is:

FLAG = TYPE | VARIANT << 5

Wiimm has made a statistical analysis about the usage of flags in all 32 tracks: kcl-types.txt

Collision Types (basic type)

Type	Variant type	What is it?	Speed factor[1]	Second factor[1] with unknown impact
0x00	A	Road	1.0	0.7
0x01	A	Slippery Road 1	1.0	0.050 – 0.105
0x02	A	Weak Off-road	0.550 – 0.909	0.080 – 0.157
0x03	A	Off-road	0.325 – 0.712	0.050 – 0.105
0x04	A	Heavy Off-road	0.185 – 0.422	0.050 – 0.105
0x05	A	Slippery Road 2	0.881 – 0.999	0.030 – 0.074
0x06	A	Boost Pad	1.0	0.7
0x07	A	Boost Ramp	1.0	0.7
0x08	A	Jump Pad	1.0	0.7
0x09	A	Item Road	1.0	0.7
0x0A	A	Solid Fall	1.0	0.7
0x0B	B	Moving Water	1.0	0.7
0x0C	unknown	Wall	1.0	0.7
0x0D	unknown	Invisible Wall	1.0	0.7
0x0E	unknown	Item Wall	1.0	0.7
0x0F	unknown	Wall 3	1.0	0.7
0x10	unknown	Fall Boundary	1.0	0.7
0x11	B	Cannon Activator	1.0	0.7
0x12	unknown	Force Recalculation	1.0	0.7
0x13	unknown	Half-pipe Ramp	1.0	0.7
0x14	unknown	Wall	1.0	0.7
0x15	B	Moving Road	1.0	0.7
0x16	A	Gravity Road	1.0	0.7
0x17	A	Road	1.0	0.7
0x18	unknown	Sound Trigger	1.0	0.7
0x19	unknown	Unknown	1.0	0.7
0x1A	unknown	Effect Trigger	1.0	0.7
0x1B	unknown	Unknown	1.0	0.7
0x1C	unknown	Unknown	1.0	0.7
0x1D	A	Moving Road	1.0	0.7
0x1E	unknown	Special Walls	1.0	0.7
0x1F	unknown	Wall 5	1.0	0.7

[1] : Notes for Speed factor

• Each vehicle and driver combinations has it's own basic speed. The Speed factor is always ≤1.0 and defines the relative KCL type dependent speed.
• The impact of the second factors column is unknown. The first assumption small vehicles is wrong.
• The values are calculated after analysing different Mario Kart Wii files. The ranges depends on the possible driver and vehicle combinations.
• The different basic speed of the vehicles (75.00 – 85.07) and the driver modifications of the basic speed (add 0 – 0.53) are not part of this speed factor calculations.
• Some values are senseless (e.g. walls, fall down, effects). But the values are available in the MKWii tables.

Variant types

Type A

Variant type A is split in 4 bit-groups. The first and last 2 groups are 3 bits each, and the second group is 2 bits.

	Group W	Group X	Group Y	Group Z
Amount of bits	3	2	3	3
Function	Collision effect	Intensity	Shadow effect	Basic effect

To write this structure down, you can write each group as an octal number, but be aware of the 2-bits group, calculating hex to octal will not work right. A good way to get the right variant in hex is this:

• write down each group in octal (X can be max. 3)
• convert each group to binary (X is 2 bits, others 3 bits)
• write them in the order: wxyz, you'll get www|xx|yyy|zzz in binary, you can convert that number to hex.

Note: hex shows only W right, octal only Y and Z.

So, www in binary controls the collision effect, xx controls intensity, yyy controls shadow effect, and zzz controls the basic effect (such as grass vs. dirt). For example, www represents a binary number of three digits. This 3-digit number controls which effect is used. The same applies to yyy and zzz, except xx can only go up to 3 as there are only 2 binary digits. A complete string of binary numbers (wwwxxyyyzzz in that order) is converted as a whole to hex to get the variant that is entered into the SZS Modifier or CTools.

Another way is using the following formula: Variant (in hexadecimals) = 0x100W+0x40X+0x8Y+Z Of course is this formula basic on the theory stated above.

Functions:

Collision effect:

Bit	Effect
0	0 = Not trickable 1 = Trickable
1	0 = Drivable 1 = Not drivable. Forces a player to change direction which makes the player unable to drive on that surface.
2	Value 1 is used for walls that don't make you bounce when colliding on them

Intensity:
Exact values unknown

Shadow effect:
All light effects pertain to the light IDs in posteffect.blight. These colors can be modified by hex editing it in the SZS file (./posteffect/posteffect.blight).

Basic effect:
Different for each basic flag

Type B

Variant type B refers to an ID in the kmp file, which section is different for each flag: "Triggers" means that it's variant refers to a group or point of the specified section.

Type (value)	Triggers
Moving road (0x0B)	AREA entry	If the area has a route it makes the water follow the route, else it moves towards the area point.
Cannon activator (0x11)	Cannon (CNPT entry)
Moving road (0x15)	Object

Cheat Sheet

This image sums up the basic effects and variants for finding them more quickly.

Basic Effects (for type A, and type A-like variants)

Road (0x00)

A type of road that's solid for both players and items.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Normal
1	Dirt, GFX on slots 7.3 and 8.3
2	Dirt, no GFX (used for brick/stone roads)
3	Smooth
4	Wood
5	Snow with GFX
6	Metal grid
7	Normal, but the sound cuts off and returns immediately when triggered

Slippery Road 1 (0x01)

A type of road that is slippery, but does not slow you down.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Beach sand
1	Dirt
2	Water (unused)
3	Snow (unused)
4	Grass (unused)
5	Desert sand
6	Sand, no GFX (unused)
7	Dirt, no GFX (unused)

Weak Off-road (0x02)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Sand
1	Dirt
2	Water
3	Grass
4	White sand
5	Sand/Gravel
6	Gravel
7	Gravel, different sound

Off-road (0x03)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Sand
1	Dirt
2	Mud
3	Water
4	Grass
5	Sand
6	Gravel
7	Sand/Gravel

Heavy Off-road (0x04)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Sand
1	Dirt
2	Mud
3	Flowers
4	Grass
5	Snow
6	Sand
7	Dirt, no effect

Slippery Road 2 (0x05)

A type of road that is slippery and slightly slows you down.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Ice
1	Mud (unused)
2-5	Water (unused)
6-7	Normal road, different sound (unused)

Boost Pad (0x06)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1	used in Chain Chomp Wheel
2-7	unused

Boost Ramp (0x07)

Higher stages mean longer air time and more landing boost time.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Stage 3 (2 flips)
1	Stage 2 (1 flip)
2-7	Stage 1 (no flips, unused)

Jump Pad (0x08)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	used in GBA Bowser Castle 3
1	used in SNES Ghost Valley 2
2	used in GBA Shy Guy Beach
3	used in Mushroom Gorge
4	Bouncy mushroom
5	used in Chain Chomp Wheel
6	used in DS Yoshi Falls and Funky Stadium
7	unused

Item Road (0x09)

A type of road that's solid for items only.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1	unknown
2	Used in metal paths, unknown effect
3	Used in wooden paths/grass/mushrooms, unknown effect
4	unused
5	Used in grass/bushes, unknown effect
6-7	unused

Solid Fall (0x0A)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Default/Sand
1	Underwater
2	unknown
3	Ice
4	Dirt/Pipe from Wario's Gold Mine
5	Grass
6	Wood
7	unknown

Moving Water (0x0B)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	AREA index 0
1	AREA index 1
2	AREA index 2
3	AREA index 3
4	AREA index 4 (unused)
5	AREA index 5 (unused)
6	AREA index 6 (unused)
7	AREA index 7 (unused)

Wall (0x0C)

A type of wall that's solid for both players and items. Similar to A as the last 3 bits are the basic effect and the first 3 bits are the collision effect. Shadow effect and intensity have an unknown usage.

ID	What is it?
000	Normal
001	Rock
002	Metal
003	Wood
004	Ice
005	Bush
006	Rope
007	Mushroom
40x	The "bump" depends on the angle you hit the wall.

Invisible Wall (0x0D)

A type of wall that's solid for players only.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1-7	unused

Item Wall (0x0E)

A type of wall that's solid for items only.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1	Used in rock walls, unknown effect
2	Used in metal walls, unknown effect
3	unknown
4	unused
5	Used in grass/bushes, unknown effect
6-7	unused

Wall 3 (0x0F)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1	unknown
2	unknown
3	unknown
4	unknown
5	unused
6	unknown
7	unknown

Fall Boundary (0x10)

Note: this is an A-like variant type kcl. Probably it's divided in 2 sections of 8 and 3 bits. The 3 bits one is the basic type (column Z) The 8 bits section defines the index. KMP can also refer to this index (only for the pocha's). Different variants can refer to the same index, but only one Y value will be selected.

Formula: 0x8Y + Z
Y = index
Z = basic type

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Air fall
1	Water (pocha), setting 1 refers to the index in KMP.
2	Lava (pochaYogan), setting 1 refers to the index in KMP.
3	Icy water (pocha, ice on respawn), setting 1 refers to the index in KMP.
4	Lava, no GFX
5	Burning air fall (entry)
6	Quicksand (used in object quicksand)
7	Short fall

Cannon Activator (0x11)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	To point 0
1	To point 1
2	To point 2
3	To point 3 (unused)
4	To point 4 (unused)
5	To point 5 (unused)
6	To point 6 (unused)
7	To point 7 (unused)

Force Recalculation (0x12)

Forces an enemy/item route recalculation when triggered.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
N	Link to N'th element (zero based) of KMP/AREA (AREA type 4). The position and rotation is used as base for the new route calculation.

Half-pipe Ramp (0x13)

Best used with Invisible Wall (0x0D), although that is not needed for this flag to function.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1	used in Bowser's Castle
2-7	unused

Wall (0x14)

Allows objects to pass through it like 0x0D, with the same properties as 0x0C.

ID	What is it?
000	Normal (unused)
001	Rock (unused)
002	Metal (unused)
003	Wood
004	Short tree sound effect (unused)
005	Tree (unused)
006	Tree without leaf effect (unused)
007	Wooden plank
40x	The "bump" depends on the angle you hit the wall.

Moving Road (0x15)

Unlike moving water, moving road is not controlled by routes in the KMP, but rather by specific objects. The positioning of them works similar to an AREA point, however it is unknown exactly how large this area is. It is large enough to cause objects outside of the first tunnel in Toad's Factory to be affected when BeltCrossing is at its normal position inside the tunnel.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Moves west with BeltCrossing and escalator. The latter only works with escalator.kcl.
1	Moves east with BeltCrossing and west with escalator. The latter only works with escalator.kcl.
2	Moves east with BeltEasy.
3	Moves west with BeltEasy.
4	Rotates around BeltCurveA clockwise.
5	Rotates around BeltCurveA counterclockwise.
6-7	unused

Gravity Road (0x16)

A type of road that applies a strong gravitational pull downward on players.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Wood
1	Sand/Gravel
2	Carpet
3	Dirt
4	Sand/Gravel
5	Normal road, SFX on slot 4.4
6	Normal road
7	Mud

Road (0x17)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Normal road, different sound
1	Carpet
2	Grass
3	Mushroom
4	Grass
5	Glass road with SFX
6	Dirt
7	Normal road, SFX on slot 4.4

Sound Trigger (0x18)

Slot 1.4 (Toad's Factory)

ID	What is it?
000	Sounds off
001	Hydraulic press area
002	Shipping dock area
003	Moving belt area
004	Steam room
005	Restart music at beginning
006	Bulldozer area
007	Audience area

Slot 2.4 (Wario's Gold Mine)

ID	What is it?
000	Music change (outside)
001	Music change (cave) + gentle echo
002	Echo
003	Strong echo
004	?
005	?
006	?
007	?

Slot 3.2 (Koopa Cape)

ID	What is it?
000	Music change (normal)
001	Unknown or nothing (but tested)
002	Unknown or nothing (but tested)
003	Music change (underwater)
004	Water tunnel echo
005	Deactivate all + echo
006	Music change (riverside)
007	Back to normal + echo (unused)

Slot 4.1 (Dry Dry Desert)

ID	What is it?
000	Music change (normal)
001	Music change (in doors where the bats come from the sides)
002	Music change (in doors where the halfpipes are)
003	Music change (in doors where the pokeys are)
004	?
005	?
006	?
007	?

Slot 4.3 (Bowser's Castle)

ID	What is it?
000	Disable one time use sound trigger (like Bowser howl).
001	Bowser's howl + Echo. Put 007 at the end of a turn to be able to reuse Bowser howl.
002	Sound distortion + Echo.
003	Deactivate above.
004	Add drums + Echo on music + koopaBall/koopaFigure SFX.
005	Deactivate koopaBall/koopaFigure SFX.
006	Add drums without echo.
007	Back to normal - Allow reuse for one time use sound trigger.

In order to have Thwomp SFX, just disable every sound trigger (put 003 then 007).

Slot 4.4 (Rainbow Road)

ID	What is it?
000	Turn off button
001	Gate sound 1 (add a turn off button before and after if you use only one gate)
002	Gate sound 2
003	Gate sound 3
004	Gate sound 4
005	Gate sound 5
006	Tunnel sound (add a turn off button to stop it)

Sound triggers are easy to use if you know how to use them.

Here's a good example:

• 000 → 001 → 002 → 003 → 004 → 005 → 000
  • That's how the original Rainbow Road uses the triggers. All the triggers will play once and won't replay until you reach a "000" turn-off button.

Here's a way to play the first gate more than once:

• 000 → 001 → 000 → 001 → etc.
• Note that 000 → 002 won't play, and 001 → 001 will only play once. Every sound trigger must be one more than the one before it, in order for it to work.

The tunnel trigger works similarly. Use "000" to stop it.

Slot 8.4 (N64 Bowser's Castle)

ID	What is it?
000	Disable one time use sound trigger (like Bowser Howl).
001	?
002	Bowser's howl. Put 000 at the end of a turn to be able to reuse this.
003	?
004	?
005	?
006	?

Unknown (0x19)

Nintendo use this type in Wario's Gold Mine and Rainbow Road with variant values 0x400 and 0x410.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1-7	unused

Effect Trigger (0x1A)

Nintendo use this type in 21 different tracks with variant values 0x000, 0x001, 0x002, 0x004, 0x005, 0x006, 0x009, 0x00A, 0x011, 0x012, 0x019, 0x01C, 0x022 and 0x02A.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	BRSTM reset
1	unknown
2	water splash (pocha)
3	starGate door activation
4	unknown
5	unknown
6	unknown
7	unused

Unknown (0x1B)

Nintendo use this type only in Toad's Factory with variant value 0x008.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1-7	unused

Half-Pipe Invisible Wall (0x1C)

Nintendo only uses this type in Bowser's Castle with variant value 0x020 and in Funky Stadium with variant value 0x000. It consists of an invisible wall used only while being in air after a half-pipe jump.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	unknown
1-7	unused

Moving Road (0x1D)

If casino_roulette is present, the road slowly rotates everything around it counterclockwise.

Basic effect (Z, octal)	What is it?
0	Gravel
1	Dirt, different sound
2	Normal road
3	Glass road
4	Gravel, different sound
5	Star ring spark sounds (requires starGate)
6	Sand (unused)
7	Dirt (unused)

Special Walls (0x1E)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	Visual	Sound	Effect
0	Fast: spark (stars)	Fast: nothing	Fast: bump
	Slow: spark (stars)	Slow: nothing	Slow: bump
1	Fast: nothing	Fast: nothing	Fast: bump (rubber wall)
	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing
2 (unused)	Fast: spark	Fast: hollow	Fast: bump
	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing	Slow: many bumps (rubber wall)
3	Fast: nothing	Fast: nothing	Fast: bump
	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing
4, SFX on slot 4.4	Fast: spark	Fast: nothing	Fast: bump
	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing
5	Fast: spark	Fast: cracking	Fast: bump
	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing
6	Fast: spark	Fast: metal	Fast: bump
	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing	Slow: nothing
7	Fast: spark	Fast: star ring crash (requires starGate)	Fast: bump
	Slow: nothing	Slow: star ring crash (requires starGate)	Slow: nothing

Wall 5 (0x1F)

Basic effect (Z, octal)	Speed	Visual	Sound	Effect
0 1-7 (unused)	Fast:	nothing	nothing	bump (Players can't go through it, items can.)
	Slow:	nothing	nothing	nothing (Players can't go through it, items can.)