BRRES Sub Files (File Format)

BRRES files contain many Sub Files. Each of these obeys a similar format.

Common Format

Each files starts with the same header:

Offset	Size	Description
0x00	4	A magic to identify the sub file
0x04	4	Length of the sub file
0x08	4	Varies
0x0c	4	Offset to outer BRRES File (negative value)
0x10	4 * N	N section offsets
0x14 + 4 * N	4	Name string offset

The known values for the magic are given below, along with the purpose, and which folder within the BRRES they are in.

Identifier	Folder	Description
MDL0	3DModels(NW4R)	Model files.
TEX0	Textures(NW4R)	Texture files.
SRT0	AnmTexSrt(NW4R)	Texture movement animations.
CHR0	AnmChr(NW4R)	Model movement animations.
PAT0	AnmTexPat(NW4R)	Texture swapping animations.
CLR0	AnmClr(NW4R)	Colour changing animations.
SHP0	AnmShp(NW4R)	?
SCN0	AnmScn(NW4R)	?
Not seen	Palettes(NW4R)	Known to exist from main.dol
Not seen	AnmVis(NW4R)	Known to exist from main.dol
Not seen	LightSet(NW4R)	Known to exist from main.dol
Not seen	AmbLights(NW4R)	Known to exist from main.dol
Not seen	Lights(NW4R)	Known to exist from main.dol
Not seen	Fogs(NW4R)	Known to exist from main.dol
Not seen	Cameras(NW4R)	Known to exist from main.dol

String Pool & Extraction

Nearly all sub files have a directory structure like BRRES files. For this directory structure file names are needed. Most sub files has also some more strings. All these strings of the main BRRES file and of all sub files are stored in common string pool, unique string only once. The string are sorted in ASCII order. The string pool is placed at the end of the BRRES file behind all other data and outside of the sub files.

If extracting only the raw data of a sub file the pointers into the string pool becomes invalid and the names are lost. To avoid this, Chadderz and Wiimm are on the way to define a file format for extracted sub files that includes an local string pool. It is important to understand, that this is not a Nintendo specification!.

If the raw data of a sub file is extracted it is modified with the following rules:

• The local string pool is added at the end of the file, aligned at a multiple of 4 relative to file start.
• The size value of the sub file header (offset 4) will not be changed. This helps to find the end of the original sub file when creating a new BRRES file. This position with respect to the aligning is also the start of the string pool.
• The back reference to beginning of BRRES file is set to the beginning of the new file. This means: Set it to value 0.
• Sort the string pool in ASCII order without duplicates like Nintendo does.

The last 2 points are important for comparing extracted sub files.

Strings

For extracting it is also important to find all string positions in the different sub files.

The following table is based on a statistical analysis. It shows the position of pointers into the string table. The offset is relative to the begin of data for each group entry. The hit count is the number of string found at this position and the total count is the number of tested BRRES entries. Confirming is necessary!

File type	Group index	Offset	Hit / Total counter	Verified	Comment
CHR	—	0018	CTools	Yes	offset relative to begin of CHR
CHR	00	0000	373161 / 373161	Yes	-
CLR	—	0018	CTools	Yes	offset relative to begin of CLR
CLR	00	0000	483 / 483	Yes	-
MDL	—	0048 (section count * 4 + 10)	CTools	Yes	offset relative to begin of MDL
MDL	01	0008	30566 / 30566	Yes	-
MDL	02	000c	23798 / 23798	Yes	-
MDL	03	000c	20878 / 20878	Yes	-
MDL	04	000c	18540 / 18540	Yes	-
MDL	05	000c	22266 / 22266	Yes	-
MDL	06	0008	66 / 66	No	-
MDL	06	0448	54 / 66	No	-
MDL	08	0008	22469 / 22535	Yes	-
MDL	10	0038	23891 / 23891	Yes	-
MDL	11	0004	CTools	Yes	Pointer to a pointer. Follow twice to get string.
PAT	—	0028	CTools	Yes	offset relative to begin of PAT
PAT	00	0000	6191 / 6191	Yes	-
SCN	00	0020	61 / 61	No	-
SHP	00	0004	45 / 45	No	-
SRT	—	0018	CTools	Yes	offset relative to begin of CLR
SRT	00	0000	2137 / 2137	Yes	-
TEX	—	0014	CTools	Yes	offset relative to begin of TEX