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| | Archive format used many Maxis developed games, including The Sims 2, [[SimCity 4]] and Spore. | | Archive format used many Maxis developed games, including The Sims 2, [[SimCity 4]] and Spore. |
| | | | |
| − | =Format=
| + | They are similar to Zip files, as they hold other files inside them which are usually compressed. |
| − | Most Sims 2 Data is as you probably know stored in various types of archive files that all have the same internal format such as package, cache, etc. This format is proprietary to Maxis and has been used in the [[SimCity 4]], and The Sims Online as well as this one.
| + | All plugins for Simcity 4 (excluding the Extra cheats dll) are DBPF files, the file name's extension is irrelevant. |
| | | | |
| − | Entries may be compressed with [[RefPack]] compression depending on their entry data.
| + | DBPF files can be identified by opening the file in notepad or preferably a hex editor, as the first 4 characters/bytes will be the letters DBPF. |
| | + | If a file in the plugins folder does not start with these 4 letters the game will not load them, however [[The Reader]] will. This means that if you want to disable a plugin you can open the DBPF file in a hex editor and change the first byte to something other than 44 (in Hexadecimal) (D) and the game will not load the plugin, but you will still be able to edit it in the reader (saving the disabled plugin with the reader will not re enable it, to re enable you must change the first byte back to 44 (hexadecimal)) |
| | | | |
| | + | The format is proprietary to Maxis and has been used in The Sims 2, and The Sims Online. |
| | | | |
| − | ==Overview==
| + | Entries may be compressed with [[RefPack]] compression depending on their entry data. |
| − | This is the general structure of DatabasePackedFile packages:
| |
| − | | |
| − | Header (96 bytes)
| |
| − | File 1
| |
| − | File 2
| |
| − | ...
| |
| − | File n
| |
| − | Index Entry 1 (20 bytes)
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| − | Index Entry 2
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| − | ...
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| − | Index Entry n
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| − | | |
| − | Header first, individual files following with no filenames and a small file header area at the beginning of each followed by an index of all the files in the archive. Note that files may appear after the index table in files that are updated.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Header==
| |
| − | {| width="100%" border="1"
| |
| − | ! width="20%" | Name
| |
| − | ! width="5%" | Version
| |
| − | ! width="10%" | Type/Size
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| − | ! width="65%" | Info
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Magic
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | char[4]
| |
| − | | DBPF
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Major Version
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | | rowspan="2" |
| |
| − | * 1.0 seen in Sim City 4, The Sims 2
| |
| − | * 1.1 seen in The Sims 2
| |
| − | * 2.0 seen in SPORE
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Minor Version
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | unknown
| |
| − | | 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | unknown
| |
| − | | 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | unknown
| |
| − | | 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
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| − | | Should always be zero in DBPF 2.0.
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Date Created
| |
| − | | 1.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Date Modified
| |
| − | | 1.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Index major version
| |
| − | | < 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | | Always 7 in The Sims 2, Sim City 4. If this is used in 2.0, then it is 0 for SPORE.
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Index entry count
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | | Number of entries in the Index table.
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Offset of first Index entry
| |
| − | | < 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Index size
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | | Size of the Index table in bytes.
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Hole entry count
| |
| − | | < 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Hole offset
| |
| − | | < 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Hole size
| |
| − | | < 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Index minor version
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| − | | < 2.0?
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| − | | u32
| |
| − | | Version 1.1+ in The Sims 2 only. In DBPF 2.0, it has a value of 3, unknown if used.
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | Index offset
| |
| − | | 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | | Offset to Index table in DBPF 2.0.
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | unknown
| |
| − | | 2.0
| |
| − | | u32
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |-
| |
| − | | reserved
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | char[24]
| |
| − | |
| |
| − | | |
| − | |}
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Index Table==
| |
| − | There are 2 known formats of indexes in the game. The format version is found in the file header.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===DBPF 1.x, Index table 7.0===
| |
| − | (20 bytes, some DBPF 1.1 entries use this format)
| |
| − | | |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Type ID (see [[:Category:File_Formats/SC4]])
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| − | ;DWORD
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| − | :Group ID
| |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Instance ID
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| − | ;DWORD
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| − | :Location of the file in the archive
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| − | ;DOWRD
| |
| − | :Size of the file
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===DBPF 1.x, Index table 7.1===
| |
| − | (24 bytes)
| |
| − | | |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Type ID (see [[:Category:File_Formats/SC4]])
| |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Group ID
| |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Instance ID
| |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Second Instance ID
| |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Location of the file in the archive
| |
| − | ;DOWRD
| |
| − | :Size of the file
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==Hole Table==
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===DBPF 1.x===
| |
| − | A Hole record contains the location and size of all holes in a DBPF file.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ;repeating
| |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Hole Location
| |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Hole size
| |
| − | | |
| − | Holes are created when the game deletes something from a DBPF. The holes themselves are simply junk data of the appropriate length to fill the hole.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ==File==
| |
| − | Bulk of DBPF packages. Each file is either uncompressed or compressed. To check if a file is compressed you first need to read the [[DIR]] resource, if it exists. (See the corresponding entry for a description). If no DIR entry exists, then no files within the package are compressed.
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===Compression===
| |
| − | | |
| − | When reading a DBPF file, the first thing you should do is check to see if any chunks inside are compressed. This is done via the [[E86B1EEF|DIR]] resource.
| |
| − | | |
| − | For example code and a description of the mechanics, see [[DBPF Compression]].
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===Directory Files===
| |
| − | | |
| − | These are used for compression lists. See [[E86B1EEF]]
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===Header===
| |
| − | Only if the file is compressed
| |
| − | | |
| − | ;DWORD
| |
| − | :Compressed Size of file
| |
| − | ;WORD
| |
| − | :Compression ID (0x10FB) QFS Compression.
| |
| − | ;3 bytes
| |
| − | :Uncompressed Size of file
| |
| − | | |
| − | ===Body===
| |
| − | Raw data of the files. See [[:Category:File_Formats/SC4]] for a list.
| |
| − | | |
| − | =Pseudocode=
| |
| − | | |
| − | To read files inside a .package file you need to perform the following steps, in order
| |
| − | | |
| − | * Read the DBPF header
| |
| − | * Read the Index tables
| |
| − | * Check for a DIR record
| |
| − | * Check for the file you want to extract
| |
| − | * Is this file compressed? If so, uncompress it
| |
| − | * Read the file data and process accordingly
| |
| − | | |
| − | For an example PHP class for reading DBPF files, see [[DBPF/Source Code]]
| |
| − | | |
| − | =Visual Format Guide=
| |
| − | | |
| − | Having recently started poking around with the DBPF format again for the SimCity 4 community on SimTropolis, I created some visual guides to the DBPF archive format. Hopefully they will be found useful here.
| |
| − | {|
| |
| − | | [[Image:DBPF_File_Format_v1.1.png|thumb|left|200x152px|alt=DBPF v1.x Visual Guide|DBPF v1.x]]
| |
| − | | [[Image:DBPF_File_Format_v2.0.png|thumb|left|200x152px|alt=DBPF v2.0 Visual Guide|DBPF v2.0]]
| |
| − | |}
| |
| − | | |
| − | Some information was taken from old DatGen source code, such as the Created/Modified timestamps and possible Flags DWORD. That information may not be accurate, as it was some time ago that I last chatted with Maxoids about the DBPF format.
| |
| − | | |
| − | - DarkMatter
| |
| − | | |
| | | | |
| | [[category:File_Formats/SC4]] | | [[category:File_Formats/SC4]] |
Template:Transcluded
Archive format used many Maxis developed games, including The Sims 2, SimCity 4 and Spore.
They are similar to Zip files, as they hold other files inside them which are usually compressed.
All plugins for Simcity 4 (excluding the Extra cheats dll) are DBPF files, the file name's extension is irrelevant.
DBPF files can be identified by opening the file in notepad or preferably a hex editor, as the first 4 characters/bytes will be the letters DBPF.
If a file in the plugins folder does not start with these 4 letters the game will not load them, however The Reader will. This means that if you want to disable a plugin you can open the DBPF file in a hex editor and change the first byte to something other than 44 (in Hexadecimal) (D) and the game will not load the plugin, but you will still be able to edit it in the reader (saving the disabled plugin with the reader will not re enable it, to re enable you must change the first byte back to 44 (hexadecimal))
The format is proprietary to Maxis and has been used in The Sims 2, and The Sims Online.
Entries may be compressed with RefPack compression depending on their entry data.
