ModdingWiki - User contributions [en-gb]

Westwood Font Editor

2026-05-03T20:26:40Z

Nyerguds: Migrated to GitHub page (yay!)

{{Tool Infobox
| Image = Cc_vcr.png
| Platform = Windows / Mono
| Release = 2016/11/22
| Homepage = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/WWFontEditor/ GitHub page]
| Download = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/WWFontEditor/releases GitHub Releases page]
| Edit1 = Graphics
| Games =
{{Game|A Nightmare On Elm Street}}
{{Game|A-10 Tank Killer v1.5}}
{{Game|A-10 Tank Killer}}
{{Game|Abrams Battle Tank}}
{{Game|Arctic Fox}}
{{Game|BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge}}
{{Game|Betrayal at Krondor}}
{{Game|Bodyworks Voyager: Missions in Anatomy}}
{{Game|Caveman Ugh-Lympics}}
{{Game|Centurion: Defender of Rome}}
{{Game|Circuit's Edge}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer}}
{{Game|David Wolf: Secret Agent}}
{{Game|DeathTrack}}
{{Game|Die Hard}}
{{Game|DragonStrike}}
{{Game|Dune 2000}}
{{Game|Dune II}}
{{Game|Eye of the Beholder 2: The Legend of Darkmoon}}
{{Game|Eye of the Beholder}}
{{Game|F-14 Tomcat}}
{{Game|Front Page Sports Football Pro}}
{{Game|Front Page Sports Football}}
{{Game|Ghostbusters II}}
{{Game|Heart of China}}
{{Game|Jazz Jackrabbit}}
{{Game|King Arthur's K.O.R.T.}}
{{Game|Kings of the Beach}}
{{Game|Lands of Lore 2: Guardians of Destiny}}
{{Game|Lands of Lore III}}
{{Game|Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos}}
{{Game|MechWarrior}}
{{Game|Nova 9: The Return of Gir Draxon}}
{{Game|Nox}}
{{Game|Pete Rose Pennant Fever}}
{{Game|Red Baron}}
{{Game|Rise of the Dragon}}
{{Game|Sid & Al's Incredible Toons}}
{{Game|Skyfox II}}
{{Game|Space Quest V}}
{{Game|Stellar 7}}
{{Game|Suzuki's RM250 Motocross}}
{{Game|The Adventures of Willy Beamish}}
{{Game|The Incredible Machine}}
{{Game|The Legend of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate}}
{{Game|The Legend of Kyrandia 3: Malcolm's Revenge}}
{{Game|The Legend of Kyrandia}}
{{Game|The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel}}
{{Game|The Train: Escape to Normandy}}
{{Game|Transylvania II: The Crimson Crown}}
{{Game|Transylvania}}
{{Game|Wargame Construction Set}}
}}

The '''Westwood Font Editor''' is an editor specifically designed for editing indexed bitmap fonts. It is developed by [[User:Nyerguds|Nyerguds]]. It can edit fonts from a very wide variety of games, though the majority of supported types are those from the games developed by [[:Category:Westwood Studios|Westwood Studios]] and [[:Category:Sierra/Dynamix|Sierra/Dynamix]].

Due to the fact the entire editor is built on manipulating 8-bit images, there is no support planned for Westwood's later high-colour font formats.

== Development and license ==

The program is written in C# on the .Net framework v3.5. All code in the editor that was specifically written for the editor is released under the [[wp:WTFPL|WTF Public License]], meaning it can be used without restriction. A few components taken from online resources, as well as an ini reader originally written by Nyerguds for another project, have similarly permissive licenses, mentioned in the tool's readme and/or the actual source code files.

The tool was originally created to edit the font files in [[Command & Conquer]], but was soon expanded to support all known indexed bitmap font types created by Westwood Studios. After a request from the translation community at [http://oldgamesitalia.net/ OldGamesItalia], research was started on implementing the fonts of the Sierra/Dynamix games. As cooperation with OldGamesItalia continued, increasingly more fonts of old DOS games were added.

== Use ==

The tool is distributed as a simple .zip file to be unpacked in a new folder. Once unpacked, the included .exe file runs the program.

It is a straightforward pixel editor, with tile selection on the left, the editor in the middle, and colour selection on a palette to the right. In addition to a series of generated palettes, palettes can be added in [[VGA_Palette#The_.22Classic.22_format|classic 6-bit RGB 256-colour palette format]], the format used by most Westwood Studios games. For 4-bit fonts, one such 256-colour palette can be used as a 16-entry set of 16-colour palettes, with names for these sub-palettes given by an accompanying ini file.

=== Font editing ===

The font editor can open and edit fonts, can convert fonts between all the supported types, and, starting from v1.12, also contains the ability to create new font files from scratch. There is currently no import or export function to normal image types, though the font editor does have clipboard support for both copying and pasting symbols, and for copying the bitmap generated by the editor's preview pane.

Since the Font Editor's main purpose is translations of games to languages that require new characters or new character variations with diacritics, it features a list of all known 8-bit ASCII-compatible text encodings, so the list at the side can accurately show the characters to create no matter the targeted code page. The preview pane, likewise, adapts to this chosen text encoding to convert the typed text to 8-bit font indices, so the preview text can be generated correctly.

Note that like many game files, fonts are often stored in game archives that require them to be extracted first. In fact, some of the supported games have no external font files, and the font data needs to be extracted from the exe file to allow editing it, and reinserted afterwards.

===Text generating===

Because the font editor's preview pane offers the ability to copy the generated preview text, the editor is also frequently used for reconstructing text used on images that is not in the games as actual font files. The basic method is to reconstruct the font using the available text and generate the new text using the preview text box. This technique was first used on the build icons of [[Command & Conquer]] in the [https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/6675-community-translation-ukrainian-language-add-on/?page=3&tab=comments#comment-52401 Ukranian translation pack].

Some new features were added specifically for this use. The preview pane got an added option to copy its contents with transparent background, and as of version 1.12.3, the editor has a "drop shadow" function which can generate shadow under text by adding copies underneath it at specified offsets in a specified colour. Notably, this allows adding shadows that could not be added in the font itself because they overlap with neighbouring symbols.

The shadow feature was developed for the cutscenes of ''[[The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel|Sherlock Holmes and the Serrated Scalpel]]'' because the thick text shadows in the game's cutscenes are comprised of up to twenty copies of the original text image, which would be extremely tedious to add by hand.

==Supported types==

As of version 1.13.3, the editor supports the following types:

* [[Centurion Font]] (Centurion: Defender of Rome)
* [[Cover Girl Strip Poker Font]]
* [[Dune 2000 Font]] (as "IG Font", since this is not a Westwood Studios format)
* [[Dynamix Font Format v1]] (Pete Rose Pennant Fever, Skyfox II, Arctic Fox)
* [[Dynamix Font Format v2-v3]] (Abrams Battle Tank, A-10 Tank Killer, Caveman Ugh-Lympics, Die Hard, F-14 Tomcat, MechWarrior...)
* [[Dynamix Font Format v4-v5]] (Red Baron, Rise of the Dragon, Heart of China, Willy Beamish, Incredible Machine, Betrayal at Krondor...)
* [[Dynamix Font Format v6]] (Front Page Sports Football Pro)
* [[Jazz Jackrabbit Font Format]] (both compressed and uncompressed)
* [[Kings of the Beach Font]] (Kings of the Beach)
* [[KORT Font]] (King Arthur's Knights Of the Round Table)
* [[Space Quest V Font|Dynamix Space Quest V Font]] (Space Quest V)
* [[Transylvania Font]] (Transylvania 1/2)
* [[Visage Format|Mythos Visage Format]] (uncompressed frames only) (The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes 1/2, Bodyworks Voyager)
* [[Westwood BitFont Format]] (Nox, Red Alert 2) and [[Westwood Unicode BitFont Format|its Unicode variant]] (Red Alert 2)
* [[Westwood Font Format v1]] (Nightmare on Elm Street, Circuit's Edge, DragonStrike, Wargame Construction Set)
* [[Westwood Font Format v2]] (BattleTech, Eye of the Beholder 1/2)
* [[Westwood Font Format v3]] (Dune II, Lands of Lore 1/2/3, Legend of Kyrandia 1/2/3, Command & Conquer, Red Alert)
* [[Westwood Font Format v4]] (Tiberian Sun)

== Links ==

* [https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/5928-westwood-font-editor-development-thread/ Development thread on the CnCNet.org forum]

Command & Conquer Mission Format

2026-02-28T20:08:57Z

Nyerguds: Fixed some info; N64 is big-endan.

{{Map Infobox
| Type = 2D cell-based
| Layers = N/A (if object types are seen as a layers, at least 7)
| Cell dimensions = 64×64 (C&C) 128×128 (Sole Survivor)
| Viewport = 240×192 (DOS) 320×192 (DOS, no sidebar) 480×384 (Win95) 640×384 (Win95, no sidebar)
| Cell viewport = 10×8 (DOS) 13.33×8 (DOS, no sidebar) 20×16 (Win95) 26.67×16 (Win95, no sidebar)
| Games =
{{Game|Command & Conquer}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor}}
}}

The [[Command & Conquer]] mission format is comprised of two files; a binary file containing the raw indestructible terrain, and a .ini file describing everything that should be put on that terrain, as well as the mission's scripting.

Command & Conquer missions always have a size of 64×64 cells, but the ini file determines which area of that map will actually be accessible in the game. The outer border should never be used, because it is where aircraft get stuck when leaving the map after doing deliveries, air strikes or evacuations. This leaves the map with a 62x62 cell usable area.

The outer edge is not completely useless, though: the cells immediately outside the ini-defined accessible area can be filled with impassable terrain with gaps to control exactly where ground-based reinforcements can enter the map.

In [[Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor]], maps have a size of 128x128, but they retain the outer border requirement.

==Terrain file==

The raw indestructible map terrain, stored in a binary file with extension <tt>.bin</tt>, is a simple array of 64*64 cells, each cell being a struct of the following two bytes:

{|class="wikitable"
!Offset!!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
|0x00||[[UINT8]]||TilesetID||ID of the tileset file to use for this cell.
|-
|0x01||[[UINT8]]||TilesetCell||Specific cell number inside the tileset file to use for this cell.
|}

This array is interpreted like most image formats; wrapping around at a width of 64. The mission file works with a system of cell numbers, which are simply the indices of the cells in that full array.

The full range of <tt>TilesetID</tt> values can be looked up in [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/inirules/tilesets.ini the tilesets.ini file] in [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/inirules/ Nyerguds' ini dump of the game's internal data]. The value <tt>0xFF</tt> is reserved for clear terrain. This is automatically tiled over the map in 4x4 cell blocks.

The <tt>TileSetCell</tt> refers directly to the cell number inside the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format|tileset file]], without any checks from the game, meaning additional tiles can be added to maps simply by providing a modded tileset file with added tiles, and by editing the map to access those extra tiles. Any such added tiles will use that tileset's primary terrain type, though.

This format is the same on all ports of the game, except for the Nintendo 64.

===In the Nintendo 64 version===

The Nintendo 64 version uses the <tt>.map</tt> extension for its terrain maps, because the <tt>.bin</tt> extension is already used for its music files.

The map format in the Nintendo 64 version looks superficially the same, but it does not work with tilesets at all; the two bytes inside a cell are simply taken together as a single [[UINT16BE]] value, forming a single graphics tile's ID. These values are big-endian because that's the way the Nintendo 64 CPU architecture handles integers. Unlike the PC theaters, which share a lot of tilesets between theaters, these IDs are completely different between Temperate and Desert theater. Additionally, it uses bytes "FF FF" for clear terrain, where the PC version normally uses "FF 00".

The [[Engie File Converter]] contains the mappings required to convert maps between the two formats, though the N64 version of the game [https://tcrf.net/Command_%26_Conquer_(Nintendo_64)#Removed_Map_Tiles does not contain the full tilesets range the PC version has].

===In Sole Survivor===

[[Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor]], the arena deathmatch spinoff of C&C, introduces a new terrain map format with a basic size of 128x128. The use of this map format is indicated in the .ini file by setting "Version=1" under the <tt>[Map]</tt> section. The extension is still <tt>.bin</tt>, just like in the original game.

The map format differs from the normal maps in that it is a variable-size array that only saves tiles that are not clear terrain. To still position everything correctly, each tile starts with its cell number, giving the following 4-byte structure:

{|class="wikitable"
!Offset!!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
|0x00||[[UINT16LE]]||CellNumber||Cell number of the saved cell.
|-
|0x02||[[UINT8]]||TilesetID||ID of the tileset file to use for this cell.
|-
|0x03||[[UINT8]]||TilesetCell||Specific cell number inside the tileset file to use for this cell.
|}

This format has gained some popularity after being included in some fan projects and C&C: Remastered mods based on the released Command & Conquer source code, which add the ability to use this larger map format in the basic Command & Conquer game. More interest also came with the successful reverse-engineering of the Sole Survivor server software, which made Sole Survivor playable in multiplayer mode again.

==Ini file==

The ini file determines which theater (tilesets collection) will be used for the map, what objects are pre-placed on the map, and what mission scripting should happen. It is identical on all ports of the game.

The ini file uses a typical ini format like this:

[Section]
Key1=value
Key2=value
Key3=value

Keys must always be unique, even in situations where the key has no real meaning, like the lists of units, structures and infantry. Usually, in these lists, each item is simply assigned a number as key.

Values are often comma-separated blocks that contain specifically-structured data for the different initialization options of things like units, structures, teams and script triggers.

Section names and keys are technically case-insensitive, but for keys, due to the way the game scans for them, their first letter needs to match the case in which they are stored in the game's internals. Since C&C's keys are all stored in Pascal-style camel case, this means they always need to start with a capital letter. The file needs to end on a line break, otherwise the game will not be able to read the last line of the file.

The full format is very extensive, so I'll only go over the basics. A lot of this information can be derived from just looking into mission files, and mission making guides like [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cncstuff/cctxt/ccmanual.txt this one] are available online.

===The [Basic] section===

This is all about the mission itself. Here, you can change which side you play, what videos you see, and some other stuff. It has the following options:

* CarryOverCap: A cap on the amount of money that can be carried over. Never enabled by the game, and always set to '-1'.
* CarryOverMoney: Specifies how much money from your ending credits in the previous mission will be carried over to this one, as percentage.
* Intro: Intro video of the mission, played before the Brief and Action video. File name is the name of a .VQA video file, without extension.
* BuildLevel: Build level used in the mission. In the campaigns, this defaults to the campaign mission number, however, it needs to be set for add-on missions in the New Missions menu.
* Theme: Start theme of the mission, either as filename or as actual track title. 'No theme' reverts to the default music behaviour.
* Percent: Unused leftover of Dune II, even though the option was never used there, either. In Dune II it determined how much of the enemy base was built from the start of the mission.
* Player: Normally 'GoodGuy' (GDI) or 'BadGuy' (Nod). Could use one of the other houses (Neutral, Special, Multi1-Multi6), but this is not advised since it makes the game lock up in the mission win logic.
* Action: Video played between the Brief video and the mission start.
* Lose: Video played when you lose.
* Win: Video played when you win.
* Brief: The briefing video.
* Name: Mission name. This should be present for missions in the New Missions menu of the game, but is unused for campaign missions.

The unofficial 1.06 patch for the game made a few changes to the behaviour of this section:
* It removed the forced link of BuildLevel to the campaign level number, allowing campaign missions to freely adapt their tech level.
* It solved a lot of problems related to using non-standard values for the <tt>Player</tt> setting; missions played with those will generally return to the game's main menu after completing them.
* It fixed a problem that occurred when both an Intro video and a Theme were set, which made the game play the music and video simultaneously.
* It [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/patch106c_r3_en.html#toc_7.4.1 added a bunch of new options] that unlock either hidden beta options, or special behaviour that was previously hardcoded for specific missions.

===The [Map] section===

This determines which terrain set will be used, and which portion of the map will actually be playable. As mentioned before, the full map is 64x64 (or 128x128 for megamaps), but the outer border can't be used, meaning <tt>X</tt> and <tt>Y</tt> both have a minimum of 1, and <tt>X + Width</tt> and <tt>Y + Height</tt> should both be at most 63.

* Width: Width of the map.
* Height: Height of the map.
* X: horizontal position of left corner of map.
* Y: vertical position of left corner of map.
* Theater: graphics set: WINTER, DESERT, TEMPERATE.
* Version: introduced in ''Sole Survivor'', this is put to "1" to indicate 128x128 megamap format.

The theater determines which tileset files will be loaded to show the map. For example, TEMPERATE will load the TEMPERAT.MIX archive, and from it, it will load the TEMPERAT.PAL palette, and the tileset files with the .TEM extension.

The 1.06 patch adds an additional "SNOW" theater to is, based on graphics from [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]].

===The [Briefing] section===

This section can be used to give a mission briefing to the mission. While normal missions read this from an entry named like the mission file (e.g. <tt>[SCB01EA]</tt>) in the MISSION.INI file, this in-mission version will always override that external one, and is required for the missions in the "New Mission" menu which fall outside the scope of the normal campaign missions.

The format is simply

[Briefing]
1=GDI has attacked and cut off one of our bases. Find a way into
2=the base. One of our agents will assist you by placing a landing
3=flare at the right time. Once you're in,
4=rebuild the base and destroy the GDI forces in the area.

Note that line breaks in this are ignored; the text is always read as one long string and simply wrapped inside the briefing window in the game.

The 1.06 patch adds the ability to force line breaks by ending a line on ##. It also adds the ability to add language-specific briefings as different sections, like <tt>[BriefGer]</tt> and <tt>[BriefFre]</tt>. The names of these sections are controlled by the language control ini files also added by the unofficial patch.

===The House sections===

The game has 10 different "Houses" (a term left over from Dune II, and borrowed from the Dune books), or, simply put, player sides. Each of these can be used in the game, and can have settings related to their alliances and starting conditions.

The section name itself will have one of the House names:
* <tt>[GoodGuy]</tt>: GDI
* <tt>[BadGuy]</tt>: Nod
* <tt>[Neutral]</tt>: Civilians
* <tt>[Special]</tt>: Dinosaurs, in the game's Jurassic Park themed Easter egg campaign (Internally designated as "Containment Team", but in reality used as the dinosaurs themselves)
* <tt>[Multi1]</tt>: Blue multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi2]</tt>: Orange multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi3]</tt>: Green multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi4]</tt>: White multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi5]</tt>: Yellow multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi6]</tt>: Red multiplayer team

They can contain the following keys:

* FlagHome: Unused.
* FlagLocation: Unused.
* MaxBuilding: Unused. Leftover from Dune II.
* MaxUnit: Unused. Leftover from Dune II.
* Allies: Comma-separated list of all the Houses that this House will not attack. Alliances are not automatically mutual, so to prevent odd situations, also set this house in the list of their allies.
* Quota: Unused. Leftover from Dune II, where it was related to missions where the goal was to harvest until a certain amount of money was gained.
* Edge: Reinforcements for this house will come from this direction (North, East, South or West)
* Credits: number of credits they start with divided by 100 (so 10 means 1000)

The houses Special and Multi1-Multi6 do not have tech tree limitations when used in single player, meaning they can build all stuff from both GDI and Nod. The multiplayer mechanics of the game have a way of making the multiplayer houses conform to the player-chosen side. The Neutral house, on the other hand, has barely any construction options at all.

The unofficial 1.06 patch gives this section [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/patch106c_r3_en.html#toc_7.4.4 additional options to control the house's colours].

===Ownerless objects sections===

The <tt>[Terrain]</tt>, <tt>[Overlay]</tt> and <tt>[Smudge]</tt> sections contain all ownerless objects on the map. Terrain consists of trees and rocks; overlay are walls, collectable crates, Tiberium, and a couple of unused pavement types; and Smudge has scorch marks, craters, and the building bibs.

Each object will be placed on the map based on a cell number indicating the top left corner of the object. This is true even if that cell of the object is passable, like the tops of trees sticking out. As mentioned in the terrain file section, cell numbers are simply the index of the terrain cell as seen in the map data; it wraps around at 64 cells.

The number behind the Smudge entry can be used to change the state of craters; a larger number (up to 4) shows a larger crater.

Terrain entries contain a trigger name, but the only event that can be triggered by Terrain objects is the "Attacked" one. This only works on destructible Terrain objects, like trees.

Examples:

[TERRAIN]
; Cell=Type,Trigger
1107=ROCK1,None

[OVERLAY]
; Cell=Type
1406=SBAG

[SMUDGE]
; Cell=Type,Cell,State
3816=SC1,3816,0

===Owned objects sections===

The <tt>[Structures]</tt>, <tt>[Units]</tt> and <tt>[Infantry]</tt> sections contain objects owned by Houses. Like with the ownerless objects, each one has a position defined by the cell number indicating the top left corner of the object. They will also have the unit's orders, a strength (health) value ranging from 1 to 256 (the latter meaning 100%), the direction in which it is facing (ranging from 0 to 255 for a full rotation), and a trigger associated to the object for scripting purposes. Infantry will also have a sub-cell position, since five infantry units fit on each cell. These sub-cells are laid out like the five dots on a die, with 0 as the center, 1 for top-left, 2 for top-right, 3 for bottom-left and 4 for bottom-right.

The facing direction is usually not useful for buildings, but does actually work on Gun Turrets. In fact, units are limited to the values for cardinal and intercardinal directions (0 for north, 32 for northeast, 64 for east, etc.), while the Gun Turret can use more precise values.

Examples:

[Structures]
; index=House,Type,Strength,Cell,Facing,Trigger
002=BadGuy,GUN,256,3566,160,None

[Units]
; index=House,Type,Strength,Cell,Facing,Orders,Trigger
000=BadGuy,BIKE,256,1231,0,Guard,None

[Infantry]
; index=House,Type,Strength,Cell,SubCell,Orders,Facing,Trigger
046=GoodGuy,E2,256,3867,2,Area Guard,0,None

Note that the "index" can be anything; it simply needs to be a unique key for the ini system, and numbers are the easiest way to do that.

===Scripting sections===

Mission scripting, including but not limited to the AI's ability to react on events, is determined by the sections <tt>[Triggers]</tt>, <tt>[CellTriggers]</tt>, <tt>[TeamTypes]</tt> and <tt>[Waypoints]</tt>.

* '''Triggers''' are actual scripted Actions, caused by an Event. There is a wide range of Events in the game, from a simple timer, to certain cells being walked on by units from a certain house, to specific pre-placed units or structures being destroyed, damaged or discovered. Actions include letting the player Win or Lose, making the AI send out units based on a TeamType definition, triggering a superweapon unlock or attack, revealing an area with a dropzone flare, and disabling another trigger. Triggers can be set to either activate once, repeat every time the Event is triggered, or only activate once the Event has been triggered on every object linked to the trigger. A full overview of all the game's Events and Actions can be found [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2824756756 here].
* '''CellTriggers''' are a list of cell numbers and a trigger linked to each one. Triggers linked to CellTriggers should always have the activation criterion '''Player Enters'''.
* '''TeamTypes''' are definitions of groups of units and the orders they execute on the map, usually including a series of specific movement orders to go through to follow a path. These are used for enemy attacks and patrols, but also for friendly reinforcements. There are a bunch of extra options on them which were only recently revealed, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection/blob/e37e174be13d2768dc71c29f4aeb9e2712d5d172/CnCTDRAMapEditor/TiberianDawn/GamePlugin.cs#L212-L220 with the release of the first official map editor, and its source code.]
* '''Waypoints''' are shortcuts to cell numbers on the map, used by the TeamTypes section. They contain some special values, like the location of the signal flare that can be activated by the trigger action '''DZ at 'Z'''' ('Z' meaning the 26th Waypoint, which is index #25), the top-left corner of the viewed location at the start of a mission (#26) and the default dropoff location for reinforcements (#27).

Examples:

[Triggers]
; Name=Event,Action,Count,House,TeamType,ExecutionType
; ExecutionType (internally referred to as a trigger's "Persistence") can be:
; 0: execute once, on first triggering
; 1: execute once after all linked objects are triggered
; 2: execute every time it is triggered
atk4=Player Enters,Create Team,0,GoodGuy,nod3,0

[CellTriggers]
; Cell=Trigger
1319=atk4

[TeamTypes]
; Name=House,R,L,S,A,M,P,X,I,F,NrOfTypes,[Type:Amount,Type:Amount,...],NrOfOrders,[Order:Arg,Order:Arg,...],IsReinforcable,IsPrebuilt
; Options after House are IsRoundAbout, IsLearning, IsSuicide, IsAutocreate, IsMercenary, RecruitPriority, MaxAllowed, InitNum, Fear.
nod3=BadGuy,1,0,0,0,0,15,0,0,0,2,E4:2,LTNK:1,4,Move:0,Move:1,Move:7,Move:8,0,0

[Waypoints]
; WayPointNr=Cell
8=2706
7=2263
1=1180
0=1000

===The [Base] section===

The <tt>[Base]</tt> section contains a list of all buildings that should be (re)built by the AI, in the order of build priority. This list can contain buildings that do not appear on the map. The AI will only start building structures from this list once its 'Production' trigger is activated.

The Base section must always contain a "Count" key to indicate how many items it should read from the list.

Example:

[Base]
004=NUKE,436215040
003=HAND,436213760
002=SILO,436216064
001=SILO,436215552
000=PROC,469769984
Count=5

* The key is always a three-digit number. It acts as priority number; 000 will be rebuilt first, then 001, then 002, etc.
* The first argument in the comma-separated value is the building type code. This is the same as the codes used in the <tt>[Structures]</tt> section.
* The second argument in the comma-separated value is calculated from the coordinates, and is a lot more clear when seen as hexadecimal. 436213760 is 1A001800, and the two immediately visible values in there, namely 1A and 18, are the Y and X values of the building's location. So the actual saved value in the ini file is <code>0x1000000*Y + 0x100*X</code> (or, in decimal, <code>16777216*Y + 256*X</code>). The actual coordinates in the example would be Y=26 and X=24, making the cell number <code>64*Y + X = 1688</code>. The fact the values both appear as multiples of 0x100 is because they are actually saved as leptons, the game's more precise internal measurement unit which equates to 1/256th of the size (width or height) of a cell.

Note that the value does not contain an owner for the building, which leads to problems when multiple Production-enabled AIs with construction yards are on the map. They will compete over the available spots, and will send troops to remove enemy units or structures obstructing their build location.

===Other sections===

Two other sections can be encountered in the missions. While they might work, their use is generally not advised:

* '''Reinforcements''': used to control hovercraft reinforcements. Anything this does should be possible in a more controlled way using triggers and teamtypes.

* '''Template''': allows placing tilesets directly on the map in a <code>CellNumber=TileSetName</code> format, overriding whatever the map file had. This isn't very reliable since it can't use cell numbers that fall outside the used map, meaning it won't work well on the top and left map edges. Also, this always places an entire tileset piece, whereas the binary maps place them per single cell, allowing a lot more customisation.

* '''Aircraft''': Deactivated code for reading an <tt>[Aircraft]</tt> section, was discovered by people looking into the internals of the game, but even when reactivated, it didn't work correctly, spawning aircraft in the air and leaving impassable spots underneath. The section functions like the <tt>[Units]</tt> section, except it has no trigger at the end. The use of this section was re-enabled in the C&C Remaster, but is pretty much as broken as it was in the original. The only reliable way to make the unit land on the actual designated cell, thereby clearing the impassable spot, is to give them the "Unload" order. Note that while several missions feature Transport Helicopters 'placed' on the map for the player to capture, these are always flown in by mission scripts at the start of the mission.

Examples:

[REINFORCEMENTS]
1=GoodGuy,E1,Beach,0

[TEMPLATE]
3645=SH2

[Aircraft]
000=GoodGuy,ORCA,256,2960,160,Unload

===In Sole Survivor===

The Sole Survivor map format remains largely the same as that in the base game. These changes exist:

* A <tt>[Crates]</tt> section is added which can be used to balance the different types of crate goodies that come out of crates, and has some more general settings determining the crate density and spawn rate. These settings can however be overridden by the server.
* The contents of the <tt>[Structures]</tt> section are not read. Earlier versions of the game did read this, however, and civilian buildings remain on some maps as decoration, though the final version of the game does not read them.
* Crates are never read from the <tt>[Overlay]</tt> section in the ini file.
* The ROAD pavement in the <tt>[Overlay]</tt> section is used to place Teleporters on maps.
* Certain waypoints have special meanings. Waypoints 0 to 3 are points around which a larger concentration of crates will be spawned. The next eight waypoints, 4 to 11, act as eight possible team home location points for team-based game such as Capture The Flag.
* In addition to the existing houses, Sole Survivor contains House sections for <tt>[Admin]</tt>, <tt>[Spectator]</tt>, <tt>[Team 1]</tt>, <tt>[Team 2]</tt>, <tt>[Team 3]</tt> and <tt>[Team 4]</tt>. The <tt>[Multi#]</tt> Houses also go up to <tt>[Multi100]</tt>.

Vehicles and infantry units can perfectly be placed on maps, though these can cause strange behaviour in the game, since each player can only control one single unit and any non-player units will act as AI hunters, actively seeking out crates to upgrade themselves and hunting down players. The game's scripting also seems to be largely intact in the game's binaries, though very little of that ever worked right in multiplayer anyway.

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=map}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = Yes
| canModify = Yes
| editHidden = N/A
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Saves briefings on one line, and converts all data except the briefing text to upper case. Can export maps as images.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://cnc-comm.com/command-and-conquer/downloads/map-editors/ccmap CCMap]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = Yes
| canModify = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Requires the terrain archives from the DOS version of the game to work.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/MobiusMapEditor/ Mobius Map Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = Yes
| canModify = Yes
| editHidden = Yes
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Fork of the official C&C: Remastered map editor. Can create and edit 128x128 megamaps and the Sole Survivor format. Can open and save the Nintendo 64 version of the format. Can export maps as images. Has support for editing unmanaged extra ini bits put inside the ini script file.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Terrain visualization and conversion only (between PC and N64 versions). Cannot edit missions.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}
[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

Command & Conquer Mission Format

2026-02-28T20:05:53Z

Nyerguds: Reverted edits related to Red Alert; the Red Alert format is different enough that it should get its own page.

{{Map Infobox
| Type = 2D cell-based
| Layers = N/A (if object types are seen as a layers, at least 7)
| Cell dimensions = 64×64 (C&C) 128×128 (Sole Survivor)
| Viewport = 240×192 (DOS) 320×192 (DOS, no sidebar) 480×384 (Win95) 640×384 (Win95, no sidebar)
| Cell viewport = 10×8 (DOS) 13.33×8 (DOS, no sidebar) 20×16 (Win95) 26.67×16 (Win95, no sidebar)
| Games =
{{Game|Command & Conquer}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor}}
}}

The [[Command & Conquer]] mission format is comprised of two files; a binary file containing the raw indestructible terrain, and a .ini file describing everything that should be put on that terrain, as well as the mission's scripting.

Command & Conquer missions always have a size of 64×64 cells, but the ini file determines which area of that map will actually be accessible in the game. The outer border should never be used, because it is where aircraft get stuck when leaving the map after doing deliveries, air strikes or evacuations. This leaves the map with a 62x62 cell usable area.

The outer edge is not completely useless, though: the cells immediately outside the ini-defined accessible area can be filled with impassable terrain with gaps to control exactly where ground-based reinforcements can enter the map.

In [[Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor]], maps have a size of 128x128, but they retain the outer border requirement.

==Terrain file==

The raw indestructible map terrain, stored in a binary file with extension <tt>.bin</tt>, is a simple array of 64*64 cells, each cell being a struct of the following two bytes:

{|class="wikitable"
!Offset!!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
|0x00||[[UINT8]]||TilesetID||ID of the tileset file to use for this cell.
|-
|0x01||[[UINT8]]||TilesetCell||Specific cell number inside the tileset file to use for this cell.
|}

This array is interpreted like most image formats; wrapping around at a width of 64. The mission file works with a system of cell numbers, which are simply the indices of the cells in that full array.

The full range of <tt>TilesetID</tt> values can be looked up in [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/inirules/tilesets.ini the tilesets.ini file] in [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/inirules/ Nyerguds' ini dump of the game's internal data]. The value <tt>0xFF</tt> is reserved for clear terrain. This is automatically tiled over the map in 4x4 cell blocks.

The <tt>TileSetCell</tt> refers directly to the cell number inside the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format|tileset file]], without any checks from the game, meaning additional tiles can be added to maps simply by providing a modded tileset file with added tiles, and by editing the map to access those extra tiles. Any such added tiles will use that tileset's primary terrain type, though.

This format is the same on all ports of the game, except for the Nintendo 64.

===In the Nintendo 64 version===

The Nintendo 64 version uses the <tt>.map</tt> extension for its terrain maps, because the <tt>.bin</tt> extension is already used for its music files.

The map format in the Nintendo 64 version looks superficially the same, but it does not work with tilesets at all; the two bytes inside a cell are simply taken together as a single [[UINT16LE]] value, forming a single graphics tile's ID. Unlike the PC theaters, which share a lot of tilesets between theaters, these IDs are completely different between Temperate and Desert theater. Additionally, it uses bytes "FF FF" for clear terrain, where the PC version normally uses "FF 00".

The [[Engie File Converter]] contains the mappings required to convert maps between the two formats, though the N64 version of the game [https://tcrf.net/Command_%26_Conquer_(Nintendo_64)#Removed_Map_Tiles does not contain the full tilesets range the PC version has].

===In Sole Survivor===

[[Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor]], the arena deathmatch spinoff of C&C, introduces a new terrain map format with a basic size of 128x128. The use of this map format is indicated in the .ini file by setting "Version=1" under the <tt>[Map]</tt> section. The extension is still <tt>.bin</tt>, just like in the original game.

The map format differs from the normal maps in that it is a variable-size array that only saves tiles that are not clear terrain. To still position everything correctly, each tile starts with its cell number, giving the following 4-byte structure:

{|class="wikitable"
!Offset!!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
|0x00||[[UINT16LE]]||CellNumber||Cell number of the saved cell.
|-
|0x02||[[UINT8]]||TilesetID||ID of the tileset file to use for this cell.
|-
|0x03||[[UINT8]]||TilesetCell||Specific cell number inside the tileset file to use for this cell.
|}

This format has gained some popularity after being included in some fan projects and C&C: Remastered mods based on the released Command & Conquer source code, which add the ability to use this larger map format in the basic Command & Conquer game. More interest also came with the successful reverse-engineering of the Sole Survivor server software, which made Sole Survivor playable in multiplayer mode again.

==Ini file==

The ini file determines which theater (tilesets collection) will be used for the map, what objects are pre-placed on the map, and what mission scripting should happen. It is identical on all ports of the game.

The ini file uses a typical ini format like this:

[Section]
Key1=value
Key2=value
Key3=value

Keys must always be unique, even in situations where the key has no real meaning, like the lists of units, structures and infantry. Usually, in these lists, each item is simply assigned a number as key.

Values are often comma-separated blocks that contain specifically-structured data for the different initialization options of things like units, structures, teams and script triggers.

Section names and keys are technically case-insensitive, but for keys, due to the way the game scans for them, their first letter needs to match the case in which they are stored in the game's internals. Since C&C's keys are all stored in Pascal-style camel case, this means they always need to start with a capital letter. The file needs to end on a line break, otherwise the game will not be able to read the last line of the file.

The full format is very extensive, so I'll only go over the basics. A lot of this information can be derived from just looking into mission files, and mission making guides like [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cncstuff/cctxt/ccmanual.txt this one] are available online.

===The [Basic] section===

This is all about the mission itself. Here, you can change which side you play, what videos you see, and some other stuff. It has the following options:

* CarryOverCap: A cap on the amount of money that can be carried over. Never enabled by the game, and always set to '-1'.
* CarryOverMoney: Specifies how much money from your ending credits in the previous mission will be carried over to this one, as percentage.
* Intro: Intro video of the mission, played before the Brief and Action video. File name is the name of a .VQA video file, without extension.
* BuildLevel: Build level used in the mission. In the campaigns, this defaults to the campaign mission number, however, it needs to be set for add-on missions in the New Missions menu.
* Theme: Start theme of the mission, either as filename or as actual track title. 'No theme' reverts to the default music behaviour.
* Percent: Unused leftover of Dune II, even though the option was never used there, either. In Dune II it determined how much of the enemy base was built from the start of the mission.
* Player: Normally 'GoodGuy' (GDI) or 'BadGuy' (Nod). Could use one of the other houses (Neutral, Special, Multi1-Multi6), but this is not advised since it makes the game lock up in the mission win logic.
* Action: Video played between the Brief video and the mission start.
* Lose: Video played when you lose.
* Win: Video played when you win.
* Brief: The briefing video.
* Name: Mission name. This should be present for missions in the New Missions menu of the game, but is unused for campaign missions.

The unofficial 1.06 patch for the game made a few changes to the behaviour of this section:
* It removed the forced link of BuildLevel to the campaign level number, allowing campaign missions to freely adapt their tech level.
* It solved a lot of problems related to using non-standard values for the <tt>Player</tt> setting; missions played with those will generally return to the game's main menu after completing them.
* It fixed a problem that occurred when both an Intro video and a Theme were set, which made the game play the music and video simultaneously.
* It [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/patch106c_r3_en.html#toc_7.4.1 added a bunch of new options] that unlock either hidden beta options, or special behaviour that was previously hardcoded for specific missions.

===The [Map] section===

This determines which terrain set will be used, and which portion of the map will actually be playable. As mentioned before, the full map is 64x64 (or 128x128 for megamaps), but the outer border can't be used, meaning <tt>X</tt> and <tt>Y</tt> both have a minimum of 1, and <tt>X + Width</tt> and <tt>Y + Height</tt> should both be at most 63.

* Width: Width of the map.
* Height: Height of the map.
* X: horizontal position of left corner of map.
* Y: vertical position of left corner of map.
* Theater: graphics set: WINTER, DESERT, TEMPERATE.
* Version: introduced in ''Sole Survivor'', this is put to "1" to indicate 128x128 megamap format.

The theater determines which tileset files will be loaded to show the map. For example, TEMPERATE will load the TEMPERAT.MIX archive, and from it, it will load the TEMPERAT.PAL palette, and the tileset files with the .TEM extension.

The 1.06 patch adds an additional "SNOW" theater to is, based on graphics from [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]].

===The [Briefing] section===

This section can be used to give a mission briefing to the mission. While normal missions read this from an entry named like the mission file (e.g. <tt>[SCB01EA]</tt>) in the MISSION.INI file, this in-mission version will always override that external one, and is required for the missions in the "New Mission" menu which fall outside the scope of the normal campaign missions.

The format is simply

[Briefing]
1=GDI has attacked and cut off one of our bases. Find a way into
2=the base. One of our agents will assist you by placing a landing
3=flare at the right time. Once you're in,
4=rebuild the base and destroy the GDI forces in the area.

Note that line breaks in this are ignored; the text is always read as one long string and simply wrapped inside the briefing window in the game.

The 1.06 patch adds the ability to force line breaks by ending a line on ##. It also adds the ability to add language-specific briefings as different sections, like <tt>[BriefGer]</tt> and <tt>[BriefFre]</tt>. The names of these sections are controlled by the language control ini files also added by the unofficial patch.

===The House sections===

The game has 10 different "Houses" (a term left over from Dune II, and borrowed from the Dune books), or, simply put, player sides. Each of these can be used in the game, and can have settings related to their alliances and starting conditions.

The section name itself will have one of the House names:
* <tt>[GoodGuy]</tt>: GDI
* <tt>[BadGuy]</tt>: Nod
* <tt>[Neutral]</tt>: Civilians
* <tt>[Special]</tt>: Dinosaurs, in the game's Jurassic Park themed Easter egg campaign (Internally designated as "Containment Team", but in reality used as the dinosaurs themselves)
* <tt>[Multi1]</tt>: Blue multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi2]</tt>: Orange multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi3]</tt>: Green multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi4]</tt>: White multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi5]</tt>: Yellow multiplayer team
* <tt>[Multi6]</tt>: Red multiplayer team

They can contain the following keys:

* FlagHome: Unused.
* FlagLocation: Unused.
* MaxBuilding: Unused. Leftover from Dune II.
* MaxUnit: Unused. Leftover from Dune II.
* Allies: Comma-separated list of all the Houses that this House will not attack. Alliances are not automatically mutual, so to prevent odd situations, also set this house in the list of their allies.
* Quota: Unused. Leftover from Dune II, where it was related to missions where the goal was to harvest until a certain amount of money was gained.
* Edge: Reinforcements for this house will come from this direction (North, East, South or West)
* Credits: number of credits they start with divided by 100 (so 10 means 1000)

The houses Special and Multi1-Multi6 do not have tech tree limitations when used in single player, meaning they can build all stuff from both GDI and Nod. The multiplayer mechanics of the game have a way of making the multiplayer houses conform to the player-chosen side. The Neutral house, on the other hand, has barely any construction options at all.

The unofficial 1.06 patch gives this section [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/cnc95upd/cc95p106/patch106c_r3_en.html#toc_7.4.4 additional options to control the house's colours].

===Ownerless objects sections===

The <tt>[Terrain]</tt>, <tt>[Overlay]</tt> and <tt>[Smudge]</tt> sections contain all ownerless objects on the map. Terrain consists of trees and rocks; overlay are walls, collectable crates, Tiberium, and a couple of unused pavement types; and Smudge has scorch marks, craters, and the building bibs.

Each object will be placed on the map based on a cell number indicating the top left corner of the object. This is true even if that cell of the object is passable, like the tops of trees sticking out. As mentioned in the terrain file section, cell numbers are simply the index of the terrain cell as seen in the map data; it wraps around at 64 cells.

The number behind the Smudge entry can be used to change the state of craters; a larger number (up to 4) shows a larger crater.

Terrain entries contain a trigger name, but the only event that can be triggered by Terrain objects is the "Attacked" one. This only works on destructible Terrain objects, like trees.

Examples:

[TERRAIN]
; Cell=Type,Trigger
1107=ROCK1,None

[OVERLAY]
; Cell=Type
1406=SBAG

[SMUDGE]
; Cell=Type,Cell,State
3816=SC1,3816,0

===Owned objects sections===

The <tt>[Structures]</tt>, <tt>[Units]</tt> and <tt>[Infantry]</tt> sections contain objects owned by Houses. Like with the ownerless objects, each one has a position defined by the cell number indicating the top left corner of the object. They will also have the unit's orders, a strength (health) value ranging from 1 to 256 (the latter meaning 100%), the direction in which it is facing (ranging from 0 to 255 for a full rotation), and a trigger associated to the object for scripting purposes. Infantry will also have a sub-cell position, since five infantry units fit on each cell. These sub-cells are laid out like the five dots on a die, with 0 as the center, 1 for top-left, 2 for top-right, 3 for bottom-left and 4 for bottom-right.

The facing direction is usually not useful for buildings, but does actually work on Gun Turrets. In fact, units are limited to the values for cardinal and intercardinal directions (0 for north, 32 for northeast, 64 for east, etc.), while the Gun Turret can use more precise values.

Examples:

[Structures]
; index=House,Type,Strength,Cell,Facing,Trigger
002=BadGuy,GUN,256,3566,160,None

[Units]
; index=House,Type,Strength,Cell,Facing,Orders,Trigger
000=BadGuy,BIKE,256,1231,0,Guard,None

[Infantry]
; index=House,Type,Strength,Cell,SubCell,Orders,Facing,Trigger
046=GoodGuy,E2,256,3867,2,Area Guard,0,None

Note that the "index" can be anything; it simply needs to be a unique key for the ini system, and numbers are the easiest way to do that.

===Scripting sections===

Mission scripting, including but not limited to the AI's ability to react on events, is determined by the sections <tt>[Triggers]</tt>, <tt>[CellTriggers]</tt>, <tt>[TeamTypes]</tt> and <tt>[Waypoints]</tt>.

* '''Triggers''' are actual scripted Actions, caused by an Event. There is a wide range of Events in the game, from a simple timer, to certain cells being walked on by units from a certain house, to specific pre-placed units or structures being destroyed, damaged or discovered. Actions include letting the player Win or Lose, making the AI send out units based on a TeamType definition, triggering a superweapon unlock or attack, revealing an area with a dropzone flare, and disabling another trigger. Triggers can be set to either activate once, repeat every time the Event is triggered, or only activate once the Event has been triggered on every object linked to the trigger. A full overview of all the game's Events and Actions can be found [https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2824756756 here].
* '''CellTriggers''' are a list of cell numbers and a trigger linked to each one. Triggers linked to CellTriggers should always have the activation criterion '''Player Enters'''.
* '''TeamTypes''' are definitions of groups of units and the orders they execute on the map, usually including a series of specific movement orders to go through to follow a path. These are used for enemy attacks and patrols, but also for friendly reinforcements. There are a bunch of extra options on them which were only recently revealed, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Remastered_Collection/blob/e37e174be13d2768dc71c29f4aeb9e2712d5d172/CnCTDRAMapEditor/TiberianDawn/GamePlugin.cs#L212-L220 with the release of the first official map editor, and its source code.]
* '''Waypoints''' are shortcuts to cell numbers on the map, used by the TeamTypes section. They contain some special values, like the location of the signal flare that can be activated by the trigger action '''DZ at 'Z'''' ('Z' meaning the 26th Waypoint, which is index #25), the top-left corner of the viewed location at the start of a mission (#26) and the default dropoff location for reinforcements (#27).

Examples:

[Triggers]
; Name=Event,Action,Count,House,TeamType,ExecutionType
; ExecutionType (internally referred to as a trigger's "Persistence") can be:
; 0: execute once, on first triggering
; 1: execute once after all linked objects are triggered
; 2: execute every time it is triggered
atk4=Player Enters,Create Team,0,GoodGuy,nod3,0

[CellTriggers]
; Cell=Trigger
1319=atk4

[TeamTypes]
; Name=House,R,L,S,A,M,P,X,I,F,NrOfTypes,[Type:Amount,Type:Amount,...],NrOfOrders,[Order:Arg,Order:Arg,...],IsReinforcable,IsPrebuilt
; Options after House are IsRoundAbout, IsLearning, IsSuicide, IsAutocreate, IsMercenary, RecruitPriority, MaxAllowed, InitNum, Fear.
nod3=BadGuy,1,0,0,0,0,15,0,0,0,2,E4:2,LTNK:1,4,Move:0,Move:1,Move:7,Move:8,0,0

[Waypoints]
; WayPointNr=Cell
8=2706
7=2263
1=1180
0=1000

===The [Base] section===

The <tt>[Base]</tt> section contains a list of all buildings that should be (re)built by the AI, in the order of build priority. This list can contain buildings that do not appear on the map. The AI will only start building structures from this list once its 'Production' trigger is activated.

The Base section must always contain a "Count" key to indicate how many items it should read from the list.

Example:

[Base]
004=NUKE,436215040
003=HAND,436213760
002=SILO,436216064
001=SILO,436215552
000=PROC,469769984
Count=5

* The key is always a three-digit number. It acts as priority number; 000 will be rebuilt first, then 001, then 002, etc.
* The first argument in the comma-separated value is the building type code. This is the same as the codes used in the <tt>[Structures]</tt> section.
* The second argument in the comma-separated value is calculated from the coordinates, and is a lot more clear when seen as hexadecimal. 436213760 is 1A001800, and the two immediately visible values in there, namely 1A and 18, are the Y and X values of the building's location. So the actual saved value in the ini file is <code>0x1000000*Y + 0x100*X</code> (or, in decimal, <code>16777216*Y + 256*X</code>). The actual coordinates in the example would be Y=26 and X=24, making the cell number <code>64*Y + X = 1688</code>. The fact the values both appear as multiples of 0x100 is because they are actually saved as leptons, the game's more precise internal measurement unit which equates to 1/256th of the size (width or height) of a cell.

Note that the value does not contain an owner for the building, which leads to problems when multiple Production-enabled AIs with construction yards are on the map. They will compete over the available spots, and will send troops to remove enemy units or structures obstructing their build location.

===Other sections===

Two other sections can be encountered in the missions. While they might work, their use is generally not advised:

* '''Reinforcements''': used to control hovercraft reinforcements. Anything this does should be possible in a more controlled way using triggers and teamtypes.

* '''Template''': allows placing tilesets directly on the map in a <code>CellNumber=TileSetName</code> format, overriding whatever the map file had. This isn't very reliable since it can't use cell numbers that fall outside the used map, meaning it won't work well on the top and left map edges. Also, this always places an entire tileset piece, whereas the binary maps place them per single cell, allowing a lot more customisation.

* '''Aircraft''': Deactivated code for reading an <tt>[Aircraft]</tt> section, was discovered by people looking into the internals of the game, but even when reactivated, it didn't work correctly, spawning aircraft in the air and leaving impassable spots underneath. The section functions like the <tt>[Units]</tt> section, except it has no trigger at the end. The use of this section was re-enabled in the C&C Remaster, but is pretty much as broken as it was in the original. The only reliable way to make the unit land on the actual designated cell, thereby clearing the impassable spot, is to give them the "Unload" order. Note that while several missions feature Transport Helicopters 'placed' on the map for the player to capture, these are always flown in by mission scripts at the start of the mission.

Examples:

[REINFORCEMENTS]
1=GoodGuy,E1,Beach,0

[TEMPLATE]
3645=SH2

[Aircraft]
000=GoodGuy,ORCA,256,2960,160,Unload

===In Sole Survivor===

The Sole Survivor map format remains largely the same as that in the base game. These changes exist:

* A <tt>[Crates]</tt> section is added which can be used to balance the different types of crate goodies that come out of crates, and has some more general settings determining the crate density and spawn rate. These settings can however be overridden by the server.
* The contents of the <tt>[Structures]</tt> section are not read. Earlier versions of the game did read this, however, and civilian buildings remain on some maps as decoration, though the final version of the game does not read them.
* Crates are never read from the <tt>[Overlay]</tt> section in the ini file.
* The ROAD pavement in the <tt>[Overlay]</tt> section is used to place Teleporters on maps.
* Certain waypoints have special meanings. Waypoints 0 to 3 are points around which a larger concentration of crates will be spawned. The next eight waypoints, 4 to 11, act as eight possible team home location points for team-based game such as Capture The Flag.
* In addition to the existing houses, Sole Survivor contains House sections for <tt>[Admin]</tt>, <tt>[Spectator]</tt>, <tt>[Team 1]</tt>, <tt>[Team 2]</tt>, <tt>[Team 3]</tt> and <tt>[Team 4]</tt>. The <tt>[Multi#]</tt> Houses also go up to <tt>[Multi100]</tt>.

Vehicles and infantry units can perfectly be placed on maps, though these can cause strange behaviour in the game, since each player can only control one single unit and any non-player units will act as AI hunters, actively seeking out crates to upgrade themselves and hunting down players. The game's scripting also seems to be largely intact in the game's binaries, though very little of that ever worked right in multiplayer anyway.

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=map}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = Yes
| canModify = Yes
| editHidden = N/A
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Saves briefings on one line, and converts all data except the briefing text to upper case. Can export maps as images.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://cnc-comm.com/command-and-conquer/downloads/map-editors/ccmap CCMap]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = Yes
| canModify = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Requires the terrain archives from the DOS version of the game to work.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/MobiusMapEditor/ Mobius Map Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = Yes
| canModify = Yes
| editHidden = Yes
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Fork of the official C&C: Remastered map editor. Can create and edit 128x128 megamaps and the Sole Survivor format. Can open and save the Nintendo 64 version of the format. Can export maps as images. Has support for editing unmanaged extra ini bits put inside the ini script file.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canCreate = No
| canModify = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Terrain visualization and conversion only (between PC and N64 versions). Cannot edit missions.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}
[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

Hi Octane

2026-02-14T14:19:21Z

Nyerguds: /* Game's files */ small note on end chunk of the table.

{{NeedMoreInfo}}
{{Game Infobox
| Levels = No
| Tiles = No
| Sprites = No
| Fullscreen = No
| Sound = No
| Music = No
| Text = No
| Story = No
| Interface = No
}}

'''Hi Octane''' is hover-car racing game. According to Sean Cooper it was made in 6.5 weeks using engine code from Syndicate and Magic Carpet. There are at least two releases of the game, the initial release (executable contains string ''Jun 10 1995 17:45:48'') with 6 levels, and a later extended version (''Oct 23 1995 15:57:32'') with 9 levels, additional game modes, and slightly reworked levels. In certain file format details the used version makes a difference.

== Ports ==
* [https://github.com/movAX13h/HiOctaneTools HiOctaneTools]
* [https://github.com/woalexan/hi-octane202x hi-octane202x]

{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = sounds/music.dat
| Format = see below
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Archive containing music files in different formats: [[XMI Format]], [[GEN Format]], [[ROL Format]], [[WTB Format]]. There are five files per format : TGAME1, TGAME2, TGAME3, TGAME4, TINTRO2.
}}
{{EndGameFileList}}

== MUSIC.DAT ==

* read the [[INT32LE]] at EOF and seek to returned position
* count the N number of [[INT16LE]] that equals <code>0x0001</code>, then read N of the following struct:

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT32LE || offTunes || Offset to the list of tunes
|-
| INT32LE || offTune1 || Offset to the first tune
|-
| INT32LE || unknown || Unknown (always <code>0xC0000000</code>, or <code>192</code>)
|-
| INT32LE || lenTunes || Length of all tunes together, bytes
|}

* for each of the former struct
** seek to <code>offTunes</code>
** read one of the following struct, its <code>lenTune</code> indicates the byte sum of tunes following
** read as many of the following struct until their <code>lenTune</code> sum equals the one in previous step

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| CHAR || name[12] || File name of the tune, <code>\0</code> padded
|-
| CHAR || padding[6] || Padding bytes
|-
| INT32LE || offTune || Tune relative offset
|-
| CHAR || padding[4] || Padding bytes
|-
| INT32LE || lenTune || Tune length, bytes
|-
| INT16LE || unknown || Unknown (always <code>0x5A00</code>, or <code>90</code>)
|}

* you now have a catalog of a collection of tunes, e.g. five ROL songs, five WTB songs etc
* to extract a song, copy <code>lenTune</code> bytes starting at <code>offTune1 + offTune</code>, file name is <code>name</code>

== RNC-compressed files ==

Many of the game's files are compressed using the [[Rob Northern Compression]] format; some of them such as ''SOUND\SOUND.DAT'' are a concatenation of many RNC archives simply ''glued'' together.

A command-line unpacker can be found here : [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/bullfrog_utils_rnc.zip Bullfrog games RNC Utilities] (from [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/synd/rework/synd_rework_rnc.php Unpacking RNC files])

== DAT/TAB pairs ==

Can be decompressed using [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/bullfrog_utils_tabdat.zip Bullfrog games DAT/TAB Graphics extractor] (they first must be decompressed if they are RNC-compressed).

'''DAT format:'''

Without a TAB file, it's raw pixels; with a TAB file it's a form of line by line RLE compression where only transparent pixels are compressed.

'''TAB format:'''

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT32LE || position || Image position in .DAT
|-
| INT16LE || width || Image width
|-
| INT16LE || height || Image height
|}

'''TMAPS:'''

Contains powerups and some HUD elements but TAB format is different:

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT32LE || flat || Size of RNC stream unpacked, useless as it's contained in stream header already
|-
| INT32LE || pos || Position in DAT
|-
| INT16LE || index || Some index but can be duplicate, so likely a type or category instead
|}

There are N+1 entries to be able to compute last item size in DAT.

Each image has the following format:

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT16 || unknown || Unknown
|-
| INT8 || width || Image width
|-
| INT8 || height || Image height
|-
| INT8[] || pixels || Image pixels, 8-bit paletted
|}

== Game's files ==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name
! Format
! RNC compressed
! Notes
|-
|data\hfont0-0.dat data\hfont0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Thin white font (SVGA)
|-
|data\hspr0-0.dat data\hspr0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Editor icons (large)
|-
|data\intro.dat
|[[Autodesk FLI animation]]
|No
|Game introduction
|-
|data\logo0-0.dat data\logo0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Game logo (VGA)
|-
|data\logo0-1.dat data\logo0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Game logo (SVGA)
|-
|data\mfont0-0.dat data\mfont0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Thin white font (VGA)
|-
|data\mspr0-0.dat data\mspr0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Editor icons (small)
|-
|data\olfnt0-0.dat data\olfnt0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Large white font (VGA)
|-
|data\olfnt0-1.dat data\olfnt0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Large white font (SVGA)
|-
|data\onet0-*.dat data\oscr0-*.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 320×200 and 640×480
|Yes
|Loading and selection screens
|-
|data\osfnt0-0.dat data\osfnt0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Small white font (VGA)
|-
|data\osfnt0-1.dat data\osfnt0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Small white font (VGA)
|-
|data\palet0-0.dat
|[[VGA Palette]]
|No
|The palette of every asset of the game, unless specified
|-
|data\panel0-0.dat data\panel0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 2-players (SVGA)
|-
|data\panel0-1.dat data\panel0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 1-player (SVGA)
|-
|data\panel9-0.dat data\panel9-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 2-players (VGA)
|-
|data\panel9-1.dat data\panel9-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 1-player (VGA)
|-
|data\pfont0-0.dat data\pfont0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|Large green font (VGA)
|-
|data\pfont0-1.dat data\pfont0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|Large green font (SVGA)
|-
|data\point0-0.dat data\point0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Editor cursors
|-
|data\puzzle.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 112×96
|No
|The cheat puzzle activated with CTRL-Tab in-game
|-
|data\sky0-*.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 256×256
|Yes
|Horizon of each track
|-
|data\srch0-0.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 32×32
|Yes
|Looks like a radar but seems to be unused
|-
|data\table0-*.dat
| Remap tables?
|Yes
|
These files differ by at most a few bytes. They appear to be remap tables for applying lighting effects to the colour palette.

When viewed as a 256 pixels wide image, it can be seen that each line is a permutation of the entire colour palette, where the colours were brightened, darkened, and/or faded towards specific colours, and then matched back to their closest match on the colour palette. The 0-63 range is clearly a fade from bright to dark, with line 31 containing the original unmodified palette.

The last 8 lines, however, don't match this format, and seem like some different type of data.

[[File:HiOctaneTable.png]]
|-
|data\textu0-*.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 64×16384
|Yes
|64×64 terrain textures
|-
|data\title.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 320×200
|Yes
|The introductory screen
|-
|data\tmaps.dat
|
|Yes
|see above
|-
|data\tmaps.tab
|
|No
|see above
|-
|data\track0-0.dat data\track0-0.tab data\track0-1.dat data\track0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No/Yes
|Contain the images of the level minimaps that are shown in the HUD. The game does work without them,
but then the minimap is not shown. Initial game version does not use RNC compression, extended version does.
|-
|objects/data/tex0-0.dat objects/data/tex0-0.tab
|[[Hi-Octane Texture Atlas]], 256×768
|No
|In-game textures
|-
|objects/data/tex0-1.dat objects/data/tex0-1.tab
|[[Hi-Octane Texture Atlas]], 256×88
|No
|In-game textures
|-
|}

'''Note:''' none of the TAB files are RNC-compressed.

== Notes ==

'''General'''

The image formats above are partially decoded, they are still missing palette information.

All the images are paletted, 8 bits per pixels.

'''INTRO.DAT'''

Header can be fixed using [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/bullfrog_utils_flifix.zip Autodesk Animator FLI files fixer] but since format is pretty old and that [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/utils_waaplay110.zip Autodesk Animation Player 1.10] is a legacy Win16 executable, it is not very convenient to use as of today.

Instead, the file can be converted by FFMPEG to either BMP or AVI,

Convert the animation to individual images, handle last invalid frame:

<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
ffmpeg -i INTRO.DAT -vframes 548 -pix_fmt bgr24 intro%03d.bmp
</syntaxhightlight>

Convert the sequence of images to a raw AVI and respect the original frame rate:

<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
ffmpeg -r 14 -i intro%03d.bmp -vcodec rawvideo intro.avi
</syntaxhightlight>

Note that since the underlying format does not handle audio, there won't be any.

== CONFIG.DAT ==

Contains the configuration of the game, current state of game logic relevant variables (for example next selected race track),
and the Highscore table. Obvious settings like graphics mode (VGA vs. SVGA) or if computer players are enabled are not stored in the configuration file, and are
reset to the default value during each start of the game. The save game files reuse the same file format, but I believe for save game files some data fields will most likely be ignored or not used.

The advantage is that the users game settings are restored for each save game independently. The initial game release config file always has a size of 11449 bytes, the extended game release config file 137833 bytes.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset !! Data type !! only ext Version !! Description
|-
| 0x0000 || Null terminated string || No || Current championship name (max 12 characters)
|-
| 0x034D || UINT8 || Yes || Current value for Death match lives (0 min up to 4 max)
|-
| 0x034E || UINT8 || Yes || Current value for Hot seat players (2 min up to 8 max)
|-
| 0x034F || UINT8 || Yes || Current value for Hot seat racing time (1 min up to 5 max)
|-
| 0x0350 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 2 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 2 name not set
|-
| 0x0370 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 3 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 3 name not set
|-
| 0x0390 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 4 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 4 name not set
|-
| 0x03B0 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 5 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 5 name not set
|-
| 0x03D0 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 6 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 6 name not set
|-
| 0x03F0 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 7 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 7 name not set
|-
| 0x0410 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 8 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 8 name not set
|-
| 0x094B || UINT8 || No || Current selected player craft color scheme (0 = Madmedicine, 1 = Assassins, 2 = Gorehounds, 3 = Foofighters, 4 = Dethfest, 5 = Firephreaks, 6 = Stormriders, 7 = Bullfrog)
|-
| 0x094C || UINT8 || No || Current selected player craft (0 = KD1 Speeder, 1 = Berserker, 2 = Jugga, 3 = Vampyr, 4 = Outrider, 5 = Flexiwing)
|-
| 0x094F || Null terminated string || No || Player 1 name (max 8 characters)
|-
| 0x0977 || UINT8 || No || Current game difficulty setting (0 = easy up to 3 = highest difficulty)
|-
| 0x097D || UINT8 || No || Music volume (0 = Off up to 200 = max volume)
|-
| 0x0981 || UINT8 || No || Sound volume (0 = Off up to 200 = max volume)
|-
| 0x0994 || STRUCT || No || Pos1 Highscore Entry (each entry 39 bytes, detail please see below)
|-
| 0x09BB || STRUCT || No || Pos2 Highscore Entry
|-
| ...
|-
| 0x0C79 || STRUCT || No || Pos20 Highscore Entry (last one shown in game table, but there are many more in file afterwards)
|-
| ...
|-
| 0x2996 || UINT8 || No || Shading Off = 0, Shading On = 1 (Default On)
|-
| 0x299A || UINT8 || No || Sky Off = 0, Sky On = 1 (Default On)
|-
| 0x299E || UINT8 || No || Renderer Setting 1 (TextureMapping lowest setting: 0x299E = 0, 0x29A2 = 0, 0x29A6 = 0; TextureMapping 2nd lowest setting: 0x299E = 0, 0x29A2 = 0, 0x29A6 = 1)
|-
| 0x29A2 || UINT8 || No || Renderer Setting 2 (TextureMapping 3nd lowest setting: 0x299E = 1, 0x29A2 = 1, 0x29A6 = 1; TextureMapping 4th lowest setting: 0x299E = 2, 0x29A2 = 2, 0x29A6 = 1)
|-
| 0x29A6 || UINT8 || No || Renderer Setting 3 (TextureMapping 5th lowest setting: 0x299E = 3, 0x29A2 = 3, 0x29A6 = 1 (default value); TextureMapping highest setting: 0x299E = 3, 0x29A2 = 4, 0x29A6 = 1)
|-
| 0x2C76 || UINT8 || No || Current selected race track (0 = level 1, 1 = level 2, and so on)
|-
| 0x2C7A || UINT8 || No || Current selected game language (0 = English, 1 = German, 2 = French, 3 = Spanish, 4 = Italian)
|}

=== Highscore Table Entry Struct Detail ===
* 1 byte for highscore value
* 3 bytes of unknown data
* 1 bytes for player assessement string table index
* 9 bytes for player name best lap, 9th byte = string termination char
* 25 bytes of unknown data

The player assessement string table (inside the executable) has the following order:
* Immortal
* Hardwired
* Outta Control
* Demon
* Deadly
* Wrecker
* Dangerous
* Tailgater
* Antisocial
* Dust Devil
* Upwardly Mobile
* Mediocre
* Too Slow
* Endangered Species
* Target Practice
* Back Marker
* Canyon Kisser
* Victim
* Scrap
* Smear
* Cheating Sucks (this is actually an additional entry, which is not possible according to the 20 different assessement point range)

== Level file format ==

Many details about the Hi Octane level file format were found out in the past already, and are for example documented under the HiOctaneTools link mentioned above. One specific information that was missing until now is where to find the starting location for the race and type/location of chargers in the level file. The source code of the HiOctaneTools already contained the readout of a POI (point of interest) value from the map data which already pointed to the area of important locations, but was still lacking the information what type of location this exactly is, and what size it has in terrain cells. I found that the POI value points to certain file offsets in the level file.

{|class="wikitable"
! POI value !! Level file offset
|-
| 992 || 246924
|-
| 993 || 247009
|-
| 994 || 247094
|-
| 995 || 247179
|-
| 996 || 247264
|-
| 997 || 247349
|-
| 998 || 247434
|-
| 999 || 247519
|}

Each entry at this specific file locations is 85 bytes long. This bytes have the following format:

{|class="wikitable"
! Byte Nr !! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0 || UINT8 || Region type || 1 = Shield charger, 2 = Fuel charger, 3 = Ammo charger, 4 = Race start location
|-
| 2 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 1 for each used entry
|-
| 3 || UINT8 || Contains value that depends on the RegionId || Value = 224 + RegionId (number of region entry), possible range from 224 up to 231
|-
| 4 || UINT8 || Same value as Byte 3 || Please see description above
|-
| 5 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 3 for each used entry
|-
| 12 || UINT8 || Contains value that depends on the RegionId || Value = 200 + RegionId (number of region entry), possible range from 200 up to 207
|-
| 13 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 7 for each used entry
|-
| 16 || UINT8 || Seems to have always the same value as byte 4 ||
|-
| 17 || UINT8 || Seems to have always the same value as byte 5 ||
|-
| 18 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 1 for each used entry
|-
| 24 & 25 || FLOAT || X coordinate || X coordinate of cell right in the middle of the defined location, Byte 25 = Integer, Byte 24 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 26 & 27 || FLOAT || Y coordinate || Y coordinate of cell right in the middle of the defined location, Byte 27 = Integer, Byte 26 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 39 || UINT8 || In most levels value is fixed with 232 || Some levels use different values, Right now purpose is unknown
|-
| 40 || UINT8 || In most levels value is fixed with 54 || Some levels use different values, Right now purpose is unknown
|-
| 45 & 46 || FLOAT || Region size in Cells in X direction || Counted from the middle cell to the outer edge of the region, Byte 46 = Integer, Byte 45 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 47 & 48 || FLOAT || Region size in Cells in Y direction || Counted from the middle cell to the outer edge of the region, Byte 48 = Integer, Byte 47 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 49 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Seems to be always value 128 for each existing region entry, For empty entry value 0
|-
| 69 || UINT8 || Value depending on region type || Always contains value 244 + Value of byte at offset 0 (Region type)
|}

== Credits ==

* [https://github.com/movAX13h/ movAX13h]
* [https://github.com/woalexan/ woalexan]
* [https://github.com/Aybe/ Aybe]
* [https://github.com/Malvineous/ Malvineous]
* [https://github.com/srtuss/ srtuss]
* [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/ Syndicate series unofficial fan site] for the various utilities.

== Links ==

* [https://1drv.ms/f/s!AqAtR29m3cqGxz75Vv-3cap8guE3 Game demo, Network and MPU-401 patches]
* [https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33173&hilit=hi+octane Hi-Octane + General MIDI = crash?]
* [https://github.com/RetroReversing/retroReversing/blob/779ab5297c1e5501a4e563e801dfd0724acc1536/pages/ps1/PS1Symbols.md?plain=1#L59 Debug symbols from the PSX release]

Hi Octane

2026-02-14T14:14:19Z

Nyerguds: /* Game's files */ Added likely explanation on table0-*.dat files

{{NeedMoreInfo}}
{{Game Infobox
| Levels = No
| Tiles = No
| Sprites = No
| Fullscreen = No
| Sound = No
| Music = No
| Text = No
| Story = No
| Interface = No
}}

'''Hi Octane''' is hover-car racing game. According to Sean Cooper it was made in 6.5 weeks using engine code from Syndicate and Magic Carpet. There are at least two releases of the game, the initial release (executable contains string ''Jun 10 1995 17:45:48'') with 6 levels, and a later extended version (''Oct 23 1995 15:57:32'') with 9 levels, additional game modes, and slightly reworked levels. In certain file format details the used version makes a difference.

== Ports ==
* [https://github.com/movAX13h/HiOctaneTools HiOctaneTools]
* [https://github.com/woalexan/hi-octane202x hi-octane202x]

{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = sounds/music.dat
| Format = see below
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Archive containing music files in different formats: [[XMI Format]], [[GEN Format]], [[ROL Format]], [[WTB Format]]. There are five files per format : TGAME1, TGAME2, TGAME3, TGAME4, TINTRO2.
}}
{{EndGameFileList}}

== MUSIC.DAT ==

* read the [[INT32LE]] at EOF and seek to returned position
* count the N number of [[INT16LE]] that equals <code>0x0001</code>, then read N of the following struct:

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT32LE || offTunes || Offset to the list of tunes
|-
| INT32LE || offTune1 || Offset to the first tune
|-
| INT32LE || unknown || Unknown (always <code>0xC0000000</code>, or <code>192</code>)
|-
| INT32LE || lenTunes || Length of all tunes together, bytes
|}

* for each of the former struct
** seek to <code>offTunes</code>
** read one of the following struct, its <code>lenTune</code> indicates the byte sum of tunes following
** read as many of the following struct until their <code>lenTune</code> sum equals the one in previous step

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| CHAR || name[12] || File name of the tune, <code>\0</code> padded
|-
| CHAR || padding[6] || Padding bytes
|-
| INT32LE || offTune || Tune relative offset
|-
| CHAR || padding[4] || Padding bytes
|-
| INT32LE || lenTune || Tune length, bytes
|-
| INT16LE || unknown || Unknown (always <code>0x5A00</code>, or <code>90</code>)
|}

* you now have a catalog of a collection of tunes, e.g. five ROL songs, five WTB songs etc
* to extract a song, copy <code>lenTune</code> bytes starting at <code>offTune1 + offTune</code>, file name is <code>name</code>

== RNC-compressed files ==

Many of the game's files are compressed using the [[Rob Northern Compression]] format; some of them such as ''SOUND\SOUND.DAT'' are a concatenation of many RNC archives simply ''glued'' together.

A command-line unpacker can be found here : [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/bullfrog_utils_rnc.zip Bullfrog games RNC Utilities] (from [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/synd/rework/synd_rework_rnc.php Unpacking RNC files])

== DAT/TAB pairs ==

Can be decompressed using [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/bullfrog_utils_tabdat.zip Bullfrog games DAT/TAB Graphics extractor] (they first must be decompressed if they are RNC-compressed).

'''DAT format:'''

Without a TAB file, it's raw pixels; with a TAB file it's a form of line by line RLE compression where only transparent pixels are compressed.

'''TAB format:'''

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT32LE || position || Image position in .DAT
|-
| INT16LE || width || Image width
|-
| INT16LE || height || Image height
|}

'''TMAPS:'''

Contains powerups and some HUD elements but TAB format is different:

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT32LE || flat || Size of RNC stream unpacked, useless as it's contained in stream header already
|-
| INT32LE || pos || Position in DAT
|-
| INT16LE || index || Some index but can be duplicate, so likely a type or category instead
|}

There are N+1 entries to be able to compute last item size in DAT.

Each image has the following format:

{|class="wikitable"
! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| INT16 || unknown || Unknown
|-
| INT8 || width || Image width
|-
| INT8 || height || Image height
|-
| INT8[] || pixels || Image pixels, 8-bit paletted
|}

== Game's files ==

{| class="wikitable sortable"
! Name
! Format
! RNC compressed
! Notes
|-
|data\hfont0-0.dat data\hfont0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Thin white font (SVGA)
|-
|data\hspr0-0.dat data\hspr0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Editor icons (large)
|-
|data\intro.dat
|[[Autodesk FLI animation]]
|No
|Game introduction
|-
|data\logo0-0.dat data\logo0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Game logo (VGA)
|-
|data\logo0-1.dat data\logo0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Game logo (SVGA)
|-
|data\mfont0-0.dat data\mfont0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Thin white font (VGA)
|-
|data\mspr0-0.dat data\mspr0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Editor icons (small)
|-
|data\olfnt0-0.dat data\olfnt0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Large white font (VGA)
|-
|data\olfnt0-1.dat data\olfnt0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Large white font (SVGA)
|-
|data\onet0-*.dat data\oscr0-*.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 320×200 and 640×480
|Yes
|Loading and selection screens
|-
|data\osfnt0-0.dat data\osfnt0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Small white font (VGA)
|-
|data\osfnt0-1.dat data\osfnt0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Small white font (VGA)
|-
|data\palet0-0.dat
|[[VGA Palette]]
|No
|The palette of every asset of the game, unless specified
|-
|data\panel0-0.dat data\panel0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 2-players (SVGA)
|-
|data\panel0-1.dat data\panel0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 1-player (SVGA)
|-
|data\panel9-0.dat data\panel9-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 2-players (VGA)
|-
|data\panel9-1.dat data\panel9-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|HUD 1-player (VGA)
|-
|data\pfont0-0.dat data\pfont0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|Large green font (VGA)
|-
|data\pfont0-1.dat data\pfont0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No
|Large green font (SVGA)
|-
|data\point0-0.dat data\point0-0.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|Editor cursors
|-
|data\puzzle.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 112×96
|No
|The cheat puzzle activated with CTRL-Tab in-game
|-
|data\sky0-*.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 256×256
|Yes
|Horizon of each track
|-
|data\srch0-0.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 32×32
|Yes
|Looks like a radar but seems to be unused
|-
|data\table0-*.dat
| '''Unknown'''
|Yes
|
These files differ by at most a few bytes. They appear to be remap tables for applying lighting effects to the colour palette.

When viewed as a 256 pixels wide image, it can be seen that each line is a permutation of the entire colour palette, where the colours were brightened, darkened, and/or faded towards specific colours, and then matched back to their closest match on the colour palette. The 0-63 range is clearly a fade from bright to dark, with line 31 containing the original unmodified palette.

[[File:HiOctaneTable.png]]
|-
|data\textu0-*.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 64×16384
|Yes
|64×64 terrain textures
|-
|data\title.dat
|[[Raw VGA Image]], 320×200
|Yes
|The introductory screen
|-
|data\tmaps.dat
|
|Yes
|see above
|-
|data\tmaps.tab
|
|No
|see above
|-
|data\track0-0.dat data\track0-0.tab data\track0-1.dat data\track0-1.tab
| '''Unknown'''
|No/Yes
|Contain the images of the level minimaps that are shown in the HUD. The game does work without them,
but then the minimap is not shown. Initial game version does not use RNC compression, extended version does.
|-
|objects/data/tex0-0.dat objects/data/tex0-0.tab
|[[Hi-Octane Texture Atlas]], 256×768
|No
|In-game textures
|-
|objects/data/tex0-1.dat objects/data/tex0-1.tab
|[[Hi-Octane Texture Atlas]], 256×88
|No
|In-game textures
|-
|}

'''Note:''' none of the TAB files are RNC-compressed.

== Notes ==

'''General'''

The image formats above are partially decoded, they are still missing palette information.

All the images are paletted, 8 bits per pixels.

'''INTRO.DAT'''

Header can be fixed using [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/bullfrog_utils_flifix.zip Autodesk Animator FLI files fixer] but since format is pretty old and that [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/downloads/utils_waaplay110.zip Autodesk Animation Player 1.10] is a legacy Win16 executable, it is not very convenient to use as of today.

Instead, the file can be converted by FFMPEG to either BMP or AVI,

Convert the animation to individual images, handle last invalid frame:

<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
ffmpeg -i INTRO.DAT -vframes 548 -pix_fmt bgr24 intro%03d.bmp
</syntaxhightlight>

Convert the sequence of images to a raw AVI and respect the original frame rate:

<syntaxhighlight lang="text">
ffmpeg -r 14 -i intro%03d.bmp -vcodec rawvideo intro.avi
</syntaxhightlight>

Note that since the underlying format does not handle audio, there won't be any.

== CONFIG.DAT ==

Contains the configuration of the game, current state of game logic relevant variables (for example next selected race track),
and the Highscore table. Obvious settings like graphics mode (VGA vs. SVGA) or if computer players are enabled are not stored in the configuration file, and are
reset to the default value during each start of the game. The save game files reuse the same file format, but I believe for save game files some data fields will most likely be ignored or not used.

The advantage is that the users game settings are restored for each save game independently. The initial game release config file always has a size of 11449 bytes, the extended game release config file 137833 bytes.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset !! Data type !! only ext Version !! Description
|-
| 0x0000 || Null terminated string || No || Current championship name (max 12 characters)
|-
| 0x034D || UINT8 || Yes || Current value for Death match lives (0 min up to 4 max)
|-
| 0x034E || UINT8 || Yes || Current value for Hot seat players (2 min up to 8 max)
|-
| 0x034F || UINT8 || Yes || Current value for Hot seat racing time (1 min up to 5 max)
|-
| 0x0350 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 2 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 2 name not set
|-
| 0x0370 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 3 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 3 name not set
|-
| 0x0390 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 4 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 4 name not set
|-
| 0x03B0 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 5 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 5 name not set
|-
| 0x03D0 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 6 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 6 name not set
|-
| 0x03F0 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 7 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 7 name not set
|-
| 0x0410 || Null terminated string || Yes || Player 8 name (max 8 characters), If empty string Player 8 name not set
|-
| 0x094B || UINT8 || No || Current selected player craft color scheme (0 = Madmedicine, 1 = Assassins, 2 = Gorehounds, 3 = Foofighters, 4 = Dethfest, 5 = Firephreaks, 6 = Stormriders, 7 = Bullfrog)
|-
| 0x094C || UINT8 || No || Current selected player craft (0 = KD1 Speeder, 1 = Berserker, 2 = Jugga, 3 = Vampyr, 4 = Outrider, 5 = Flexiwing)
|-
| 0x094F || Null terminated string || No || Player 1 name (max 8 characters)
|-
| 0x0977 || UINT8 || No || Current game difficulty setting (0 = easy up to 3 = highest difficulty)
|-
| 0x097D || UINT8 || No || Music volume (0 = Off up to 200 = max volume)
|-
| 0x0981 || UINT8 || No || Sound volume (0 = Off up to 200 = max volume)
|-
| 0x0994 || STRUCT || No || Pos1 Highscore Entry (each entry 39 bytes, detail please see below)
|-
| 0x09BB || STRUCT || No || Pos2 Highscore Entry
|-
| ...
|-
| 0x0C79 || STRUCT || No || Pos20 Highscore Entry (last one shown in game table, but there are many more in file afterwards)
|-
| ...
|-
| 0x2996 || UINT8 || No || Shading Off = 0, Shading On = 1 (Default On)
|-
| 0x299A || UINT8 || No || Sky Off = 0, Sky On = 1 (Default On)
|-
| 0x299E || UINT8 || No || Renderer Setting 1 (TextureMapping lowest setting: 0x299E = 0, 0x29A2 = 0, 0x29A6 = 0; TextureMapping 2nd lowest setting: 0x299E = 0, 0x29A2 = 0, 0x29A6 = 1)
|-
| 0x29A2 || UINT8 || No || Renderer Setting 2 (TextureMapping 3nd lowest setting: 0x299E = 1, 0x29A2 = 1, 0x29A6 = 1; TextureMapping 4th lowest setting: 0x299E = 2, 0x29A2 = 2, 0x29A6 = 1)
|-
| 0x29A6 || UINT8 || No || Renderer Setting 3 (TextureMapping 5th lowest setting: 0x299E = 3, 0x29A2 = 3, 0x29A6 = 1 (default value); TextureMapping highest setting: 0x299E = 3, 0x29A2 = 4, 0x29A6 = 1)
|-
| 0x2C76 || UINT8 || No || Current selected race track (0 = level 1, 1 = level 2, and so on)
|-
| 0x2C7A || UINT8 || No || Current selected game language (0 = English, 1 = German, 2 = French, 3 = Spanish, 4 = Italian)
|}

=== Highscore Table Entry Struct Detail ===
* 1 byte for highscore value
* 3 bytes of unknown data
* 1 bytes for player assessement string table index
* 9 bytes for player name best lap, 9th byte = string termination char
* 25 bytes of unknown data

The player assessement string table (inside the executable) has the following order:
* Immortal
* Hardwired
* Outta Control
* Demon
* Deadly
* Wrecker
* Dangerous
* Tailgater
* Antisocial
* Dust Devil
* Upwardly Mobile
* Mediocre
* Too Slow
* Endangered Species
* Target Practice
* Back Marker
* Canyon Kisser
* Victim
* Scrap
* Smear
* Cheating Sucks (this is actually an additional entry, which is not possible according to the 20 different assessement point range)

== Level file format ==

Many details about the Hi Octane level file format were found out in the past already, and are for example documented under the HiOctaneTools link mentioned above. One specific information that was missing until now is where to find the starting location for the race and type/location of chargers in the level file. The source code of the HiOctaneTools already contained the readout of a POI (point of interest) value from the map data which already pointed to the area of important locations, but was still lacking the information what type of location this exactly is, and what size it has in terrain cells. I found that the POI value points to certain file offsets in the level file.

{|class="wikitable"
! POI value !! Level file offset
|-
| 992 || 246924
|-
| 993 || 247009
|-
| 994 || 247094
|-
| 995 || 247179
|-
| 996 || 247264
|-
| 997 || 247349
|-
| 998 || 247434
|-
| 999 || 247519
|}

Each entry at this specific file locations is 85 bytes long. This bytes have the following format:

{|class="wikitable"
! Byte Nr !! Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0 || UINT8 || Region type || 1 = Shield charger, 2 = Fuel charger, 3 = Ammo charger, 4 = Race start location
|-
| 2 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 1 for each used entry
|-
| 3 || UINT8 || Contains value that depends on the RegionId || Value = 224 + RegionId (number of region entry), possible range from 224 up to 231
|-
| 4 || UINT8 || Same value as Byte 3 || Please see description above
|-
| 5 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 3 for each used entry
|-
| 12 || UINT8 || Contains value that depends on the RegionId || Value = 200 + RegionId (number of region entry), possible range from 200 up to 207
|-
| 13 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 7 for each used entry
|-
| 16 || UINT8 || Seems to have always the same value as byte 4 ||
|-
| 17 || UINT8 || Seems to have always the same value as byte 5 ||
|-
| 18 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Contains always value 1 for each used entry
|-
| 24 & 25 || FLOAT || X coordinate || X coordinate of cell right in the middle of the defined location, Byte 25 = Integer, Byte 24 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 26 & 27 || FLOAT || Y coordinate || Y coordinate of cell right in the middle of the defined location, Byte 27 = Integer, Byte 26 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 39 || UINT8 || In most levels value is fixed with 232 || Some levels use different values, Right now purpose is unknown
|-
| 40 || UINT8 || In most levels value is fixed with 54 || Some levels use different values, Right now purpose is unknown
|-
| 45 & 46 || FLOAT || Region size in Cells in X direction || Counted from the middle cell to the outer edge of the region, Byte 46 = Integer, Byte 45 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 47 & 48 || FLOAT || Region size in Cells in Y direction || Counted from the middle cell to the outer edge of the region, Byte 48 = Integer, Byte 47 only uses two values: 0 or 128, I believe it allows to add 0.5f
|-
| 49 || UINT8 || Fixed value || Seems to be always value 128 for each existing region entry, For empty entry value 0
|-
| 69 || UINT8 || Value depending on region type || Always contains value 244 + Value of byte at offset 0 (Region type)
|}

== Credits ==

* [https://github.com/movAX13h/ movAX13h]
* [https://github.com/woalexan/ woalexan]
* [https://github.com/Aybe/ Aybe]
* [https://github.com/Malvineous/ Malvineous]
* [https://github.com/srtuss/ srtuss]
* [http://syndicate.lubiki.pl/ Syndicate series unofficial fan site] for the various utilities.

== Links ==

* [https://1drv.ms/f/s!AqAtR29m3cqGxz75Vv-3cap8guE3 Game demo, Network and MPU-401 patches]
* [https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33173&hilit=hi+octane Hi-Octane + General MIDI = crash?]
* [https://github.com/RetroReversing/retroReversing/blob/779ab5297c1e5501a4e563e801dfd0724acc1536/pages/ps1/PS1Symbols.md?plain=1#L59 Debug symbols from the PSX release]

User talk:Aybe

2026-02-14T13:53:30Z

Nyerguds: /* Hi Octane Table */ new section + added sections to previous discussions.

== Some notes ==

Hi Aybe - thanks for your contributions! I need to ask you to do a few things however:
* Please do not post links to illegal material, such as the abandonware links you posted. Despite what some people think, abandonware is still illegal and a single DMCA takedown request over an abandonware link could bring down this entire wiki and destroy everything we have all worked for. So please be very careful about the links you post. There should be no mention of torrents or anything either. If you need to describe multiple versions of games, find some other way of identifying the version, such as a string in the .exe file.
* When you upload images, could you please make sure you give them meaningful names? PRES.PNG isn't very descriptive, and when there are many games in the wiki there needs to be some sort of order. Typically the filename should also have the name of the game in it, such as "The Blues Brothers PRES.SQZ.png" However the point of this wiki is not to provide conversions of game images, it is to provide information and tools for people to perform these conversions themselves (again because of the legal issues around hosting copyrighted material.) So generally beyond an image to illustrate a game or a file format, there is little need for images.
* When you do upload images, please make sure to categorise them correctly. If you can find a similar image for another game, you can click on the Edit tab to see what categories that image belongs to, and use the same for your own images.
Hopefully if you can help us out with these matters then it will keep the wiki informative and more importantly available for everyone to use! Thanks :-) -- [[User:Malvineous|Malvineous]] ([[User talk:Malvineous|talk]]) 10:09, 31 August 2014 (GMT)

: Thanks for removing the offending material, much appreciated :-) You are welcome to reply here. One last thing - please try to use the preview function and only save the page when you are done for a little while, otherwise if you save 10 times in 10 minutes then we get heaps of revisions to review instead of one easy big one :-) Thanks again! -- [[User:Malvineous|Malvineous]] ([[User talk:Malvineous|talk]]) 13:33, 31 August 2014 (GMT)

== Standard formatting and infoboxes ==

Hi Aybe - when you create pages for new games (or any new page really) see if you can find a similar page and copy the formatting from it, so that it fits in correctly with the rest of the wiki. For instance on [[Die Hard Trilogy]] the standard infobox expects the title screen capture to have a particular filename, so putting that on first will save having to stuff around with filenames on uploaded images. Thanks! -- [[User:Malvineous|Malvineous]] ([[User talk:Malvineous|talk]]) 09:21, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

: Hi ! I've fixed the page to look like others, still a work in progress though. Can you delete the previous screenshot because I couldn't find how to do it ? Thanks. [[User:Aybe|Aybe]] ([[User talk:Aybe|talk]]) 20:33, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

:: Fantastic, many thanks for that! Looks much better now :-) -- [[User:Malvineous|Malvineous]] ([[User talk:Malvineous|talk]]) 21:31, 20 December 2014 (UTC)

== Hi Octane Table ==

Don't know how active you still are around here, but I just noticed the [[:File:HiOctaneTable.png]] file you uploaded, and I thought I'd help out here, since I've seen files like that before. I added my findings on [[Talk:Hi Octane#Table files|the Hi Octane talk page]].

-[[User:Nyerguds|Nyerguds]] ([[User talk:Nyerguds|talk]]) 13:52, 14 February 2026 (GMT)

Talk:Hi Octane

2026-02-14T13:48:25Z

Nyerguds: /* Table files */ new section

== Table files ==

I just noticed the [[:File:HiOctaneTable.png]] file, and I thought I'd help any researchers out here, because I've seen files like that before. If you look at line 32 in the image, every colour on that line is exactly its index on the colour palette. In fact, the block of the first 64 lines are brightened and darkened versions of that same line, matched back to their closest match on the palette. This means the table is most likely used for brightening and darkening effects. As you progress down the table beyond line 63, you can see those are various other effects on the palette, such as changing the colours to be more yellow, red, green, blue, etc.

In other words, I'm pretty sure these are remap tables used for shadows and lighting effects, to instantly find the closest palette match for a certain effect without needing any calculations. [[Command & Conquer]] has a similar format (Interpolation Tables; not documented on the wiki so far) for finding the closest in-between palette match between two pixels on a palette, used for stretching out animations, and the way those tables look are [https://imgur.com/ZbotBlz pretty similar]; each separate line of 256 pixels also matches a permutation of the entire colour palette.

That said, I don't think the last 8 lines of the HiOctaneTable image are the same kind of data; they seem unrelated to the basic colour palette. Not sure what those are.

-[[User:Nyerguds|Nyerguds]] ([[User talk:Nyerguds|talk]]) 13:48, 14 February 2026 (GMT)

Command & Conquer

2026-02-14T13:44:14Z

Nyerguds: /* File formats */ Added interpolation table entry

{{Game Infobox
| Levels = Edit
| Tiles = Edit
| Sprites = Edit
| Fullscreen = Edit
| Sound = Edit
| Music = Edit
| Text = Edit
| Story = Edit
| Interface = No
| Platform2=Windows 95
}}

'''Command & Conquer''', also known as '''Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn''' is the second real-time strategy game released by [[:Category:Westwood Studios|Westwood Studios]]. After Dune II, the studio decided to make a similar game in a setting that was not tied to licensed intellectual property.

To keep Dune II's game mechanic of a harvestable resource found on the battlefield, the new story features an alien plant, Tiberium, which extracts precious metals from the soil as easily harvestable crystals as part of its growth process. As with the spice in Dune, this resource would be the focal point of the war.

The basic premise of the game is the same as in Dune II; the player has to build a base, harvest the Tiberium available on the playing field as in-game currency, and use that currency to expand the base and build armies to defend against enemies, and finally destroy their base.

Command & Conquer mixed up this basic formula in many ways. The player may be given a damaged base that is missing its construction yard, or could be tasked with objectives like finding or capturing an outpost, or clearing a landing zone, before continuing to the base-building phase of the game. In some missions, the player is not given a base at all, and must accomplish a specific objective with just the given starting units. To add even more variety, the available mission choices on the world map sometimes give entirely different mission objectives, rather than just the same objective on a different map.

==File formats==

The following file formats are used by this game.

{{BeginGameFileList|header=false}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.mix
| Format = [[MIX Format (Westwood)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = File archives.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.pal
| Format = [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|6-bit RGB 256-colour palette]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palettes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.pal *.vqp
| Format = [[Westwood Interpolation Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc =  Tables containing the closest palette match for every possible combination of two pixels on the colour palette, used for stretching WSA and VQA animations to twice their resolution. The pixels of the animations are spaced out with one pixel in between, and these tables are used to find the optimal colours to fill these in-between pixels, both horizontally and vertically. The <tt>.vqp</tt> files are used for [[Westwood VQA Format|VQA animations]], and are slightly different; they omit duplicates, and contain multiple tables because videos can contain scenes with different colour palettes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.cps
| Format = [[Westwood CPS Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-screen images. Often used for internal processing to identify region clicks.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.wsa
| Format = [[Westwood WSA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Animations.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.vqa
| Format = [[Westwood VQA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-motion video cutscenes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp *.tem *.win *.des
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (TD)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sprites. Files specific to one theater (terrain set) are given the extension of that specific theater.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Used for only one file; the mouse cursor sprite.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.tem *.win *.des
| Format = [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Terrain used in the game's maps.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.fnt
| Format = [[Westwood Font Format v3]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Fonts.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.aud
| Format = [[Westwood AUD Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sound effects and voices.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.eng
| Format = [[Westwood Strings File]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Ingame text. Strangely, the French and German versions of the game also use <tt>.eng</tt>, and not <tt>.fre</tt> and <tt>.ger</tt> like Dune II did.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.ini *.bin
| Format = [[Command & Conquer Mission Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Missions. Always a pair, with a text script in a <tt>.ini</tt> file, and the raw terrain in a binary <tt>.bin</tt> file.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.mrf
| Format = [[Westwood Fading Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palette remapping tables used as colour filters for special effects in the game.
}}
{{EndGameFileList}}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=game}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer suite]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = Edit
| map = Edit
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Read
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and most of the formats inside it. Contains a map editor as external tool in the same pack.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://vladan.bato.net/cnc/ Mix Manager / AUD Utilities]
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMIX
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = View
| sfx = View
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = View
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can view and convert the game's [[Westwood CPS Format|CPS]], [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)|SHP]], [[Westwood WSA Format|WSA]], [[Westwood Font Format v3|font]] and [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|colour palette]] formats, and can visualise the game's [[Westwood Fading Table|fading tables]] and [[Command & Conquer Mission Format|missions]].
}}

{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/MobiusMapEditor/ Mobius Map Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = View
| map = Edit
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Fork of the official C&C: Remastered map editor. Can open the .mix archives and open / extract files from them.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Westwood Font Editor]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can edit the game's [[Westwood Font Format v3|font files]].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2014/FilterCreator/ Filter Creator]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A specialised tool to view and recreate the game's colour filters.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2018/WWStringsEditor/release/ Westwood Strings Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27215-tool-for-creating-dune2-wsa-files/?do=findComment&comment=392438 d2shpset]
| Platform = Windows (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A small Dune II SHP writing utility written by OmniBlade of the [https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Chronoshift Chronoshift] team for Dune II SHP files. This format is used in C&C for the game's mouse cursor.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://web.archive.org/web/20130501143307/http://www.ultraq.net.nz/redhorizon/downloads/ Red Horizon Utilities]
| Platform = Java (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Original site is defunct. Backups of the tools can be found [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/tools/redhorizon/ here].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://ppmforums.com/topic-8337/vqa-encoder-v05-beta-2/ VQA Encoder]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can convert video material into the game's proprietary VQA cutscene format.
}}

{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Command & Conquer]]
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]
[[Category:Real-Time Strategy]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format

2026-02-08T13:57:08Z

Nyerguds: Some minor rewording.

{{Tileset Infobox
| Image = Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png
| Hardware1 = VGA
| MaxTiles = 254
| Palette = Shared between all tilesets in one theater
| Names = N
| TileMinSize = 24×24
| TileMaxSize = 24×24
| NumPlanes = 1
| PlaneArrangement = Linear
| HasTransparency = N
| Metadata = Land Types
| Subtilesets = N
| Compressed = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games = {{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
}}
The '''Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format''' is an uncompressed tileset containing tiles with dimensions of 24×24. Technically, this tile size can be changed, but the game defines cells as 24×24 pixels, so changing it does not seem useful. Tiles inside this file are referred to as "icons".

As with the first game, a single "tileset" does not represent the tiles of an entire map environment, but only the tiles used to build up a single piece of terrain. For more information on that, see the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]] page.

This file type is a later version of the aforementioned C&C Tileset Format. Unlike its predecessor, it contains all information required to handle the tileset, without needing any hardcoded data from the game itself to function. This means that it contains the full tileset's X and Y dimensions in number of icons, and defines the land types of all individual icons that determine buildability and passability.

== File format ==

===Header===

The header definition, called <tt>IControl_Type</tt> in the source code, can be found in the WIN32LIB code of Red Alert, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WIN32LIB/TILE/TILE.H#L74 in <tt>TILE.H</tt>]. The header is 0x28 bytes long.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset || Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0x00 || [[INT16LE]] || Width || Width of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x02 || [[INT16LE]] || Height || Height of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x04 || [[INT16LE]] || Count || Number of icons. While this is an Int16 value, the game's map format can only access icons up to index 255. Since icons can be marked as empty, this value can differ from the number of actual images stored inside the file.
|-
| 0x06 || [[INT16LE]] || Allocated || Used by the game to indicate whether this tileset was allocated. In the file, it's always zero.
|-
| 0x08 || [[INT16LE]] || MapWidth || Width of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0A || [[INT16LE]] || MapHeight || Height of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0C || [[INT32LE]] || Size || Size of the entire file.
|-
| 0x10 || [[INT32LE]] || Icons || Offset from file start to icon data.
|-
| 0x14 || [[INT32LE]] || Palettes ||Offset from file start to palette data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always empty.
|-
| 0x18 || [[INT32LE]] || Remaps ||Offset from file start to remap index data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always seems to be 0x0D1AFFFF.
|-
| 0x1C || [[UINT32LE]]|| TransFlag || Offset from file start for transparency flag table. This is an array containing one byte for each actual image in the file. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; all entries in the table are just 0x00.
|-
| 0x20 || [[UINT32LE]]|| ColorMap || Offset from file start for colour control value table. The length of this array is always <tt>MapWidth</tt>×<tt>MapHeight</tt>. The values in this table can be mapped to the land types in the game that determine land properties such as speed and passability by different movement types, and whether the land can be built on.
|-
| 0x24 || [[UINT32LE]]|| Map || Offset from file start for icon map offset. This is an index linking each icon index to the index of an actual image in the <tt>Icons</tt> array. This index is a [[UINT8]][Count]. Value 0xFF in the index indicates an empty icon.
|}

Generally, the order of the data after the index is:

# Icons
# Map
# TransFlag
# ColorMap

Of course, since these are read from header values, their order has no real effect.

==== 1×1-Multiple Tilesets ====

The game has a special type of tilesets that identify themselves to have a <tt>MapWidth</tt> and <tt>MapHeight</tt> of 1, but which have a <tt>Count</tt> that is larger than 1. In this case, the different icons inside the file are not pieces of one larger shape, but are all alternates of the same 1×1 icon. This type is used for the game's Clear terrain, and for several tileset files in the Interior theater.

Because they represent only a single icon, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> of this type will only contain one single value. Note that in these 1×1-multiple sets, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> will contain value 0 instead of value 3 for indicating clear terrain.

===Image Data===

Since the tileset can contain empty entries, the actual amount of images following the <tt>Icons</tt> location should be determined by taking the maximum value (excluding any 0xFF values indicating empty icons) in the the array at <tt>Map</tt>, and adding 1 to it. As with the C&C1 variant, identical images are generally saved only once, with the data referenced in the index multiple times.

The image data is located at <tt>Icons</tt>. To look up the image data of a specific icon N, first check in the array at <tt>Map</tt> what the image index of the icon is. If it is not 0xFF, the image data can be found at:

iconImageStart = Icons + (Width * Height * fileData[Map + N])

The image data will always be 24*24 bytes, and represents a simple 8-bit indexed image.

===Land Types===

At the <tt>ColorMap</tt> index, a list of values will be given that determine the LandType of each icon. According to the description in the RA code, these are simply a set of extra colors set in the original art files as metadata, used to indicate the types. They seem to match the standard Westwood EGA palette that is found at the start of all 6-bit palettes used before [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun|Tiberian Sun]].

This is the full mapping of all colours. The values indicated in bold are the ones that are actually used in tilesets.

{|class="wikitable"
! Value || Land Type|| Colour !! Description
|-
| '''00''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Filler value used for empty entries (0xFF in the <tt>Map</tt> array). On 1×1 sets with multiple icons, Clear terrain is always indicated using this value instead of the normal clear terrain indicator.
|-
| 01 || LAND_CLEAR || Purple || Unused.
|-
| 02 || LAND_CLEAR || Teal || Unused.
|-
| '''03''' || LAND_CLEAR || Green || Normal clear terrain.
|-
| 04 || LAND_CLEAR || Lime || Unused.
|-
| 05 || LAND_CLEAR || Yellow || Unused.
|-
| '''06''' || LAND_BEACH || Light Red || Sandy beach. Can't be built on.
|-
| 07 || LAND_CLEAR || Brown || Unused.
|-
| '''08''' || LAND_ROCK || Red || Impassable terrain.
|-
| '''09''' || LAND_ROAD || Cyan || Units move faster on this terrain.
|-
| '''10''' || LAND_WATER || Light Blue || Ships can travel over this.
|-
| '''11''' || LAND_RIVER || Dark Blue || Ships can't travel over this.
|-
| 12''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Unused.
|-
| 13 || LAND_CLEAR || Dark grey || Unused.
|-
| '''14''' || LAND_ROUGH || Light grey || Rough terrain. Can't be built on.
|-
| 15 || LAND_CLEAR || White || Unused.
|}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Shows the Land Types for all icons, and allows setting them when saving.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Can visualise the files and convert them to standard image formats.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMix
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Contains the <tt>RMT2PCX.EXE</tt> and <tt>PCX2RMT.EXE</tt> command line tools to convert the format, but has no support for customising the Land Types. In tiles converted with <tt>PCX2RMT</tt>, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> array will correctly have type 0 to indicate empty tiles, but all others are simply set to type "Road" (value 9).
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2013/rtmtype/ RTMType] (Red Alert Template File Terrain Type Editing Tool)
| Platform = Windows
| canView = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Command line tool. Can set the Land Types for template tiles, including support for the special 1×1-multiple type. The land types can be given as text, or can simply be imported from another template file.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex.png

2026-02-08T13:41:26Z

Nyerguds: Added category.

== Summary ==
The [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert|Red Alert]] Chrono Vortex effect created by [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table|.lut files]].

[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Close.png

2026-02-08T13:41:25Z

Nyerguds: Added category.

== Summary ==
Animated png showing the Chrono Vortex closing. Red denotes X coordinate, blue denotes Y coordinate, and green translates to a darkening effect.

[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Anim.png

2026-02-08T13:41:24Z

Nyerguds: Added category.

== Summary ==
Animated png showing the Chrono Vortex animating. Red denotes X coordinate, blue denotes Y coordinate, and green translates to a darkening effect.

[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Open.png

2026-02-08T13:41:24Z

Nyerguds: Added category.

== Summary ==
Animated png showing the Chrono Vortex opening. Red denotes X coordinate, blue denotes Y coordinate, and green translates to a darkening effect.

[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Blank.png

2026-02-08T13:41:23Z

Nyerguds: Added category.

== Summary ==
Image representing the "blank" state of the chrono vortex manipulations, where X coordinates are represented by red and Y coordinates by blue.

[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Mod-Command & Conquer- Red Alert.png

2026-02-08T13:40:31Z

Nyerguds: Added category.

== Summary ==
[[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]], modded with the ''Red Alert: Revolution'' mod.

Note that the Win95 version was generally preferred for modding, so examples of DOS Red Alert mods are extremely uncommon.

[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Command & Conquer- Red Alert.png

2026-02-08T13:40:07Z

Nyerguds: Added category.

== Summary ==
Title screen for [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

2026-02-07T16:15:50Z

Nyerguds: Removed misspelled category.

{{Game Infobox
| Title = Command_&_Conquer-_Red_Alert.png
| Modded = Mod-Command & Conquer- Red Alert.png
| Levels = Edit
| Tiles = Edit
| Sprites = Edit
| Fullscreen = Edit
| Sound = Edit
| Music = Edit
| Text = Edit
| Story = Edit
| Interface = No
| Platform2=Windows 95
}}

'''Command & Conquer: Red Alert''', also known simply as '''Red Alert''' is the third real-time strategy game released by [[:Category:Westwood Studios|Westwood Studios]].

It keeps [[Command & Conquer]]'s game mechanic of a harvestable resource found on the battlefield, but also introduces a second resource; ore is regenerating but less valuable, while crystals are more valuable but do not regenerate.

The basic premise of the game is the same as in the first Command & Conquer; the player has to build a base, harvest the available ore and crystals on the playing field as in-game currency, use that currency to expand the base and build armies to defend against enemies, and finally destroy the enemy base.

Red Alert's scripting engine is a lot more advanced than that of the first game, giving the campaign missions a much larger variety of objectives and sub-objectives to accomplish to complete the missions, so many missions do not focus on the classic base versus base mechanic. There is even an entire Interior environment in the game, specifically designed for tactical missions without base building.

{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.mix
| Format = [[MIX Format (Westwood)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = File archives.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.pal
| Format = [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|6-bit RGB 256-colour palette]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palettes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.cps
| Format = [[Westwood CPS Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-screen images. Often used for internal processing to identify region clicks.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.wsa
| Format = [[Westwood WSA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Animations.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.vqa
| Format = [[Westwood VQA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-motion video cutscenes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp *.tem *.sno *.int
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (TD)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sprites. Files specific to one theater (terrain set) are given the extension of that specific theater.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Used for only one file; the mouse cursor sprite.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.tem *.sno *.int
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Terrain used in the game's maps.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.fnt
| Format = [[Westwood Font Format v3]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Fonts.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.aud
| Format = [[Westwood AUD Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sound effects and voices.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.eng
| Format = [[Westwood Strings File]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Ingame text. Strangely, the French and German versions of the game also use <code>.eng</code>, and not <code>.fre</code> and <code>.ger</code> like Dune II did.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.ini
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Mission Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Missions. Stored as an ini file, describing missions and containing embeded binary data describing the maps.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *_vtx.pal
| Format = [[Westwood Fading Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palette remapping tables used as colour filters for special effects in the game. This system is used extensively internally in the game engine, but only the Chrono Vortex tables are ever handled as files.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.lut
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Chrono vortex distortion table. Defines for each pixel in a 64x64 frame which origin pixel it is taken from, and how much it is darkened.
}}
{{EndGameFileList}}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=game}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer suite]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = Edit
| map = Edit
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Read
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and most of the formats inside it. Contains a map editor as external tool in the same pack.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://vladan.bato.net/cnc/ Mix Manager / AUD Utilities]
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMIX
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = View
| sfx = View
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = View
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can view and convert the game's [[Westwood CPS Format|CPS]], [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)|SHP]], [[Westwood WSA Format|WSA]], [[Westwood Font Format v3|font]] and [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|colour palette]] formats, and can visualise the game's [[Westwood Fading Table|fading tables]] and [[Command & Conquer Mission Format|missions]].
}}

{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/MobiusMapEditor/ Mobius Map Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = View
| map = Edit
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Fork of the official C&C: Remastered map editor. Can open the .mix archives and open / extract files from them.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Westwood Font Editor]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can edit the game's [[Westwood Font Format v3|font files]].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2014/FilterCreator/ Filter Creator]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A specialised tool to view and recreate the game's colour filters.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2018/WWStringsEditor/release/ Westwood Strings Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27215-tool-for-creating-dune2-wsa-files/?do=findComment&comment=392438 d2shpset]
| Platform = Windows (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A small Dune II SHP writing utility written by OmniBlade of the [https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Chronoshift Chronoshift] team for Dune II SHP files. This format is used in C&C for the game's mouse cursor.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://web.archive.org/web/20130501143307/http://www.ultraq.net.nz/redhorizon/downloads/ Red Horizon Utilities]
| Platform = Java (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Original site is defunct. Backups of the tools can be found [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/tools/redhorizon/ here].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://ppmforums.com/topic-8337/vqa-encoder-v05-beta-2/ VQA Encoder]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can convert video material into the game's proprietary VQA cutscene format.
}}

{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios]]
[[Category:Real-Time Strategy]]

Template:Game Infobox

2026-02-07T16:15:22Z

Nyerguds: Game infobox now also adds the game main page to the category of the game, like the {{Game}} template does

<div style="border-left: 1em solid white; float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em;" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/VideoGame">
<div class="infobox" style="width: 330px; text-align: left; font-size: 90%; float: none; margin: 0px;">
<div style="text-align:center; font-size: 120%;" itemprop="name">'''{{PAGENAME}}'''</div>
<div id="game-infobox-image" style="text-align:center;">{{#ifexist: Image:{{{Title|{{PAGENAME}}.png}}}|[[Image:{{{Title|{{PAGENAME}}.png}}}|320px]]<meta itemprop="thumbnailUrl" content="{{fullurl:{{{Title|{{PAGENAME}}.png}}}}}" /> |''There is no image of this game's title screen — [{{fullurl:Special:Upload|wpDestFile={{{Title|{{PAGENAMEE}}.png}}}}} upload one]!''<includeonly>[[Category:Need pictures]]</includeonly>}}</div>
<div id="mod-infobox-image" style="text-align:center;">{{#ifexist: Image:{{{Modded|Mod-{{PAGENAME}}.png}}}|[[Image:{{{Modded|Mod-{{PAGENAME}}.png}}}|320px]]<meta itemprop="screenshot" content="{{fullurl:{{{Modded|Mod-{{PAGENAME}}.png}}}}}" /> |''There is no image of a modified version of this game — [{{fullurl:Special:Upload|wpDestFile={{{Modded|Mod-{{PAGENAMEE}}.png}}}}} upload one]!''}}</div><table>
<tr><th style="min-width: 12em;">Levels?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Levels|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable<includeonly>[[Category:Games with level editors]]</includeonly>|{{#ifeq:{{{Levels|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable<includeonly>[[Category:Games without level editors]]</includeonly>|{{#ifeq:{{{Levels|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable<includeonly>[[Category:Games without level editors]]</includeonly>|{{#ifeq:{{{Levels|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''<includeonly>[[Category:Games without level editors]]</includeonly>}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Tiles?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Tiles|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Tiles|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Tiles|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Tiles|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Sprites?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Sprites|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Sprites|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Sprites|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Sprites|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Fullscreen?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Fullscreen|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Fullscreen|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Fullscreen|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Fullscreen|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Sound?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Sound|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Sound|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Sound|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Sound|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Music?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Music|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Music|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Music|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Music|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Text?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Text|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Text|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Text|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Text|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Story/cutscenes?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Story|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Story|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Story|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Story|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>UI/menus?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Interface|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Interface|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Interface|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Interface|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr>
<tr><th>Demos?</th><td style="vertical-align: middle;">{{#ifeq:{{{Demo|}}}|Edit|[[Image:tick.png]] Editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Demo|}}}|Some|[[Image:Emblem-important.png|18px]] Partially editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Demo|}}}|No|[[Image:X mark.svg|16px]] Not editable|{{#ifeq:{{{Demo|}}}|None|''N/A''|''Unknown''}} }} }} }}</td></tr></table>
<div id="map-infobox-nav" style="text-align:center;">
<hr/>
[[Image:Icon-mods.png|16px|link={{BASEPAGENAME}}/Mods]] [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Mods|List of mods]]
[[Image:Icon-info.png|16px|link={{BASEPAGENAME}}/ModdingHelp]] [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Modding Tips|Modding tips]]
{{#ifexist:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Cheats|<meta itemprop="url" content="{{fullurl:{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Cheats}}" />}}[[Image:Icon-settings.png|16px|link={{BASEPAGENAME}}/Cheats]] [[{{BASEPAGENAME}}/Cheats|Cheats/Debug]]
<hr style="clear: both;"/>
[[:Category:{{BASEPAGENAME}}|All related pages]]
</div>
</div>
<meta itemprop="url" content="{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}}}"/>
</div>
__NOTOC__
<includeonly>[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]][[Category:{{{Platform|DOS}}}]]{{#if:{{{Platform2|}}}|[[Category:{{{Platform2}}}]]}}{{#if:{{{Platform3|}}}|[[Category:{{{Platform3}}}]]}}
[[Category:Game Intro Page]]</includeonly><noinclude>This template is used to display an information box containing details about a game and whether it can be modded. See [[Dangerous Dave]] for example use.

Valid parameters and examples are:
{|class="wikitable"
! style="min-width:150px;" | Parameter/example !! Purpose !! Valid values
|-
| Title = Title.png || Image showing the game's title screen || '''Use the default name''' wherever possible (i.e. do not use this option unless you have to, for wiki-technical reasons)
|-
| Modded = Modded.png || Image showing a modded version of this game, preferably with few enough changes that it is still recognisable || '''Use the default name''' wherever possible (i.e. do not use this option unless you have to, for wiki-technical reasons)
|-
| Levels = ''Value'' || Can the levels be edited? ||rowspan=10| One of: <ul><li>'''Edit''' (yes, editing is possible)</li><li>'''Some''' (partial editing is possible)</li><li>'''No''' (cannot be edited)</li><li>'''None''' (game does not have this resource type)</li></ul>
|-
| Tiles = ''Value'' || Can the level tiles be edited?
|-
| Sprites = ''Value'' || Can the game actor images be edited?
|-
| Fullscreen = ''Value'' || Can the full-screen images/backdrops be edited?
|-
| Sound = ''Value'' || Can the sounds be changed?
|-
| Music = ''Value'' || Can the background music be replaced?
|-
| Text = ''Value'' || Can the game's texts be changed? (intro/story/menu/etc.)
|-
| Story = ''Value'' || Can the story/cutscenes be edited?
|-
| Interface = ''Value'' || Can the menu items, key assignments, and other parts of the user interface be edited? (apart from graphics and text covered by other options)
|-
| Demo = ''Value'' || Can the demos be changed/re-recorded? (e.g. so they can play a custom level)
|-
| Platform = ''Value'' || Optional platform. Omit for DOS. The wiki is mostly focused on DOS games, so it is preferred that games for other platforms only be added if there are few other sources of information elsewhere online.|| One of the entries from [[:Category:Platforms]]:<ul><li>'''DOS''' (default if omitted)</li><li>'''Windows 3.x'''</li><li>'''Windows 95''' (includes Win98/ME)</li></ul>Platforms not on this list are not eligible for inclusion on this wiki.
|-
| Platform2 = ''Value'' Platform3 = ''Value'' || If the game exists on additional platforms, and the way of modding them on these platforms differs little to none from the primary platform, then these can be specified as Platform2 and Platform3.||Same as "Platform", though in practice, "DOS" should never be used here, since adding that category can be achieved simply by omitting the primary "Platform".
|}

Default values are shown if the parameter is omitted, so do not use any parameters unless the value is known (most of the defaults say "unknown")
[[Category:Infoboxes]]
</noinclude>

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

2026-02-06T18:03:34Z

Nyerguds: Expanded game description a bit.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

2026-02-06T16:53:01Z

Nyerguds: Added modded image

{{Game Infobox
| Title = Command_&_Conquer-_Red_Alert.png
| Modded = Mod-Command & Conquer- Red Alert.png
| Levels = Edit
| Tiles = Edit
| Sprites = Edit
| Fullscreen = Edit
| Sound = Edit
| Music = Edit
| Text = Edit
| Story = Edit
| Interface = No
| Platform2=Windows 95
}}

'''Command & Conquer: Red Alert''', also known simply as '''Red Alert''' is the third real-time strategy game released by [[:Category:Westwood Studios|Westwood Studios]].

It keeps Command and Conquer's game mechanic of a harvestable resource found on the battlefield but also introduces a second resource. Ore is regenerating but less valuable, while crystals are more valuable but do not regenerate.

The basic premise of the game is the same as in Command & Conquer; the player has to build a base, harvest the available ore and crystals on the playing field as in-game currency, and use that currency to expand the base and build armies to defend against enemies, and finally destroy their base.

{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.mix
| Format = [[MIX Format (Westwood)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = File archives.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.pal
| Format = [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|6-bit RGB 256-colour palette]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palettes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.cps
| Format = [[Westwood CPS Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-screen images. Often used for internal processing to identify region clicks.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.wsa
| Format = [[Westwood WSA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Animations.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.vqa
| Format = [[Westwood VQA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-motion video cutscenes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp *.tem *.sno *.int
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (TD)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sprites. Files specific to one theater (terrain set) are given the extension of that specific theater.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Used for only one file; the mouse cursor sprite.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.tem *.sno *.int
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Terrain used in the game's maps.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.fnt
| Format = [[Westwood Font Format v3]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Fonts.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.aud
| Format = [[Westwood AUD Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sound effects and voices.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.eng
| Format = [[Westwood Strings File]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Ingame text. Strangely, the French and German versions of the game also use <code>.eng</code>, and not <code>.fre</code> and <code>.ger</code> like Dune II did.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.ini
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Mission Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Missions. Stored as an ini file, describing missions and containing embeded binary data describing the maps.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *_vtx.pal
| Format = [[Westwood Fading Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palette remapping tables used as colour filters for special effects in the game. This system is used extensively internally in the game engine, but only the Chrono Vortex tables are ever handled as files.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.lut
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Chrono vortex distortion table. Defines for each pixel in a 64x64 frame which origin pixel it is taken from, and how much it is darkened.
}}
{{EndGameFileList}}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=game}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer suite]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = Edit
| map = Edit
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Read
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and most of the formats inside it. Contains a map editor as external tool in the same pack.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://vladan.bato.net/cnc/ Mix Manager / AUD Utilities]
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMIX
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = View
| sfx = View
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = View
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can view and convert the game's [[Westwood CPS Format|CPS]], [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)|SHP]], [[Westwood WSA Format|WSA]], [[Westwood Font Format v3|font]] and [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|colour palette]] formats, and can visualise the game's [[Westwood Fading Table|fading tables]] and [[Command & Conquer Mission Format|missions]].
}}

{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/MobiusMapEditor/ Mobius Map Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = View
| map = Edit
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Fork of the official C&C: Remastered map editor. Can open the .mix archives and open / extract files from them.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Westwood Font Editor]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can edit the game's [[Westwood Font Format v3|font files]].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2014/FilterCreator/ Filter Creator]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A specialised tool to view and recreate the game's colour filters.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2018/WWStringsEditor/release/ Westwood Strings Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27215-tool-for-creating-dune2-wsa-files/?do=findComment&comment=392438 d2shpset]
| Platform = Windows (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A small Dune II SHP writing utility written by OmniBlade of the [https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Chronoshift Chronoshift] team for Dune II SHP files. This format is used in C&C for the game's mouse cursor.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://web.archive.org/web/20130501143307/http://www.ultraq.net.nz/redhorizon/downloads/ Red Horizon Utilities]
| Platform = Java (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Original site is defunct. Backups of the tools can be found [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/tools/redhorizon/ here].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://ppmforums.com/topic-8337/vqa-encoder-v05-beta-2/ VQA Encoder]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can convert video material into the game's proprietary VQA cutscene format.
}}

{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Command & Conquer:Red Alert]]
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]
[[Category:Real-Time Strategy]]

File:Mod-Command & Conquer- Red Alert.png

2026-02-06T16:52:19Z

Nyerguds: Command & Conquer: Red Alert, modded with the ''Red Alert: Revolution'' mod. Note that the Win95 version was generally preferred for modding, so examples of DOS Red Alert mods are extremely uncommon.

Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert

2026-02-06T15:28:57Z

Nyerguds: Fixed title screen link

{{GameCategory|Command & Conquer- Red Alert}}
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert

2026-02-06T15:28:08Z

Nyerguds: Added explicit title screen image since wiki can't handle the colon.

{{Game Infobox
| Title = Command_&_Conquer-_Red_Alert.png
| Levels = Edit
| Tiles = Edit
| Sprites = Edit
| Fullscreen = Edit
| Sound = Edit
| Music = Edit
| Text = Edit
| Story = Edit
| Interface = No
| Platform2=Windows 95
}}

'''Command & Conquer: Red Alert''', also known simply as '''Red Alert''' is the third real-time strategy game released by [[:Category:Westwood Studios|Westwood Studios]].

It keeps Command and Conquer's game mechanic of a harvestable resource found on the battlefield but also introduces a second resource. Ore is regenerating but less valuable, while crystals are more valuable but do not regenerate.

The basic premise of the game is the same as in Command & Conquer; the player has to build a base, harvest the available ore and crystals on the playing field as in-game currency, and use that currency to expand the base and build armies to defend against enemies, and finally destroy their base.

{{BeginGameFileList}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.mix
| Format = [[MIX Format (Westwood)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = File archives.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.pal
| Format = [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|6-bit RGB 256-colour palette]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palettes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.cps
| Format = [[Westwood CPS Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-screen images. Often used for internal processing to identify region clicks.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.wsa
| Format = [[Westwood WSA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Animations.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.vqa
| Format = [[Westwood VQA Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Full-motion video cutscenes.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp *.tem *.sno *.int
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (TD)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sprites. Files specific to one theater (terrain set) are given the extension of that specific theater.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.shp
| Format = [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Used for only one file; the mouse cursor sprite.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.tem *.sno *.int
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Terrain used in the game's maps.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.fnt
| Format = [[Westwood Font Format v3]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Fonts.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.aud
| Format = [[Westwood AUD Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Sound effects and voices.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.eng
| Format = [[Westwood Strings File]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Ingame text. Strangely, the French and German versions of the game also use <code>.eng</code>, and not <code>.fre</code> and <code>.ger</code> like Dune II did.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.ini
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Mission Format]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Missions. Stored as an ini file, describing missions and containing embeded binary data describing the maps.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *_vtx.pal
| Format = [[Westwood Fading Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Palette remapping tables used as colour filters for special effects in the game. This system is used extensively internally in the game engine, but only the Chrono Vortex tables are ever handled as files.
}}
{{GameFile
| Name = *.lut
| Format = [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table]]
| KnownFormat = Yes
| Desc = Chrono vortex distortion table. Defines for each pixel in a 64x64 frame which origin pixel it is taken from, and how much it is darkened.
}}
{{EndGameFileList}}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=game}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer suite]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = Edit
| map = Edit
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Read
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and most of the formats inside it. Contains a map editor as external tool in the same pack.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://vladan.bato.net/cnc/ Mix Manager / AUD Utilities]
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = Edit
| sfx = Edit
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMIX
| Platform = DOS
| grp = Edit
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = View
| sfx = View
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = DOS Editing suite that can open and edit the game's [[MIX Format (Westwood)|MIX archives]], and has tools for converting most of the formats inside it.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = View
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can view and convert the game's [[Westwood CPS Format|CPS]], [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)|SHP]], [[Westwood WSA Format|WSA]], [[Westwood Font Format v3|font]] and [[VGA Palette#The "Classic" format|colour palette]] formats, and can visualise the game's [[Westwood Fading Table|fading tables]] and [[Command & Conquer Mission Format|missions]].
}}

{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/MobiusMapEditor/ Mobius Map Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = View
| map = Edit
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Fork of the official C&C: Remastered map editor. Can open the .mix archives and open / extract files from them.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Westwood Font Editor]]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can edit the game's [[Westwood Font Format v3|font files]].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2014/FilterCreator/ Filter Creator]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A specialised tool to view and recreate the game's colour filters.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2018/WWStringsEditor/release/ Westwood Strings Editor]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = No
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = Edit
| sav = No
| exe = No
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://forum.dune2k.com/topic/27215-tool-for-creating-dune2-wsa-files/?do=findComment&comment=392438 d2shpset]
| Platform = Windows (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = A small Dune II SHP writing utility written by OmniBlade of the [https://github.com/TheAssemblyArmada/Chronoshift Chronoshift] team for Dune II SHP files. This format is used in C&C for the game's mouse cursor.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://web.archive.org/web/20130501143307/http://www.ultraq.net.nz/redhorizon/downloads/ Red Horizon Utilities]
| Platform = Java (command line)
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Original site is defunct. Backups of the tools can be found [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/tools/redhorizon/ here].
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [https://ppmforums.com/topic-8337/vqa-encoder-v05-beta-2/ VQA Encoder]
| Platform = Windows
| grp = No
| map = No
| gfx = Edit
| mus = No
| sfx = No
| txt = No
| sav = No
| exe = No
| notes = Can convert video material into the game's proprietary VQA cutscene format.
}}

{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Command & Conquer:Red Alert]]
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]
[[Category:Real-Time Strategy]]

File:Command & Conquer- Red Alert.png

2026-02-06T15:27:26Z

Nyerguds: Title screen for Command & Conquer: Red Alert

== Summary ==
Title screen for [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Westwood.png

2026-02-06T12:16:10Z

Nyerguds:

The Westwood Studios logo, as shown in the intro of [[Dune II]]. This logo holds the middle ground between the older Westwood Associates logo and the later 3D-rendered Westwood Studios one used in [[Command & Conquer]] and [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert|Red Alert]].

Category:Sierra/Dynamix

2026-02-06T12:15:12Z

Nyerguds: Right-aligned the company logo.

[[Image:dynamix.png|right]]

[[wp:Dynamix|Dynamix Inc.]] was a developer known for creating a multitude of adventure and puzzle games. In 1990, they became part of Sierra Online.

Category:Stellar 7

2026-02-06T12:13:58Z

Nyerguds: Added company category.

{{GameCategory}}
[[Category:Sierra/Dynamix]]

Category:Sierra/Dynamix File Formats

2026-02-06T12:13:29Z

Nyerguds: Added company category.

[[:Category:Sierra/Dynamix|Sierra/Dynamix]] created many file formats used in several of their games. This category lists all formats created by them.

[[Category:Sierra/Dynamix]]

Category:The Incredible Machine

2026-02-06T12:12:12Z

Nyerguds: Added company category.

{{GameCategory}}

[[Category:Sierra/Dynamix]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format

2026-02-05T23:04:51Z

Nyerguds: /* 1×1-Multiple Tilesets */ Some rewording.

{{Tileset Infobox
| Image = Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png
| Hardware1 = VGA
| MaxTiles = 254
| Palette = Shared between all tilesets in one theater
| Names = N
| TileMinSize = 24×24
| TileMaxSize = 24×24
| NumPlanes = 1
| PlaneArrangement = Linear
| HasTransparency = N
| Metadata = Land Types
| Subtilesets = N
| Compressed = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games = {{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
}}
The '''Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format''' is an uncompressed tileset containing tiles with dimensions of 24×24. Technically, this tile size can be changed, but the game defines cells as 24×24 pixels, so changing it does not seem useful. Tiles inside this file are referred to as "icons".

As with the first game, a single "tileset" does not represent the tiles of an entire map environment; but only the tiles used to build up a single piece of terrain. For more information on that, see the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]] page.

This file type is a later version of the aforementioned C&C Tileset Format. Unlike its predecessor, it contains all information required to handle the tileset, without needing any hardcoded data from the game itself to function. This means that it contains the full tileset's dimensions in number of icons, and definitions of the land types that determine buildability and passability of the individual icons.

== File format ==

===Header===

The header definition, called <tt>IControl_Type</tt> in the source code, can be found in the WIN32LIB code of Red Alert, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WIN32LIB/TILE/TILE.H#L74 in <tt>TILE.H</tt>]. The header is 0x28 bytes long.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset || Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0x00 || [[INT16LE]] || Width || Width of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x02 || [[INT16LE]] || Height || Height of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x04 || [[INT16LE]] || Count || Number of icons. While this is an Int16 value, the game's map format can only access icons up to index 255. Since icons can be marked as empty, this value can differ from the number of actual images stored inside the file.
|-
| 0x06 || [[INT16LE]] || Allocated || Used by the game to indicate whether this tileset was allocated. In the file, it's always zero.
|-
| 0x08 || [[INT16LE]] || MapWidth || Width of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0A || [[INT16LE]] || MapHeight || Height of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0C || [[INT32LE]] || Size || Size of the entire file.
|-
| 0x10 || [[INT32LE]] || Icons || Offset from file start to icon data.
|-
| 0x14 || [[INT32LE]] || Palettes ||Offset from file start to palette data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always empty.
|-
| 0x18 || [[INT32LE]] || Remaps ||Offset from file start to remap index data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always seems to be 0x0D1AFFFF.
|-
| 0x1C || [[UINT32LE]]|| TransFlag || Offset from file start for transparency flag table. This is an array containing one byte for each actual image in the file. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; all entries in the table are just 0x00.
|-
| 0x20 || [[UINT32LE]]|| ColorMap || Offset from file start for colour control value table. The length of this array is always <tt>MapWidth</tt>×<tt>MapHeight</tt>. The values in this table can be mapped to the land types in the game that determine land properties such as speed and passability by different movement types, and whether the land can be built on.
|-
| 0x24 || [[UINT32LE]]|| Map || Offset from file start for icon map offset. This is an index linking each icon index to the index of an actual image in the <tt>Icons</tt> array. This index is a [[UINT8]][Count]. Value 0xFF in the index indicates an empty icon.
|}

Generally, the order of the data after the index is:

# Icons
# Map
# TransFlag
# ColorMap

Of course, since these are read from header values, their order has no real effect.

==== 1×1-Multiple Tilesets ====

The game has a special type of tilesets that identify themselves to have a <tt>MapWidth</tt> and <tt>MapHeight</tt> of 1, but which have a <tt>Count</tt> that is larger than 1. In this case, the different icons inside the file are not pieces of one larger shape, but are all alternates of the same 1×1 icon. This type is used for the game's Clear terrain, and for several tileset files in the Interior theater.

Because they represent only a single icon, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> of this type will only contain one single value. Note that in these 1×1-multiple sets, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> will contain value 0 instead of value 3 for indicating clear terrain.

===Image Data===

Since the tileset can contain empty entries, the actual amount of images following the <tt>Icons</tt> location should be determined by taking the maximum value (excluding any 0xFF values indicating empty icons) in the the array at <tt>Map</tt>, and adding 1 to it. As with the C&C1 variant, identical images are generally saved only once, with the data referenced in the index multiple times.

The image data is located at <tt>Icons</tt>. To look up the image data of a specific icon N, first check in the array at <tt>Map</tt> what the image index of the icon is. If it is not 0xFF, the image data can be found at:

iconImageStart = Icons + (Width * Height * fileData[Map + N])

The image data will always be 24*24 bytes, and represents a simple 8-bit indexed image.

===Land Types===

At the <tt>ColorMap</tt> index, a list of values will be given that determine the LandType of each icon. According to the description in the RA code, these are simply a set of extra colors set in the original art files as metadata, used to indicate the types. They seem to match the standard Westwood EGA palette that is found at the start of all 6-bit palettes used before [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun|Tiberian Sun]].

This is the full mapping of all colours. The values indicated in bold are the ones that are actually used in tilesets.

{|class="wikitable"
! Value || Land Type|| Colour !! Description
|-
| '''00''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Filler value used for empty entries (0xFF in the <tt>Map</tt> array). On 1×1 sets with multiple icons, Clear terrain is always indicated using this value instead of the normal clear terrain indicator.
|-
| 01 || LAND_CLEAR || Purple || Unused.
|-
| 02 || LAND_CLEAR || Teal || Unused.
|-
| '''03''' || LAND_CLEAR || Green || Normal clear terrain.
|-
| 04 || LAND_CLEAR || Lime || Unused.
|-
| 05 || LAND_CLEAR || Yellow || Unused.
|-
| '''06''' || LAND_BEACH || Light Red || Sandy beach. Can't be built on.
|-
| 07 || LAND_CLEAR || Brown || Unused.
|-
| '''08''' || LAND_ROCK || Red || Impassable terrain.
|-
| '''09''' || LAND_ROAD || Cyan || Units move faster on this terrain.
|-
| '''10''' || LAND_WATER || Light Blue || Ships can travel over this.
|-
| '''11''' || LAND_RIVER || Dark Blue || Ships can't travel over this.
|-
| 12''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Unused.
|-
| 13 || LAND_CLEAR || Dark grey || Unused.
|-
| '''14''' || LAND_ROUGH || Light grey || Rough terrain. Can't be built on.
|-
| 15 || LAND_CLEAR || White || Unused.
|}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Shows the Land Types for all icons, and allows setting them when saving.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Can visualise the files and convert them to standard image formats.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMix
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Contains the <tt>RMT2PCX.EXE</tt> and <tt>PCX2RMT.EXE</tt> command line tools to convert the format, but has no support for customising the Land Types. In tiles converted with <tt>PCX2RMT</tt>, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> array will correctly have type 0 to indicate empty tiles, but all others are simply set to type "Road" (value 9).
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2013/rtmtype/ RTMType] (Red Alert Template File Terrain Type Editing Tool)
| Platform = Windows
| canView = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Command line tool. Can set the Land Types for template tiles, including support for the special 1×1-multiple type. The land types can be given as text, or can simply be imported from another template file.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table

2026-02-05T20:36:26Z

Nyerguds: /* Tools */ Expanded notes, since this one's a bit tricky to represent as image.

The <tt>HOLE####.LUT</tt> files found in [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]], are a set of pixel manipulation lookup tables used to generate the visual effect of the Chrono Vortex, a destructive temporal anomaly that can randomly spawn in the game as a result of the use of the Chronosphere superweapon. The anomaly appears as a whirlpool that slowly moves over the map, and visually distorts anything it moves over.

==File format==

Each file is a table of 64×64 pixels, without header. Each pixel is comprised of three bytes, with the following meanings:

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
| [[BYTE]] || X || X-coordinate of the pixel to copy from the original screen buffer. Since the tables represent a 64×64 image, these values can only range from 0 to 63.
|-
| [[BYTE]] || Y || Y-coordinate of the pixel to copy from the original screen buffer. Since the tables represent a 64×64 image, these values can only range from 0 to 63.
|-
| [[BYTE]] || B || Brightness of the pixel, ranging from 0 to 15. These values are used in combination with the <tt>????_VTX.PAL</tt> [[Westwood Fading Table|fading table]] files to darken the original pixel values, creating a shadow at the inside of the whirlpool effect.
|}

== Files list==

The files range from <tt>HOLE0000.LUT</tt> to <tt>HOLE0047.LUT</tt>, and form three distinct animations:

* 0000-0015: Start of the animation; the vortex hole opens.
* 0016-0031: Main swirling animation; this repeats as long as the vortex exists.
* 0032-0047: End of the animation; the vortex hole flattens out and closes.

In the following images, the pixel manipulations are visualised by representing the X-coordinates as the red colour component of the pixel, the Y coordinates as the blue component, and the darkening effect as the green component. This means the green value is inverted compared to the real data. All values are stretched out over the full 0-255 range for better visibility.

For comparison, the first image shows the blank slate where all X and Y coordinates represent their original locations.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin: auto"
|-
! None !! Opening !! Animating !! Closing
|-
| [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Blank.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Open.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Anim.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Close.png]]
|}

The background around the central circle never changes; it maps every pixel coordinate onto itself, without any darkening.

[[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex.png|frame|center|The Chrono Vortex effect in-game]]

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = N/A
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Produces images as seen above, with X and Y as respectively red and blue colour components, the darkening inverted to show up as green, and the values stretched out over the 0-255 range. This is also the format it requires as input for converting to Vortex LUT files.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]
[[Category:All file formats]]
[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table

2026-02-05T20:32:54Z

Nyerguds: Added Tools. This isn't REALLY an image format, but, close enough.

The <tt>HOLE####.LUT</tt> files found in [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]], are a set of pixel manipulation lookup tables used to generate the visual effect of the Chrono Vortex, a destructive temporal anomaly that can randomly spawn in the game as a result of the use of the Chronosphere superweapon. The anomaly appears as a whirlpool that slowly moves over the map, and visually distorts anything it moves over.

==File format==

Each file is a table of 64×64 pixels, without header. Each pixel is comprised of three bytes, with the following meanings:

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
| [[BYTE]] || X || X-coordinate of the pixel to copy from the original screen buffer. Since the tables represent a 64×64 image, these values can only range from 0 to 63.
|-
| [[BYTE]] || Y || Y-coordinate of the pixel to copy from the original screen buffer. Since the tables represent a 64×64 image, these values can only range from 0 to 63.
|-
| [[BYTE]] || B || Brightness of the pixel, ranging from 0 to 15. These values are used in combination with the <tt>????_VTX.PAL</tt> [[Westwood Fading Table|fading table]] files to darken the original pixel values, creating a shadow at the inside of the whirlpool effect.
|}

== Files list==

The files range from <tt>HOLE0000.LUT</tt> to <tt>HOLE0047.LUT</tt>, and form three distinct animations:

* 0000-0015: Start of the animation; the vortex hole opens.
* 0016-0031: Main swirling animation; this repeats as long as the vortex exists.
* 0032-0047: End of the animation; the vortex hole flattens out and closes.

In the following images, the pixel manipulations are visualised by representing the X-coordinates as the red colour component of the pixel, the Y coordinates as the blue component, and the darkening effect as the green component. This means the green value is inverted compared to the real data. All values are stretched out over the full 0-255 range for better visibility.

For comparison, the first image shows the blank slate where all X and Y coordinates represent their original locations.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin: auto"
|-
! None !! Opening !! Animating !! Closing
|-
| [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Blank.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Open.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Anim.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Close.png]]
|}

The background around the central circle never changes; it maps every pixel coordinate onto itself, without any darkening.

[[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex.png|frame|center|The Chrono Vortex effect in-game]]

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = N/A
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Produces images where the darkening is inverted to show up as green glow, as seen above.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]
[[Category:All file formats]]
[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

Engie File Converter

2026-02-05T20:30:27Z

Nyerguds: /* Supported types */ Added RA tilesets and LUT files.

{{Tool Infobox
| Platform = Windows
| Release = 2017/04/04
| Homepage = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/EngieFileConverter/ GitHub page]
| Download = [https://github.com/Nyerguds/EngieFileConverter/releases GitHub Releases page]
| Edit1 = Graphics
| Games =
{{Game|BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Inception}}
{{Game|BattleTech: The Crescent Hawk's Revenge}}
{{Game|Eye of the Beholder}}
{{Game|Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon}}
{{Game|Dune II}}
{{Game|The Legend of Kyrandia}}
{{Game|Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos}}
{{Game|The Legend of Kyrandia: The Hand of Fate}}
{{Game|The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer}}
{{Game|Monopoly}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
{{Game|Lands of Lore 2: Guardians of Destiny}}
{{Game|Blade Runner}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor}}
{{Game|Dune 2000}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun}}
{{Game|Lands of Lore III}}
{{Game|Nox}}
{{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2}}
{{Game|Elvira: Mistress of the Dark}}
{{Game|F-14 Tomcat}}
{{Game|Suzuki's RM250 Motocross}}
{{Game|Rise of the Dragon}}
{{Game|Heart of China}}
{{Game|The Adventures of Willy Beamish}}
{{Game|Front Page Sports Football}}
{{Game|Front Page Sports Football Pro}}
{{Game|The Incredible Machine}}
{{Game|The Even More Incredible Machine}}
{{Game|The Incredible Machine 2}}
{{Game|King Arthur's K.O.R.T.}}
{{Game|Kings of the Beach}}
{{Game|Bodyworks Voyager: Missions in Anatomy}}
{{Game|The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Serrated Scalpel}}
{{Game|The Lost Files of Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Scarlet Rose}}
{{Game|Interactive Girls Club}}
{{Game|SeXonic}}
{{Game|Cover Girl Strip Poker}}
{{Game|15 Move Hole}}
{{Game|SexTris}}
{{Game|PornTris}}
{{Game|Mozaik}}
{{Game|PornPipe}}
{{Game|HeroQuest}}
}}

The '''Engie File Converter''' is a game formats conversion tool created by [[User:Nyerguds|Nyerguds]].

== Platform and license ==

The program is written in C# on the .Net framework v3.5. All code in the editor that was specifically written for the editor is released under the [[wp:WTFPL|WTF Public License]], meaning it can be used without restriction. A few components taken from online resources, as well as an ini reader originally written by Nyerguds for another project, have similarly permissive licenses, mentioned in the tool's readme and/or the actual source code files.

== Development history==

The tool started out as the '''C&C64 Image Viewer''', a small tool to view and identify images in the .IMG format extracted from the Nintendo 64 version of [[Command & Conquer]]. When it was expanded to support viewing the game's tilesets, a rudimentary system was added to view multiple frames inside one file, and with the addition of saving features, the tool changed to v1.0 of the '''C&C64 File Converter'''.

When Nyerguds started cooperating with the people of the [http://oldgamesitalia.net OldGamesItalia] community, and decided to help with the graphics formats in the [[:category:Sierra/Dynamix|Sierra/Dynamix]] adventure games, the tool was the obvious platform to add this into, since it already contained all the basics for opening, viewing and saving images, with support for the use of externally-loaded colour palettes, and also already had an easily expandable file format autodetection system. As cooperation continued, and the file formats of [[King Arthur's K.O.R.T.]] were added, the tool got better support for handling frame-based files, and grew into a graphics and sprites converter with support for many more games.

At v1.3, the name of the tool was changed again, to reflect the fact that the newer functions and formats in it were no longer related to C&C64. The originally intended name was '''Nyerguds's Game File Converter''', or '''NGFC'''. This eventually mutated into the actual new name, '''Engie File Converter'''. The icon replacing the old green-and-black Nintendo 64 logo is the Engineer unit icon from [https://web.archive.org/web/19971115222646im_/www.virgin.es/catalogo/c&c95/forest02.jpg a prerelease screenshot of Command & Conquer Gold], in which the whole UI looked like a higher resolution version of the DOS game, with simpler cleaner build icons instead of the final game's small scene renders. The version numbering was not reset, meaning the first version of ''Engie File Converter'' is v1.3.

== Use ==

The tool is distributed as a simple .zip file to be unpacked in a new folder. Once unpacked, the included .exe file runs the program.

The general usage is simple: open a file, either through the menus or via drag and drop, and a graphical representation of the file will appear. This can then be copied to the clipboard or saved in any supported formats that are compatible with it (e.g. with the same colour depth).

If the file is comprised of frames, the frame changer at the bottom will be unlocked, and the user can look through the frames, and save them as other image formats. In this frames view, frame "-1" will represent the entire frameset, and will be the only entry that will allow saving the entire frameset to other frame-based formats. If the file type does not warrant the generation of an overall single-image representation, this "-1" frame will be empty, but on some formats, a preview of the combined frames will be generated.

Framesets can also be exported as a set of single image files, and when opening any file that ends on a number, the program will check whether it belongs to a range of numbered frames, and will offer to open it as frameset, to allow converting it back to frame-based file formats.

The tool can view indexed formats that do not contain their own colour palette, using the same system Nyerguds previously implemented in the [[Westwood Font Editor]], which offers a variety of generated palettes for every type of indexed image colour depth, plus added 4-bit and 8-bit palettes read from palette files in the [[VGA Palette#The .22Classic.22 format|classic 6-bit VGA format]].

Some file types can automatically load missing information from other files in the folder, including certain paletteless images and animations reading palettes with the same name, C&C maps reading extra info from an accompanying .ini file, and animations that lack an initial state reading the missing information from previous files in the sequence they belong to.

=== Additional functions ===

Besides the main purpose of converting files, the tool has a number of functions implemented for specific file types. These functions are:

* For framesets: from v1.3 onwards, two tools were added to allow a loaded frameset to be combined into a single image, and to split a single image into frames. This allows easier editing of sprite sheets as a single large image. The frames-to-image feature allows the frame dimensions to be enlarged in the process. Starting from v1.3.1, the image-to-frames one allows cropping on a specified colour to allow frames of unequal sizes, and conversion of high-colour images to a chosen palette.
* For [[Westwood SHP Format (TS)|Tiberian Sun SHP files]]: shadow splitting / combining. Unlike in the older C&C games, in Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2, graphics have the areas that should be processed with a shadow filter as additional frames behind the main frames. This is rather unwieldy for actually editing graphics, though, so two functions are provided for this; one to combine the shadow before converting to frames, and one to split it off before saving as Tiberian Sun SHP file. For the sake of compatibility with older SHP formats and other tools, the combining function will change the shadow colour pixels from colour index 1 to colour index 4, and the shadow splitting one will likewise look for colour index 4 pixels, and split them off as index 1 shadow.
* For [[Visage Animation Format]], though usable for cutscene animations in general: pasting a still image on a range of frames at specified coordinates. This can be used to easily clear existing text from static-background cutscenes, and to paste text onto cutscenes. If the original frames are paletted, this palette is always preserved, even if the pasted image is high-colour.
* For Nintendo 64 maps: height map generation. This follows a few steps. The map is first converted to a bare terrain heights image based on the cliffs, which must be edited by the user to create a plateaus image. The converter can then use the original game map to apply additional terrain height details to the plateaus image, like the slopes of rock ridges and river beds, to create the final 64x64 height map. And finally, this needs to be converted to a 65x65 height map. A tutorial for the process was posted [https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/6707-creating-a-mission-height-map-for-cc64/ here].

==Supported types==

As of version 1.5.16, the converter supports the following types:

* Standard image types: PNG, BMP, JPEG, GIF. Anything else that is natively supported in the .Net framework (like certain types of TIFF) can also be opened, but not saved.
* Windows icons, with specific support for viewing the different images in the file (which the .Net framework does not do natively).
* Simple 768-byte VGA palettes in both [[VGA Palette#The .22Classic.22 format|6-bit]] and [[VGA Palette#The .22Modern.22 format|8-bit]] formats. The 6-bit type is used in a load of Westwood games; the 8-bit type is used by C&C64.
* The image and tileset formats used in the Nintendo 64 version of Command & Conquer, though only the image format has save support.
* The PC and N64 [[Command & Conquer Mission Format#Terrain map|map format of Command & Conquer]], with the ability to convert between the formats.
* The [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]], an uncompressed tileset format representing a rectangular shape of terrain cells, with indication of unused cells in the grid.
* The [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format]], the successor of the previous type, which additionally contains its own full dimensions, as well as terrain types per cell.
* [[Westwood WSA Format|Westwood Animation (WSA) format]] (which uses their own [[Westwood XOR Delta|XOR Delta]] compression), with support for four known versions, and the choice to embed palettes on saving. Used in a load of Westwood games.
* Westwood [[Westwood CPS Format|CPS Format]], with loading and saving support for all compression formats, and the choice to embed palettes. Used in a load of Westwood games.
* Westwood [[Westwood SHP Format (Dune II)|Dune II SHP Format]] / [[Westwood SHP Format (Lands of Lore)|Lands of Lore SHP Format]], with support for remappable frames.
* Westwood [[Westwood SHP Format (TD)|Command & Conquer 1 / Red Alert 1 SHP Format]].
* Westwood [[Westwood SHP Format (TS)|Tiberian Sun SHP Format]].
* The [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table]], used to create an image made up from distorted existing terrain.
* The LCW image type from [[Blade Runner]], a simple implementation of an [[Westwood LCW|LCW-compressed]] 16-bit image.
* The Westwood Palette Stretch Table format, a 64K file containing the best in-between colour for all possible colour pairs on a specific 256-colour palette. They are used to quickly upscale 8-bit images, mostly WSA animations and CPS images.
* Elvira: Mistress of the Dark [[Elvira 1 Icons Format|item icons]] and [[AGOS VGA Format|VGA format]] (HorrorSoft Elvira 1 / Elvira 2 / Waxworks)
* [[:category:Sierra/Dynamix|Dynamix]] [[Dynamix BMP Format|BMP]] and [[Dynamix SCR Format|SCR]] format, with compression support for [[RLE Compression|RLE]], [[LZW Compression|LZW]] (reading only) and [[Huffman Compression|LZSS]] (reading only, though writing code is available and could be added later), and the Dynamix 8-bit palettes. Used in loads of Sierra/Dynamix games. ''Note: A lot of this is currently documented on the [[RES Format (Stellar 7)]] page.''
* [[Kings of the Beach PAK Format]], a planar RLE-compressed image type with the ability to save a partial file.
* [[KORT Image Format|KORT Image format]], a headerless image that is always 320x200, and of which the data is [[RLE Compression|RLE compressed]] in simple Value/Length pairs.
* [[KORT BMP Format]], an uncompressed tileset format.
* [[Visage Format|Mythos Visage Format]], with full compression loading and saving support.
* [[Visage Animation Format|Mythos Visage Animation Format]], with support for compression and for optimising data into chunks on save.
* [[Westwood Font Format v3]] (Dune II, Lands of Lore 1/2/3, Legend of Kyrandia 1/2/3, Command & Conquer, Red Alert)
* [[Westwood Font Format v4]] (Tiberian Sun)
* [[Dune 2000 Font]]
* [[Interactive Girls Club]]'s [[DMP Format]] and [[GX2 Format]]. Can also open [[SLB Format|SLB archives]] and view the GX2 images inside.
* [[PIC Format (SeXoniX)]]
* Cover Girl Strip Poker [[Nova Format]]
* 15 Move Hole [[BIF Format]]
* [[SEX Format (SexTris)]]
* Image Line [[JMX Format]]
* [[The Incredible Machine Image Format]], a sub-type of the Sierra/Dynamix BMP format. This is a 4-bit image format with special transparency handling. The files can be made to have their 4-bit data "repositioned" to specific indices in an 8-bit palette.
* [[All Dogs Archive Format]], an archive/tileset hybrid format containing either CGA or EGA images, and sometimes text.
* [[Jazz Jackrabbit Font Format]], a font that is saved more like a tileset. Supports both the compressed and uncompressed format.
* [[Treasure Mountain Panning Image Format]], a set of EGA background images built up from 8x8 tiles.
* [[PAK Format (The Learning Company)|Treasure Mountain PAK sprite format]], a set of EGA sprites with extra positioning info.
* [[HeroQuest Quest Format]], though only for visualisation.

== Gallery ==

<gallery>
File:C&C64 File Converter.png|The older '''C&C64 File Converter''', with the green Nintendo 64 logo as icon, showing an [[AGOS VGA Format]] file.
</gallery>

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format

2026-02-05T20:25:03Z

Nyerguds: Metadata (not exactly "tags", but the land types are is additional data that most converters seem to ignore)

{{Tileset Infobox
| Image = Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png
| Hardware1 = VGA
| MaxTiles = 254
| Palette = Shared between all tilesets in one theater
| Names = N
| TileMinSize = 24×24
| TileMaxSize = 24×24
| NumPlanes = 1
| PlaneArrangement = Linear
| HasTransparency = N
| Metadata = Land Types
| Subtilesets = N
| Compressed = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games = {{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
}}
The '''Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format''' is an uncompressed tileset containing tiles with dimensions of 24×24. Technically, this tile size can be changed, but the game defines cells as 24×24 pixels, so changing it does not seem useful. Tiles inside this file are referred to as "icons".

As with the first game, a single "tileset" does not represent the tiles of an entire map environment; but only the tiles used to build up a single piece of terrain. For more information on that, see the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]] page.

This file type is a later version of the aforementioned C&C Tileset Format. Unlike its predecessor, it contains all information required to handle the tileset, without needing any hardcoded data from the game itself to function. This means that it contains the full tileset's dimensions in number of icons, and definitions of the land types that determine buildability and passability of the individual icons.

== File format ==

===Header===

The header definition, called <tt>IControl_Type</tt> in the source code, can be found in the WIN32LIB code of Red Alert, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WIN32LIB/TILE/TILE.H#L74 in <tt>TILE.H</tt>]. The header is 0x28 bytes long.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset || Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0x00 || [[INT16LE]] || Width || Width of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x02 || [[INT16LE]] || Height || Height of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x04 || [[INT16LE]] || Count || Number of icons. While this is an Int16 value, the game's map format can only access icons up to index 255. Since icons can be marked as empty, this value can differ from the number of actual images stored inside the file.
|-
| 0x06 || [[INT16LE]] || Allocated || Used by the game to indicate whether this tileset was allocated. In the file, it's always zero.
|-
| 0x08 || [[INT16LE]] || MapWidth || Width of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0A || [[INT16LE]] || MapHeight || Height of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0C || [[INT32LE]] || Size || Size of the entire file.
|-
| 0x10 || [[INT32LE]] || Icons || Offset from file start to icon data.
|-
| 0x14 || [[INT32LE]] || Palettes ||Offset from file start to palette data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always empty.
|-
| 0x18 || [[INT32LE]] || Remaps ||Offset from file start to remap index data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always seems to be 0x0D1AFFFF.
|-
| 0x1C || [[UINT32LE]]|| TransFlag || Offset from file start for transparency flag table. This is an array containing one byte for each actual image in the file. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; all entries in the table are just 0x00.
|-
| 0x20 || [[UINT32LE]]|| ColorMap || Offset from file start for colour control value table. The length of this array is always <tt>MapWidth</tt>×<tt>MapHeight</tt>. The values in this table can be mapped to the land types in the game that determine land properties such as speed and passability by different movement types, and whether the land can be built on.
|-
| 0x24 || [[UINT32LE]]|| Map || Offset from file start for icon map offset. This is an index linking each icon index to the index of an actual image in the <tt>Icons</tt> array. This index is a [[UINT8]][Count]. Value 0xFF in the index indicates an empty icon.
|}

Generally, the order of the data after the index is:

# Icons
# Map
# TransFlag
# ColorMap

Of course, since these are read from header values, their order has no real effect.

==== 1×1-Multiple Tilesets ====

The game has a special type of tilesets that identify themselves to have a <tt>MapWidth</tt> and <tt>MapHeight</tt> of 1, but a <tt>Count</tt> that is larger than 1. In this case, the icons inside the file are not pieces of one larger tileset, but are all alternates of the same 1×1 icon. This type is used for the game's Clear terrain, and for several tileset files in the Interior theater.

Given the fact they represent only a single icon, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> of this type will only contain one single byte. Note that in these 1×1-multiple sets, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> will contain value 0 instead of value 3 for indicating clear terrain.

===Image Data===

Since the tileset can contain empty entries, the actual amount of images following the <tt>Icons</tt> location should be determined by taking the maximum value (excluding any 0xFF values indicating empty icons) in the the array at <tt>Map</tt>, and adding 1 to it. As with the C&C1 variant, identical images are generally saved only once, with the data referenced in the index multiple times.

The image data is located at <tt>Icons</tt>. To look up the image data of a specific icon N, first check in the array at <tt>Map</tt> what the image index of the icon is. If it is not 0xFF, the image data can be found at:

iconImageStart = Icons + (Width * Height * fileData[Map + N])

The image data will always be 24*24 bytes, and represents a simple 8-bit indexed image.

===Land Types===

At the <tt>ColorMap</tt> index, a list of values will be given that determine the LandType of each icon. According to the description in the RA code, these are simply a set of extra colors set in the original art files as metadata, used to indicate the types. They seem to match the standard Westwood EGA palette that is found at the start of all 6-bit palettes used before [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun|Tiberian Sun]].

This is the full mapping of all colours. The values indicated in bold are the ones that are actually used in tilesets.

{|class="wikitable"
! Value || Land Type|| Colour !! Description
|-
| '''00''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Filler value used for empty entries (0xFF in the <tt>Map</tt> array). On 1×1 sets with multiple icons, Clear terrain is always indicated using this value instead of the normal clear terrain indicator.
|-
| 01 || LAND_CLEAR || Purple || Unused.
|-
| 02 || LAND_CLEAR || Teal || Unused.
|-
| '''03''' || LAND_CLEAR || Green || Normal clear terrain.
|-
| 04 || LAND_CLEAR || Lime || Unused.
|-
| 05 || LAND_CLEAR || Yellow || Unused.
|-
| '''06''' || LAND_BEACH || Light Red || Sandy beach. Can't be built on.
|-
| 07 || LAND_CLEAR || Brown || Unused.
|-
| '''08''' || LAND_ROCK || Red || Impassable terrain.
|-
| '''09''' || LAND_ROAD || Cyan || Units move faster on this terrain.
|-
| '''10''' || LAND_WATER || Light Blue || Ships can travel over this.
|-
| '''11''' || LAND_RIVER || Dark Blue || Ships can't travel over this.
|-
| 12''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Unused.
|-
| 13 || LAND_CLEAR || Dark grey || Unused.
|-
| '''14''' || LAND_ROUGH || Light grey || Rough terrain. Can't be built on.
|-
| 15 || LAND_CLEAR || White || Unused.
|}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Shows the Land Types for all icons, and allows setting them when saving.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Can visualise the files and convert them to standard image formats.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMix
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Contains the <tt>RMT2PCX.EXE</tt> and <tt>PCX2RMT.EXE</tt> command line tools to convert the format, but has no support for customising the Land Types. In tiles converted with <tt>PCX2RMT</tt>, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> array will correctly have type 0 to indicate empty tiles, but all others are simply set to type "Road" (value 9).
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2013/rtmtype/ RTMType] (Red Alert Template File Terrain Type Editing Tool)
| Platform = Windows
| canView = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Command line tool. Can set the Land Types for template tiles, including support for the special 1×1-multiple type. The land types can be given as text, or can simply be imported from another template file.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format

2026-02-05T20:21:39Z

Nyerguds: /* Tools */ fixed tools table errors.

{{Tileset Infobox
| Image = Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png
| Hardware1 = VGA
| MaxTiles = 254
| Palette = Shared between all tilesets in one theater
| Names = N
| TileMinSize = 24×24
| TileMaxSize = 24×24
| NumPlanes = 1
| PlaneArrangement = Linear
| HasTransparency = N
| Metadata = None
| Subtilesets = N
| Compressed = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games = {{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
}}
The '''Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format''' is an uncompressed tileset containing tiles with dimensions of 24×24. Technically, this tile size can be changed, but the game defines cells as 24×24 pixels, so changing it does not seem useful. Tiles inside this file are referred to as "icons".

As with the first game, a single "tileset" does not represent the tiles of an entire map environment; but only the tiles used to build up a single piece of terrain. For more information on that, see the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]] page.

This file type is a later version of the aforementioned C&C Tileset Format. Unlike its predecessor, it contains all information required to handle the tileset, without needing any hardcoded data from the game itself to function. This means that it contains the full tileset's dimensions in number of icons, and definitions of the land types that determine buildability and passability of the individual icons.

== File format ==

===Header===

The header definition, called <tt>IControl_Type</tt> in the source code, can be found in the WIN32LIB code of Red Alert, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WIN32LIB/TILE/TILE.H#L74 in <tt>TILE.H</tt>]. The header is 0x28 bytes long.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset || Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0x00 || [[INT16LE]] || Width || Width of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x02 || [[INT16LE]] || Height || Height of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x04 || [[INT16LE]] || Count || Number of icons. While this is an Int16 value, the game's map format can only access icons up to index 255. Since icons can be marked as empty, this value can differ from the number of actual images stored inside the file.
|-
| 0x06 || [[INT16LE]] || Allocated || Used by the game to indicate whether this tileset was allocated. In the file, it's always zero.
|-
| 0x08 || [[INT16LE]] || MapWidth || Width of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0A || [[INT16LE]] || MapHeight || Height of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0C || [[INT32LE]] || Size || Size of the entire file.
|-
| 0x10 || [[INT32LE]] || Icons || Offset from file start to icon data.
|-
| 0x14 || [[INT32LE]] || Palettes ||Offset from file start to palette data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always empty.
|-
| 0x18 || [[INT32LE]] || Remaps ||Offset from file start to remap index data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always seems to be 0x0D1AFFFF.
|-
| 0x1C || [[UINT32LE]]|| TransFlag || Offset from file start for transparency flag table. This is an array containing one byte for each actual image in the file. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; all entries in the table are just 0x00.
|-
| 0x20 || [[UINT32LE]]|| ColorMap || Offset from file start for colour control value table. The length of this array is always <tt>MapWidth</tt>×<tt>MapHeight</tt>. The values in this table can be mapped to the land types in the game that determine land properties such as speed and passability by different movement types, and whether the land can be built on.
|-
| 0x24 || [[UINT32LE]]|| Map || Offset from file start for icon map offset. This is an index linking each icon index to the index of an actual image in the <tt>Icons</tt> array. This index is a [[UINT8]][Count]. Value 0xFF in the index indicates an empty icon.
|}

Generally, the order of the data after the index is:

# Icons
# Map
# TransFlag
# ColorMap

Of course, since these are read from header values, their order has no real effect.

==== 1×1-Multiple Tilesets ====

The game has a special type of tilesets that identify themselves to have a <tt>MapWidth</tt> and <tt>MapHeight</tt> of 1, but a <tt>Count</tt> that is larger than 1. In this case, the icons inside the file are not pieces of one larger tileset, but are all alternates of the same 1×1 icon. This type is used for the game's Clear terrain, and for several tileset files in the Interior theater.

Given the fact they represent only a single icon, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> of this type will only contain one single byte. Note that in these 1×1-multiple sets, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> will contain value 0 instead of value 3 for indicating clear terrain.

===Image Data===

Since the tileset can contain empty entries, the actual amount of images following the <tt>Icons</tt> location should be determined by taking the maximum value (excluding any 0xFF values indicating empty icons) in the the array at <tt>Map</tt>, and adding 1 to it. As with the C&C1 variant, identical images are generally saved only once, with the data referenced in the index multiple times.

The image data is located at <tt>Icons</tt>. To look up the image data of a specific icon N, first check in the array at <tt>Map</tt> what the image index of the icon is. If it is not 0xFF, the image data can be found at:

iconImageStart = Icons + (Width * Height * fileData[Map + N])

The image data will always be 24*24 bytes, and represents a simple 8-bit indexed image.

===Land Types===

At the <tt>ColorMap</tt> index, a list of values will be given that determine the LandType of each icon. According to the description in the RA code, these are simply a set of extra colors set in the original art files as metadata, used to indicate the types. They seem to match the standard Westwood EGA palette that is found at the start of all 6-bit palettes used before [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun|Tiberian Sun]].

This is the full mapping of all colours. The values indicated in bold are the ones that are actually used in tilesets.

{|class="wikitable"
! Value || Land Type|| Colour !! Description
|-
| '''00''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Filler value used for empty entries (0xFF in the <tt>Map</tt> array). On 1×1 sets with multiple icons, Clear terrain is always indicated using this value instead of the normal clear terrain indicator.
|-
| 01 || LAND_CLEAR || Purple || Unused.
|-
| 02 || LAND_CLEAR || Teal || Unused.
|-
| '''03''' || LAND_CLEAR || Green || Normal clear terrain.
|-
| 04 || LAND_CLEAR || Lime || Unused.
|-
| 05 || LAND_CLEAR || Yellow || Unused.
|-
| '''06''' || LAND_BEACH || Light Red || Sandy beach. Can't be built on.
|-
| 07 || LAND_CLEAR || Brown || Unused.
|-
| '''08''' || LAND_ROCK || Red || Impassable terrain.
|-
| '''09''' || LAND_ROAD || Cyan || Units move faster on this terrain.
|-
| '''10''' || LAND_WATER || Light Blue || Ships can travel over this.
|-
| '''11''' || LAND_RIVER || Dark Blue || Ships can't travel over this.
|-
| 12''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Unused.
|-
| 13 || LAND_CLEAR || Dark grey || Unused.
|-
| '''14''' || LAND_ROUGH || Light grey || Rough terrain. Can't be built on.
|-
| 15 || LAND_CLEAR || White || Unused.
|}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Shows the Land Types for all icons, and allows setting them when saving.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Can visualise the files and convert them to standard image formats.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMix
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = No
| notes = Contains the <tt>RMT2PCX.EXE</tt> and <tt>PCX2RMT.EXE</tt> command line tools to convert the format, but has no support for customising the Land Types. In tiles converted with <tt>PCX2RMT</tt>, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> array will correctly have type 0 to indicate empty tiles, but all others are simply set to type "Road" (value 9).
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2013/rtmtype/ RTMType] (Red Alert Template File Terrain Type Editing Tool)
| Platform = Windows
| canView = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Command line tool. Can set the Land Types for template tiles, including support for the special 1×1-multiple type. The land types can be given as text, or can simply be imported from another template file.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format

2026-02-05T20:14:36Z

Nyerguds: Specified page image to account for colon in filename.

{{Tileset Infobox
| Image = Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png
| Hardware1 = VGA
| MaxTiles = 254
| Palette = Shared between all tilesets in one theater
| Names = N
| TileMinSize = 24×24
| TileMaxSize = 24×24
| NumPlanes = 1
| PlaneArrangement = Linear
| HasTransparency = N
| Metadata = None
| Subtilesets = N
| Compressed = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games = {{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
}}
The '''Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format''' is an uncompressed tileset containing tiles with dimensions of 24×24. Technically, this tile size can be changed, but the game defines cells as 24×24 pixels, so changing it does not seem useful. Tiles inside this file are referred to as "icons".

As with the first game, a single "tileset" does not represent the tiles of an entire map environment; but only the tiles used to build up a single piece of terrain. For more information on that, see the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]] page.

This file type is a later version of the aforementioned C&C Tileset Format. Unlike its predecessor, it contains all information required to handle the tileset, without needing any hardcoded data from the game itself to function. This means that it contains the full tileset's dimensions in number of icons, and definitions of the land types that determine buildability and passability of the individual icons.

== File format ==

===Header===

The header definition, called <tt>IControl_Type</tt> in the source code, can be found in the WIN32LIB code of Red Alert, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WIN32LIB/TILE/TILE.H#L74 in <tt>TILE.H</tt>]. The header is 0x28 bytes long.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset || Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0x00 || [[INT16LE]] || Width || Width of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x02 || [[INT16LE]] || Height || Height of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x04 || [[INT16LE]] || Count || Number of icons. While this is an Int16 value, the game's map format can only access icons up to index 255. Since icons can be marked as empty, this value can differ from the number of actual images stored inside the file.
|-
| 0x06 || [[INT16LE]] || Allocated || Used by the game to indicate whether this tileset was allocated. In the file, it's always zero.
|-
| 0x08 || [[INT16LE]] || MapWidth || Width of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0A || [[INT16LE]] || MapHeight || Height of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0C || [[INT32LE]] || Size || Size of the entire file.
|-
| 0x10 || [[INT32LE]] || Icons || Offset from file start to icon data.
|-
| 0x14 || [[INT32LE]] || Palettes ||Offset from file start to palette data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always empty.
|-
| 0x18 || [[INT32LE]] || Remaps ||Offset from file start to remap index data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always seems to be 0x0D1AFFFF.
|-
| 0x1C || [[UINT32LE]]|| TransFlag || Offset from file start for transparency flag table. This is an array containing one byte for each actual image in the file. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; all entries in the table are just 0x00.
|-
| 0x20 || [[UINT32LE]]|| ColorMap || Offset from file start for colour control value table. The length of this array is always <tt>MapWidth</tt>×<tt>MapHeight</tt>. The values in this table can be mapped to the land types in the game that determine land properties such as speed and passability by different movement types, and whether the land can be built on.
|-
| 0x24 || [[UINT32LE]]|| Map || Offset from file start for icon map offset. This is an index linking each icon index to the index of an actual image in the <tt>Icons</tt> array. This index is a [[UINT8]][Count]. Value 0xFF in the index indicates an empty icon.
|}

Generally, the order of the data after the index is:

# Icons
# Map
# TransFlag
# ColorMap

Of course, since these are read from header values, their order has no real effect.

==== 1×1-Multiple Tilesets ====

The game has a special type of tilesets that identify themselves to have a <tt>MapWidth</tt> and <tt>MapHeight</tt> of 1, but a <tt>Count</tt> that is larger than 1. In this case, the icons inside the file are not pieces of one larger tileset, but are all alternates of the same 1×1 icon. This type is used for the game's Clear terrain, and for several tileset files in the Interior theater.

Given the fact they represent only a single icon, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> of this type will only contain one single byte. Note that in these 1×1-multiple sets, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> will contain value 0 instead of value 3 for indicating clear terrain.

===Image Data===

Since the tileset can contain empty entries, the actual amount of images following the <tt>Icons</tt> location should be determined by taking the maximum value (excluding any 0xFF values indicating empty icons) in the the array at <tt>Map</tt>, and adding 1 to it. As with the C&C1 variant, identical images are generally saved only once, with the data referenced in the index multiple times.

The image data is located at <tt>Icons</tt>. To look up the image data of a specific icon N, first check in the array at <tt>Map</tt> what the image index of the icon is. If it is not 0xFF, the image data can be found at:

iconImageStart = Icons + (Width * Height * fileData[Map + N])

The image data will always be 24*24 bytes, and represents a simple 8-bit indexed image.

===Land Types===

At the <tt>ColorMap</tt> index, a list of values will be given that determine the LandType of each icon. According to the description in the RA code, these are simply a set of extra colors set in the original art files as metadata, used to indicate the types. They seem to match the standard Westwood EGA palette that is found at the start of all 6-bit palettes used before [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun|Tiberian Sun]].

This is the full mapping of all colours. The values indicated in bold are the ones that are actually used in tilesets.

{|class="wikitable"
! Value || Land Type|| Colour !! Description
|-
| '''00''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Filler value used for empty entries (0xFF in the <tt>Map</tt> array). On 1×1 sets with multiple icons, Clear terrain is always indicated using this value instead of the normal clear terrain indicator.
|-
| 01 || LAND_CLEAR || Purple || Unused.
|-
| 02 || LAND_CLEAR || Teal || Unused.
|-
| '''03''' || LAND_CLEAR || Green || Normal clear terrain.
|-
| 04 || LAND_CLEAR || Lime || Unused.
|-
| 05 || LAND_CLEAR || Yellow || Unused.
|-
| '''06''' || LAND_BEACH || Light Red || Sandy beach. Can't be built on.
|-
| 07 || LAND_CLEAR || Brown || Unused.
|-
| '''08''' || LAND_ROCK || Red || Impassable terrain.
|-
| '''09''' || LAND_ROAD || Cyan || Units move faster on this terrain.
|-
| '''10''' || LAND_WATER || Light Blue || Ships can travel over this.
|-
| '''11''' || LAND_RIVER || Dark Blue || Ships can't travel over this.
|-
| 12''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Unused.
|-
| 13 || LAND_CLEAR || Dark grey || Unused.
|-
| '''14''' || LAND_ROUGH || Light grey || Rough terrain. Can't be built on.
|-
| 15 || LAND_CLEAR || White || Unused.
|}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Shows the Land Type per icon, and allows setting them when saving.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Can visualise the files and convert them to standard image formats.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMix
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Contains <tt>RMT2PCX.EXE</tt> and <tt>PCX2RMT.EXE</tt> tools to convert the format, but has no support for setting the Land Types. In the land types, empty tiles are correctly indicaed as type 0, but all others are simply set to type "Road" (value 9).
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2013/rtmtype/ Red Alert Template File Terrain Type Editing Tool]
| Platform = Win32
| canView = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Can set the Land Types for template tiles, including support for the special 1×1-multiple type. The land types can be given as text, or can simply be imported from another template file.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

File:Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png

2026-02-05T20:13:30Z

Nyerguds: Nyerguds moved page File:Command & Conquer- Red Alert Mission Format.png to File:Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png without leaving a redirect: Whoops, made page after following the wrong red link.

== Summary ==
Shore tile SH13.TEM from [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]].

Converted using [[Engie File Converter]].

Metadata:

Size in header:6×5
Land types: WVCXXXXWBCXXXWBCCXXWWHBCXXXWBC
Used tiles: 111000011100011110011111000111

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format

2026-02-05T20:12:48Z

Nyerguds: Nyerguds moved page Command & Conquer: Red Alert Mission Format to Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format without leaving a redirect: Whoops, made page after following the wrong red link.

{{Tileset Infobox
| Hardware1 = VGA
| MaxTiles = 254
| Palette = Shared between all tilesets in one theater
| Names = N
| TileMinSize = 24×24
| TileMaxSize = 24×24
| NumPlanes = 1
| PlaneArrangement = Linear
| HasTransparency = N
| Metadata = None
| Subtilesets = N
| Compressed = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games = {{Game|Command & Conquer: Red Alert}}
}}
The '''Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format''' is an uncompressed tileset containing tiles with dimensions of 24×24. Technically, this tile size can be changed, but the game defines cells as 24×24 pixels, so changing it does not seem useful. Tiles inside this file are referred to as "icons".

As with the first game, a single "tileset" does not represent the tiles of an entire map environment; but only the tiles used to build up a single piece of terrain. For more information on that, see the [[Command & Conquer Tileset Format]] page.

This file type is a later version of the aforementioned C&C Tileset Format. Unlike its predecessor, it contains all information required to handle the tileset, without needing any hardcoded data from the game itself to function. This means that it contains the full tileset's dimensions in number of icons, and definitions of the land types that determine buildability and passability of the individual icons.

== File format ==

===Header===

The header definition, called <tt>IControl_Type</tt> in the source code, can be found in the WIN32LIB code of Red Alert, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WIN32LIB/TILE/TILE.H#L74 in <tt>TILE.H</tt>]. The header is 0x28 bytes long.

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset || Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0x00 || [[INT16LE]] || Width || Width of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x02 || [[INT16LE]] || Height || Height of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x04 || [[INT16LE]] || Count || Number of icons. While this is an Int16 value, the game's map format can only access icons up to index 255. Since icons can be marked as empty, this value can differ from the number of actual images stored inside the file.
|-
| 0x06 || [[INT16LE]] || Allocated || Used by the game to indicate whether this tileset was allocated. In the file, it's always zero.
|-
| 0x08 || [[INT16LE]] || MapWidth || Width of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0A || [[INT16LE]] || MapHeight || Height of map (in icons).
|-
| 0x0C || [[INT32LE]] || Size || Size of the entire file.
|-
| 0x10 || [[INT32LE]] || Icons || Offset from file start to icon data.
|-
| 0x14 || [[INT32LE]] || Palettes ||Offset from file start to palette data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always empty.
|-
| 0x18 || [[INT32LE]] || Remaps ||Offset from file start to remap index data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always seems to be 0x0D1AFFFF.
|-
| 0x1C || [[UINT32LE]]|| TransFlag || Offset from file start for transparency flag table. This is an array containing one byte for each actual image in the file. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; all entries in the table are just 0x00.
|-
| 0x20 || [[UINT32LE]]|| ColorMap || Offset from file start for colour control value table. The length of this array is always <tt>MapWidth</tt>×<tt>MapHeight</tt>. The values in this table can be mapped to the land types in the game that determine land properties such as speed and passability by different movement types, and whether the land can be built on.
|-
| 0x24 || [[UINT32LE]]|| Map || Offset from file start for icon map offset. This is an index linking each icon index to the index of an actual image in the <tt>Icons</tt> array. This index is a [[UINT8]][Count]. Value 0xFF in the index indicates an empty icon.
|}

Generally, the order of the data after the index is:

# Icons
# Map
# TransFlag
# ColorMap

Of course, since these are read from header values, their order has no real effect.

==== 1×1-Multiple Tilesets ====

The game has a special type of tilesets that identify themselves to have a <tt>MapWidth</tt> and <tt>MapHeight</tt> of 1, but a <tt>Count</tt> that is larger than 1. In this case, the icons inside the file are not pieces of one larger tileset, but are all alternates of the same 1×1 icon. This type is used for the game's Clear terrain, and for several tileset files in the Interior theater.

Given the fact they represent only a single icon, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> of this type will only contain one single byte. Note that in these 1×1-multiple sets, the <tt>ColorMap</tt> will contain value 0 instead of value 3 for indicating clear terrain.

===Image Data===

Since the tileset can contain empty entries, the actual amount of images following the <tt>Icons</tt> location should be determined by taking the maximum value (excluding any 0xFF values indicating empty icons) in the the array at <tt>Map</tt>, and adding 1 to it. As with the C&C1 variant, identical images are generally saved only once, with the data referenced in the index multiple times.

The image data is located at <tt>Icons</tt>. To look up the image data of a specific icon N, first check in the array at <tt>Map</tt> what the image index of the icon is. If it is not 0xFF, the image data can be found at:

iconImageStart = Icons + (Width * Height * fileData[Map + N])

The image data will always be 24*24 bytes, and represents a simple 8-bit indexed image.

===Land Types===

At the <tt>ColorMap</tt> index, a list of values will be given that determine the LandType of each icon. According to the description in the RA code, these are simply a set of extra colors set in the original art files as metadata, used to indicate the types. They seem to match the standard Westwood EGA palette that is found at the start of all 6-bit palettes used before [[Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun|Tiberian Sun]].

This is the full mapping of all colours. The values indicated in bold are the ones that are actually used in tilesets.

{|class="wikitable"
! Value || Land Type|| Colour !! Description
|-
| '''00''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Filler value used for empty entries (0xFF in the <tt>Map</tt> array). On 1×1 sets with multiple icons, Clear terrain is always indicated using this value instead of the normal clear terrain indicator.
|-
| 01 || LAND_CLEAR || Purple || Unused.
|-
| 02 || LAND_CLEAR || Teal || Unused.
|-
| '''03''' || LAND_CLEAR || Green || Normal clear terrain.
|-
| 04 || LAND_CLEAR || Lime || Unused.
|-
| 05 || LAND_CLEAR || Yellow || Unused.
|-
| '''06''' || LAND_BEACH || Light Red || Sandy beach. Can't be built on.
|-
| 07 || LAND_CLEAR || Brown || Unused.
|-
| '''08''' || LAND_ROCK || Red || Impassable terrain.
|-
| '''09''' || LAND_ROAD || Cyan || Units move faster on this terrain.
|-
| '''10''' || LAND_WATER || Light Blue || Ships can travel over this.
|-
| '''11''' || LAND_RIVER || Dark Blue || Ships can't travel over this.
|-
| 12''' || LAND_CLEAR || Black || Unused.
|-
| 13 || LAND_CLEAR || Dark grey || Unused.
|-
| '''14''' || LAND_ROUGH || Light grey || Rough terrain. Can't be built on.
|-
| 15 || LAND_CLEAR || White || Unused.
|}

== Tools ==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Shows the Land Type per icon, and allows setting them when saving.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Can visualise the files and convert them to standard image formats.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMix
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Contains <tt>RMT2PCX.EXE</tt> and <tt>PCX2RMT.EXE</tt> tools to convert the format, but has no support for setting the Land Types. In the land types, empty tiles are correctly indicaed as type 0, but all others are simply set to type "Road" (value 9).
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://nyerguds.arsaneus-design.com/project_stuff/2013/rtmtype/ Red Alert Template File Terrain Type Editing Tool]
| Platform = Win32
| canView = No
| canExport = No
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = Yes
| notes = Can set the Land Types for template tiles, including support for the special 1×1-multiple type. The land types can be given as text, or can simply be imported from another template file.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

File:Command & Conquer- Red Alert Tileset Format.png

2026-02-05T20:11:09Z

Nyerguds: Shore tile SH13.TEM from Command & Conquer: Red Alert. Converted using Engie File Converter. Metadata: Size in header:6×5 Land types: WVCXXXXWBCXXXWBCCXXWWHBCXXXWBC Used tiles: 111000011100011110011111000111

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Tileset Format

2026-02-05T20:05:38Z

Nyerguds: Created page.

Command & Conquer Tileset Format

2026-02-05T18:11:25Z

Nyerguds: Rewritten based on information and names from the source code.

{{Tileset Infobox
| Hardware1 = VGA
| MaxTiles = 254
| Palette = Shared between all tilesets in one theater
| Names = N
| TileMinSize = 24×24
| TileMaxSize = 24×24
| NumPlanes = 1
| PlaneArrangement = Linear
| HasTransparency = N
| Metadata = None
| Subtilesets = N
| Compressed = N
| Hidden = Y
| Games = {{Game|Command & Conquer}}
}}
The '''Command & Conquer Tileset Format''' is an uncompressed tileset containing tiles with dimensions of 24x24. Technically, this tile size can be changed, but the game defines cells as 24x24, so changing it does not seem useful.

A single Command & Conquer "tileset" does not represent the tiles of an entire map environment; it only contains the terrain tiles of a single piece of terrain. The full collection of tileset files that comprise one map environment is called a "Theater", and is combined into one [[MIX Format (Westwood)|.mix archive]] together with its colour palette and the theater-dependent terrain objects, civilian buildings, and [[Westwood Fading Table|fading table files]]. Such a Theater also does not act as the tiles set for just one single map; the game only has a few Theaters, and each one is used by many maps in the game.

== File format ==

===Header===

The header definition, called <tt>IControl_Type</tt> in the source code, can be found in the WIN32LIB code of Red Alert, [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Red_Alert/blob/main/WIN32LIB/TILE/TILE.H#L59 as disabled section in <tt>TILE.H</tt>]

{|class="wikitable"
! Offset || Data type !! Name !! Description
|-
| 0x00 || [[INT16LE]] || Width || Width of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x02 || [[INT16LE]] || Height || Height of icons (pixels). Should always be 24.
|-
| 0x04 || [[INT16LE]] || Count || Number of icons. While this is an Int16 value, the game's map format can only access tiles up to index 255. Since tiles can be marked as empty, this value can differ from the number of actual images stored inside the file.
|-
| 0x06 || [[INT16LE]] || Allocated || Used by the game to indicate whether this tile was allocated. In the file, it's always zero.
|-
| 0x08 || [[INT32LE]] || Size || Size of the entire file.
|-
| 0x0C || [[INT32LE]] || Icons || Offset from file start to icon data.
|-
| 0x10 || [[INT32LE]] || Palettes ||Offset from file start to palette data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always empty.
|-
| 0x14 || [[INT32LE]] || Remaps ||Offset from file start to remap index data. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; always seems to be 0x0D1AFFFF.
|-
| 0x18 || [[UINT32LE]]|| TransFlag || Offset from file start for transparency flag table. This is an array containing one byte for each actual image in the file. Obsolete leftover from Dune II; all entries in the table are just 0x00.
|-
| 0x1C || [[UINT32LE]]|| Map || Offset from file start for icon map offset. This is an index linking each tile to the index of an actual image at <tt>Icons</tt>. This index is a [[UINT8]][Count]. Value 0xFF in the index indicates an empty tile.
|}

Generally, the order of the data after the index is:

# Icons
# Map
# TransFlag

Of course, since these are read from header values, their order has no real effect.

Note that there is no way to know the dimensions (Width and Height) of the full tileset. If there are 6 tiles it could be 6x1, 1x6, 3x2, or 2x3. The game doesn't actually need this information either, since [[Command & Conquer Mission Format#Terrain file|the maps]] reference the individual tile indices inside the tileset files directly; the only tools that would actually need this information (besides image converters) are map editors.

The game's exe file does contain the dimension information of all tilesets, though, alongside the tilesets' other information, because the map editor used to be built into the game engine, and because [[Command & Conquer Mission Format#Other_sections|the <tt>[Template]</tt> section in a mission file]] supports placing terrain tilesets from a mission file. This tileset information is available in [https://github.com/electronicarts/CnC_Tiberian_Dawn/blob/main/CDATA.CPP#L84 the source code of the game], as 6th and 7th argument passed on to the <tt>TemplateTypeClass::TemplateTypeClass</tt> constructor.

===Image Data===

Since the tileset can contain empty entries, the actual amount of images following the <tt>Icons</tt> location should be determined by taking the maximum value (excluding any 255 values indicating empty tiles) in the the array at <tt>Map</tt>, and adding 1 to it. Note that [[Westwood Font Format v3#Optimisation|like in the game's fonts]], identical images are generally saved only once, with the data referenced in the index multiple times, which further reduces the actual amount of images.

The image data is located at <tt>Icons</tt>. To look up the image data of a specific tile N, first check in the array at <tt>Map</tt> what the image index of the tile is. If it is not 0xFF, the image data can be found at:

tileImageStart = Icons + (Width * Height * fileData[Map + N])

The image data will always be 24*24 bytes, and represents a simple 8-bit indexed image.

==Tools==

{{BeginFileFormatTools|Type=image}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [[Engie File Converter]]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Uses internal mapping based on the file name to show the tile in its correct dimensions. Automatically saves tiles containing nothing but colour 0x00 as empty tiles.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = [http://xhp.xwis.net/ XCC Mixer]
| Platform = Windows
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Does not attempt to show the actual shape of the tileset, and just shows a list of tiles.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = Mix Manager
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = Yes
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Conversion suite containing PCX2TMP and TMP2PCX tools for converting the tileset files.
}}
{{FileFormatTool
| Name = RAMix
| Platform = DOS
| canView = Yes
| canExport = Yes
| canImport = No
| editHidden = No
| editMetadata = N/A
| notes = Contains a TMP2PCX tool that can visualize the tileset file to adjust dimensions before converting to PCX. Does not contain a tool to convert back; you just have to use the one from ''Mix Manager''.
}}
{{EndFileFormatTools}}

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]

File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex.png

2026-02-05T13:59:10Z

Nyerguds: fixed links

== Summary ==
The [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert|Red Alert]] Chrono Vortex effect created by [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table|.lut files]].

Command & Conquer: Red Alert Vortex Lookup Table

2026-02-05T11:32:59Z

Nyerguds: Added screenshot of in-game result of the tables

The <tt>HOLE####.LUT</tt> files found in [[Command & Conquer: Red Alert]], are a set of pixel manipulation lookup tables used to generate the visual effect of the Chrono Vortex, a destructive temporal anomaly that can randomly spawn in the game as a result of the use of the Chronosphere superweapon. The anomaly appears as a whirlpool that slowly moves over the map, and visually distorts anything it moves over.

==File format==

Each file is a table of 64×64 pixels, without header. Each pixel is comprised of three bytes, with the following meanings:

{|class="wikitable"
!Data type!!Name!!Description
|-
| [[BYTE]] || X || X-coordinate of the pixel to copy from the original screen buffer. Since the tables represent a 64×64 image, these values can only range from 0 to 63.
|-
| [[BYTE]] || Y || Y-coordinate of the pixel to copy from the original screen buffer. Since the tables represent a 64×64 image, these values can only range from 0 to 63.
|-
| [[BYTE]] || B || Brightness of the pixel, ranging from 0 to 15. These values are used in combination with the <tt>????_VTX.PAL</tt> [[Westwood Fading Table|fading table]] files to darken the original pixel values, creating a shadow at the inside of the whirlpool effect.
|}

== Files list==

The files range from <tt>HOLE0000.LUT</tt> to <tt>HOLE0047.LUT</tt>, and form three distinct animations:

* 0000-0015: Start of the animation; the vortex hole opens.
* 0016-0031: Main swirling animation; this repeats as long as the vortex exists.
* 0032-0047: End of the animation; the vortex hole flattens out and closes.

In the following images, the pixel manipulations are visualised by representing the X-coordinates as the red colour component of the pixel, the Y coordinates as the blue component, and the darkening effect as the green component. This means the green value is inverted compared to the real data. All values are stretched out over the full 0-255 range for better visibility.

For comparison, the first image shows the blank slate where all X and Y coordinates represent their original locations.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin: auto"
|-
! None !! Opening !! Animating !! Closing
|-
| [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Blank.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Open.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Anim.png]] || [[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex Close.png]]
|}

The background around the central circle never changes; it maps every pixel coordinate onto itself, without any darkening.

[[File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex.png|frame|center|The Chrono Vortex effect in-game]]

[[Category:Westwood Studios File Formats]]
[[Category:All file formats]]
[[Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert]]

File:Red Alert Chrono Vortex.png

2026-02-05T11:32:01Z

Nyerguds: The Red Alert Chrono Vortex effect created by .lut files.

== Summary ==
The [[Red Alert]] Chrono Vortex effect created by .lut files.

Category:Westwood Studios

2026-02-05T05:48:43Z

Nyerguds: Right-aligned image.

[[Image:westwood.png|right]]

This page lists all the games in this wiki that were created by Westwood Studios, including those released under the company's older name, Westwood Associates.

[[Category:Game Company]]

Category:Command & Conquer: Red Alert

2026-02-05T05:39:55Z

Nyerguds: Changed to {{GameCategory}} template.

{{GameCategory}}
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]

Category:Dune II

2026-02-05T05:36:55Z

Nyerguds: Changed to {{GameCategory}} template.

{{GameCategory}}
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]

Category:Command & Conquer

2026-02-05T05:35:01Z

Nyerguds: replaced with {{GameCategory}} template.

{{GameCategory}}
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]

Category:Eye of the Beholder

2026-02-05T05:33:50Z

Nyerguds: Added company to game category.

{{GameCategory}}
[[Category:Westwood Studios]]

Category:Dune II

2026-02-05T05:28:45Z

Nyerguds: created category page.

These are all pages and file types related to [[:Category:Westwood Studios|Westwood Studios]]' Real-Time Strategy game ''[[Dune II]]''.

[[Category:Westwood Studios]]