Elma 2/Technical

Levels

How to parse a level byte by byte. Remember little-endianess.

WIP

Polygon objects are oriented so for y, up is negative and down is positive. Line objects are inverted so for y, up is positive and down is negative.

Main .lev Structure

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description
0	char[5]	5	"POT35" for Elma 2 levels
5	int	4	30 if unlocked level, 0 if locked level. Otherwise, assertion error
9	short	2	1 if topology error, 0 if no topology error.
11	int	4	1 if start out facing right (autoturn at level start)
15	char[51]	51	Unused: Level name/description. "Unnamed". Unused but can be hex-edited
66	char[16]	16	LGR name. Unchangeable except by hex edit. Always "default"
82	char[10]	10	Unused: Ground texture name. Unused. Value always overwritten to "texturea" on save. If missing on open, defaults as "ground"
92	char[10]	10	Unused: Sky texture name. Unused. Value always overwritten to "qgrass" on save. If missing on open, defaults as "sky"
102	byte[20]	20	Unused: ? Appears to be useless. Can be hex-edited
122	int	4	Shareware check. Shareware editor always saves this value as 115. Shareware game cannot open any number greater than 120. Full game is probably 135 but to confirm with real game version
126	double	8	Number of polygons + 0.4643643. Maximum 2000.
134	polygon	?	Sequential list of polygons with data. "Raw" data for editor purposes
?	compile	?	Only exists if no topology error, otherwise this object is skipped. "Processed" data for when you actually open a level.
?	byte	1	0x2B
?	int	1	dec: 192356446 (0x0B77205Eh)
?	double	8	Number of objects + 0.4643643. Maximum 500.
?	object	?	Sequential list of objects
?	double	8	Number of pictures + 0.2345672. Maximum 5000.
?	picture	?	Sequential list of pictures

Polygon

Orientation: positive y is down. These polygons are edited by the editor. The editor uses this info to generate Line Objects

Polygon structure

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description
0	int	4	Type: 1=Normal, 2=Inactive, 3=Platform, 4=Path, 5=Autogenerated Border Polygon
4	int	4	Path Subtype: Door=1, Elevator=2, Falling=3, Continuous Oneway=4, Continuous Twoway=5
8	int	4	Platform's Platform ID or Path's Path ID: 0-999
12	int	4	Path's Platform ID: 0-999
16	int	4	Path's Speed at top
20	int	4	Path's Speed at bottom
24	int	4	Path's Open delay
28	int	4	Path's Close delay
32	int	4	Path's ReOpen delay
36	int	4	Path's ReClose delay
40	int	4	Path's Initially flag: 1=Up, 0=Down
44	int	4	Path's No of platforms
48	int	4	Override flag: 1=Polygon interacts with biker
52	int	4	Style index
56	int	4	Override flag: 1=Border on
60	int	4	Override flag: 1=Border off
64	int	4	Override flag: 1=Whole polygon border colored
68	int	4	Distance
72	int	4	Probably always 0. Probably not important as not included in Balazs' debug file (0040F1FB)
76	byte[300]	300	Probably just padding
376	int	4	Number of vertices
380	vertex (double * 2)[?]	vertices * 16	X and Y as two doubles.

Compile Object

Compile Object

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description
0	int	4	n: Total number of vertices across all polygons of type 1 + 5 only.
4	line*n	72*n	Sequential list of n line objects
4+72*n	double	8	? value of 60.0 - no effect when hex edited
12+72*n	int	4	Random number based on current time. SIGNED integer; crashes if negative number
16+72*n	byte	1	1=Beginning of a platform object. 0=No platforms
?	platform	?	Sequential list of all platform objects, as long as previous byte is 1
?	byte	1	0x58h
?	double?	8	? -406.64166666666665
?	double?	8	? -74.99166666666666
?	?	(1+168)*x	?.text:00415B44 Possibly pathing info related - probably the visuals of the platform
16+72*n	byte	1	1=Beginning of a platform-drawing object. 0=No platform-drawing objects
?	platdraw	?	Sequential list of all platform-drawing objects, as long as previous byte is 1

Line Object

Orientation: positive y is up. Each line object is used by the game to draw on the screen and to make lines solid/non-solid.

LineObject (72 bytes)

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description
0	double	8	a: Vertex's x
8	double	8	b: (-1)*Vertex's y
16	double	8	c: Delta x to reach the next vertex
24	double	8	d: (-1)*Delta y to reach the next vertex
32	double	8	e: Delta x to move one unit towards the next vertex - c/g - 1=sqrt(e^2+f^2)
40	double	8	f: Delta y to move one unit towards the next vertex - d/g - 1=sqrt(e^2+f^2)
48	double	8	g: Line length - sqrt(c^2+d^2)
56	int	4	Texture ID (draws to right of the line)
60	int	4	0 if solid, 1 if cannot touch
64	int	4	Distance (border polygons copy base polygon distance)
68	int	4	Do not draw to the right of the line if = 1 (equivalent to texture id of 0), otherwise draw texture. Not sure if actually used by the default editor but that's what editing this value does

Object Object

Object (344 bytes)

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description
0	double	8	x
8	double	8	y
16	int	4	Type: 1=Flower 2=Food 3=Killer 4=Start 5=Bonus 6=Card 7=Switch 8=Group switch 9=Platform reference (10="stage") - internal error (11="fordit") "turn" - no object appears ingame (12="ugrat") "jump" - black square with no effect 13=Teleport
20	int	4	Group id
24	int	4	Condition 2 Path id
28	int	4	Opener/Closer: 1=A, 0=B
32	int	4	Card color: 0=None, 1=Red, 2=Yellow, 3=Blue
36	int	4	Condition 2 State: 1=Up, 0=Down
40	int	4	Platform id
44	byte[300]	300	Padding

Picture Object

Same as in elma1

Picture (54 bytes)

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description
0	string	10	Picture name
10	string	10	Unused: Texture name
20	string	10	Unused: Mask name
30	double	8	X
38	double	8	Y
46	int	4	Distance
50	int	4	Clipping; 0=U, 1=G, 2=S

Platform Object

This contains info about the lines in a platform for the purposes of collision

Platform

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description
30	double	8	0 - x_min(2)-0.0500000
30	double	8	1 - y_min(3)-0.0500000
30	double	8	2 - x_min of all point.y-platform_reference_object.y
30	double	8	3 - y_min of all point.y-platform_reference_object.y
30	double	8	4 - x_max of all point.x-platform_reference_object.x
30	double	8	5 - y_max of all point.y-platform_reference_object.y
30	double	8	6 - x_min(2)-0.3300000
30	double	8	7 - y_min(3)-0.3300000
30	double	8	8 - same as 2
30	double	8	9 - same as 3
30	double	8	10 - same as 4
30	double	8	11 - same as 5
30	double	8	12 - Platform reference object X
38	double	8	13 - Platform reference object Y
46	int	4	0 - Width of the polygon image probably
46	int	4	1 - Height of the polygon image probably
46	int	4	2 - ?Approximately width/6
46	int	4	3 - ?Approximately height/6
46	int	4	4 - Platform ID of the set
46	int	4	5 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	6 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	7 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	8 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	9 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	10 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	11 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	12 - Texture id of center part
46	int	4	13 - Texture id of border
46	int	4	14 - ? defaults to large number
46	int	4	15 - ? defaults to 0
46	int	4	16 - Number of vertices of all polygons belonging to the same platform, excluding non-solid vertices/lines.
4	line*n	72*n	Sequential list of n line objects. Note that the 4 int variables are ignored and set to 0. The position of these line objects describe the platform's initial position based on the platform reference object, ignoring the path. This data is only used for to make the platforms solid and is not used to draw the platforms.
30	byte	1	1=Beginning of another platform object. 0=No more platforms to read

Data

Texture IDs

Many more ids exist - these are just some examples. Would be better to extract all the images somewhere instead of manually verifying numbers.

TextureID

Id	Texture
0	Do not draw
10	Default Border (solid medium-colored beige)
100	Default ground (sandy rocks)
102	Platform texture (striped blue)
104	Platform border (dark blue)
105	Solid dark green

.mif

Mif file

Offset	Type	Bytes	Description