arx-header-size

Returns the header size for Arx Fatalis files

This is needed, because the files are partially compressed and this number can be given as an offset for node-pkware

Supported formats

• dlf (Danae Level File, contains general information about the level, used items and paths)
• fts (FasT Scene, contains the level mesh and textures)
• llf (Level Lighting File?, contains light entities and vertex colors)
• ftl (?, model files for entities)
• tea (?, animation files for entities)
• amb (Ambience, contains a list of audio files which are played in different locations)
• cin (Cinematics)

( https://wiki.arx-libertatis.org/Filetypes )

Compression for each format

DLF

DLF files are partially compressed, they have a fixed header size of 8520 bytes.

8520 is also available as a constant: DLF_HEADER_SIZE

FTS

FTS files are partially compressed, they have a fixed basic header with an arbitrary amount of unique headers, where the amount of unique headers is stored on byte 256.

The total uncompressed header size is 280 + 768 * <amount of unique headers>.

Arx Libertatis 1.3 snapshots released after 2022-09-17 contain a feature where if byte 264 of an FTS file is set to 0 then it means the whole file is uncompressed.

280 and 768 are both available as constants: FTS_HEADER_SIZE and FTS_UNIQUE_HEADER_SIZE respectively

LLF

LLF files are fully compressed, there's no uncompressed header.

Other files

All other files (FTL, TEA, AMB, CIN) are not compressed, they don't need to be uncompressed.

JS API

const rawFtsData: ArrayBuffer = ... // load the contents of an FTS file as an ArrayBuffer

const { total, header, uniqueHeaderSize, numberOfUniqueHeaders, compression } = getHeaderSize(rawFtsData)
switch (compression) {
  case 'none': {
    // file is uncompressed
    break
  }
  case 'partial': {
    // first <total> bytes are uncompressed, the rest is compressed
    break
  }
  case 'full': {
    // the whole file is compressed
    break
  }
}

CLI

npx arx-header-size "C:\arx\arx-pak-full\final\GAME\GRAPH\Levels\level8\fast.fts"

outputs 1816

npx arx-header-size fast.fts --hex

outputs 0x718

npx arx-header-size level8.dlf.unpacked.json --format=dlf

outputs 8520

cat level8.fts | arx-header-size --format=fts

Command Line Parameters

version

arx-header-size --version or arx-header-size -v

gives back the version of arx-header-size

hex

arx-header-size --hex fast.fts

gives back the header size in hexadecimal string instead of decimal with 0x prefix

verbose

arx-header-size fast.fts --verbose

prints out more details of the header

format: FTS

total uncompressed data in bytes: 1816 (0x718)

header size: 280 (0x118)
unique header size: 768 (0x300)
number of unique headers: 2