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lay-format.md

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[x:y] - single logical unit of binary file, where:

  • x - size
  • y - name

Sizes: x00 (u32, u8, f32, etc)

  • x - type
    • u - unsigned integer
    • i - signed integer
    • f - float
    • if no type specified, this is a subsection that will be explained later
  • 00 - size in bits

File

.lay consists of 3 major sections:

  • header
  • sprite list
  • chunk list
  • some optional junk at the end of the file

Sprite list defines variants of this sprite. They have several types and can be dependent on each other.

Chunk list defines positions of chunks in the source png and their position in the target sprite.

Source file chunks are 32x32px regions in the source png composed into the final sprite according to the needed sprite variant.

Notes:

  • In some titles (Chaos;Child) lay files are zlib-compressed
  • All values in the file are little-endian

Header

Whole header (8 bytes):

[u32:sprite_count][u32:chunk_count]

  • sprite_count - count of sprite entries in the corresponding section
  • chunk_count - count of chunk entries

All these counts represents total count of corresponding entries in the whole file.

Sprite list

Sprite entry (12 bytes per entry):

[32:info][u32:chunk_offset][u32:chunk_count]

  • chunk_offset - index of first chunk entry of this sprite variant
  • chunk_count - number of chunks to draw

Info:

Info part is consists of 4 bytes, which meaning depends on the sprite type, so we'll give them names:

[8:A][8:B][8:C][8:D]

D is always a type indicator.

Types:

  • D = 0x00 - Base sprite, always drawn first if exists
    • A - Sprite id. For base sprite it's usually 0x01. Base sprite id isn't actually used anywhere and probably can be ignored. Same applicable for other sprites ids unless stated otherwise.
    • B, C - always 0x00
  • D = 0x20 - Sub sprite. Usually different faces for the base sprite. Implicitly depends on the base sprite if it exists.
    • A - Sprite id. Used later for dependencies in Dep sprites.
    • B, C - always 0x00
  • D = 0x30 | 0x40 | 0x60 - Dep sprite. Usually mouths for lipsync.
    • A - Sprite id
    • B - Id of sub sprite which this sprite depends on. Absence of sub sprite with this id implies that this sprite depends directly on base or, if base is absent too, doesn't depend on anything.
    • C - always 0x00
  • D = 0x50 - Overlay. Should be drawn on top of anything else with blending. Doesn't define dependence on any other sprites.
    • A - Sprite id
    • B - always 0x00
    • C - always 0x10 (purpose unknown)

Dependence chain can be expressed like this:

`Dep(B)` -->  if `Sub` with id `B` exists,
              depend on it  |
      _______/              |
     /                      |[else]
    /                       |
   v                        v
`Sub`    -->  if `Base` exists,
              depend on it  |
       ______/              |
      /                     |[else]
     /                      |
    v                       v
`Base`   -->  draw this first

Sprites should be drawn in reverse-dependence order on top of each other:

Base <- Sub <- Dep [<- Overlay]

Overlays are optional and usually can be applied on top of any combination of sprites, so if certain overlay needed, it should be drawn last.

Overlays must be drawn with blending (they contain significant alpha channel). Other sprite types don't need to be blended and can be drawn over canvas using simple byte replace.

Chunk list

To draw sprites on the canvas, you should follow offset-count pair from the sprite entry above and draw chunks one by one.

Chunk entry (16 bytes per one):

[f32:dst_x][f32:dst_y][f32:src_x][f32:src_y]

Coordinates are encoded as floats, but they never have fract part, so they can be safely converted to 32-bit integer. Some titles might use fract part for positioning, but I'm yet to find one

  • src_x, src_y - Chunk position in the source png. These coords are absolute and never negative. They point to [1,1] pixel of the chunk, not [0,0], so they should be subtracted by 1 before using. All chunks are assumed to be 32x32 px in size.
  • dst_x, dst_y - Position of chunk on the target sprite. They point exactly to upper left corner [0,0] of target chunk, so they shouldn't be subtracted. The [0,0] point for those coords is located at the center of the screen, so they can be negative. If you want to draw full sprite (not to fit it into some screen) - you should initially find min and max values of them (for current sprite variant) to figure out real size of sprite.