DICT: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 10:20, 7 May 2024

The DICT (.dict or presumably dictionary) file format is a file format used by Next Level Games to store information and lookup data for files that can be extracted from a corresponding .data file. These files contain data for textures, models and scripts, among others.

.dict files use the little endian format.

Layout

A .dict file consists of a header section, a currently unknown section corresponding with the amount of files located in the .data file and multiple file sections. Typically .dict files contain information on 8 files that can be extracted from a .data file. This is not a fixed number and could differ in certain files!

Header

Offset	Byte Size	Name	Description
0x0-0x3	4	Identifier	Magic adress that identifies a .dict file. It's hex value is 0xA9F32458.
0x4-0x5	2	Header Flags	Use is currently unknown. The hex always seems to be 0x0104.
0x6	1	Compression Flag	If the .data file is compressed the byte is set to 0x1, else to 0x0.
0x7	1	Padding
0x8-0xb	4	File Count	Number of files that are stored in the .data file.
0xc-0xf	4	Largest Compressed File	The byte size of the largest compressed file stored in the .data file.
0x10-0x2b	27	Unknown

Unknown Section for Extractable Files

Next is a section where one byte is allocated for every file that can be extracted from the .data file. As there are normally 8 files that can be extracted, this section typically ranges from offset 0x2c to 0x33.

File Section

For each file that can be extracted, a section with a total of 16 bytes can be found. The first section can be found at offset 0x34, assuming there are 8 files to extract.

Offset	Byte Size	Name	Description
0x0-0x3	4	Offset	Gives the offset in bytes where the file data is located in the .data file.
0x4-0x7	4	Decompressed File Size	File size in bytes when decompressed.
0x8-0xb	4	Compressed File Size	File size in bytes when compressed.
0xc-0xf	4	Flags	Determines if the file is a data file or file table The exact usage of them is not fully understood currently by the author of this article. To find out more about these flags please refer to https://github.com/KillzXGaming/NextLevelLibrary/blob/master/Games/LM2/DICT_Parser.cs

Tools

→ Main article: Tools

@@ Line 83: / Line 83: @@
 == Tools ==
-These are current tools, through which the contents of a [[DATA|.data]] file can be extracted with a .dict file.
+''→ Main article: [[Tools#Tools_for_DATA-DICT_extraction|Tools]]''
-* https://github.com/MapStudioProject/CTR-Studio/releases by KillxZGaming (recommended) Most advanced tool which is able to extract the files, textures, models, as well as more.
-* https://github.com/hadashisora/LM2L by hadashisora The first tool that was able to extract data from Next Level Games' file format. Is able to extract files and textures.
-* https://github.com/Schweini07/LM2-Modding/tree/master/Tools/data_extractor by Schweini07 (under development) Developed as a research project, but is planned to have comparable features to CTR Studio.