SCHG:Sonic Heroes/Model Format

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Sonic Heroes runs on a version of the RenderWare engine, and most of the game's models are in DFF or BSP format. The information on this page applies to the PC version only.

Object Models

Models for objects and characters are located in DFF files, contained inside ONE archives. Those models can be imported and viewed in model editors using existing scripts for other games.

Level Models

Level models in Sonic Heroes are located in little endian BSP (binary space partitioning) files, contained inside .ONE archives in the dvdroot folder. Multiple BSPs are in each ONE archive. The archives can be opened with HeroesONE. Heroes Power Plant has support for viewing and editing the files.

File Names

The BSP files are named in the form of SLL_XX_NN.BSP (or STG instead of S for some levels). LL is the level number, XX are letters that identify which part of the geometry is in that file and NN is the chunk number. All files with the same number make up the same chunk. For the game to know which chunk to display at a given time, it uses the *_blk.bin file. The following letters are accepted for the geometry identifier:

• A
• AF
• AFN
• AFNS
• AFS
• AN
• ANS
• AS
• DA
• DN
• K
• KW
• O
• ON
• ONS
• ONW
• ONWS
• OS
• P
• PN
• PNS
• PNW
• PNWS
• PS

File Format

Each BSP is a stream of binary data, divided into multiple sections, which can have multiple children and sibling sections. Each section starts with an array of three int32: the first one is an identifier for the section type, then there's the total size of the section, then there's 0x1400FFFF, which is the RenderWare engine version identifier.

The total size of the section, as said above, includes the section itself and all children sections, but does not include this 0x0C byte "header". So get the total number of bytes in the section and subtract 0x0C to put there.

Note that "struct" sections have an identifier of 0x01, "extension" sections have an identifier of 0x03 and all other sections have different identifiers. Most extensions do nothing, except for the Atomic Extension, which contains the Bin Mesh PLG section which contains triangle strips.

The file is little endian.

// WORLD
int32 0x0B // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF

// WORLD STRUCT
int32 0x01 // section identifier
int32 // section size (always 0x40)
int32 0x1400FFFF
int32 0x01 // unknown, always this value
00 00 00 80 // unknown, always this value
00 00 00 80 // unknown, always this value
00 00 00 80 // unknown, always this value
int32 // number of triangles (numTriangles)
int32 // number of vertices (numVertices)
int32 // number of planes (numPlanes)
int32 // number of atomics (numAtomics)
00 00 00 00 // unknown, always this value
0D 00 01 40 // unknown, always this value
float32[3] // Boundary box maximum
float32[3] // Boundary box minimum // Maximum values must be the bigger than minimum

// END WORLD STRUCT

// MATERIAL LIST
int32 0x08 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF

// MATERIAL LIST STRUCT
int32 0x01 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF
int32 // number of materials (numMaterials), materials are ordered by a zero-based index
int32[numMaterials] 0xFFFFFFFF // there is a -1 for each material

// END MATERIAL LIST STRUCT

// MATERIAL // this section occours numMaterials times
int32 0x07 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF

// MATERIAL STRUCT
int32 0x01 // section identifier
int32 // section size (always 0x1C)
int32 0x1400FFFF
int32 0x00 // ununsed flags
int8[4] RGBA // Material RGBA (usually 255, 255, 255, 255)
int32 84 3E F5 2D // always this value, unused
bool32 // uses texture? (usually 0x01)
float32[3] // ambient, specular, diffuse // don't know if these are used. always (1, 1, 1)

// END MATERIAL STRUCT

// TEXTURE
int32 0x06 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF

// TEXTURE STRUCT
int32 0x01 // section identifier
int32 // section size (always 0x04)
int32 0x1400FFFF
int8 // byte, texture filtering mode (usually 0x02)
4bit // half the byte: U adressing mode (usually 0001)
4bit // half the byte: V adressing mode (usually 0001)
bool16 // byte: use mipmap? (usually 0x01)

// END TEXTURE STRUCT

// DIFFUSE TEXTURE NAME
int32 0x02 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF
string // texture name

// END DIFFUSE TEXTURE NAME

// ALPHA TEXTURE NAME // unused section, alphas are set in the TXD
int32 0x02 // section identifier
int32 // section size (always 0x04)
int32 0x1400FFFF
string // alpha texture name (unused, always left blank)

// END ALPHA TEXTURE NAME

// TEXTURE EXTENSION // this section does absolutely nothing
int32 0x03 // section identifier
int32 // section size (0x00)
int32 0x1400FFFF

// END TEXTURE EXTENSION

// END TEXTURE

// MATERIAL EXTENSION // this section does absolutely nothing
int32 0x03 // section identifier
int32 // section size (0x00)
int32 0x1400FFFF

// END MATERIAL EXTENSION

// END MATERIAL

// END MATERIAL LIST

// Here, there's either a Plane Section or an Atomic Section.

// PLANE SECTION
int32 0x0A // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF

// PLANE STRUCT
int32 0x01 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF
int32 type
int32 value
bool32 leftIsAtomic
bool32 rightIsAtomic
float32 leftValue
float32 rightValue

// END PLANE STRUCT

// Plane Sections contain two sub sections (left and right), each which can be either an Atomic Section (which contains model data) or another Plane Section. They are located here.

// END PLANE SECTION

// ATOMIC SECTION
int32 0x09 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF

// ATOMIC STRUCT
int32 0x01 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF
int32 // model flags (usually 0x00)
int32 // number of triangles (numTriangles)
int32 // number of vertices (numVertices)
float32[3] // Boundary box maximum
float32[3] // Boundary box minimum // These last 4 values are the same ones in the model header
84 D9 50 2F // always this, unknown
int32 0x00 // unknown, always 0x00
numVertices*float32[3] // X, Y, Z position coordinate for each vertex
numVertices*int8[4] // RGBA vertex color for each vertex; In Final Fortress, used for lightning effect normals
numVertices*float32[2] // U, V texture mapping coordinate for each vertex
numTriangles*int16[4] // (materialIndex, vertex1, vertex2, vertex3) index for each triangle, culling is counterclockwise

// END ATOMIC STRUCT

// ATOMIC EXTENSION
int32 0x03 // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF

// BIN MESH PLG
int32 0x50E // section identifier
int32 // section size
int32 0x1400FFFF
uint32 // flags (0 = triangle lists, 1 = triangle strips)
uint32 // number of objects/meshes (numMeshes; usually same number of materials)
uint32 // total number of indices
numMeshes*(
    uint32 // number of vertex indices in this mesh (numIndices)
    uint32 // material index
    uint32[numIndices] // vertex indices
)

// END BIN MESH PLG

// END ATOMIC EXTENSION

// END ATOMIC SECTION

// WORLD EXTENSION // this section does absolutely nothing
int32 0x03 // section identifier
int32 // section size (0x00)
int32 0x1400FFFF

// END WORLD EXTENSION

// END WORLD

Texture Struct Settings

Texture filtering modes (unsure if all of them work in SH)

• 0 - FILTERNAFILTERMODE (filtering is disabled)
• 1 - FILTERNEAREST (Point sampled)
• 2 - FILTERLINEAR (Bilinear)
• 3 - FILTERMIPNEAREST (Point sampled per pixel mipmap)
• 4 - FILTERMIPLINEAR (Bilinear per pixel mipmap)
• 5 - FILTERLINEARMIPNEAREST (Mipmap interp point sampled)
• 6 - FILTERLINEARMIPLINEAR (Trilinear)

Texture addressing modes (unsure if all of them work in SH)

• 0 - TEXTUREADDRESSNATEXTUREADDRESS (no tiling)
• 1 - TEXTUREADDRESSWRAP (tile in U or V direction)
• 2 - TEXTUREADDRESSMIRROR (mirror in U or V direction)
• 3 - TEXTUREADDRESSCLAMP
• 4 - TEXTUREADDRESSBORDER