TSCB

Terrain scene binary (TSCB) files describe terrain areas layout and terrain materials.

TSCB File Specification

Header

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	String	TSCB file signature (magic) 54 53 43 42 or "TSCB"
0x04	4	Unsigned Int	TSCB version? 0A 00 00 00 or "10.0.0.0"
0x08	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Always 00 00 00 01. Game crashes on load screen if not equal to 00 00 00 01.
0x0c	4	Unsigned Int	file_base table relative offset
0x10	4	Float	world_scale 500.0. Scales the terrain along the x- and z-axis.
0x14	4	Float	Terrain mesh max height 800.0. Used to calculate the actual vertex height with hght data.
0x18	4	Unsigned Int	material_info_array length (number of elements in the array)
0x1c	4	Unsigned Int	area_array length (number of elements in the array)
0x20	4	Unsigned Int	Probably padding
0x24	4	Unsigned Int	Probably padding
0x28	4	Float	tile_size. Used by the area array.
0x2c	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown 00 00 00 08.

Material Information Array

The material information array references texture data contained in content/Model/Terrain.Tex1.sbfres.

Header

The material information header is one value, the section size. This includes the index table and the value table, as well as itself.

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Unsigned Int	Material info section size in bytes

Material Information Array Lookup Table

Following the header is a table of relative offsets to each entry in material_info_array

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Unsigned Int	Offset to array entry, relative to the first byte of this offset

Material Information Value Table

Each entry in the array contains an index and four attributes

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Unsigned Int	Array index (mat_index) of material_info_array
0x04	4	Float	Texture u-axis (x-axis)
0x08	4	Float	Texture v-axis (y-axis)
0x0c	4	Float	Unknown. values range from 0-1.
0x10	4	Float	Unknown. values range from 0.2-1.63

Area Array

Area Array Lookup Table

Following the material information section is a table of relative offsets to each entry in area_array

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Unsigned Int	Offset to array entry, relative to the first byte of this offset

Area Array Value Table

Each entry contains meta data for one tile in the terrain scene. There are multiple levels of detail (lod) for the terrain.

Entry size ranges from 0x30 to 0x58 depending on the size of extra_info_array

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Float	X Position
0x04	4	Float	Z Position
0x08	4	Float	area_size (length and width)
0x0c	4	Float	Minimum Terrain Height - ranges from 0 to 1
0x10	4	Float	Maximum Terrain Height - ranges from 0 to 1
0x14	4	Float	Minimum Water Height - ranges from 0 to 1
0x18	4	Float	Maximum Water Height - ranges from 0 to 1
0x1c	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Usually 0, 1 or 2, crashes on 4, 16.
0x20	4	Unsigned Int	file_base. Relative offset to file base name string.
0x24	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Usually 0.
0x28	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Usually 0.
0x2c	4	Unsigned Int	ref_extra. It seems to be a flag to indicate if there is an attached extra_info_array

Parameters

x - Area tile x coordinate (East-West)

z - Area tile z coordinate (North-South)

area_size - Determines the length and width of the area. It can be calculated with:

(area_size / tile_size * world_scale) * 20

tile_size and world_scale are in the header.

Extra Information Array

if ref_extra does not equal 0 there is an extra_info_array attached to this area. The array is 4 or 8 values long.

Every area includes a .hght and .mate file. Entries in the extra_info_array indicate if there is an additional .water.extm and / or .grass.extm file to look for.

Terrain and Water Height

0x0c through 0x18 are used to determine what height range the terrain and water should render within. This is possibly used to assist with occlusion. If the heightmap moves outside of the range defined here, there will be visual artefacts present at higher viewing angles, usually between 45 and 90 degrees. The range value is multiplied by the max height defined in the TSCB header to determine the final value in 'real' co-ordinates.

Header

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Unsigned Int	extra_info_array length. Number of values (not elements) in array.
(0x04)	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Always 20, but only present when extra_info_array length is 8.

Extra Information Array Value Table

After the Header, there are extra_info_array length / 4 elements of this structure. Elements act as flags for presence of .water.extm or .grass.extm files. A "water" element indicates that there is water data for the terrain section defined in a .water.extm file. A "grass" element similarly indicates the presence of a .grass.extm file. Grass and water are referenced via the extra_info_array because presence water and grass data for any given terrain area is optional.

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Always 3.
0x04	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. 0 or 1.
0x08	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Always 1.
0x0c	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown. Always 0.

[3, 0, 1, 0, 3, 1, 1, 0] = grass, water
[3, 1, 1, 0, 3, 0, 1, 0] = water, grass
[3, 1, 1, 0]             = water
[3, 0, 1, 0]             = grass

It seems that water is [3, 1, 1] and grass is [3, 0, 1]

stera File Positions

stera File Positions

stera files referenced in the area array are positioned using a z-order curve or the Moser-de Bruijn sequence.