PTCL

PTCL(a.k.a EFTB/VFXB) files define certain graphical effects of objects such as emissions, particles, and shaders. They use the .esetlist extension. The format changes what structures it uses for different types of data between platforms, aside for ESTA and PRMA.

PTCL File Layout

PTCL files are made up of a header and four structures that are aligned to 16 bytes.

• Emitter Set Array
• Texture Array / Cafe Resource
• PRM^[check] Array
• Shader Array / Binary Shader

Each array serves as a root node in a tree structure.

PTCL Header

The EFTB and VFXB headers both contain different data, and as such have different size (0x30 and 0x40 respectively).

EFTB Header Structure

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	String	file signature (magic) (45 46 54 42 or "EFTB" in ASCII)
0x04	4	Unsigned Int	VFX API Version ()
0x08	4	String	Unknown (47 61 6d 65 or "Game")
...

VFXB Header Structure

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	String	File signature (magic) (56 46 58 42 or "VFXB" in ASCII)
0x04	4	Unsigned Int	Unknown (20 20 20 20)
0x08	2	Unsigned Short	Graphics API version ()
0x0A	2	Unsigned Short	VFX API version
0x0C	2	Unsigned Short	Byte-Order Mark
0x0E	1	Byte	Alignment
0x0F	1	Byte	Target offset
0x10	4	Unsigned Int	Header size
0x14	2	Unsigned Short	Flag
0x16	2	Unsigned Short	First node offset
0x18	4	Padding
0x1C	4	Unsigned Int	File size
0x20	4	String	Game
0x24	28	Byte[28]	Unknown
...

Nodes

Each node in an array's tree structure is made up of a header and three optional sections.

• Binary data
• Attribute nodes^[check]
• Child nodes

Node Header Structure

Node headers typically have the same 32-byte structure, though some are longer and some calculate certain values differently.

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	4	Unsigned Int	Signature (magic)
0x04	4	Unsigned Int	Node size. Different node types calculate this differently.
0x08	4	Unsigned Int	Offset to the first child node, or FF FF FF FF if there are no children
0x0c	4	Unsigned Int	Offset to the next sibling node, or FF FF FF FF if there are no more siblings
0x10	4	Unsigned Int	Offset to the first attribute[check], or FF FF FF FF if there are no attributes
0x14	4	Unsigned Int	Offset to the binary data, or the size of the header
0x18	4		Padding
0x1c	2	Unsigned Short	Number of child nodes. Shaders' use of this value is unknown.
0x1e	2	Unsigned Short	Unknown (00 01)

Emitter Sets (ESTA)

The Emitter Set Array (ESTA) contains any number of Emitter Sets (ESET) as child nodes.

Emitter Set (ESET)

Emitter sets (ESET) contain 0x60 bytes of data after the header:

Offset (h)	Size (h)	Data Type	Description
0x10	0x40	String	0-terminated string representing the name of the emitter set
0x50	0x04	Unsigned Int	Total number of emitters in the set, including all descendant nodes
0x5a	0x02	Unsigned Short	Unknown
0x5f	0x01	Byte	Unknown. Can be 0x00 or 0xff

The rest of the data block is padding.

Emitter sets also contain any number of Emitters (EMTR) as child nodes.

Emitter (EMTR)

An Emitter's (EMTR) data section is aligned to 0x20 bytes and contains the following data after the header:

Offset (h)	Size (h)	Data Type	Description
0x00	0x60	String	Name block, like in ESET
0x60	0x18	Six Unsigned Ints specifying the sizes of the color arrays Color 0 Alpha 0 Color 1 Alpha 1 Scale[check] Unknown
0x38	Byte[56]	Padding
0xB0	0x30	UInt32 or Float[12]	Unknown
0xE0	0x4	Float	Blink Intensity 1
0xE4	0x4	Float	Blink Intensity 2
0xE8	0x4	Float	Blink Duration 1
0xEC	0x4	Float	Blink Duration 2
0xF0	0x2C0	UInt32 or Float[176]	Unknown
0x3B0	0x4	UInt32 or Float	Radius
0x3B4	0x4	UInt32 or Float	Unknown
0x3B8	0x8	Byte[8]	Padding
0x3C0	0x80	Float[4] * 8	Color 0 array (eight sets of four 32-bit floats describing Red, Green, Blue, and Time)
0x440	0x80	Float[4] * 8	Alpha 0 array (eight sets of four 32-bit floats describing Red, Green, Blue, and Time)
0x4C0	0x80	Float[4] * 8	Color 1 array (eight sets of four 32-bit floats describing Red, Green, Blue, and Time)
0x540	0x80	Float[4] * 8	Alpha 1 array (eight sets of four 32-bit floats describing Red, Green, Blue, and Time)
0x5C0	0x40	UInt32 or Float[16]	Unknown array[check]
0x600	0x80	Float[4] * 8	Scale[check] array (eight sets of four 32-bit floats)
0x680	0xD0	UInt32 or Float[52]	Unknown
0x750	0x10	Byte[16]	Unknown
0x760	0x90	UInt32 or Float[36]	Unknown
0x7F0	0x8	Byte[8]	Unknown
0x7F8	0x40	UInt32 or Float[16]	Unknown
0x838	0x8	Byte[8]	Unknown
0x840	0x58	UInt32 or Float[22]	Unknown
0x898	0x8	Byte[8]	Unknown
0x8A0	0x8	UInt32 or Float[2]	Unknown
0x8A8	0x10	Byte[16]	Unknown
0x8B8	0x18	UInt32 or Float[6]	Unknown
0x8D0	0x10	Byte[16]	Unknown
0x8E0	0x18	UInt32 or Float[6]	Unknown
0x8F8	0x18	Byte[24]	Unknown
0x910	0x8	UInt32 or Float[2]	Unknown
0x918	0x4	Byte[4]	Padding? Sometimes FF FF FF FF
0x91C	0x8	UInt64	Unknown. Sometimes FF FF FF FF
0x924	0x4	Byte[4]	Padding? Sometimes FF FF FF FF
0x928	0x8	UInt32 or Float[2]	Unknown
0x930	0x8	UInt64	Unknown
0x938	0x10	UInt32 or Float[4]	Unknown
0x948	0xA	String	Usually is ATEST_ONLY when used. Can be null.
0x952	0x2	Byte[2]	Padding
0x954	0x48	UInt32 or Float[48]	Unknown
0x99C	0xC	Byte[12]	Unknown
0x9A8	0x10	Float[4]	Constant Color 0 if Color 0 array is empty
0x9B8	0x10	Float[4]	Constant Color 1 if Color 1 array is empty
0x9C8	0x30	UInt32[12]	Unknown
0x9F8	0x60	Three Sample Info blocks, consisting of the following structure: 0x00 - UInt32 - Enabled flag - Set if 0, unset if -1 0x04 - UInt32 - Texture ID 0x08 - Byte - 1st flag - Can be 0, 1 or 2 0x09 - Byte - 2nd flag - Can be 0, 1 or 2 0x0A - Byte - Padding 0x0B - Byte - 3rd flag - Can be either 0 or 1 0x0C - Float - Unknown - Can be 2.0. 6.0 or 15.99 0x10 - Byte[4] - Padding 0x14 - Byte - 4th flag - Can be either 0 or 1 0x15 - Byte - 5th flag - Can be either 0 or 1 0x16 - Byte - 6th flag - Can be either 0 or 1 0x17 - Byte - 7th flag - Can be either 0 or 1 0x18 - Byte - 8th flag - Can be either 0 or 1 0x19 - Byte[7] - Padding
0xA58	0x30	Byte[48]	Unknown

Emitters can also have any number of attribute nodes (e.g. CADP, CSDP, FCSF), the purpose of which is currently unknown, as well as child emitter nodes.

Attributes

CADP causes an emitter to cast light on surrounding surfaces. It contains the following data:

Offset (h)	Size	Data Type	Description
0x00	0x04	Bitmask	Flag determining the light's shape
0x04	(variable)	Float	A variable number of floats whose purpose is unknown

Shape flag:

Flag	Description
0x00	Sphere
0x01	Rod (e.g. swords)
0x02	Changes the orientation of Rod
0x04	Adds a dead zone to the center of Rod
0x08	Wide cone
0x10	Square
0x20	Point
0x40	Widens the Point

Textures (TEXA)

The Texture Array (TEXA) contains any number of Textures (TEXR), with each texture containing a single GX2 Texture Block (GX2B). The TEXA tree is flattened such that all TEXR nodes appear first, followed by all of their child GX2B nodes.

(PRMA)

The PRMA^[check] contains any number of PRIM^[check] nodes.

Shaders (SHDA)

The Shader Array (SHDA) contains a single^[check] GX2 Shader Block (SHDB).