PTCL(a.k.a EFTB/VFXB) files define certain graphical effects of objects such as emissions, particles, and shaders. They use the .esetlist extension, but differ between platforms in what structures it uses for different types of data, aside for ESTA and PRMA, which are the same[check] on both.


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[check]

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[check] * 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[check] * 176 Unknown
0x3B0 0x4 Float Radius
0x3B4 0x4 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[check] * 16 Unknown array
0x600 0x80 Float[4] * 8 Scale[check] array (eight sets of four 32-bit floats)
0x680 0xD0 UInt32[check] * 52 Unknown
0x750 0x10 Byte[16] Unknown
0x760 0x90 UInt32[check] * 36 Unknown
0x7F0 0x8 Byte[8] Unknown
0x7F8 0x40 UInt32[check] * 16 Unknown
0x838 0x8 Byte[8] Unknown
0x840 0x58 UInt32[check] * 22 Unknown
0x898 0x8 Byte[8] Unknown
0x8A0 0x8 Float[check] * 2 Unknown
0x8A8 0x10 Byte[16] Unknown
0x8B8 0x18 UInt32[check] * 6 Unknown
0x8D0 0x10 Byte[16] Unknown
0x8E0 0x18 UInt32[check] * 6 Unknown
0x8F8 0x18 Byte[24] Unknown
0x910 0x8 UInt32[check] * 2 Unknown
0x918 0x4 Byte[4] Padding? Sometimes FF FF FF FF
0x91C 0x8 UInt64 Unknown. Sometimes FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF
0x924 0x4 Byte[4] Padding? Sometimes FF FF FF FF
0x928 0x8 UInt32[check] * 2 Unknown
0x930 0x8 UInt64 Unknown
0x938 0x10 UInt32[check] * 4 Unknown
0x948 0xA String Usually is ATEST_ONLY when used. Can be null.
0x952 0x2 Byte[2] Padding
0x954 0x48 UInt32[check] * 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[check] * 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).