LEB

LEB is a custom format used to store room data in Link's Awakening. This format is still in the process of being reverse engineered and so this page is currently incomplete.

Note that many properties in these files define measurements in 3D space; since Link's Awakening is a top-down game we will call the vertical axis Z (i.e. the axis perpendicular to the plane of the floor), and X and Y will be as normal for a 2D game.

Format

LEB files are in a FixedHash format, with the data for actors stored in the data section and the names section. There is consistency in how the FixedHash is built for LEB files, with the exception of Lv07EagleTower_05E (the lower part of the Eagle boss room), which for some reason is different than all other rooms. Aside from this room, LEBs always have 0x17 hash table buckets and 0x4 child FixedHash nodes. The buckets are always the same, so the start of LEB files always look like:

3d01 1700 0400 0000 ffff ffff 0000 0000

2000 0000 ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff

ffff ffff ffff ffff 4000 0000 ffff ffff

ffff ffff 5000 0000 ffff ffff 3000 0000

ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff

ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff ffff

ffff ffff

Entries Section

There are 6 entries in most LEB files.

Node Index	Name Offset	Name Hash	Next entry offset	Data Offset
0xFFF0	Offset of versionin the names section	Hash of version	0xFFFFFFFF	Offset to version section
0xFFF0	Offset of infomationin the names section [sic]	Hash of infomation	0xFFFFFFFF	Offset to infomation
0x0	Offset of pointin the names section	Hash of point	0xFFFFFFFF	Offset to point section
0x1	Offset of railin the names section	Hash of rail	0xFFFFFFFF	Offset to rail section
0x2	Offset of actorin the names section	Hash of actor	0x10	Offset to actor section
0x3	Offset of gridin the names section	Hash of grid	0xFFFFFFFF	Offset to grid secion

Data Section

The data section contains one subsection for each entry (usually six).

Version Section

Holds 3 bytes of data, which seem to always be 0x1001D4. Given the name, it's probably just a version marker and has no functional purpose.

Infomation Section

Holds 4 bytes of data. The purpose of this is unknown.

Point Section

This is a FixedHash child. It defines relevant co-ordinate points for actors in the room to use. Examples of this include points which actors can force Link to walk to during events, where a seashell should land from bonking a tree, and more.

There is one entry per point. Points have data blocks of 0x18 bytes each. This block consists of 3 floats (4 bytes each) representing the (X, Z, Y) of the point. It appears that this is always followed by 0xC bytes of FF to fill out the block, but the reason for this is not known.

Rail Section

This is another FixedHash child. The exact purpose of this section is not understand but it seems to work in conjunction with point. There is one entry per rail.

Each rail has a data block of variable size, typically 0x32 or more bytes.

Offset	Type	Description
0x0		Appears to always be 0xC null bytes?
0xC		Block of 4 structures with a parameter-like structure (see actor section) except for using 0xFFFFFF04 instead of 0x4. So far only observed to be blocks of [0x19, 0xFFFFFF04].
0x2C	u16	Number of entries in following list
0x2E	u16	Number of indexes per entry? Only observed to ever be 0x01 so far, so no clear purpose.
0x30	u16[...]	Indexes of points used per rail (in the point section). The logic behind how points are grouped into rails is not understood, but always seems to line up with how actors reference points. So, an actor that refers to (rail 0, point 0) and (rail 0, point 1) means that rail 0 references points 0 and 1. An actor referring only to (rail 2, point 2) and nothing else with rail 2 means that rail 2 only references point 2.

Actor Section

This section is a FixedHash which holds actor data. Each entry corresponds to one actor. Every entry points to non-node data, a block with a minimum size of 0x90 bytes, but can be longer. The names section is empty. The data block for each actor is formatted as follows.

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	u64	Actor key. This value must match the hex value of the corresponding actor label in the (top-level) names section.
0x8	u32	Names section offset. This stores the offset in the (top-level) names section for the start of the label that corresponds to this actor.
0xC	u16	Actor ID
0xE	u16	Padding?
0x10	u32	Room ID. The actor loads when entering the specified room and unloads when leaving it. Generally this should be consistent across all actors in the file, since each room has its own file.
0x14	float[3]	Co-ordinates as [X, Z, Y]. One in-game "tile" is 1.5 units. The co-ordinate system spans entire maps and is not specific to each room. [0, 0, 0] is the very top left corner of the map, at the elevation of the main floor plane of the map. Each room is 10x8 tiles, so they span 15 units along the X axis and 12 along the Y axis.
0x20	float[3]	Rotation about the [X, Z, Y] axes respectively, in degrees.
0x2C	float[3]	Scaling along the [X, Z, Y] axes respectively. Note that scaling doesn't seem to affect collision for every actor and only scales the model in some cases.
0x38	u32[16]	Parameters. This section contains 16 u32's, which are grouped into 8 pairs of [parameter, parameter type]. The types are as follows: 0: the parameter is not used? Mainly observable in lighting actors. 2: Float 3: Unsigned integer (u32) 4: String, where the parameter value define the offset of the string in the top-level names section. Unused parameters are generally entered as offsets to a null byte in the names section, as a type 4 parameter.
0x78		Actor Switches. Defines 4 actor switches for the event. These are used for the behavior of many things like small keys, chests, NPCs, loading zones, doors, blocks, etc. First there is 4 bytes which define the usage of actor switches 0-3 respectively: 0: Appears to define an index in set a of local flags for the room. For example, whether a torch is lit or not, a bush is cut or not, etc. 1: The actor switch is the index of a global flag. 2: Defines a hardcoded value for the switch, usually 1. For example, while some treasure chests appear based on a global flag being set, some don't; these ones would just use this hardcoded 1 instead of a flag index. 3: Used only on actors in panel dungeon rooms. Appears to be an index for a flag system specific to panel dungeons. 4: The switch is unused. Following this are the four actor switch definitions, each 2 bytes (u16).
0x84		Actor Relationships. Defines the relationship this actor has with other actors in the room, primarily for use with events. This section uses a lot of actor indexes, which are the based on the order the actors are defined in the room. That is, the first defined actor is 0, the second is 1, etc. The sections starts with 12 bytes which define the structure and purpose of the data in the section, where the latter 6 bytes are always null. ee kk bb xx yy zz 00 00 00 00 00 00 e is 01 for any enemy actor and 00 otherwise. k is 01 only for TagHolocaustChecker actors. Probably indicates looking at enemy spawns/kills. b appears to be 01 for an enemy that appears from the +enemies tile in a chamber dungeon and 00 otherwise. x indicates the number of entries in section 1. y indicates the number of entries in section 3. z indicates the number of entries in section 2. (This is not a typo, for some reason it defines the group sizes in the order 1, 3, 2.) Section 1 defines which other actors have behaviors controlled by this actor. This includes actors which get used by this actor's event, enemies that a TagHolocaustChecker watches for, that an AreaEventBox/AreaLevelOpen/etc will trigger this actor, and possibly other uses. It consists of a sequence of 20-byte structures, which are each 2 parameters (8 bytes each, same format as parameter section) and a 4-byte actor index. Section 2 defines a list of points the actor knows about. It consists of a sequence of 24-byte structures, which are each 2 parameters (8 bytes each), and 2 u32's, which respectively index into the rail section and the point section. This is used for various things, for example the Link:MoveToTargetLinkedPoint event action, or the location for item drops from the actor to land, or the location to dynamically spawn other actors (e.g. pickups in rapids rush). Section 3 defines which actors can call upon use of this actor. It is simply a sequence of 4-byte actor indexes. This should line up with section 1 of other actors. As an example, if actor[2] defines control of actor[5] in its section 1, then actor[5]'s section 3 should contain 0x02.

Grid Section

This section is a child FixedHash which appears to define collision properties of the room. It has two or three entries: data, sometimes chain, and info.

The data in the data section contains blocks 0x10 bytes each which define some properties for every tile on the screen, for a total of 0x500 bytes for top-down rooms and 0x140 bytes for sidescroller rooms. The format of these is not fully understood yet.

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	u32?	Unknown. The most significant byte appears to always be 0x80.
0x4	u32?	Unknown, seems to always be identical to the 4 bytes starting at 0x0.
0x8	u32	Chain index. Defines which chain to use as an index into the sequence of chains. If the tile doesn't refer to a chain tile, or there is no chain table defined, this will be 0xFFFFFFFF.
0xC	float	Elevation. Specifies the height of the surface that Link walks on over this tile. It is still unclear what causes tiles' elevations to be gradient (a ramp) or a sudden increase or decrease (a wall).

The chain section is used for when there needs to be a higher walkable surface directly above a lower one. This is common in sidescroller rooms, but is also used in some overworld areas; mainly in Tal Tal Mountains where there are some walkable surfaces inside cliff faces which can be reached with out of bounds methods. Chain entries can still index to other chains. The data is stored in the same structures as the data section.

The info block is always 0x10 bytes and holds some essentially metadata about the room, probably to be used alongside the other data here to determine collision.

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	u16	How many tiles tall the room is. Will always be 0x8 for top-down rooms and 0x2 for sidescroller rooms.
0x2	u16	How many tiles wide the room is. Seems to always be 0xA (10)
0x4	float	The size of 1 tile in units. Seems to always be 1.5.
0x8	float	X co-ordinate of the left edge of the room.
0xC	float	Y co-ordinate of the top edge of the room. For sidescroller rooms this seems to always be -1.5.

Names Section

The names section contains a list of actors by name, followed by a hyphen (-), followed by a 16-digit hexadecimal number. This also includes some plaintext parameters for some objects, such as the contents of a chest (ObjTreasureBox) or the destination of a loading zone (AreaLevelOpen). Note that these do not define what actors exist, in fact it seems like the actual labels here are meaningless aside from the aforementioned parameters.

All labels in the names section are separated by null bytes. Of note, there seems to always be one separator that 2 null bytes instead of 1. Depending on the file, this is either between point and rail at the start of the names section, or between the 1st and 2nd listed actors (it is more commonly the latter).