Msbt: Difference between revisions

== msbt File Layout ==

msbt files are made up of four sections that are aligned to 16-bytes.

* Header

* Labels

=== Header Structure ===

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

== Labels Section ==

The labels section has a header followed by an offset table and finally a string table with meta data regarding the later text section.

=== Labels Section Header ===

The section header includes a signature, table size and padding making the header 16 bytes. Table size is relative to the end of the section header.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

=== Labels Section Offset Table ===

Offsets in the offset table are relative to the end of the Labels Section Header (byte `0x10`). The offset table length is defined in the first four bytes of the table.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

| Offset count

|}

Each entry in the offset table is 8 bytes. 4 bytes indicating the number of null-terminated strings at the offset and an offset relative to the beginning of the offset table.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

=== Labels Section String Table ===

After each null-terminated string, there are 4 bytes indicating which index in the texts table this label corresponds to. See the text table section for more information.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

|-

| 0x01

|-

| 0xnn

== Attributes Section ==

Attributes are not fully understood at this time. The attribute seem to indicate which actor should be attributed with the dialog (A good example is in <code>100enemy.msbt</code> where <code>NPC_GodVoice</code> is referenced).

=== Attributes Section Header ===

The section header includes a signature, table size and padding making the header 16 bytes. Table size is relative to the end of the section header.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

=== Attributes Section Offset Table ===

Offsets in the offset table are relative to the end of the Attributes Section Header (byte <code>0x10</code>). The first 4 bytes of the table are the number of offsets and the second 4 bytes indicate the size of each offset (or table entry) in bytes.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

| Attribute data size

|}

Each entry in the offset table is a 4-byte relative offset from the beginning of the table.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

=== Attributes Section String Table ===

The attributes can be determined by iterating through the offset table and a null-terminated string from the address. Strings in this table are UTF-16 (Wii U files are UTF-16-BE encoded) encoded and take up 2 bytes for each character. Strings are terminated with a UTF-16 null character <code>00 00</code> or <code>\u0000</code>.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

|-

| 0x00

| char[2]

| Unicode character

== Texts Section ==

The text section contains a table of strings.

=== Texts Section Header ===

The section header includes a signature, table size and padding making the header 16 bytes. Table size is relative to the end of the section header.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

=== Texts Section Offset Table ===

Offsets in the offset table are relative to the end of the Texts Section Header (byte `0x10`). The offset table length is defined in the first four bytes of the table.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

| Offset count

|}

Each entry in the offset table is a 4-byte relative offset from the beginning of the table.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

=== Texts Section String Table ===

The attributes can be determined by iterating through the offset table. Strings in this table are UTF-16 (Wii U files are UTF-16-BE encoded) encoded and take up 2 bytes for each character.

String length is determined by reading until the next offset in the table and not exceeding the end of the file. Strings cannot be read as null-terminated strings since many strings will have multiple null characters in them.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

|-

| 0x00

| char[2]

| Unicode character

=== Text Commands ===

Some string include interpolation operators or commands within the strings. These commands tell the game to behave in a certain way while displaying the string. Commands include choices, selling items, buying items and interacting with objects.

Commands are indicated in the strings with <code>00 0e</code> or <code>\u000e</code>.

{| class="wikitable"

!Offset (h)

| Command type

|}

For example, in <code>100enemy.msbt</code> the following data appears:

<pre>  | 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F |                   

---|-------------------------------------------------|------------------|

70 | 00 02 00 03 00 04 00 05 02 03 00 00            | ............    |

</pre>

At byte <code>0x68</code> is the command indicator followed by the type of <code>1</code>. Command types of <code>1</code> seem to be variable length. The type (in this instance) is followed by the number of additional Unsigned Shorts <code>6</code> and 6 shorts.

The commands are not fully understood at this time, but below is a list of the known command identifiers and variable counts.

{| class="wikitable"

!Type

|-

| 1

| Variable length. Length is the unsigned short following the type.

|-

== Compiling the Sections ==

The sections are held together by the indexes in the labels table. The indexes correspond to the attributes table and the texts table. The data can be compiled using the index.

By default the indexes in the labels table are not in order, but the text table is (and possibly the attributes table). Below is the labels table in <code>100enemy.msbt</code>.

{| class="wikitable"

!String Count

| 2

|}

And the texts table.

{| class="wikitable"

!Index

| Cancel  

|}

Using the indexes to match the labels to the attributes and texts tables, the following table can be compiled.

The empty labels are not fully understood.

{| class="wikitable"

!Label

| Cancel

|}

The attribute table is still not fully understood. In this example, there are 8 attribute entries in the table, but they correctly map to the 8 blocks of dialog.