It would seem, that early on in FF7's development cycle, the game data was originally all "expanded" and placed in appropriate directories. I've been trying to rebuild the original uncompressed development environment using artifacts I'm finding in the game's executable. Through a very weird set of events, I only have disk 2 and 3 of the PSX version and the PC executable. However there are a few assumptions I have made that make my life much easier.
1) FF7 was designed for the PSX.
2) Before build-time FF7's game data must be fully expanded to allow the various development teams and artists direct access to their work.
3) Post build results in three ISO images that can be burned and mass produced.
4) The data must have a logical placement so non programmers can find it.
5) Everything is under a /FF7 directory
I have discovered that within the PSX version of the game, the data consists of BIN files and LZS files. On the PSX, BIN files are uncompressed archives and LZS file are compressed ones. Both contain multiple files within them. Using artifacts I found the PC executable, I can see what files are contained in the PSX BIN and LZS files. I also have the ability to place them (Somewhat) into my current image of the FF7 development tree. The data files only use relative pathnames.
The downside, I have no headers. Only filenames.
There is a silver lining. The files within the BIN files have headers themselves, though they are hard to pick out. Not only that, the *original* filenames, from which both the PSX and PC datasets are derived are intact. For example .a files on the PC are really .ANM files. (These were stripped of a name, enumerated, and placed into BIN file on the PSX version.) Another example is .p files. These are called .PLY files. These too were stripped of a name, enumerated, and placed into BIN files as well.
A PSX BIN file can only be so big, if there is too much data contained within it, it will "spill over" into a compressed LZS file with the same name.
In my quest to rebuild the deveopment tree, I have now decoded the /blue directory I have some notes after the listing....
blue/aqua
blue/aqua/aqua
blue/aqua/aqua.tim
blue/aqua/squa.spt
blue/beata
blue/beata/beata
blue/beata/beata_1.rsd
blue/beata/beata_2.rsd
blue/chyobo
blue/chyobo/chyobo
blue/chyobo/confu_1.tim
blue/chyobo/confu_1.spt
blue/chyobo/smoke.tim
blue/chyobo/smoke_1.spt
blue/dethfo/dethfo
blue/dethfo/dethfo_1.tim
blue/dethfo/light1.rsd
blue/dragonn
blue/dragonn/dragonn
blue/dragonn/dragon.tim
blue/dragonn/dragon.spt
blue/dragonn/dragon_1.rsd
blue/dragonn/dragon_2.rsd
blue/dragonn/dragon_3.rsd
blue/dragonn/dragon_4.rsd
blue/dragonn/light.rsd
blue/goblinp
blue/goblinp/goblinp
blue/goblinp/goblin_1.tim
blue/goblinp/goblinp1.spt
blue/goblinp/goblin_2.tim
blue/goblinp/goblinp2.spt
blue/hanmmer
blue/hanmmer/hanmmer
blue/hanmmer/hanmer.rsd
blue/hatena
blue/hatena/hatena
blue/hatena/hatena_2.tim
blue/hatena/hatena_1.tim
blue/hatena/hatena1.spt
blue/howin
blue/howin/howin
blue/howin/w_wind.tim
blue/howin/line.spt
blue/kaenn
blue/kaenn/kaenn
blue/kaenn/flame00.tim
blue/kaenn/kaenn.spt
blue/kaenn/flame01.tim
blue/kaeru
blue/kaeru/kaeru
blue/kaeru/kaeru_1.tim
blue/kaeru/kaeru.spt
blue/kaeru/onpu1.tim
blue/kaeru/onpu1.spt
blue/kusai
blue/kusai/kusai
blue/kusai/kusai_1.tim
blue/kusai/kusai.spt
blue/lv4jibak
blue/lv4jibak/lv4jibak
blue/lv4jibak/lv4ji_1.tim
blue/lv4jibak/lv4jiba.spt
blue/lv5deth
blue/lv5deth/lv5deth
blue/lv5deth/lv5deth.tim
blue/lv5deth/lv5deth.spt
blue/lv5deth/light_1.rsd
blue/magikal
blue/magikal/magikal
blue/magikaL/magikal.tim
blue/magikal/magikal.spt
blue/matra
blue/matra/matra
blue/matra/matra_1.tim
blue/matra/matra.spt
blue/matra/matra.rsd
blue/mytyg
blue/mytyg/mytyg
blue/mytyg/mytyg_1.rsd
blue/mytyg/light_1.rsd
blue/nanntoka
blue/nanntoka/nanntoka
blue/nanntoka/hatena.rsd
blue/nanntoka/inseki_1.rsd
blue/nanntoka/inseki_2.rsd
blue/nanntoka/iinseki_3.rsd
blue/nanntoka/ilight.rsd
blue/nanntoka/ister.rsd
blue/reazer
blue/reazer/reazer
blue/reazer/reazer.tim
blue/reazer/reazer.spt
blue/ruretto
blue/ruretto/ruretto
blue/ruretto/yubi.tim
blue/sflea
blue/sflea/sflea
blue/sflea/flea_5.tim
blue/sflea/flea_4.tim
blue/sflea/exp_1.spt
blue/sflea/flea_3.tim
blue/sflea/exp_2.spt
blue/sflea/flea_5.tim
blue/sflea/exp_3.spt
blue/sflea/flea_1.rsd
blue/sflea/flea_2.rsd
blue/trainn
blue/trainn/trainn
blue/trainn/trainn_1.rsd
The files created in the /blue directory are placed into the /magic directory on the PSX during build-time.
I would like to draw your attention to the blue/ruretto directory, as that's the easiest to understand. In the game, this is the blue magic that spins the white gloved Final Fantasy pointing finger (Called a "Yubi") around to all allys and monsters on the battle screen. When the finger stops, that character or monster is killed.
In this directory (an also uncompressed in "ruretto.bin" in the PSX) there is a picture file of the finger (yubi.tim) and a bunch of other unnamed data that I don't know. I've collected that data into a file with the same name as the directory. (blue/ruretto/ruretto) I'm guessing this is the master script that tells the engine how to "play" this particular spell.
Now for those who don't know, a TIM file is not only a picture, but it also holds data on where to put the picture in video memory, and where to put the color look up table (CLUT). This helps massivly with texture management and cacheing..
RSD files are text in the PC version. On a PSX, these are "compiled" into a binary format to make them smaller. They are, however, the same format by way of the order the data comes in.
What's a SPR file? A sprite? Does this have more or less information than a TIM?
Anyways that's what I discoverd. I'm going to make some pasta now. I hope I'm not flooding the board with useless posts. I'll try and answer any questions you might have.
ADDUNDUM:
DRAT! It seems that the files are renamed. My example isn't in /magic under the name ruretto.bin
I'm sure it's in there though... I'll have to decode more and find what was renamed...
