Geometry (Metroid Prime) - Revision history

Aruki: /* Surface */

2018-01-20T17:16:23Z

‎Surface

Aruki: /* Surface */

2016-05-23T09:41:03Z

‎Surface

Aruki: /* Surface */

2016-05-23T09:40:25Z

‎Surface

Aruki: /* Surface */

2016-05-23T09:40:11Z

‎Surface

Aruki: /* Surface Group IDs */

2016-05-23T09:35:38Z

‎Surface Group IDs

Aruki: /* Format */

2016-05-23T09:21:32Z

‎Format

Aruki: /* Surface Group ID */

2016-05-23T05:53:09Z

‎Surface Group ID

Aruki: /* Surface Group IDs */

2016-05-23T05:52:20Z

‎Surface Group IDs

Aruki: /* Surface Lookup Table */

2016-05-23T05:51:48Z

‎Surface Lookup Table

Aruki: /* Format */

2016-05-23T05:50:51Z

‎Format

@@ Line 91: / Line 91: @@
 | u16
 | 1
-| '''Primitive Table Size'''
+| '''Display List Size'''
 | '''Important: this value is not always reliable'''
 |-
@@ Line 139: / Line 139: @@
 |}
-The primitive data is a standard GX display list. Each primitive begins with a byte that contains the primitive type in the upper 5 bits, and the vertex format setting in the lower 3; see below for possible settings. After that is a 16-bit vertex count, followed by a series of 16-bit vertex attribute indices.
+The primitive data is a GX display list. Each primitive begins with a byte that contains the primitive type in the upper 5 bits, and the vertex format setting in the lower 3; see below for possible settings. After that is a 16-bit vertex count, followed by a series of 16-bit vertex attribute indices.
 Note that you'll need to check some settings on the material to read the primitive data properly; the material determines which vertex attributes are present. The material also determines whether the surface is using lightmaps; if it is, then the first UV coordinate will be read out of the short UV array instead of the float one.
-There is no primitive count value; you'll need to continue reading data until you hit the end of the primitive table. There are a couple values you can use for reference; either the surface's section size, or the surface's end offset. '''Do not use the primitive table size setting from the surface header, though'''; it's usually accurate, but on some models it will give you a size smaller than the table actually is, and you'll miss a bunch of data. See Metroid3/4a11192a.CMDL from Prime 1 (icicle Ridley) or Metroid1/05778239.CMDL from Echoes (Samus's gunship) for an example of this.
+There is no primitive count value; you'll need to continue reading data until you hit the end of the display list. There are a couple values you can use for reference; either the surface's section size, or the surface's end offset. '''Do not use the display list size setting from the surface header, though'''; it's usually accurate, but on some models it will give you a size smaller than the table actually is, and you'll miss a bunch of data. See Metroid3/4a11192a.CMDL from Prime 1 (icicle Ridley) or Metroid1/05778239.CMDL from Echoes (Samus's gunship) for an example of this.
 There are 7 primitive types supported by GX, indicated in the upper 5 bits of the flag value. Note that the game only ever actually uses triangles, triangle strips, and triangle fans; however, all of these primitives are supported by GX and are therefore supported by the game, and so they could be used in custom model files.

@@ Line 91: / Line 91: @@
 | u16
 | 1
-| '''Primitive table size'''
+| '''Primitive Table Size'''
 | '''Important: this value is not always reliable'''
 |-
@@ Line 97: / Line 97: @@
 | u32
 | 1
-| '''Model Pointer Storage'''
+| '''Parent Model Pointer Storage'''
 | Always 0; the game uses this space at runtime to store a pointer to the parent CCubeModel instance
 |-

@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 |-
 | 0x18
-| 4
+| u32
 | '''Next Surface Pointer Storage'''
 | Always 0; the game uses this space at runtime to store a pointer to the next surface

@@ Line 65: / Line 65: @@
 {| class="wikitable"
 ! Offset
-! Size
+! Type
-! Description
+! Count
 ! Notes
 |-
 | 0x0
-| 0xC
+| float
-| '''Center point'''
+| 3
 | Used for depth sorting on CMDL and used as the eye position for reflections
 |-
 | 0xC
-| 4
+| u32
-| '''Material ID'''
+| 1
+|
 |-
 | 0x10
-| 2
+| u16
 | '''Mantissa'''
-| Divide short normals/UVs by this value; always 0x8000
+| Always 0x8000.
 |-
 | 0x12
-| 2
+| u16
 | '''Primitive table size'''
 | '''Important: this value is not always reliable'''
 |-
 | 0x14
-| 4
+| u32
-| '''CCubeModel pointer storage'''
+| 1
-| Always 0 in resource; game uses this space to store parent CCubeModel instance pointer
+| '''Model Pointer Storage'''
 |-
 | 0x18
 | 4
-| '''Next surface pointer storage'''
+| '''Next Surface Pointer Storage'''
-| Always 0 in resource; game uses this space to store next surface data pointer
+| Always 0; the game uses this space at runtime to store a pointer to the next surface
 |-
 | 0x1C
-| 4
+| u32
-| '''Extra data size''' (ES)
+| 1
 | Amount of space taken up by extra data. Always 0 on CMDLs, 0x18 on MREAs.
 |-
 | 0x20
-| 0xC
+| float
-| '''Surface normal'''
+| 3
 | On materials that use the Samus reflection, this is used to project the reflection onto the surface
 |-
 | 0x2C
-| 2
+| u16
-| {{unknown|'''Unknown'''}}
+| 1
-| Not in Prime 1
+| {{unknown|Unknown}}
 |-
 | 0x2E
-| 2
+| u16
-| {{unknown|'''Unknown'''}}
+| 1
-| Not in Prime 1
+| {{unknown|Unknown}}
 |-
 | 0x30
-| ES
+| u8
-| '''Extra data'''
+| ''Extra Data Size''
-| Empty on CMDL; contains a bounding box used for depth sorting on MREA
+| '''Extra Data'''
 |-
-| colspan=4 {{unknown|End of surface header; pad to multiple of 32 before primitive data starts}}
+| colspan=5 {{unknown|End of surface header; pad to multiple of 32 before primitive data starts}}
 |}
@@ Line 146: / Line 157: @@
 |-
 | 0x98
-| Triangle strip
+| Triangle Strip
 |-
 | 0xA0
-| Triangle fan
+| Triangle Fan
 |-
 | 0xA8
@@ Line 155: / Line 166: @@
 |-
 | 0xB0
-| Line strip
+| Line Strip
 |-
 | 0xB8

@@ Line 183: / Line 183: @@
 === Surface Group IDs ===
-This section (and the following one) appears in [[MREA (File Format)|MREA files]] starting in Metroid Prime 2. In MP2, surfaces in world geometry are now merged together to create as few meshes as possible (meshes are now only split when the vertex count exceeds 65535). Two extra data sections are present to manage the resulting super-meshes to enable the game to extract smaller meshes out when needed.
+This section (and the following one) appears in [[MREA (File Format)|MREA files]] starting in Metroid Prime 2. Starting in MP2, surfaces in world geometry are now merged together to create as few meshes as possible (meshes are now only split when the vertex count exceeds 65535). Two extra data sections are present to manage the resulting super-meshes to enable the game to extract smaller meshes out when needed.
 This first section assigns a group ID to each surface, forming smaller meshes. This ID is used in various places that operate on world geometry, including in the [[AROT (MREA Section)|area octree]] as well as in the [[EGMC (File Format)|EGMC format]], among others.

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 An important thing to note off the bat is that both CMDL and MREA files are split up into a number of 32-byte-aligned ''sections''; their respective headers both declare a section count, and list the sizes of each section contained in the file. This is required to navigate to different parts of the file, and is required in order to read the geometry data correctly. Sections are generally split based on the type of data contained in them, so one section might contain vertex coordinates, while another contains a surface (submesh) definition. For the purposes of this article, each subheader will mark the start of a new section; use that as your cue to advance to the next one. Check the CMDL or MREA pages for more info on how the sections work.
-For vertex attributes, note that there's no count value present anywhere. If you want a rough count, you can divide the size of that attribute's section by the attribute's size.
+In the CMDL format, and in the MP1/2 MREA format, all data sections appear in the order that they are listed in this page. In the Prime 3/DKCR MREA format, the surface definitions, surface group IDs, and surface lookup table are shifted to a different part of the file.
 === Vertex Coordinates ===

@@ Line 218: / Line 218: @@
 | u16
 | '''Surface Group ID'''
-| Same ID, except area-relative (starting where the previous world model's group IDs left off).
+| Same ID, except area-relative (starting where the previous world model's group IDs left off). This is generally the ID that appears in other places to reference this group.
 |}

@@ Line 223: / Line 223: @@
 === Surface Lookup Table ===
-This is the second new MREA-exclusive section introduced in Metroid Prime 2. It provides a mapping of each surface group to the surfaces contained in it, so that surfaces can be quickly accessed by group ID.
+This is the second new [[MREA (File Format)|MREA]]-exclusive section introduced in Metroid Prime 2. It provides a mapping of each surface group to the surfaces contained in it, so that surfaces can be quickly accessed by group ID.
 {| class="wikitable"