Materials (Metroid Prime 3)
The format for materials saw a dramatic overhaul in Metroid Prime 3. The format is seen in both the CMDL and MREA formats and is identical in both. This particular material format appears in Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and Donkey Kong Country Returns.
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This file format needs more research Need to find TEV values for each subsection type |
Material Set Format
Materials come as part of a set; although most files will only have one set, some CMDLs will have more, as indicated by a count value in the header. The set format is merely a 32-bit count value followed by that number of materials, with each material beginning with a 32-bit size value.
Material Format
Every material begins with a 0x1C-byte header, followed by a number of subsections. The header is structured as follows:
| Offset | Type | Size | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | u32 | 4 | Material Flags | Only bottom 17 bits are valid |
| 0x4 | u32 | 4 | Unknown | |
| 0x8 | u32 | 4 | Unknown | Value is possibly unused; the material loading code seems to skip it |
| 0xC | u32 | 4 | Vertex attribute flags | Functionality is identical to Metroid Prime 2 |
| 0x10 | u32 | 4 | Unknown | Value is possibly unused; the material loading code seems to skip it |
| 0x14 | u32 | 4 | Unknown | |
| 0x18 | u32 | 4 | Unknown | |
| 0x1C | End of header | |||
Subsections
The rest of the material data is made up of a number of subsections. These subsections generally set different texture slots, as well as other parameters like Konst colors and material opacity. There's no count for the number of subsections; it needs to be read in using a while loop. The "END " section denotes the end of the material.
The order of the subsections doesn't matter. One material can only have one of each type of subsection; if there's any additional ones, they will overwrite the previous ones.
There are three subsection types (aside from END): PASS, CLR, and INT. Each of these types has a number of subtypes.
PASS
| Offset | Type | Size | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | u32 | 4 | PASS subsection size | |
| 0x4 | char[4] | 4 | Section subtype fourCC | See below for possible subtypes |
| 0x8 | u32 | 4 | Unknown | Only bottom 5 bits are valid |
| 0xC | TXTR | 8 | Texture ID | |
| 0x14 | u32 | 4 | UV Source | Only bottom 4 bits are valid |
| 0x18 | u32 | 4 | UV animations size | Needs verification; only bottom 8 bits are valid |
List of possible PASS subtypes:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
DIFF
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Commonly used for lightmaps, can be used interchangeably with CLR
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BLOL
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Gaussian Blur lightmap, unknown how to apply properly. |
CLR
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Likely color map, similar to DIFF; commonly used for diffuse maps
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TRAN
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Greyscale opacity map; white indicates transparent, black indicates opaque (Retro is backwards) |
INCA
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Emissive maps |
RFLV
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Specular map, oddly seems to use the same texture as CLR/DIFF in most cases. |
RFLD
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Reflection/Sphere maps |
LRLD
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See RFLD |
LURD
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See RFLV |
BLOD
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See BLOL |
BLOI
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See BLOL |
XRAY
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Sphere map for X-Ray models, behaves in the same manner as RFLD, usually with a mode 0 UV animation. |
CLR
| Offset | Type | Size | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | char[4] | 4 | Section subtype fourCC | See below for possible subtypes |
| 0x4 | u32 | 4 | Color value | 32-bit RGBA value |
List of possible CLR subtypes:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
CLR
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DIFB
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INT
| Offset | Type | Size | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0 | char[4] | 4 | Section subtype fourCC | See below for possible subtypes |
| 0x4 | u32 | 4 | Value | Actually an 8-bit value; the top 24 bits are ignored |
List of possible INT subtypes:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
OPAC
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Sets the opacity of the entire material |
BLOD
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BLOI
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BNIF
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XRBR
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