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.

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.

Material Format

The material format starts with a 28-byte header, then after that is broken up into a bunch of subsections.

Header

Offset	Type	Size	Description	Notes
0x0	u32	4	Material size	Does not include size value
0x4	u32	4	Material flags	Only bottom 17 bits are valid
0x8	u32	4	Group index	Denotes groups of materials that share the same settings, but different textures.
0xC	u32	4	Unknown	Value is possibly unused; the material loading code seems to skip it
0x10	u32	4	Vertex attribute flags	Functionality is identical to Metroid Prime 2
0x14	u32	4	Unknown	Value is possibly unused; the material loading code seems to skip it
0x18	u32	4	Unknown
0x1C	u32	4	Unknown
0x20	End of header

Flags

Known flag values:

Bit	Hex	Description
0	0x1	Unknown
1	0x2	Unknown
2	0x4	Unknown
3	0x8	Unknown
4	0x10	Unknown
5	0x20	Enable additive blending (probably - needs verification)
6	0x40	Unknown
7	0x80	Unknown
8	0x100	Shadow occluder mesh; meshes using this material are not rendered, but can be used to cast dynamic shadows on actors
9	0x200	Unknown
10	0x400	Unknown
11	0x800	Unknown
12	0x1000	Unknown
13	0x2000	Unknown
14	0x4000	Unknown
15	0x8000	Unknown
16	0x10000	Unknown
17+	-	Unused

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

The PASS sections set up a single rendering pass, consisting of one TEV stage and potential other data to go with it (like a UV animation). One pass is 32 bytes (without the animation) and is structured as follows:

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	Pass Flags	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 Animation Size

If there's a UV anim, it is structured like this:

Offset	Type	Size	Description
0x0	u16	2	Unknown
0x2	u16	2	Unknown
0x4	u32	4	List of possible PASS subtypes: Type Description DIFF Lightmap BLOL Bloom lightmap CLR Diffuse map TRAN Greyscale opacity map INCA Emissive map RFLV Specular map RFLD Reflection/sphere map LRLD See RFLD LURD See RFLV BLOD See BLOL BLOI See BLOL XRAY Sphere map for X-Ray models; similar to RFLD Flags Known flag settings: Bit Hex Description 0 0x1 Unknown 1 0x2 Unknown 2 0x4 Unknown 3 0x8 Unknown 4 0x10 On TRAN, indicates that the texture map is inverted (ie. white is transparent, black is opaque). 5+ - Unused 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 Unknown DIFB Lightmap multiplier color 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 Sets the opacity of the entire material BLOD BLOI BNIF XRBR