RIFF files in other games - Future Cop LAPD
Posted: Fri Jun 07, 2024 6:16 pm
Hey there, sorry for being a bit off-topic.
There is a game with files that are somewhat similiar to those of Lego Island.
It's Future Cop LAPD for the PC (there is also a Playstation 1 Version). This is a game i really enjoy and i would absolutely love to have a level editor for it.
So with this idea in mind i started looking at the files. This was like.. not quite ten years ago...
While i did manage to figure some things out, that level editor is way out of reach for me
There is 1 file per map. And that file stores everything needed for that level. All the audio, the textures, etc.
They are basically large RIFF files with all kinds of funky media inside.
The easiest chunks to identify are the sound effects, which are just wave files. With the propeer RIFF header and everything.
Voice and Music are also easy to spot. They are raw PCM and can be imported into audacity.
I half figured out how the textures work.. I've managed to grab the pixel data and import it as a raw image in gimp. But only as a greyscale.
I'm pretty sure there is a color palette, but i don't have the slightest clue how to combine the two.
You can find a more proper writeup of what i found out here: https://fastupload.io/e098df23f33c5aed
I did write a command line tool in c to export chunks and whole containers, as well as a list of the file structure.
I'm not a very talented programmer though.. if someone wants to take a look anyway, give me a shout.
Since youtube keeps recommending lego island content to me and since the file structure seems somewhat similiar, i thought i'd share this with this fine community. Maybe someone here is interested in another challenge. Or maybe there is even something to learn from this for the lego project.
One last thing. Future Cop was supposed to be part of the strike series (as in Urban Strike, Soviet Strike, Nuclear Strike, etc..) but then became it's own thing. It do think it's from the same people. So there is a chance that the strike games are made in the same fashion. I never bothered to check though.
There is a game with files that are somewhat similiar to those of Lego Island.
It's Future Cop LAPD for the PC (there is also a Playstation 1 Version). This is a game i really enjoy and i would absolutely love to have a level editor for it.
So with this idea in mind i started looking at the files. This was like.. not quite ten years ago...
While i did manage to figure some things out, that level editor is way out of reach for me
There is 1 file per map. And that file stores everything needed for that level. All the audio, the textures, etc.
They are basically large RIFF files with all kinds of funky media inside.
The easiest chunks to identify are the sound effects, which are just wave files. With the propeer RIFF header and everything.
Voice and Music are also easy to spot. They are raw PCM and can be imported into audacity.
I half figured out how the textures work.. I've managed to grab the pixel data and import it as a raw image in gimp. But only as a greyscale.
I'm pretty sure there is a color palette, but i don't have the slightest clue how to combine the two.
You can find a more proper writeup of what i found out here: https://fastupload.io/e098df23f33c5aed
I did write a command line tool in c to export chunks and whole containers, as well as a list of the file structure.
I'm not a very talented programmer though.. if someone wants to take a look anyway, give me a shout.
Since youtube keeps recommending lego island content to me and since the file structure seems somewhat similiar, i thought i'd share this with this fine community. Maybe someone here is interested in another challenge. Or maybe there is even something to learn from this for the lego project.
One last thing. Future Cop was supposed to be part of the strike series (as in Urban Strike, Soviet Strike, Nuclear Strike, etc..) but then became it's own thing. It do think it's from the same people. So there is a chance that the strike games are made in the same fashion. I never bothered to check though.