Table of Contents
OFP raP File Format
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Operation Flashpoint (OFP) aka ArmA: Cold War Assault (CWA)
Caveat
Althugh similar in construct and intent, if you are researching the nitty gritty of raP File Format - Elite or raP File Format - ArmA raP encoded files, you should read those topics instead. This document deals, specifically, with raP files encountered in OFP / OFP Resistance only.
Introduction
raP encoding applies to any humanly readable text file in OFP that contains class statements. Examples of files that are, or should be, raPified, are mission.sqm, config.cpp, description.ext.
In fact, any text file that contains class statements, contains nothing else but class statements. So much so, that entire contents of that file, is considered to be a class!
eg
class mission.sqm
{
...
};
The fact of the matter is, if you do not raPify these files, the engine will before using them (and thus causing uneccessary cpu load)
raP encoding simply means that the data inherent in these types of files has been sanitised (stripped of commments and crud) and massaged into a form of indexed lookup table for the engine to use directly. Once done, it is free of the need to check for syntax errors, among other things. Hence, much much faster processing.
These types of files were once known as 'binarised' files. They are no such thing. They are simply a cleaner. closer equivalent to what the engine uses internally. For instance, all your savegames are raP encoded (there is no, text equivalent).
A raP encoded file is detected by the magic signature '\0raP' in the first four bytes of the file. Because of the leading 0 byte, no text file can inadvertently have this signature.
Importantly, the filename extension is immaterial.
The engine will work with config.cpp as a raP encoded entity, just as it would work with config.bin.
Tools
Various utilities exist which refer to binary <> cpp compression and extraction (or encoding and decoding). Again, these terms are misleading because the file concerned is not executable binary data, just tokenised strings and values.
Basics
There is no need here to elaborately define what a mission.sqm file is. But, it is worth understanding the basics of these (types of) files to understand the very small requirements needed to raPify them.
class files only contain 3 types of construct
ClassNames, TokenNames, Arrays
class classname [:inherit] {...};
[:inherit] is optional and simply refers to another classname.
(For your interest the [] are known as bacchus naur format and mean optional. Whatever is within the […] is optional. The [] do not appear in the text file).
The class body, the {…} contains more, Classnames, TokenNames, Arrays, or nothing at all.
TokenNames come in 3 flavours
aString="A string"; anInteger=77; aFloat 1.855;
For more on this subject, see TokenNameValueTypes
Arrays
anArray[]={......};
an array containing elements including (possibly) more arrays or more TokenNames (but not classes)
thing[]={ 1.0, 7.67, "Elephants", fred[]={......} };
raPifying encodes each of these basic types.
Construct
all raPified data can be expressed as
class filename
{
class FirstEmbeddedClass
{
... tokenames
class FirstEmbeddedEmbeddedClass
{
...
};
...
};
...
class LastEmbeddedClass
{
};
};
[an optional enumerated list]
Header
A raPified file has the first 4 bytes of the file encoded as follows:
"\0raP"
For OFP and Resistance the next three bytes are
"\004\0\0"
see elsewhere for Elite and ArmA.
The rest of the file contain Class Body packets of 3 different construct types with the 1st byte defining what 'type' it is.
Thus
struct ClassBody
{
byte PacketType; // 0 Classname
// 1 TokenName
// 2 Array
....... depends on packet type
};
The very first packet encountered is a classname. It is the enclosing class for *everything* else in the file. The name of his class is the name of the file. It is *not* recorded in humanly readable text output.
Packets
PacketType0: Classname
class Classname: InheritedClassName { Packets... };
struct ClassPacket
{
byte PacketType; // = 0 == class
[[#IndexedString]] Classname;
Asciiz InheritedClassName; // optional or zero length string
[[#BIS_Integer]] nImbeddedPackets; // Iterates thru embedded Packet(s) can be zero
};
Having no embedded packets is quite legal.
The embedded packets, eg, the body of this class, immediately follows this packet.
Bare in mind, that the following data (the body of this class) may indeed have further embedded packets, which may have further embedded packets, which may have… All of which are contiguous in the datastream (OFP Only).
PacketType1: TokenNames
The 2nd byte of this packet defines what type of variable. Thus
struct VarPacket
{
byte PacketType; // = 1
byte VarType; // 0 String
// 1 Float
// 2 Integer
IndexedString SomeName;
.... depends on VarType
};
VarType0 String
SomeName=“SomeOtherName”;
struct VarTypString
{
byte PacketType; // = 1
byte VarType; // = 0
IndexedString SomeName;
IndexedString SomeOtherName;
};
VarType1 Float
SomeName=1.23445;
struct VarTypFloat
{
byte PacketType; // = 1
byte VarType; // = 1
IndexedString SomeName;
float value; // 4 bytes
};
VarType2 Integer
SomeName=123;
struct VarTypLongInteger
{
byte PacketType; // = 1
byte VarType; // = 2
IndexedString SomeName;
int value; // 4 bytes
};
PacketType2: Arrays
Arrays[] contain four possible element types. They are the traditional variables mentioned above with an added tweak of an embedded array type.
thus
SomeName[]={ Element,Element[],“element”,….};
struct ArrayPacket
{
byte PacketType; // = 2
[[#IndexedString]] SomeName;
[[#CompressedInteger]] nElements; // iterate thru ConstTypes, can be 0
.... a series of ArrayTypes
};
Similar to classes, the embedded ArrayTypes follow immediately in the data stream (OFP only).
ArrayType0 String
“SomeName”,
struct ArrayString
{
byte VarType; // = 0
[[#IndexedString]] SomeName;
};
ArrayType1 Float
1.234,
struct ArrayFloat
{
byte VarType; // = 1
float value; // 4 bytes
};
ArrayType2 Integer
123,
struct ArrayInteger
{
byte VarType; // = 2
int value; // 4 bytes
};
ArrayType3 Embedded_Array
{array(…},….},
struct EmbeddedArray
{
byte VarType; // = 3
[[#CompressedInteger]] nElements; // iterate thru
... series of array elememts in '''this''' embedded array
};
with the above construct (embedded array) each embedded array can contain any ArrayType, including, another embedded array. The difference of course is these embedded arrays have no individual name associated with them (unlike the packet array).
Added Wrinkles
enums
Optionally, a raPified file can contain an enum table at the end of the filename class definitions.
The location of this list, if present, is known by the fact that
class mission.sqm
{
....
int nEmbeddedClasses;
...
};
encloses all data before it, and the number of embededd classes is known.
The next four bytes after the primary class body declare the number of entires in the enumerated list.
Long NumberOfEntries;
This value might not be present (EOF) reached, or, equaully, it's value is zero.
Struct EnumTable
{
Asciiz String;
Long value; // an integer
}[NumberOfEntries];
In OFP, this enum construct is rarely encountered. Most often #defines are used, which are pre-processed and expanded by whatever tool (and modeller) is creating the raPified file.
Type Definitions
CompressedInteger
An integer to the engine is a four byte value. A long.
To conserve space, a mild form of compression is used, mostly, to scrunch short values in the range 1 to 65k and use 1, or 2 bytes instead of four.
Bit 7 of the byte is the indicator that this is an extension byte, as opposed to a simple value.
When encountered as set, it means the next byte, *also* contributes to making up the real value, and so on.
up to five bytes, _could_ in theory be used to represent the true value. In practice, i have only ever seen a maximum of two.
The following code is a poetic example only of handling a possible two byte pair. In truth, a while loop should be used.
{
int val;
if ((val = GetByte())==EOF) return EOF;
if (val & 0x80)
{
int extra;
if ((extra = GetByte())==EOF) return EOF;
val += (extra - 1) * 0x80;
}
return val;
}
IndexedString
struct
{
Bis_Short index;
Asciiz String;
};
A table of strings is accumalated according to it's index number when that specific index number is first encountered.
Although the values appear to be ordinal (0,1,2,3,4,5) you should not assume so.
0 ="Peter" 1="Paul" 2="Mary"
These are defined index strings and appear, individually, and uniquely, within the mission.sqm as and when they are first encountered. From then on you will only see an index string as
1="";
because 1 has been defined earlier on.
Note that this is unlike a postscript dictionary in that strings are defined on an add-hoc basis, not at beginning, only when encountered, thus
0="peter" 0= 0= 1="mary" 0= 1= 0= 2="fred" 2= 1= etc