arx-header-size

Returns the header size for Arx Fatalis files

This is needed, because the files are partially compressed and this number can be given
as an offset for node-pkware

Supported formats

- dlf (Danae Level File, contains general information about the level, used items and paths)
- fts (FasT Scene, contains the level mesh and textures)
- llf (Level Lighting File?, contains light entities and vertex colors)
- ftl (?, model files for entities)
- tea (?, animation files for entities)
- amb (Ambience, contains a list of audio files which are played in different locations)
- cin (Cinematics)

( https://wiki.arx-libertatis.org/Filetypes )

Compression for each format

$3

DLF files are partially compressed, they have a fixed header size of 8520 bytes.

8520 is also available as a constant: DLF_HEADER_SIZE

$3

FTS files are partially compressed, they have a fixed basic header with an arbitrary
amount of unique headers, where the amount of unique headers is stored on byte 256.

The total uncompressed header size is 280 + 768 * .

Arx Libertatis 1.3 snapshots released after 2022-09-17 contain a feature
where if byte 264 of an FTS file is set to 0 then it means the whole
file is uncompressed.

280 and 768 are both available as constants: FTS_HEADER_SIZE and FTS_UNIQUE_HEADER_SIZE respectively

$3

LLF files are fully compressed, there's no uncompressed header.

$3

All other files (FTL, TEA, AMB, CIN) are not compressed, they don't need to be uncompressed.

JS API

``ts
const rawFtsData: ArrayBuffer = ... // load the contents of an FTS file as an ArrayBuffer

const { total, header, uniqueHeaderSize, numberOfUniqueHeaders, compression } = getHeaderSize(rawFtsData)
switch (compression) {
case 'none': {
// file is uncompressed
break
}
case 'partial': {
// first bytes are uncompressed, the rest is compressed
break
}
case 'full': {
// the whole file is compressed
break
}
}
`

CLI

npx arx-header-size "C:\arx\arx-pak-full\final\GAME\GRAPH\Levels\level8\fast.fts"

outputs 1816

npx arx-header-size fast.fts --hex

outputs 0x718

npx arx-header-size level8.dlf.unpacked.json --format=dlf

outputs 8520

cat level8.fts | arx-header-size --format=fts

Command Line Parameters

$3

arx-header-size --version or arx-header-size -v

gives back the version of arx-header-size

$3

arx-header-size --hex fast.fts

gives back the header size in hexadecimal string instead of decimal with 0x prefix

$3

arx-header-size fast.fts --verbose

prints out more details of the header

`
format: FTS

total uncompressed data in bytes: 1816 (0x718)

header size: 280 (0x118)
unique header size: 768 (0x300)
number of unique headers: 2
``