Bitmaps · bei.pm
The file formats described on this page are based on the technical analysis of intellectual property by Dynamix, Inc. and Sierra Entertainment.
The intellectual property is now part of the Activision Publishing, Inc. / Activision Blizzard, Inc. estate and is currently owned by Microsoft Corp..
The information has been gathered through Reverse Engineering and Data Analysis for the purposes of archiving and interoperability with historical data.
No proprietary or confidential specifications were used.
The game is currently available for purchase as a download at gog.com.
| Addr | x0 | x1 | x2 | x3 | x4 | x5 | x6 | x7 | x8 | x9 | xA | xB | xC | xD | xE | xF | char | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0000 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| 0x0010 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| Offset | Data type | Designation | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x0000 | uint(32) | Aligned width | Indicates the width of the pixel data rows in bytes - as these are aligned to 4-byte boundaries. This allows for quick access to a specific image row. It is unclear why this value is stored separately, even though it could be calculated. |
| 0x0004 | uint(32) | Offset | Indicates the offset of the first line in the bitmap |
| 0x0008 | uint(32) | Height | Specifies the height of the image in pixels |
| 0x000c | uint(32) | Width | Specifies the width of the image in pixels |
| 0x0010 | uint(16) | Type | Indicates the type of image. It appears to be a bitmask:
|
| 0x0012 | uint(16) | Palette | Defines which palette from the PRT file should be used |
This data structure of the PRT file specifies how the bitmaps used for the sprites are constructed. These bitmaps serve as individual components, from which several are assembled into an animation frame of a sprite.
The actual image data, on the other hand, is hidden in the
op2_art.BMP in the game directory.
It is unclear why this bitmap file has a (mostly correct) RIFF bitmap header. It is likely that Outpost 2 uses system APIs to load the graphics by temporarily adopting this header and overwriting the relevant, varying fields.
The pixel data can be found in the BMP file at the position Offset + the uint32-offset, which can be found at address 0x000A in the BMP file (RIFF bitmap data offset), and again corresponds to the row-wise arrangement from the top left to the bottom right.
Monochrome 1bpp graphics can be drawn in such a way that colour 0 represents complete transparency, while colour 1 is a semi-transparent black/grey, as monochrome graphics are typically used for vehicle and building shadows in the animations.
This allows for a considerable amount of graphics to be assembled.
Protected Living Module (Plymouth)