2D Maps use 3 kinds of files:
- The actual map data (1Map_data.amb, 2Map_data.amb and 3Map_data.amb)
- Icon data used for tiles (Icon_data.amb)
- Icon graphic data (1Icon_gfx.amb, 2Icon_gfx.amb and 3Icon_gfx.amb)
Each of those contains multiple files which represent a specific map, icon data (tileset) or icon graphic.
Icon graphics are 5 bit images with a size of 16x16. They use a 32 color palette from Palettes.amb as follows:
| Tilesets | Palette |
|---|---|
| 1,2 | 1 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 4,5,6,7 | 7 |
| 8 | 10 |
Icon data files represent tilesets. There are 8 icon data files (tilesets).
Offsets are given in hex. Sizes/lengths in dec. 16 and 32 bit values are stored in big endian format. So the most significant bytes come first. Example: The value 0x1234 is stored as 0x12 0x34 and the value 0x12345678 is stored as 0x12 0x34 0x56 0x78.
| Offset | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0000 | uword | Number of data entries |
| 0x0002 | IconData[NumEntries] | Data entries |
A data entry (IconData) looks like this:
| Offset | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0000 | udword | Tile flags |
| 0x0004 | uword | Icon graphic index |
| 0x0006 | ubyte | Number of animation tiles |
| 0x0007 | ubyte | Color index (see Color) |
The icon graphic index refers to an icon graphic. The index starts with 1 (index 1 is the first icon graphic). The number of animation tiles specifies the number of icon graphics belonging to the tile's animation (e.g. water uses multiple tiles for animation). Non-animated tiles have a value of 1.
So if you have icon graphic index 1 and 3 animation tiles the icons 1, 2 and 3 are used for the animation.
The color index is used for the mini map (spell Magic Map View). There each tile is represented by a 2x2 pixel area with the given color. Background tiles just fill the 2x2 area while foreground tiles will draw the lower-left and upper-right pixel of this area only (only if the foreground tile index is not 0 of course).
| Offset | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x0000 | ubyte[12] | Header (see Maps) |
| 0x000C | ubyte[320] | Character references (see Maps) |
| 0x014C | TileData[Width*Height] | Map tile data |
| ... | ? | Map events etc |
A tile data entry (TileData) consists of 4 ubytes.
underlay_tile_index = tile_data[0];
map_event_index = tile_data[1];
overlay_tile_index = (tile_data[2] << 8) | tile_data[3];
Underlay is the background tile graphic and overlay an optional graphic on top of the background.
The indices refer to an IconData from the given tileset. Index 0 means 'nothing' or 'empty'.
Note: As underlay tiles are limited to 1 byte, they can only use the first 255 entries of the icon data (tileset).