BMG - Revision history

ShimmerFairy: Put in proper links to the WW and TP detail pages for BMG files.

2025-03-23T15:12:17Z

Put in proper links to the WW and TP detail pages for BMG files.

ShimmerFairy: Even more lies, huh.

2025-03-23T13:25:20Z

Even more lies, huh.

ShimmerFairy: MediaWiki documentation lied to me.

2025-03-23T13:24:18Z

MediaWiki documentation lied to me.

ShimmerFairy: The start of an overhaul to BMG documentation.

2025-03-23T13:23:33Z

The start of an overhaul to BMG documentation.

Show changes

Gamma: /* INF1 Entry */

2016-04-22T01:23:00Z

‎INF1 Entry

Gamma: /* INF1 Entry */

2016-04-22T00:17:14Z

‎INF1 Entry

Gamma: /* INF1 Entry */

2016-04-22T00:01:45Z

‎INF1 Entry

Einstein95: /* File Header */

2015-11-06T06:14:42Z

‎File Header

Einstein95: Add general BMG info

2015-11-06T06:12:15Z

Add general BMG info

Gamma at 05:56, 6 November 2015

2015-11-06T05:56:25Z

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The BMG file format is designed to store a game's "messages", which really refers to any piece of text that may be displayed by the game. Games such as Wind Waker and Twilight Princess use multiple such BMG files to organize all the text they'll display to the player.
-This file format is a part of JSystem, and thus is used in many games beyond these two Zelda titles. The file format is tailored to each game's needs, and is designed in such a way that software can be written to handle any game's BMG files generically. This page goes over the generic structure of BMG files, with additional pages set aside to detail info specific to [[BMG/Wind Waker|Wind Waker]] or [[BMG/Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]].
+This file format is a part of JSystem, and thus is used in many games beyond these two Zelda titles. The file format is tailored to each game's needs, and is designed in such a way that software can be written to handle any game's BMG files generically. This page goes over the generic structure of BMG files, with additional pages set aside to detail info specific to [[WW:BMG|Wind Waker]] or [[TP:BMG|Twilight Princess]].
 == File Format ==
@@ Line 88: / Line 88: @@
 |}
-Naturally, if you want to do anything interesting with the attribute data, you'll need to know how the game it comes from has defined it. Each game is free to set up this attribute data however it wishes, and may even use different formats in different BMG files. We have specific notes on Wind Waker's message attributes and Twilight Princess's message attributes in their respective detail pages.
+Naturally, if you want to do anything interesting with the attribute data, you'll need to know how the game it comes from has defined it. Each game is free to set up this attribute data however it wishes, and may even use different formats in different BMG files. We have specific notes on [[WW:BMG#Message Attributes|Wind Waker's message attributes]] and [[TP:BMG#Message Attributes|Twilight Princess's message attributes]] in their respective detail pages.
 ==== <code>DAT1</code> — Message Data ====
@@ Line 242: / Line 242: @@
 |}
-'''Note:''' Even though tags report their size, games may assume that particular tags have a particular size of payload it expects to get. The presence of a size value does not imply that tags can accept a variable number of arguments, it merely allows for generic processing of message strings.
+'''Note:''' Even though tags report their size, games may assume that particular tags have a particular size of payload, and just grab the next however many bytes it wants after the tag number. The presence of a size value does not imply that tags can accept a variable number of arguments, it merely allows for generic processing of message strings.
-The tag group and tag number together uniquely identify the tag's purpose and functionality. See the Wind Waker and Twilight Princess detail pages for more about each game's set of tags.
+The tag group and tag number together uniquely identify the tag's purpose and functionality. See the [[WW:BMG#Tags|Wind Waker]] and [[TP:BMG#Tags|Twilight Princess]] detail pages for more about each game's set of tags.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The BMG file format is designed to store a game's "messages", which really refers to any piece of text that may be displayed by the game. Games such as Wind Waker and Twilight Princess use multiple such BMG files to organize all the text they'll display to the player.
-This file format is a part of JSystem, and thus is used in many games beyond these two Zelda titles. The file format is tailored to each game's needs, and is designed in such a way that software can be written to handle any game's BMG files generically. This page goes over the generic structure of BMG files, with additional pages set aside to detail info specific to [[/Wind Waker|Wind Waker]] or [[/Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]].
+This file format is a part of JSystem, and thus is used in many games beyond these two Zelda titles. The file format is tailored to each game's needs, and is designed in such a way that software can be written to handle any game's BMG files generically. This page goes over the generic structure of BMG files, with additional pages set aside to detail info specific to [[BMG/Wind Waker|Wind Waker]] or [[BMG/Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]].
 == File Format ==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 The BMG file format is designed to store a game's "messages", which really refers to any piece of text that may be displayed by the game. Games such as Wind Waker and Twilight Princess use multiple such BMG files to organize all the text they'll display to the player.
-This file format is a part of JSystem, and thus is used in many games beyond these two Zelda titles. The file format is tailored to each game's needs, and is designed in such a way that software can be written to handle any game's BMG files generically. This page goes over the generic structure of BMG files, with additional pages set aside to detail info specific to [[/Wind Waker/]] or [[/Twilight Princess/]].
+This file format is a part of JSystem, and thus is used in many games beyond these two Zelda titles. The file format is tailored to each game's needs, and is designed in such a way that software can be written to handle any game's BMG files generically. This page goes over the generic structure of BMG files, with additional pages set aside to detail info specific to [[/Wind Waker|Wind Waker]] or [[/Twilight Princess|Twilight Princess]].
 == File Format ==

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 /*0x06*/ short ItemPrice; // If this message presents a choice for buying an item, this value determines how many Rupees Link must have to buy the item.
-/*0x08*/ short NextMessageID; // This is the ID of the message that comes next if this is a chain of dialog. HOWEVER, it appears to be for the developers' benefit as changing it does nothing to the actual text.
+/*0x08*/ short NextMessageID; // This is the ID of the message that comes next if this is a chain of dialog. HOWEVER, there is a variable somewhere outside the message that tells the engine to continue on to this message. Having this set to a non-zero value does not make the text continue.
 /*0x0A*/ short UnknownFiled3;

@@ Line 47: / Line 47: @@
 /*0x06*/ short ItemPrice; // If this message presents a choice for buying an item, this value determines how many Rupees Link must have to buy the item.
-/*0x08*/ short UnknownField2;
+/*0x08*/ short NextMessageID; // This is the ID of the message that comes next if this is a chain of dialog. HOWEVER, it appears to be for the developers' benefit as changing it does nothing to the actual text.
 /*0x0A*/ short UnknownFiled3;

@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 /*0x04*/ short StringID;
-/*0x06*/ short UnknownField1;
+/*0x06*/ short ItemPrice; // If this message presents a choice for buying an item, this value determines how many Rupees Link must have to buy the item.
 /*0x08*/ short UnknownField2;
@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 /*0x0C*/ byte TextBoxType;
-/*0x0D*/ byte DrawType; //Either the text will draw by character, like L-I-N-K, or it will all appear at once, like LINK.
+/*0x0D*/ byte DrawType; // Either the text will draw by character, like L-I-N-K, or it will all appear at once, like LINK.
-/*0x0E*/ byte BoxPosition; //Top/middle/bottom of the screen
+/*0x0E*/ byte BoxPosition; // Top/middle/bottom of the screen
-/*0x0F*/ byte ItemID; //Only used for "You got the thing!" text
+/*0x0F*/ byte ItemID; // Only used for "You got the thing!" text
-/*0x10*/ byte Unknown1; //Usually set when itemID is set, too
+/*0x10*/ byte Unknown1; // Usually set when itemID is set, too
-/*0x11*/ byte InitialSoundId; //Sound to play when text begins to draw
+/*0x11*/ byte InitialSoundId; // Sound to play when text begins to draw
-/*0x12*/ byte InitialCameraBehavior; //Where the camera should look when the text begins to draw
+/*0x12*/ byte InitialCameraBehavior; // Where the camera should look when the text begins to draw
-/*0x13*/ byte InitialSpeakerAnim; //What the speaking character should do when the text begins to draw
+/*0x13*/ byte InitialSpeakerAnim; // What the speaking character should do when the text begins to draw
 /*0x14*/ byte Unknown5;
-/*0x15*/ short NumLines; //Maximum number of lines per box
+/*0x15*/ short NumLines; // Maximum number of lines per box
 /*0x17*/ byte Padding;

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 /*0x08*/ int FileSize; //Doesn't seem to be right. Normally size up to, but not including, the FLW1 and FLI1 sectors
-/*0x0C*/ int SecNum; //Number of sectors
+/*0x0C*/ int SecNum; //Number of sections
 /*0x10*/ byte Encoding; //1: CP1252, 2: UTF-16, 3: Shift-JIS, 4: UTF-8. Only CP1252 and Shift-JIS used in WW

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 /*0x00*/ const string Magic = "MESGbmg1";
-/*0x08*/ int FileSize; //Doesn't seem to be right
+/*0x08*/ int FileSize; //Doesn't seem to be right. Normally size up to, but not including, the FLW1 and FLI1 sectors
-/*0x0C*/ short UnknownField1; //Zero
+/*0x0C*/ int SecNum; //Number of sectors
-/*0x0E*/ short UnknownField2; //Two
+/*0x10*/ byte Encoding; //1: CP1252, 2: UTF-16, 3: Shift-JIS, 4: UTF-8. Only CP1252 and Shift-JIS used in WW
 </syntaxhighlight>
@@ Line 34: / Line 32: @@
 /*0x0A*/ short EntrySize; //Size in bytes of one entry
-/*0x0C*/ const int Padding = 0;
+/*0x0C*/ short UnknownField1; //0
 </syntaxhighlight>

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 == File Header ==
-<code>
+<syntaxhighlight lang="csharp">
 //0x20/32dec bytes long
-/*0x00*/ const string Magic = "MESGbmg1";<br>
+/*0x00*/ const string Magic = "MESGbmg1";
-/*0x08*/ int FileSize; //Doesn't seem to be right<br>
-/*0x0C*/ short UnknownField1; //Zero<br>
+/*0x08*/ int FileSize; //Doesn't seem to be right
-/*0x0E*/ short UnknownField2; //Two<br>
-/*0x10*/ byte UnknownFiled3; //1 for English NTSC, 3 for Japanese NTSC. Encoding flag? Furigana flag?<br>
+/*0x0C*/ short UnknownField1; //Zero
-</code>
 == INF1 ==
@@ Line 18: / Line 23: @@
 === Header ===
-<code>
+<syntaxhighlight lang="csharp">
 //0x10/16dec bytes long
-/*0x00*/ const string Magic = "INF1";<br>
+/*0x00*/ const string Magic = "INF1";
-/*0x04*/ int SectionSize; //Size of the INF1 section<br>
-/*0x08*/ short EntryCount;<br>
+/*0x04*/ int SectionSize; //Size of the INF1 section
-/*0x0A*/ short EntrySize; //Size in bytes of one entry<br>
-/*0x0C*/ const int Padding = 0;<br>
+/*0x08*/ short EntryCount;
-</code>
 === INF1 Entry ===
-<code>
+<syntaxhighlight lang="csharp">
 //In TWW, all entries are 0x18/24dec bytes long
-/*0x00*/ int StringOffset;<br>
+/*0x00*/ int StringOffset;
-/*0x04*/ short StringID;<br>
-/*0x06*/ short UnknownField1;<br>
+/*0x04*/ short StringID;
-/*0x08*/ short UnknownField2;<br>
-/*0x0A*/ short UnknownFiled3;<br>
+/*0x06*/ short UnknownField1;
-/*0x0C*/ byte TextBoxType;<br>
-/*0x0D*/ byte DrawType; //Either the text will draw by character, like L-I-N-K, or it will all appear at once, like LINK.<br>
+/*0x08*/ short UnknownField2;
-/*0x0E*/ byte BoxPosition; //Top/middle/bottom of the screen<br>
-/*0x0F*/ byte ItemID; //Only used for "You got the thing!" text<br>
+/*0x0A*/ short UnknownFiled3;
-/*0x10*/ byte Unknown1; //Usually set when itemID is set, too<br>
-/*0x11*/ byte InitialSoundId; //Sound to play when text begins to draw<br>
+/*0x0C*/ byte TextBoxType;
-/*0x12*/ byte InitialCameraBehavior; //Where the camera should look when the text begins to draw<br>
-/*0x13*/ byte InitialSpeakerAnim; //What the speaking character should do when the text begins to draw<br>
+/*0x0D*/ byte DrawType; //Either the text will draw by character, like L-I-N-K, or it will all appear at once, like LINK.
-/*0x14*/ byte Unknown5;<br>
-/*0x15*/ short NumLines; //Maximum number of lines per box<br>
+/*0x0E*/ byte BoxPosition; //Top/middle/bottom of the screen
-/*0x17*/ byte Padding;<br>
-</code>
+/*0x0F*/ byte ItemID; //Only used for "You got the thing!" text
 == DAT1 ==
@@ Line 55: / Line 79: @@
 === Header ===
-<code>
+<syntaxhighlight lang="csharp">
 //8 bytes long
-/*0x00*/ const string Magic = "DAT1";<br>
+/*0x00*/ const string Magic = "DAT1";
-/*0x04*/ int SectionSize;<br>
-</code>
+/*0x04*/ int SectionSize;
 == See Also ==
 * [[BMC]], the color bank used by certain control codes to recolor the font