dragon-hd/docs/formats.md

File formats

All addresses are absolute VAs in TheIOfTheDragon.exe (image base 0x400000).

1. Data\Misc\Strings.dat — plain text

Same syntax as the other .dat files, but not obfuscated. Blocks look like:

String
{
	Id = "WindowCaption"
	English = "..."
	Russian = "..."
	German  = "..."
}

• 499 blocks in the Steam build. Keys are String{ Id, English, Russian, German } (retail multilanguage builds also carry Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Hungarian/Russian variants split across separate installed files).
• Translate only the language values. Never touch Id.
• The file is single-byte code page text (Russian is CP1251).

2. Data\Misc\Fonts.dat, UnitDescription.dat, AIDescription.dat — XOR-obfuscated text

Layout: b"==" + XOR(plaintext, repeating key).

• Magic == at VA 0x620D24.
• Repeating XOR key GBDFYTNE (8 bytes) at VA 0x620D18.
• Decoder/encoder routine at 0x4AE1D0.

Decoded, these are the same text format as Strings.dat:

• Fonts.dat: Font { Name; Language; Texture; SpaceWidth; LineDistance; Char { Code; X1;Y1;X2;Y2 } ... }
• UnitDescription.dat: unit/enemy definitions (Russian comments in CP1251 + English keys).
• AIDescription.dat: Brain { AI = ...; TypeAI = ...; ... }.

Round-trip is exact; see tools/decode_dat.py.

3. res archives (Textures.res, Geometry.res)

uint32  count
repeat count:
    uint32  nameLen
    char[]  name            (backslash separated)
    uint32  offset          (absolute file offset)
    uint32  size            (exact blob size)
pad the index to 16 bytes
data region:
    for each entry: write blob, then pad to 16-byte boundary
    (the last blob is NOT padded)

• All offsets are 16-byte aligned.
• Textures.res holds 1884 entries: 947 TGA + 935 DDS (DXT1/DXT5) + 2 misc.
• res_unpack.py / res_repack.py round-trip is byte identical (verified by SHA1).

4. Scripts

• Data\Scripts\<Language>\MainMission.dsc, Tutorial.dsc — plain text, loaded by the engine (path template Data\Scripts\%s\...; .dsc is referenced, .csc is not).
• Block-structured scripting language. Quoted strings are of two kinds:
  • display text (translate): SetMissionDescription("...")
  • logic identifiers (never translate): event names EnableEvent("TimePassed"), LastEvent_Type == "TimePassed", commands EntityCommand("FaceThePlayer",...), modes SetGlobalAIMode("Disable"), unit types CreateEntity(..., "Human", ...), etc.
• Translating logic identifiers is what breaks mission triggers ("完成任务不触发剧情").

5. Language mechanism

• Current language: registry HKCU\Software\Primal\Dragon value language.
• Assets are per-language by folder: Data\Scripts\<L>, Data\Sounds\Speech\<L>, Data\Video\<L>, Data\Textures\Ui\...\<L>.
• Fonts.dat / Strings.dat are installed per language group (observed: [en de] [pl] [cs] [hu]; Steam build ships a single English variant with English/Russian/German).
• Loose files under Data\Textures\... override the packed copies.

6. Textures

• TGA: uncompressed 24/32 bpp and RLE 32 bpp.
• DDS: DXT1 (535) and DXT5 (400), plus dimensions from 8x8 up to 1024x1024.
• Total 63.6 Mpix across 1884 textures.