FSL - Obstacle Course Data

SYSTEM3.FSL is the main script file that Vib-Ribbon uses to control obstacles and other on-screen effects during gameplay. There are 6 exact copies of this file on the PAL disk, one for each language:

• GAME/01_FILES.PAK/SCRIPT/SYSTEM3.FSL (Japanese)
• GAME/02_FILES.PAK/SCRIPT/SYSTEM3.FSL (English)
• GAME/04_FILES.PAK/SCRIPT/SYSTEM3.FSL (German)
• GAME/08_FILES.PAK/SCRIPT/SYSTEM3.FSL (Spanish)
• GAME/10_FILES.PAK/SCRIPT/SYSTEM3.FSL (French)
• GAME/20_FILES.PAK/SCRIPT/SYSTEM3.FSL (Italian)

File Layout

SYSTEM3.FSL is composed of 7 sections of data in order as follows:

• Header: Stores the size of each table and other parameters.
• Fixed Pattern Table: Lookup table of patterns that send obstacles in a fixed, repeating order.
• Distribution Pattern Table: Lookup table of patterns that send obstacles in random order with a given seed and distribution.
• Control Segment Table: Time segments for each track that control the speed and gap between obstacles.
• Pattern Segment Table: Time segments for each track that determine which pattern to use for a section of obstacles. Each segment points to an index in either the fixed pattern table or distribution pattern table.
• Event Segment Table: Time segments for each track that trigger camera events and other miscellaneous effects.
• Track Index Table: Assigns each track an index in the control, pattern, and effect segment tables.

The system file contains a total of 7 tracks, including 2 tracks for each of the main courses (Bronze, Silver, Gold), and one very large track for custom CDs. Tracks are always stored in the following order:

• Track 0: Polaroid (Bronze)
• Track 1: Sunny Day (Bronze)
• Track 2: Laugh & Peace (Silver)
• Track 3: Universal Dance (Silver)
• Track 4: Overflowing Emotions (Gold)
• Track 5: Roll Along (Gold)
• Track 6: Custom CD

When playing a standard course, the game starts at time 0x0 and locates the first time segment for the current track in each of the control, pattern, and event segment tables. These time segments control different parameters during gameplay, such as the pattern to spawn obstacles, how fast these obstacles move toward Vibri, and the camera angle for a particular section of the song.

When playing a custom CD, the game will select a random start time between 0x0 and 0x5D5DDB0. The game then starts playing time segments in order from that starting position. If the CD has multiple tracks, each track will be assigned a random index in an array of start times.

The custom CD track orders times segments in each table from lowest to highest difficulty. This means that a CD with several tracks can get a mix of easy and hard courses, but the difficulty may jump around between tracks.

Header

Starts at byte offset 0x00.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	uint32	controlSegmentTableCount	Number of tracks in the Control Segment Table.
0x04	uint32	patternSegmentTableCount	Number of tracks in the Pattern Segment Table.
0x08	uint32	eventSegmentCount	Number of tracks in the Event Segment Table.
0x0C	uint32	trackIndexTableCount	Number of tracks in the Track Index Table.
0x10	uint32	fixedPatternTableCount	Number of entries in the Fixed Pattern Table.
0x14	uint32	distributionPatternTableCount	Number of entries in the Distribution Pattern Table.
0x18	uint32	unk1	Possibly number of standard tracks (6).
0x1C	uint32	unk2
0x20	uint32	unk3	Possibly number of custom CD tracks (1).
0x24	uint32[]	unkArray	Possibly array of indices for all tracks. Total size is unk1 + unk2 + unk3

Fixed Pattern Table

Lookup table of obstacle patterns shared by all tracks. Each pattern plays in a fixed order and repeats while the current pattern segment is active. Starts at byte offset 0x40.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	FixedPattern[]	patternArray	Size is given by Header.fixedPatternTableCount

FixedPattern

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	uint32	count
0x04	ObstacleEnum[]	obstacleArray	Each value corresponds to one obstacle in ObstacleEnum

ObstacleEnum

Value	Obstacle	Image
0x00	Block
0x01	Pit
0x02	Loop
0x03	Wave
0x04	Block + Pit
0x05	Block + Loop
0x06	Block + Wave
0x07	Pit + Loop
0x08	Pit + Wave
0x09	Loop + Wave

Distribution Pattern Table

Lookup table of obstacle patterns shared by all tracks. Each pattern sends obstacles in pseudo-random order. The pattern contains a fixed seed used to generate the sequence of obstacles. This ensures that the track plays the same way each time. Starts at byte offset 0xEC.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	DistributionPattern[]	patternArray	Size is given by Header.distributionPatternTableCount

DistributionPattern

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	uint32	count	Always 1, except for the last pattern?
0x04	int32	randomSeed
0x08	int32	maxProb
0x0C	int32[]	obstacleProb	Array of 10 elements, one for each value in ObstacleEnum

The distribution is calculated as follows:

• For i = 0 (Block), P(0) = obstacleProb[0] / maxProb.
• For i > 0, P(i) = (obstacleProb[i] - obstacleProb[i-1]) / maxProb

For example, given maxProb = 6 and obstacleProb = [0, 0, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 4, 6, 6]:

• P(Loop) = P(Wave) = 16.6667%
• P(Pit + Loop) = P(Pit + Wave) = 33.3333%

Control Segment Table

Contains a list of time segments for each track. Each segment controls the speed of obstacles for a particular section of the track, as well as the minimum gap (a.k.a. "shadow period") between obstacles. Starts at byte offset 0xDB8.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	ControlSegmentTrack[]	tracks	Size is given by Header.controlSegmentTableCount

ControlSegmentTrack

Stores a list of control segments for a single track.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	uint32	segmentCount
0x04	ControlSegment[]	segments	Segments are sorted by startTime

ControlSegment

Each segment is 0x14 bytes in length.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	int32	startTime
0x04	int32	baseSpeed	Larger value = slower. Minimum value is 0x40 before the game crashes.
0x08	int32	baseShadowPeriod	Larger value = longer minimum gap between obstacles.
0x0C	int32	deltaSpeed
0x10	int32	deltaShadowPeriod

Both the obstacle speed and shadow period can gradually increase or decrease to match the speed of the song. Given a time value t, both are calculated as:

• speed = baseSpeed + (t - startTime) * deltaSpeed / 4096
• shadowPeriod = baseShadowPeriod + (t - startTime) * deltaShadowPeriod / 4096

Pattern Segment Table

Contains a list of time segments that determine obstacle patterns for each track. Starts at byte offset 0x56CC.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	PatternSegmentTrack[]	tracks	Size is given by Header.patternSegmentTableCount

PatternSegmentTrack

Stores a list of pattern segments for a single track.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	uint32	segmentCount
0x04	PatternSegment[]	segments	Segments are sorted by startTime

PatternSegment

Each segment is 0x10 bytes in length.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	int32	startTime
0x04	int32	unk	Does not appear to be used in-game.
0x08	int32	patternType	0 = None (break) 1 = Fixed pattern 2 = Distribution pattern
0x0C	int32	index	Index into pattern table given by patternType. If -1, no pattern is active.

A patternType of 0 indicates a break in the song. This triggers the camera to spin around Vibri.

The custom CD track does not contain any break segments. Instead, the game will insert breaks into the song automatically.

Event Segment Table

Contains a list of time segments that activate miscellaneous effects. Starts at byte offset 0x5EC8.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	EventSegmentTrack[]	tracks	Size is given by Header.eventSegmentTableCount

EventSegmentTrack

Stores a list of event segments for a single track.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	uint32	segmentCount
0x04	EventSegment[]	segments	Segments are sorted by startTime

EventSegment

Each segment is 0x18 bytes in length. Events may have durations that last shorter or longer than the current segment.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	int32	startTime
0x04	int32	randomSpeedEventDuration	See Random Speed Event.
0x08	int32	randomSpeedEventParam	See Random Speed Event.
0x0C	int32	unusedDuration	Always 0. Has no effect.
0x10	int32	flipEventDuration	See Flip Event.
0x14	int32	cameraEvent	Index = cameraEvent % 10 Loop count = cameraEvent / 10 See Camera Event.

Random Speed Event

Sends obstacles at random speeds. Similar to ControlSegment, a higher speed value indicates a slower obstacle. This effect changes depending on the value of randomSpeedEventParam:

• 0x02: Select a random speed using startTime as the seed for the first obstacle. Probabilities are: P(0x8000) = P(0x14000) = 30%, P(0xAAAA) = 40%
• 0x03: Select a random speed using startTime as the seed for the first obstacle. Probabilities are: P(0x8000) = P(0x14000) = 50%
• 0x16: Cycle speeds between 0x8000 -> 0x14000 -> ...
• default: Cycle speeds between 0xAAAA -> 0x8000 -> 0x14000 -> ...

Flip Event

Spawns obstacles upside-down that flip into place as they approach Vibri.

Camera Event

Sets the camera angle for the segment. The camera index points to an .ANC file in the "GAME/*_FILES.PAK/ROAD/" folder. Possible values are:

Camera Index	Camera Name
0x01	B01
0x02	B02
0x03	S01
0x04	S02
0x05	F01
0x06	F02
0x07	F03

The camera loop count determines the speed of the camera animation. A higher value indicates a faster playback speed.

Track Index Table

Assigns a control, pattern, and event segment table index to each track. Starts at byte offset 0x68D4.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	TrackIndexEntry[]	entries	Size is given by Header.trackIndexTableCount

TrackIndexEntry

Each entry is 0x0C bytes in length.

Offset	Type	Name	Notes
0x00	uint32	controlSegmentIndex	Index into the Control Segment Table.
0x04	uint32	patternSegmentIndex	Index into the Pattern Segment Table.
0x08	uint32	eventSegmentIndex	Index into the Event Segment Table.