TIM - PlayStation Image
The TIM format is a little endian-based image file format for the PlayStation. While their use varies from textures, UI elements and loading screens, Vib-Ribbon only uses them for the company logos when the game starts up. It's file structure mimics how textures are managed in the PlayStation's VRAM. There are a limited amount of colors a TIM can use, but each file can use it's own 16 or 256 color palette, known as a color lookup table, or CLUT for short (16 and 24 bit color options are also avilable, but aren't used in Vib-Ribbon's textures.)
Header
| Offset | Type | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | int8 | ID | Always 0x10 |
| 0x01 | int8 | Version | Always 0x00 |
| 0x04 | int8 | Flag | Possible Values: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 |
Flag determines the color depth of the image and if it has its own CLUT. 0-3 represents either 4, 8, 16 and 24-bit color modes. A value of 4 is used if the TIM contains multiple types of sprite and texture data that need to be intermingled. 8 represents a 4-bit color depth that has its own CLUT, and 9 means the same but for 8-bit color depth.
CLUT Header
| Offset | Type | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | int32 | bnum | Data length of the header + CLUT |
| 0x04 | int16 | DX | X Coordinate for VRAM placement |
| 0x06 | int16 | DY | Y Coordinate for VRAM placement |
| 0x08 | int16 | H | Horizontal resolution for placing CLUT in VRAM |
| 0x08 | int16 | V | Virtical resolution for placing CLUT in VRAM |
H and V have to equal 16 for 4-bit color depth and 256 for 8-bit color depth when multiplied. Supposedly you can change the resolution of CLUT to where it's more of a rectangle than a 256 pixel long line, possibly saving some space, but doing so will make the other colors go unused so it's not recommended. Keep H set to 16 or 256 and V to 1.
CLUT Data
Each color is recorded as a int16 value, but is read under binary. Each color is split into 5 bits, and the final bit is for transparency control, known as STP for short. Bits 0-4 are for Red, bits 5-9 are for Green, and bits 10-14 are for Blue. As for the STP, what it does depends on its value and the values of the previous bits.
| STP value | Value of other Bits | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | All 0's | Fully Transparent |
| 0 | Any value | Non-Transparent color |
| 1 | All 0's | Black, Non-Transparent |
| 1 | Any value | Semi-Transparent color |
Pixel Header
| Offset | Type | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | int32 | bnum | Data length of the header + all pixel data |
| 0x04 | int16 | DX | X Coordinate for VRAM placement |
| 0x06 | int16 | DY | Y Coordinate for VRAM placement |
| 0x08 | int16 | H | Horizontal resolution of image in VRAM |
| 0x08 | int16 | V | Vertical resolution of image in VRAM |
The PlayStation's VRAM stores all images as 16-bit color depth. For 8 and 4-bit images, their H value need to be devided to load into the VRAM correctly, and will be corrected when displayed. For 8-bit images, H should be half of it's original horizontal resolution. For 4-bit, H is the original horizontal resolution devided by 4.
Pixel Data
How each pixel is recorded depends on the color depth of the image. For 4-bit color, 4 bits are used to specify what color from the CLUT will be used for that pixel. For 8-bit color, 8 bits are used to specify what color. For 16-bit color, every pixel uses the CLUT data format.
24-bit color is the most complex, using 3 int16 values. The first int16 value is used to store the red and green values, each taking up 8 bits. The second int16 value stores the blue value in the next set of 8 bits, but the following 8 bits is for the red color value of the next pixel. The last int16 value stores the green and blue values of the next pixel.
Logos
The only TIMs that are used in the game are at the beginning of MAIN_T execution. They are located in TITLE\FILES\MENU\LOGOS\. Every TIM is a section of an image, and all of them get loaded and lined up to complete the image.
SONY_X.TIM Make up the "Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Presents" screen. Uses a 16 color (4 BPP) palette. Only used in the Japan version. Is present in the PAL version, but goes unused (renamed to 01_SONY_X.TIM)
SONY_1 + 2.TIM
FE_SONY_X.TIM Make up the "Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Presents" screen, along with a URL to the European PlayStation Website. Uses a 16 color (4 BPP) palette. Only present in the PAL version.
FE_SONY_1 + 2.TIM
7ON_X.TIM Make up the NanaOn-Sha logo. Uses a 256 color (8 BPP) palette, but not all colors are used. The amount of colors in the palette are also different between all 4 TIM files.
7ON_1 + 2,3,4.TIM
