[PTW] Civ3XInf.dat - Decoded

[Quintillus]

Originally Posted by tom2050

Not sure what may be in the Civ3XInf.dat file. There could be a wealth of alterable information there, but the problem with DAT files is that in order to view what it contains, you need to know or have what was used to create it. It could be opened with anything, or contain anything.

The possibilities are endless, but if the program or editor could ever be found to edit it's contents, it could possibly provide an enormous amount of editable content, or could be something quite worthless!

That's an interesting thought. On the off chance that it might work, I ran that file through SavExpnd (to use that, run 'SavExpnd "inputfile.in" "outputfile.out"', without the single quotes but with the double quotes). And I was able to figure out what it is. To avoid entirely changing the topic of the thread Tom posted this in/threadjacking, I've started a new thread for this topic.

Civ3XInf.dat appears to be entirely in binary when looking at it in a hex editor. Disappointing, perhaps, but then again, compressed SAV games appear to be entirely binary in a hex editor, too. So on the chance that it might do something, I ran SavExpnd on Civ3XInf.dat. I ended up with a smaller file, which looked dubious, as I thought SavExpnd was supposed to expand a file, y'know! But I opened the "uncompressed" version in a hex editor, and looked for something intelligible.

What I found was a couple of Jaimo references near the beginning, several near the end, and a whole bunch of gobblydygook in between. Checking the Easter Eggs chart, I saw that the Jaimo unit appears in your units folder after you've triggered the Elvis unit. It dawned on me that this unit obviously had to be stored somewhere prior to being unlocked, and this was probably where.

So I told 7zip to open the uncompressed version as an archive, and, voila! All the files needed for the Jaimo unit! Although I can't compare it directly to the Jaimo unit as I haven't triggered Elvis since I last installed PTW/Conquests and don't feel like setting my calendar to January 8th, everything looks fine (see screenshot - the U in the filename stands for Uncompressed).

The good news is, we now know what Civ3XInf.dat does (the version in the Civ3PTW folder appears to be identical, although I haven't run this process on it). The bad news is, it doesn't contain any editable content, unless you want to change the Jaimo unit for some reason.

The same technique might work for some of the other files whose purpose is currently unknown. I wouldn't bet on it, but you never know.

[Civinator]

It´s great that after so many years, Civ 3 still always has new things to discover.
Quintillus, thank you very much for decoding Civ3XInf.dat.

[tom2050]

Some excellent detective work there Quintillus! Too bad there are not more hidden .dat files laying about.

Most other files are pretty self-explanatory I think.
mss32.dll - Miles Sound System component
sound.dll - obviously relates to sound, not sure exactly what either one of these does specifically
secdrv.sys - Macrovision SafeDisc DRM
DrvMgt.dll - another SafeDisc file
jgl.dll - I believe a dll related to graphics
ifc23.dll - (Immersion Foundation Classes 23 dll) - something to do with running on Windows ?
binkw32.dll - Bink Video
00000000.256 / 00000000.016 - I believe some type of palette file, not sure
bic__out.tmp - Contains information of the whole BIQ file (I believe the last one opened is saved here)

OTHERS
-------

CampaignRecord.hof - I believe this stores the information for the Campaign Screen for Conquests. The "hardcoded" campaign names shown when you go to the Hall of Fame, I believe are here. You can open this with Notepad and see them yourself; changing them causes Civ 3 to crash in the Hall of Fame. They would need to be changed another way, probably with a Hex Editor e.g.

Civ3.opt - can be viewed with Notepad also. Most info can be seen. Consists of many paths to .h (C/C++ header) and .obj files (C++ file). Most all paths contain /DEBUG/.

Civ3XInf.dat - thanks to Quintillus, we know this is a unit!

HighScores.cv3 - High scores obviously

ifeel.ifr and other.ifr - unknown, they were apparently created with IStudioVersion 4.1.0 IFRCreator. Seems they control sounds/user controls in some way perhaps ? Completely readable with Notepad. Haven't tried altering this though (to see if Civ3 still works, or if it causes a crash or change).

That's about it other than the .exe.

[Takhisis]

Interesting. Posting to subscribe.

[Quintillus]

Thanks for posting the summary of those files, Tom! I'm not aware of a centralized area where information about all these files exists. Thought to check the Modiki, but unfortunately it's pretty sparse and outdated - for deep details, the Forum Search is more useful.

Re: the .ifr files. Multiplayer/communications issues are a good thought, especially since they start appearing with PTW. I might take a closer look at the file later; my Civ time this weekend has been (somewhat loosely) focused on making some progress on my cross-platform editor.

You're right about CampaignRecord.hof - editing it in a hex editor does not cause it to crash, and does change the scenario names displayed in the Hall of Fame screen. It does throw off the "Next" button in the Hall of Fame, though, and I have not tested whether winning the Rise of Rome scenario when the second scenario is no longer called Rise of Rome will register correctly in there. Some additional research research in this area could be useful. My current hex editor of choice is the HxD Hex Editor. I actually slightly prefer AXE 3.4, but it isn't freeware past a trial period, and I don't prefer it that much. Someone recommended HexEdit in the Modiki - taking a quick look, it looks pretty Spartan, but appears to do the job.

[WildWeazel]

Great find- just another step towards discovering the secret of YUMBO!