CSF File Format

2007-06-04T20:16:50Z

84.204.126.170: corrected by VK(tm)

CSF files hold stringtables for RA2/YR (also for Generals/ZH and probably others). 
For more information about what a CSF file is, go to the [[CSF|CSF page]].

On this page you will find a guide to how the format is built up.

==The Header==
The header of a CSF file is 0x18 bytes long. 
It is built up like this:

{| cellspacing="2" cellpadding="4" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #000000;background:#F0F0F0;"
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Offset
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Type
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-left: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Description
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x0
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|char[4]
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''" FSC"''' CSF header identifier If this is not " FSC", the game will not load the file.
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x4
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''CSF Version''' The version number of the CSF format. RA2, YR, Generals, ZH and the BFME series use version 3. Nox uses version 2. Nothing is known about the actual difference between the versions. 
Thanks to Siberian GRemlin for providing this information ([http://www.ppmsite.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=130667#130667 see here])!
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x8
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''NumLabels''' The total amount of labels in the stringtable.
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0xC
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''NumExtraValues''' The total amount of extra values in the stringtable.
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x10
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''(nothing)''' This is not read or used by the game, which means it is useless. If you want, you can store an extra information tag there, if your program could use one (assuming you want to write a program that reads CSF files).
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x14
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''Language''' The language value for this stringtable. See below for a list
|}

===Language===
The language DWORD can have the following values (others will be recognized as "Unknown"):
0 = US (English)*
1 = UK (English)
2 = German*
3 = French*
4 = Spanish
5 = Italian
6 = Japanese
7 = Jabberwockie
8 = Korean*
9 = Chinese*
>9 = Unknown
* RA2/YR has been released in this language.

==Labels==

[[Category:File Formats]]
After the header, the label data follows.

A label can be considered an entry in the stringtable (e.g. "GUI:OK" is a label). 
Each label can have a '''name''' (e.g. "NAME:MTNK"), a '''value''' (e.g. "Grizzly Tank") and an '''extra value''' (no example in the original ra2.csf/ra2md.csf). 
While the name and the extra value are ASCII strings, the value is a Unicode string (in order to support Korean, Chinese, etc).

Now let's come to how the data is stored in the CSF file:

===Label header===
The label data begins with a label header, which is built up like this:
{| cellspacing="2" cellpadding="4" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #000000;background:#F0F0F0;"
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Offset
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Type
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-left: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Description
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x0
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|char[4]
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''" LBL"''' Label identifier If this is not " LBL", the game will not recognize the following data as label data and read the next 4 bytes.
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x4
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''Number of sub-strings''' This is the number of sub-strings.Usual value is 1
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x8
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''LabelNameLength''' This value holds the size of the label name that follows.
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0xC
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|char[LabelNameLength]
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''LabelName''' A '''non'''-zero-terminated string that is as long as the DWORD at 0x8 says. If it is longer, the rest will be cut off.
|}
The first label in ra2md.csf can be found at 0x18. '''Note:''' Spaces, tabs and line breaks will be formatted out of the label's name, therefore they cannot be used.

===Values===
Directly after the label header, the value data follows. 
This is how it is built up:
{| cellspacing="2" cellpadding="4" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #000000;background:#F0F0F0;"
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Offset
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Type
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-left: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;"|Description
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x0
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|char[4]
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''" RTS''' or '''"WRTS"''' Identifier " RTS" means that there is '''no''' extra value for this label. 
"WRTS" means that after the value data, data for the extra value follows (see below). 
Everything else is invalid.
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x4
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''ValueLength''' This holds the length of the Unicode string (the value) that follows.
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x8
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|byte[ValueLength*2]
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''Value''' This holds the '''encoded''' value of the label. Note that this is ValueLength*2 bytes long, because the value is a Unicode string, i.e. every character is a word instead of a byte. 
To decode the value to a Unicode string, '''not''' every byte of the value data (or substract it from 0xFF, see below for an example).
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x8+ValueLength*2
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|DWORD
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''ExtraValueLength''' This holds the length of the extra value string that follow. 
This only applies if the identifier is "WRTS" and not " RTS".
|-
!bgcolor="#e5e5e5" style="border-bottom: 1px solid #000000;border-right: 1px solid #000000;border-top: 1px solid #000000;"|0x8+ValueLength*2+0x4
|style="border-left: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-right: 1px solid #aaaaaa;border-top: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|char[ExtraValueLength]
|style="border: 1px solid #aaaaaa;"|
'''ExtraValue''' Like the label name, a non-zero-terminated string that is as long as ExtraValueLength says. If it is longer, the rest will be cut off.
|}
====Decoding the value====
To decode the value to a Unicode string, '''not''' every byte of the value data (or substract it from 0xFF). 
An example in C++:
int ValueDataLength = ValueLength << 1
for(int i = 0; i < ValueDataLen;i++)
{
ValueData[i]=~ValueData[i]
}

ModEnc² - User contributions [en]

CSF File Format