Item Placement

Item Placement
IPL Sections:
AUZO CARS CULL ENEX GRGE INST
JUMP MULT OCCL PATH PICK TCYC

Item placement files, usually identified by the file extension .ipl, are a part of the map system and used to create and place (for example) different objects, zones of special behaviour or paths in the world. All games support standard item placement files which are mostly stored in plain text format that can be opened and edited using any text-editing program (like Notepad), but there are tools to simplify editing. San Andreas is the first game to introduce a binary format for item placement files. Most of the placement information in Grand Theft Auto IV is stored inside of binary files (see WPL).

Overview

See also: Item Definition § Overview

The structure and format of the plain text item placement files are similar to that of the item definition files.

Binary format

San Andreas introduced an simple binary format of item placement files. They are stored as "streaming files" inside the archive files. Editing them requires an special editor (see below). The format is pretty simple and their possibilities are not completely used by Rockstar. By default they do only support inst and cars sections. It is unconfirmed if other sections also can be used or if they are just stubs which are not implemented. Anyway their binary format is completely unknown.


Header

Each binary placement information file starts with an 4-Byte identifier followed by a header containing information about the files content.

4b  - CHAR[4]   - Always "bnry"
4b  - INT32     - Number of item instances
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 1 (CULL ?)
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 2 (GRGE ?)
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 3 (ENEX ?)
4b  - INT32     - Number of parked cars
4b  - INT32     - Number of unknown 4 (PICK ?)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of item instances (0x4C by default)
4b  - INT32     - Size of item instances (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 1
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 1 (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 2
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 2 (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 3
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 3 (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of parked cars
4b  - INT32     - Size of parked cars (unused - always 0)
4b  - INT32     - Offset of unknown 4
4b  - INT32     - Size of unknown 4 (unused - always 0)

The header is followed by the arrays of the entries. For more information about their format see the articles about the sections.

Format

The following table contains all known sections in the item placement. The supported games column lists games that support the sections but it doesn't necessarily means they're functional in the games. Mouse over the game icons to see if the games are supported.

Section Supported games Description
inst GTA III GTA Vice City GTA San Andreas GTA IV Places objects defined in objs, tobj, anim or tanm into the world.
zone GTA III GTA Vice City GTA San Andreas GTA IV Creates map, navigation, and info zones.
cull GTA III GTA Vice City GTA San Andreas GTA IV Creates zones with special attributes.
pick GTA San Andreas Creates pickups. This section exists in GTA III, GTA Vice City, and GTA IV, but is only functional in GTA San Andreas.
path GTA Vice City Creates waypoints for random NPC spawns.
Note: this section is also present in San Andreas and GTA IV. It is used as a base for Rockstar's paths compiler, but gets ignored by the games. For more information see: Paths.
occl GTA Vice City GTA San Andreas GTA IV Creates occlusion zones.
mult This section exists in GTA San Andreas and GTA IV but is not functional.
grge GTA San Andreas GTA IV Creates garages.
enex GTA San Andreas GTA IV Creates entry-exit markers.
cars GTA San Andreas GTA IV Creates car generators (parked cars).
jump GTA San Andreas Creates stunt jumps. This section exists in GTA IV but is not functional.
tcyc GTA San Andreas GTA IV Creates time cycles modifiers.
auzo GTA San Andreas Creates audio zones. This section exists in GTA IV but is not functional.
mzon GTA IV
vnod GTA IV Extended format of PATH – apparently only used for multiplayer mode.
link GTA IV
blok This section exists in GTA IV but is apparently ignored by the game – appears to be used to allocate responsibilities during the development stage of GTA IV, but also could be used to place decision makers.
mlo+ GTA IV MLO placement – Used to place offsets for GTA IV's interiors. The interiors themselfes get placed inside the IDE file section mlo.
2dfx GTA IV Used to make many game effects, for example - Particle.
lodm GTA IV
slow GTA IV Unknown for what it is responsible, used very rare and only in two extended .WPL. Section contains a box.

Tools

See also

External links

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