Trying to interpret a RAW format

[tgp1994]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm attempting to open up a sprite/graphic from SimCity 2000. As far as I know, they're headerless RAW format image files. I've tried using the dcraw tool although it says it cannot decode the file. I think the problem is that there's nothing to decode - these are supposed to be straight-up Bitmaps with no header whatsoever. If I could just directly import it without programs trying to find a header then failing, I might be able to get somewhere.

 

Can anyone help me get this images opened and converted somehow? I've attached a few samples here.

 

Thanks!

SC2Raw.zip

Edited May 7, 2016 by tgp1994

[Ego Eram Reputo]

The problem here is that we don't even know what the width or height should be. The first four bytes might contain this information. Is the image 12-bit of 14-bit? SimCity only knows

1000130092929292929292FFFFFFFFFFFFFF9292929292019292929292FFFF8A8A8A8A8A8A8AFFFF9292920192929292FF8A8A8A8A9898988A8A8A8AFF929201929292FF8A8A8A8A98988A98988A8A8A8AFF92019292FF8A8A8A8A8A988A8A8A988A8A8A8A8AFF019292FF8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8A98988A8A8A8A8AFF019292FF8A8A8A8A8A8A8A98988A8A8A8A8A8AFF019292FF8A8A8A8A8A8A8A988A8A8A8A8A8A8AFF019292FF8A8A8A8A8A8A8A988A8A8A8A8A8A8AFF01929292FF8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8AFF920192929292FF8A8A8A8A8A988A8A8A8A8AFF92920192929292FF8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8A8AFFFF92929201929292FF8A8A8AFFFFFFFFFFFFFF9292929292019292FF8A8AFFFF9292929292929292929292920192FF8AFFFF929292929292929292929292929201FFFFFF92929292929292929292929292929292010CFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

My best answer is to try IrfanView.

[Red ochre]

Or Bletchley park.

[tgp1994]

The problem here is that we don't even know what the width or height should be. The first four bytes might contain this information. Is the image 12-bit of 14-bit? SimCity only knows

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

My best answer is to try IrfanView.

 

Thank you for the IrfanView suggestion! The RAW plugin is super helpful; at least I can tweak settings and actually try to open images now. You're right though, there are a lot of unknowns at the moment... All I'm getting are garbled images. I'm assuming the dimensions are powers of two, probably square. I went into SCURK and used its BMP export function to see what it did, and for a large building it made a 128 x 256 x 8 BPP BMP. I don't understand how it's doing 8 BPP though since when I try to use that in the RAW import mode, the image is always grayscale?

[null54]

I don't understand how it's doing 8 BPP though since when I try to use that in the RAW import mode, the image is always grayscale?

 

Simcity 2000 probably uses a custom 8-bit palette.

[georgec0]

Have you tried using SCURK? IIRC it can export some of the game graphics as common formats, so it may work for the ones you're interested in.

[tgp1994]

Simcity 2000 probably uses a custom 8-bit palette.

 

I believe you are correct. In the extracted data, I ended up with a MINE.PAL file, however IrfanView reports that it cannot read the file, so I guess that's my next struggle...

 

Have you tried using SCURK? IIRC it can export some of the game graphics as common formats, so it may work for the ones you're interested in.

 

You're right, it can...

 

I went into SCURK and used its BMP export function to see what it did, and for a large building it made a 128 x 256 x 8 BPP BMP. I don't understand how it's doing 8 BPP though since when I try to use that in the RAW import mode, the image is always grayscale?

 

Which led to my next question above, although I suppose it's neither here nor there since SCURK doesn't have the tiles I'm looking for... I'm hoping to find the ground/water/road tiles that the game uses.