Claude (auto-RE)
621b9dd6e9
Each UI sprite <name>.t32 ships with a <name>.rat companion, and that companion is the layout record: big-endian u32, a 1280x720 design space at 0x18, and a placement block of scaleX/scaleY/tint/X/Y. Animated elements repeat the block with a trailing time field (keyframes); an 'opt ' tag carries a length-prefixed link to the focused-state record. Verified in that order, records first: across the four pause buttons exactly one field varies, stepping 268/338/408/478 at a constant 70px pitch with X fixed at 226; the three items visible in a screenshot of the running game measure 346.0/415.5/485.5, mapping onto those numbers under one constant offset to within 0.5px. The tutorial build's records are outright framebuffer coordinates, and compositing its sprites there reproduces the screenshot pixel-accurately. Also records two mistakes the A/B caught, since a static-only reading would have shipped both: texture width does not identify a language (Japanese fits English widths), and the in-mission and tutorial pause menus are separate sprite sets rather than one set re-packed into slots. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
106 lines
5.4 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
5.4 KiB
Markdown
# `.rat` — the UI element layout / animation record
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**Status:** ✅ `CONFIRMED` for placement (2026-07-28). The retail UI can be
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**reassembled from the disc**: the tutorial PAUSE menu rebuilds pixel-accurately from its
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sprites placed at the coordinates in their `.rat` records — no fitting, no manual nudging.
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*Left: the running game (Canary screenshot). Right: rebuilt from `GP_PAUSE_MENU.pak` alone.
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The remaining differences are the animated frame/glow sprites (`*eff*`) that were not
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placed, and the live 3D background.*
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## Screen composition
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The UI is **one pak per screen** — `GP_TITLE`, `GP_PAUSE_MENU`, `GP_READY_ROOM`,
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`GP_SAVE_LOAD`, `GP_MISSION_SELECT`, `GP_OPTIONS`, `GP_SYSTEM`, `GP_TUTORIAL`,
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`GP_STAGE_CLEAR`, `GP_MOVIE_THEATER`, `GP_DEBRIEFING_PILOTLOG`, `GP_LEADERBOARD`,
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`GP_MISSION_LOG`, `GP_BUNK`, `GP_DIALOG`, `GP_GAMEOVER`, `GP_CHALLENGE`,
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`GP_HANGAR_ARSENAL`.
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Inside a screen pak, each top-level [RATC](../INDEX.md) bundle is **one (context × language)
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build of that screen**, and its children come in pairs:
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| child | what it is |
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|---|---|
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| `<name>.t32` | the sprite ([T8aD](texture-color-k8888.md)) |
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| `<name>.rat` | that sprite's **layout record** (this document) |
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| `<screen>loop1.rat` | a screen-level record (larger; not yet decoded) |
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`GP_PAUSE_MENU.pak`'s six bundles are `{in-mission, tutorial} × {English, Japanese}`, with
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the two in-mission builds each present twice at identical size. The purpose of that
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duplicate is **NEEDS-HUMAN** (resolution or aspect variant?), and where the other four
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shipped languages live is likewise unresolved — this pak holds only EN and JP.
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Naming is transparent: `pgp` = pause screen, `pgp_ttrl_` = its tutorial context, `btnNN` =
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menu item, `btnNNf` = that item's **focused** sprite, `eff*` = frame/glow decoration,
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`deli*` = the item divider, `title`, `msg`.
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## Record layout
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Big-endian u32 throughout (Xbox 360). A minimal record (a static button) is 165 bytes:
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```
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0x00 "RATC" magic — a RATC bundle reused as a data record
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0x08 u32 payload size
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0x18 u32 design width = 1280
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0x1c u32 design height = 720
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0x20 char[] the sprite this record places, e.g. "pgpbtn00.t32"
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...
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── placement block ──
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u32 scale X = 100 (percent)
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u32 scale Y = 100
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u32 tint = 0xffffffff (RGBA, white = untinted)
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u32 X ← position
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u32 Y ←
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u32 time (keyframe records only)
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...
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"opt " u32 len char[len] link to another record, e.g. "pgpbtn00f.rat"
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```
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- **Animated elements are a keyframe list.** `pgptitle.rat` (752 B) is the same placement
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block repeated with a varying trailing `time` field — the PAUSE title's fly-in.
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- **`opt `** carries a length-prefixed record name. On `pgpbtn00.rat` it points at
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`pgpbtn00f.rat`, i.e. *normal state → focused state*.
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- Two fields (at 0x50/0x54 in the button records) vary per button and are **not identified**.
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## Evidence
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Positions were read out of the records and checked against a screenshot of the running
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game, twice, in that order — the records were never fitted to the picture.
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1. **Differential.** Across `pgpbtn00/01/04/05.rat`, exactly one field varies and it steps
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`268 → 338 → 408 → 478` — a constant 70 px pitch — while the field before it is 226 in
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all four. A vertical menu: constant X, evenly spaced Y.
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2. **Against the game.** The three visible items measured at screenshot y-centres
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346.0 / 415.5 / 485.5 — spacing 70.0 and 70.0, and a *single* constant offset maps all
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three onto 268 / 338 / 408 to within 0.5 px.
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3. **Absolute placement.** The tutorial build's records give 546/288, 546/358, 546/428 and
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540/119, which are framebuffer coordinates directly: compositing the sprites there
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reproduces the screenshot (image above).
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## Two traps this caught
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Both were mistakes made during this analysis, caught by comparing against the real game —
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recording them because a static-only reading would have shipped them:
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- **Texture width does not identify a language.** English `RESUME` (166 px) and Japanese
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`再開` (86 px) differ hugely, but Japanese `通信ログ` (148 px) is within a few px of an
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English label. The first language assignment made here was wrong; rendering the sprites
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is the only reliable check.
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- **The in-mission and tutorial pause menus are different sprite sets, not one set
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re-packed.** In-mission is `RESUME / RADIO LOG / OPTIONS / BACK TO TITLE` (4 items,
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`pgpbtnNN`); the tutorial is `RESUME / OPTIONS / BACK TO MENU` (3 items,
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`pgp_ttrl_btn1N`). Matching the 3-item screenshot against the 4-item set suggests a
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runtime slot-packing rule that does not exist.
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## Next
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- `<screen>loop1.rat` (1320 B) is the screen-level record — decoding it should give the
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draw order and the `eff*`/`deli*` placements that are missing from the rebuild above.
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- The same method should now unroll the other screens directly; `GP_HANGAR_ARSENAL.pak`
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(789 T8aD + 510 RATC) is the big one, and the ARSENAL `DATA SHEET` panel documented in
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[weapon-datasheet-runtime.md](../weapon-datasheet-runtime.md) is a ready-made oracle for it.
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- Tooling: `crates/sylpheed-formats/examples/ui_screen.rs` (inventory a screen pak, carve a
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named RATC child), `sylpheed-cli pak textures` (decode every sprite).
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