OpenKh

This is a centralized place for the documentation and other discoveries about the internal working of Kingdom Hearts games.

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TM2 (PlayStation 2 texture format) - Back to Index

As the title suggests, this is the texture format used by PlayStation 2 games, not only Kingdom Hearts.

It contains information like GS hardware registers and where the texture will be allocated in the VRAM.

TM2 is a container of pictures, where every picture can optionally have a Color Look-Up Table or multiple levels of mipmaps. The way how the mipmaps works are not yet fully documented here.

File structure

Offset Type Description
00 int MagicCode, always ‘TIM2’
04 byte File format revision. Usually 4.
05 byte Format. Usually 0.
06 short Picture count
08 int RESERVED
0c int RESERVED
10 Picture* List of pictures

When a game engine wants to pick a specific picture, it should move through the memory from the first picture header, using then TotalSize to move to the next one.

eg.

Picture* GetPicture(Picture* firstPicture, int index) {
    off_t offset = (off_t)firstPicture;
    while (index-- > 0)
        offset += ((Picture*)offset)->TotalSize;

    return (Picture*)offset;
}

Picture

Offset Type Description
00 int Total size in bytes used by the picture
04 int Clut size in bytes used by the palette
08 int Image size in bytes used by the bitmap
0c short Header size
0e short Number of colors used by the clut
10 byte Picture format
11 byte Mipmap count
12 byte Clut color type
13 byte Image color type
14 short Image width in pixels
16 short Image height in pixels
18 long GsTex register
20 long GsTex register
28 int Gs flags register
2c int Gs clut register

Right after the picture header structure, if Mipmap count is greater than 1 then a Mipmap structure is found.

After the optional Mimap, there is a bitmap with the size specified by the picture header. Then finally an optional palette, also with the size in byte specified by the picture header.

Mipmap

Offset Type Description
00 int Miptbp register
04 int Miptbp register
08 int Miptbp register
0c int Miptbp register
10 int[8] Array of sizes

The purpose of those fields is currently unknown.

Registers

GsTex

Bit Count Name Description
0 14 TBP0 Texture buffer location. Multiply it by 0x100 to get the raw VRAM pointer.
14 6 TBW Texture buffer width
20 6 PSM Pixel storage format
26 4 TW log2(texture width)
30 4 TH log2(texture height)
34 1 TCC 1 if the texture or the clut contains an alpha channel.
35 2 TFX Texture function
37 14 CBP Clut buffer location. Multiply it by 0x100 to get the raw VRAM pointer.
51 4 CPSM Clut storage format
55 1 CSM Clut Storage mode
56 5 CSA Clut Entry Offset. Mostly used by 4-bit images.
61 3 CLD Load control. Purpose unknown.

GsReg

Undocumented.

GsClut

Undocumented.

Types

PSM register (Pixel Storage Mode)

Defines how pixel are arranged in each 32-bit word of local memory.

Value Name Description
0 PSMCT32 RGBA32, uses 32-bit per pixel.
1 PSMCT24 RGB24, uses 24-bit per pixel with the upper 8 bit unused.
2 PSMCT16 RGBA16 unsigned, pack two pixels in 32-bit in little endian order.
10 PSMCT16S RGBA16 signed, pack two pixels in 32-bit in little endian order.
19 PSMT8 8-bit indexed, packing 4 pixels per 32-bit.
20 PSMT4 4-bit indexed, packing 8 pixels per 32-bit.
27 PSMT8H 8-bit indexed, but the upper 24-bit are unused.
26 PSMT4HL 4-bit indexed, but the upper 24-bit are unused.
44 PSMT4HH 4-bit indexed, where the bits 4-7 are evaluated and the rest discarded.
48 PSMZ32 32-bit Z buffer
49 PSMZ24 24-bit Z buffer with the upper 8-bit unused
50 PSMZ16 16-bit unsigned Z buffer, pack two pixels in 32-bit in little endian order.
58 PSMZ16S 16-bit signed Z buffer, pack two pixels in 32-bit in little endian order.

CPSM register (Color look-up Pixel Storage Mode)

Value Name Description
0 PSMCT32 32-bit color palette
1 PSMCT24 24-bit color palette
2 PSMCT16 16-bit color palette
10 PSMCT16S 16-bit color palette

CSM register (Color Storage Mode)

There are two possible storage modes:

Color type

Value Description
0 Undefined
1 16-bit RGBA (A1B5G5R5)
2 32-bit RGB (X8B8G8R8)
3 32-bit RGBA (A8B8G8R8)
4 4-bit indexed
5 8-bit indexed

TFX register (Texture function)

Value Description
0 Modulate
1 Decal
2 Hilight
3 Hilight 2