Sims 3:DBPF

DBPF Packages

Sims 3 stores multiple resource types in an archive format known by it's magic number of "DBPF". On disk, these archives have one of a number of extensions:

*.package	General collection of resources
*.world	Resources comprising a "world"
*.dbc	Collection of DBPF archives in a single archive

Package Header

96 bytes: "standard" DBPF 2.0 format; DBBF not seen; DBPP is encrypted.

DWORD    magic ;; "DBPF"
DWORD    major ;; 2
DWORD    minor ;; 0
BYTE[24] unknown1
DWORD    ;; number of index entries - if zero, size and position also zero
BYTE[4]  unknown2
DWORD    ;; size of index on disk in bytes
BYTE[12] unknown3
DWORD    index_version ;; always 3
DWORD    ;; position of index (absolute)
BYTE[28] unknown4

The Index

If position is not zero, at that position:

DWORD ;; Index Type, see subsection below
<Index Header>
<Index Entry>[number of index entries]

Note: The [number of index entries] value in the Package Header excludes the Index Header.

Each Index Entry (and the Index Header) contains a variable number of DWORD fields in the following order:

Bitfield	Field
0	ResourceType
1	ResourceGroup	Top byte is a set of flags
2	InstanceHi
3	InstanceLo
4	Chunkoffset	Absolute location in package
5	Filesize (lo 31bits), Unknown1 (hi bit)	Length of data in package
6	Memsize	Length of uncompressed data
7	Compressed (lo WORD), Unknown2 (hi WORD)	Compressed is 0x0000 or 0xFFFF

Index Type

This is a bitfield that determines which DWORD fields exist in the Index Header and the Index Entries.

Index Header

The header provides the data that is constant to all entries, essentially a kind of compression. However not all data is valid to be included in the index header for all entries.

DWORD[(for each SET bit in Index Type)]

Index Entry

DWORD[(for each UNSET bits in Index Type)]

Note: Because of the different treatment of the bitfield, fields that exist in the Index Header will NOT exist in all Index Entries, and vice versa.

Chunk Compression

See Sims 3:DBPF/Compression.

Credits

Above documented by Peter Jones based on Spore package format