SANM
This page attempts to document the LucasArts Smush v2 codec, FOURCC "SANM". Note that at this stage the document is quite incomplete as the codec is still being reverse engineered. Most information regarding codecs here is speculative, at best. Structural information is quite correct unless otherwise noted.
A GPL'd decoder for the SNM format and relevant codecs can be found in the Residual reimplementation of the Grim Fandango Engine (GrimE). Note that this decoder is largely incorrect because it was effectively coverted from the original asm code directly to C.
Samples
- Grim Fandango: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/MPlayer/samples/game-formats/la-san/grimfandango/
- Grim Fandango Demo uses older style videos (SAN, same codecs as Monkey Island 3) and 3D Models (text not binary format).
- X-Wing Alliance
- Find more games that use SNM.
Use in Grim Fandango
SANM is used in Grim Fandango for cut-scenes and in-game animations. The actual SNM movie files are gzipped and stored inside LAB archive files (which are quite easy to extract, there are many tools). You must use a tool like *nix's "gunzip" to decompress the SNM files after extracting the SNM files out of the LAB files. A decompressed Smush file has the "SANM" FOURCC as the first four bytes.
Organization
This section deals with the structural properties of Smush movies. In other words, we describe the various headers used.
Preamble
The movie begins with a basic 8-byte section that looks like this:
0x00|"SANM" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x04|Movie size (in bytes)|4 bytes big endian
Video Header
This header immediately follows the preamble. It describes the movie's video properties.
0x000|"SHDR" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x004|Header size (in bytes) |4 bytes big endian 0x008|Version |2 bytes little endian 0x00A|# of frames |4 bytes little endian 0x00E|Padding? |2 bytes 0x010|Width |2 bytes little endian 0x012|Height |2 bytes little endian 0x014|Padding? |2 bytes 0x016|Frame delay (microseconds)|4 bytes little endian 0x01A|Color palette? |1024 bytes 0x41A|Padding? |16 bytes
Audio/Keyframe Header
Smush supports variable-size keyframes. An example of this usage can be seen in the Full Throttle highway chase scenes, where different images are composited into the streaming video depending on the player's actions.
Curiously enough, this header includes both audio and keyframe information.
0x00|"FLHD" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x04|Header size (in bytes)|4 bytes big endian
Followed by any number of keyframe dimension chunks, which should match the number of keyframes in the movie. Dimension chunks in this header specify the dimensions of corresponding keyframes in the stream, in the order they're encountered. This information has not been rigorously verified, though.
0x00|"Bl16" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x04|Header size (in bytes)|4 bytes big endian 0x08|Padding? |2 bytes 0x0A|Width |2 bytes little endian 0x0C|Height |2 bytes little endian 0x0E|Padding? |2 bytes
Followed by exactly one audio info chunk.
0x00|"Wave" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x04|Header size (in bytes)|4 bytes big endian 0x08|Frequency (Hz) |4 bytes little endian 0x0C|# of channels |4 bytes little endian 0x10|See notes |4 bytes
Notes
- For some movies, the "Wave" chunk contains an extra 4-byte field at its end, the purpose of which is unknown.
- Movies without audio do not contain an audio info chunk.
- The order in which Wave/Bl16 chunks are organized in the FLHD header is unspecified and is known to vary between movies.
Annotation
Movies may contain an optional plaintext annotation. In Grim Fandango, the only such movies are in-game animations. Keep in mind that the string itself may not always be as large as the advertised annotation size. In that case, the remaining space is padded with zeros until the advertised length is reached.
0x00|"ANNO" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x04|Annotation size (in bytes)|4 bytes big endian 0x08|Null-terminated string |(Annotation size) bytes
Frame
This header is used as a container for a video frame and/or an audio frame, stored in an arbitrary order. In itself, it's just a FOURCC and a size.
0x00|"FRME" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x04|Chunk size (in bytes)|4 bytes big endian
Audio
Please see the appropriate section in VIMA for an audio frame's header/codec details. Note that as far as we know right now, this codec is specific to Grim Fandango Smush files.
Video
This chunk stores a potentially encoded video frame, as well as various opcodes and other stuff that's used to decode it. More details downstairs.
0x000|"Bl16" FOURCC |4 bytes big endian 0x004|Chunk size (in bytes) |4 bytes big endian 0x008|Unknown |8 bytes 0x010|Width |4 bytes little endian 0x014|Height |4 bytes little endian 0x018|Sequence # |2 bytes little endian 0x01A|Subcodec ID |1 byte 0x01B|Diff buffer rotate code |1 byte 0x020|See notes |8 bytes 0x028|Background colour |2 bytes little endian 0x02C|Unknown |4 bytes little endian 0x030|Codebook? |Each entry is 2 bytes little endian? 0x238|Video stream |...
Notes
- The field at 0x020 is only mentioned because there's evidence of the original decoder reading it.
Codec
The codec is actually a combination of several subcodecs. The subcodec that's used for a particular frame is indicated by the appropriate field in the "Bl16" chunk of the frame.
Triple Diff Buffering
Smush uses a triple diff buffer mechanism to decode image data. A decoder's state includes three buffers, which are occasionally referenced by various subcodecs to decode individual frames. We will hereafter refer to said buffers as "db0", "db1", and "db2", where "db0" is the logical "current" diff buffer. It is crucial to note that "dbX" is only an alias to a particular diff buffer and does not stand for the contents of the buffer itself. In other words, it's a pointer.
Each frame contains an opcode that specifies how said buffers are rotated. The algorithm itself is actually quite straightforward.
Opcode 1:
swap db0 and db2
Opcode 2:
rotate buffer aliases one step left.
e.g. before: 0 1 2
after: 1 2 0
Main Algorithm
This section is possibly incomplete.
if 0 == sequence number:
{
// this is a keyframe
fill db1 and db2 with background color.
}
handle subcodec according to ID.
copy contents of db0 into output image.
rotate buffers according to opcode.
Subcodecs
This section explains what the individual subcodecs mean, and how to suck out image data in each case. Note that ImageSize, in bytes, is defined as (Width * Height * 2)
This section is particularly incomplete.
ID|What 0|Keyframe. Copy ImageSize bytes from video stream into db0. 1|Never encountered so far. 2|TODO 3|Copy ImageSize bytes from db2 into db0. 4|Copy ImageSize bytes from db1 into db0. 5|TODO 6|Simple lookup/write. See below. 7|Never encountered so far. 8|RLE-encoded codebook(?) indices. See below.
Subcodec 6
This is a straightforward palette (codebook?) lookup/write routine.
for each pixel in db0:
{
index = value of next byte in video stream;
pixel = (2 bytes little endian) codebook[index];
}
Subcodec 8
Used by loladies.snm, and repmec3c.snm.
This looks like a combination of VQ and RLE, whereby the actual indices into the codebook are RLE-compressed.
for each pixel in db0:
{
index = rle_decode(next byte in video stream)
pixel = (2 bytes little endian) codebook[index]
}
rle_decode()
{
TODO.
}