Pikmin 2 cutscene file

Cutscenes in Pikmin 2 are controlled by a file called demo.stb. This file can be found in each of the cutscene archives in /user/Mukki/<name of cutscene>/demo.szs. Cutscenes have predetermined number of frames.

This page describes the format of the file. The page is work in progress.

STB Header

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	char[4]	String that spells "STB", terminated by a null byte
0x4	uint16	Byte order mark? Always 0xFEFF
0x6	uint16	Unknown. Always 0x0003?
0x8	uint32	Total file size
0xC	uint32	Amount of objects
0x10	char[8]	String that spells "jstudio", terminated by a null byte
0x18	uint8[6]	Likely 6 bytes of padding
0x1E	int16	Unknown. Always 0x04?

After the STB header follows object data. The following info explains that object data:

JFVB

JFVB is one of the possible objects that can appear in the stb file. The size of the JFVB data is usually big because it's like its own section inside the file. For the purpose of the object count, JFVB counts as one object.

JFWB object

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint32	JFVB total data size (starting with 0x0 to end)
0x4	char[4]	String that spells "JFVB"
0x8	FVB data	See table below for more info

FVB data

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	char[4]	String that spells "FVB", terminated by a null byte
0x4	uint16	Byte order mark? Always 0xFEFF
0x6	uint16	Unknown, always 0x0100?
0x8	uint32	FVB data size (starting with "FVB" string to end)
0xC	uint32	Amount of entries in FVB data entry list
0x10	FVB data entry list	See table below for more info

FVB data entry

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint32	Entry size starting from 0x0 to end
0x4	uint16	Entry type?
0x6	uint16	Offset to data? Always 0
0x8	Subentry list	The list of subentries is terminated by a null entry (4 null bytes).

FVB entry types: 1 (composite), 2 (constant), 3 (transition), 4 (list), 5 (list parameter), 6 (hermite). Only 2 and 6 are known to be used by Pikmin 2.

Subentry

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint16	Total subentry size, starting from offset 0x04 to end
0x2	uint16	Subentry type
0x4	Subentry data	Exact data layout depends on subentry type and the type of the entry the subentry is located in

Known subentry types:

• 0x00: terminates the list of subentries
• 0x01: If entry type is 2, one float follows. If entry type is 6, a 4 bytes integer and many floats follow. The integer is broken up like this: the first 4 bits are the width of the following float table, the remaining bits are the height. Multiply width with height to get the amount of floats that follow. Table is likely used for interpolation, possibly related to hermite interpolation.
• 0x12: Only known to be used in entry type 6. This subentry contains two floats which specify a value range. It appears before a 0x01 subentry.

JMSG

This object handles the querying of messages from the BMG database and responsible for the calling message boxes onscreen. There are two segments to the JMSG objects, first is an array of message box objects, and then a control section with additional parameters. For the sake of object count, each JMSG counts as an object while the controls are independantly just one object.

JMSG object

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint32	Size of section in bytes
0x4	char[4]	String that spells "JMSG"
0x8	uint32	If this is the first message box this is set to 0x0000000B, else 0x0000000C
0xC	10 bytes	A string in Shift-JIS Romaji, "メッセージ", or "Message" in English
0x16	uint16	Unknown identifer?[unsure]
0x18	uint16	An identifer? Value is always 0x0200
0x1A	uint16	Value represents what frame to pause the cutscene and display the message box onscreen
0x1C	8 Bytes	Value doesn't appear to change, always 0x8000000800040859
0x24	uint32	ID of message
0x28	uint16	Same as value from 0x14. Always 0x0200
0x2A	uint16	Always 0x0001
0x2C	uint16	Padding of 0x00's, end of section

JMSG controls section

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint32	Size of section in bytes
0x4	uint32	Padding of 0xFF's
0x8	uint32	Unknown, set to 0x0000000D
0xC	12 bytes	A string in Shift-JIS Romaji, "コントロール", or "Control" in English
0x18	uint32	Padding of 0x00's
0x1C	12 Bytes	Start of control values for the JMSG object
0x28*	uint32	Padding of 0x00's, end of section

∗ Ending offset differs depending on the amount of JMSG objects there are since each object gets its own 12 bytes of control values.

JCMR

Object that deals with the camera movement.

JCMR object

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint32	Size of section in bytes
0x4	char[4]	String that spells "JACT"
0x8	uint32	Length of object name.
0xC	char[length]	Object name
0xC+length rounded up to multiple of 4	JCMR data entries	See below

JCMR data entry

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint32	If equal to 0, terminates list of data entries and no further JCMR data follows. Otherwise equal to 0x8000003C
0x4	0x40 bytes of data	Only exists if previous value was 0x8000003C, purpose unknown

JACT

JACT object

Offset	Type	Description
0x0	uint32	Size of section in bytes
0x4	char[4]	String that spells "JACT"
0x8	uint32	Length of object name.
0xC	char[length]	Object name
0xC+length rounded up to multiple of 4	JACT data	unknown

The first character in the name of a JACT object has a meaning: "+" means special actor, "@" means particle actor, "*" means creature.

JSND

still being looked into atm but is suspected to be for music