Pilotwings 64 Research & Development

Keyword Glossary

Some of these are confirmed based on strings in the main application. Some are guesses based on the character grouping and logic.

Magic	Description	Notes
BIRD	Birdman
CB	Cannon Ball
HG	Hang Glider
HM	Jumble Hopper
GC	Gyro Copter
RP	Rocket Pack
SD	Sky Diver
UV	UltraVision	Engine Codename
ADAT	ASCII (?) Data	See: https://github.com/queueRAM/pilotwings_64/pull/3
APTS	Audio Switch Points
BALS	Balloons / Balls
BNUS	Bonus	Secret Birdman stars in the levels
BTGT	Ball Target	Missions where you push a ball into destination cylinder with the RP
CNTG	Cannon Target
COMM	Command/Common
DATA	Text Data	Strings throughout the game, see: https://github.com/queueRAM/pilotwings_64/pull/3
HPAD	Hover Pad	Rocket Pack hovering landing pads
HOPD	Hopper Destination
JPTX	Japan TeXt	String character lookup table?
LPAD	Landing Pad
LSTP	Landing Strip
PDAT	Path Data
PHDR	Path Header
PHTS	Photos	Objects to photograph while in missions with Hang Glider
PPOS	Path Pose Line	?
QUAT	Quaternion
RNGS	Rings
SPTH	SOMETHING Path	S Path?
STRG	String
THER	Thermals	Hang Glider lift points
TPAD	Takeoff Pad
TPTS	Terra Switch Points
TOYS	Toys	Seems to refer to animated models (like ferris wheel)
UPWL	PilotWings Level	Pre-mission "stage setup", 4 levels: Holiday Island, Ever-Frost Island, Crescent Island, Little States
UPWT	PilotWings Task	Missions: target/ring/balloon X/Y/Z coordinates, landing pad/strip locations, etc
UVAN	Animation
UVBT	Blit
UVCT	Contour	Main terrain geometry
UVFT	Font Texture	Template? Near STRG marker
UVEN	Environment	maybe skybox?
UVLV	UltraVision Level	lists other UVTR,UVMD,UVTX to loadvs UPWL?
UVMD	Model
UVSQ	UltraVision Sequence	Guess
UVSY	UltraVison System	Guess
UVTR	Terra	Grid of UVCT contours
UVTX	Texture
WOBJ	Wind Objects

Memory Addresses (ROM/RAM)

This is for things like X/Z/Y coordinates of objects/vehicles/etc and other things I've found to be of interest while dumping memory in the PJ64 debugger. Some of these mem locations can be modified in-game ("Live) but some must be modified during or right after DMA ROM read.

I'm fairly confident I have X/Z/Y coordinates correct but please double check and correct me if I reversed X/Z somehow.

Feel free to correct my findings and update/add/remove things as needed. - roto

Memory Address	Data Type	Name	Description/Notes
80126C64	data	UVTR First hit	After DMA ROM read
80265294	float	Ball Width	JetPack Level 1
802652A8	float	Ball Height	JetPack Level 1
802652B0	float	Ball / Model X Live	Change position of "current target" live, after ROM read
802652B4	float	Ball / Model Z Live	Seems to affect models in Character Select screen too
802652B8	float	Ball / Model Y Live
80362758	float	Jetpack Rotation Angle
80362788	float	Vehicle X Live
8036278C	float	Vehicle Z Live
80362790	float	Vehicle Y Live
8036AAC4	data	Ring X-Rotate Angle	ROM read, on UPWT load, can't seem to find this in memory after
8036C6E0	float	Minimap Target X
8036C6E4	float	Minimap Target Z
8036C6E8	float	Minimap Target Y
8036DA79	data	Ring/Object "Model"	Weird one, change to '01' for a glitched out Hang Glider
8036DAAC	float	Ring X Live
8036DAB0	float	Ring Z Live
8036DAB4	float	Ring Y Live
8036DC0C	data	Ring rotation speed	Change to 41
8036DC18	data	Ring Rotation (Flip)	Change to 78
8037A600	data	COMM Gyro Level 1	Temp marker
8037AA21	data	Number of Rings?	Gyro 1st Level
8037AA22	data	Number of Balloons (objectives/goals?)	JetPack Level 1

Function names/signatures

function names starting uv are taken directly from debug text

RAM address	Name/Signature	Notes
216f70	uvDobjModel(int index, int modelID)	loads a dynamic object
30b868	loadLevelDobjs	load several Dobjs depending on level ID (1,3,5,a)
229270	axisRotation(transform* mat, float angle, uint8 axis)	rotates mat (excluding the translation part), axis is 78,79,7a corresponding to x,y,z
205814	uvSortAdd(int category, float dist, modelPlacement* obj)	Appends the given S/Dobj (based on category) to the appropriate list for rendering
22f7e8	computeLineEndpoints(uint16* entrance, *exit, float xmin, xmax, ymax, ymin, intercept, slope, inverseSlope, bool handedness, float widthScale, heightScale)	stores the endpoints of a line through the given rectangle, using a coordinate that increases ccw around the rectangle, increasing widthScale or heightScale across each side

Demo Flight Path Data

The PDAT container at 0x384E64 has (among other yet unknown structures such as "RPKT") various X/Z/Y coordinates in the "PPOS" sets for the first demo flight of the game when left idle at the Title Screen. The demo is of the first Gyro Copter level where you are shown how to fly through rings and then loop around the airport.

If we take the PPOS data and convert the it to floats, we can graph the demo flight path as such:

The example code to do this (made by roto) is terrible and I apologize for it but it works:

import struct
import numpy as np

# 3D stuff
from mpl_toolkits.mplot3d import axes3d
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from matplotlib import style

x_list = []
z_list = []
y_list = []

with open("ppos2_clean", "r") as f:
    data = f.read().splitlines()

    for line in data:
        pos_x = bytearray.fromhex(line[0:8])
        pos_z = bytearray.fromhex(line[8:16])
        pos_y = bytearray.fromhex(line[16:24])

        x_list.append(round(struct.unpack('>f', pos_x)[0],6))
        z_list.append(round(struct.unpack('>f', pos_z)[0],6))
        y_list.append(round(struct.unpack('>f', pos_y)[0],6))

        print "%s %s %s" % (round(struct.unpack('>f', pos_x)[0],6),
                            round(struct.unpack('>f', pos_z)[0],6),
                            round(struct.unpack('>f', pos_y)[0],6))

fig = plt.figure()
ax1 = fig.add_subplot(111, projection='3d')
x = np.array(x_list)
z = np.array(z_list)
y = np.array(y_list)

ax1.plot(x,z,y)
ax1.set_xlabel('x axis')
ax1.set_ylabel('z axis')
ax1.set_zlabel('y axis')

plt.show()

To feed this code with the data points ("ppos2_clean") I just ripped the PPOS data from the PW64 FS dump python script made by queueRAM (Found Here)