File Size Limitation

[deggy42]

I've been using this tool to work with Iron Brigade (thanks so much for hosting it here, it's almost impossible to find elsewhere) and I've found a partial solution/hint to the file size issue.

Iron Brigade uses .MechItem files to store its weapon data. Each .MechItem file used for a weapon, opened in a hex editor, starts with a series of five hex values before the content begins. The first hex value, converted to decimal, is the size of the file in bytes minus 260. The other four are always "01 00 00 31". For the 446-byte file I'm currently working on, the values before the beginning of the content are:

ba 01 00 00 31

I have been able to add bytes to these files, and have the game launch, by updating the first hex value so that it accurately represents the length of the file (minus 260).

This rule doesn't work for some other file types in Iron Brigade (I'm still going through to see which ones it does work for), but it's allowed me to edit weapons the way I wanted to, so it may be possible to find similar rules for modifications to other files and other games.

[deggy42]

Update to this: I have a full solution to the problem. The first three bytes in size-limited files are an inverse-ordered file size indicator. If they were written "AB CD EF", the file size in bytes is the hexadecimal number "EF CD AB" converted to decimal, plus four (for the four extra bytes for file size). All size-limited files I've tested so far have worked like this. The result of that calculation must be greater than or equal to the size of the file.