What is kept
From either kind of installation, or the download, the editor copies about 930 files it draws with, about 30 MB from the classic archives:
| Files | For |
|---|---|
tileset/<name>.cv5, .vx4, .vr4, .vf4, .wpe |
each tileset's terrain: tile groups, megatiles, pixels, walkability and height, palette |
tileset/<name>.ofire.pcx and three more remaps |
fire and explosion colours |
tileset/<name>.dddata.bin, stat_txt.tbl |
the doodad placement table; doodad and unit names |
arr/units.dat, flingy.dat, sprites.dat, images.dat, images.tbl |
the chain from a unit type to its picture |
arr/weapons.dat, upgrades.dat, techdata.dat |
the defaults in the Unit, Upgrade and Technology Settings dialogs |
arr/sfxdata.dat, sfxdata.tbl |
the list of the game's sounds, for the trigger sound picker |
game/tunit.pcx |
team colours |
scripts/iscript.bin |
animation scripts |
unit/**/*.grp, unit/**/*.lo? |
about 750 sprite sheets and their overlay positions |
unit/cmdbtns/cmdicons.grp, ticon.pcx |
command card icons, which plugins show |
The eight tilesets, in the order the map file numbers them, are Badlands, Space Platform, Installation, Ashworld, Jungle, Desert, Ice and Twilight.
Files for playing#
A copy kept in the browser also holds the files the game itself runs on: its sounds, its computer players' scripts, the rules of each game type, its cursors and interface pictures, and the pictures of things only a game in play draws (buildings going up, spell effects, selection circles). The editor opens none of them. They are for the play page at scmjs.dev/play, which runs maps and replays in the browser from the same copy. The desktop app's own copy leaves them out.
From a Remastered installation, the copy can also keep what the game's real-time lighting reads: tick Keep the files for real-time lighting on the play page when you choose the folder. Choosing the folder again with the box ticked adds them to an existing copy.
| Copy | In the browser | In the desktop app |
|---|---|---|
| From a classic installation or the download | about 140 MB | about 30 MB |
| From a Remastered installation | about 650 MB | about 365 MB |
| From Remastered, with the lighting files | about 850 MB | — |
Most of the difference is sounds, which Remastered stores uncompressed, and Remastered's own pictures. The files are written one at a time as they are read, so the size is on disk, not in memory.
The play page can make the copy itself: choose a Remastered folder there and it is installed by the same code, into the same place. The editor then opens with Remastered graphics on, as it does after installing from its own dialog.
Without game data#
Without any of this the editor still runs. Terrain is drawn in flat colours, one per tileset, units and sprites as coloured markers, and everything else works: every layer, every dialog, opening and saving. The palettes that would need the graphics say so.