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CreaturesArchive data

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CreaturesArchive data is a zlib compression wrapper for arbitrary creatures data, essentially a "creatures zip file". Usually the underlying data consists of serialised objects from the Creatures Evolution Engine; essentially, an on-disk representation of the state of internal game engine data, making it almost impossible to parse without access to the original source code. However, sometimes the format of the internal data has been figured out, such as with the GLST PRAY Block Format.

Data usually stored in Creatures Archive compression wrappers[edit]

  • World save data, ie "TheWorldAndEverythingInIt", "SpaceAndAllThatIsOutThere", or "TheSeaAndAllThatLurksInItsDepths" (a currently unknown internal engine format)
  • CREA blocks in exported .creatures files (a currently unknown internal engine format)
  • GLST blocks in exported .creatures files
  • The "caos.syntax" file

Format[edit]

The compressed files always start with the header Creatures Evolution Engine - Archived information file. zLib 1.13 compressed.\x1a\x04 (note that the two end bytes are SUB, MS-DOS end of readable text, and EOT, UNIX end of file), followed by zlib-compressed (aka DEFLATE-compressed) data.

Once decompressed, data starts with a 4-byte integer specifying the game it came from. Known values are 0xc for Creatures 3 and Creatures Village, and 0x27 for Docking Station. The remaining data depends on the type of file.