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Rakata

Rakata is a clean-room Rust implementation of Knights of the Old Republic (KotOR) data formats and tooling. It provides a modular workspace designed for robust, type-safe, and canonical handling of Odyssey Engine game data.

This Wiki serves as the definitive reference manual for KOTOR Formats and Engine Behaviors, designed to decouple format knowledge from the underlying Rust source code.

Documentation Domains

Rakata’s documentation operates on two tiers: the Software API and the Format Specifications.

1. The Workspace (Code API)

The workspace is organized into focused crates and tools. If you are developing against Rakata and need to know the semantic layout of types, functions, and data structures, refer to the respective Rustdocs:

Libraries (crates/)

  • rakata-core: Foundational primitives (ResRef, ResourceType, ResourceId) and core utilities (encoding, filesystem, detection).
  • rakata-formats: Binary and text format readers/writers for 19 KotOR formats including GFF, ERF, RIM, KEY/BIF, MDL/MDX, TPC, TGA, and more.
  • rakata-generics: Typed wrappers around GFF-backed resources (all 13 types: UTW, UTC, UTI, etc.) with loss-aware conversion.
  • rakata-extract: Resource resolution logic, composite module handling (.mod + _s.rim + _dlg.erf), and game-wide resource access (GameResources).
  • rakata-lint: Comprehensive resource validation against engine-derived field schemas. Catches crash-causing mod errors across all formats before they hit the engine.
  • rakata-save: Save game parsing and modification logic.
  • rakata: Facade crate re-exporting the ecosystem.

Tools (tools/)

  • rakata-saveeditor: Desktop GUI application for editing save games.
  • vanilla-inspector: Corpus validation tool for testing format implementations against all vanilla game assets.

🔗 View Rakata Rustdocs

2. Format Specifications (This Wiki)

The entire formats/ specification manual effectively serves as Rakata’s formal Evidence Log. If you need to understand binary structure, historical context, or how the original swkotor.exe engine interprets byte bounds under the hood (via Ghidra-backed engine constraints), you are in the right place!

Navigate through the sidebar to explore our exhaustive, decoupled format libraries:

  • Archive Formats – Detailed overviews of encapsulated containers (BIF, KEY, ERF, RIM).
  • GFF Structure – The bedrock of KOTOR’s data, exposing the 13 distinct blueprint constraints (Creatures, Dialogues, Triggers, etc.).
  • 3D Models & Mesh – MDL/MDX structures and binary walkmesh topologies.
  • Textures & Audio – Overviews detailing graphic compression (TPC, DDS) and MP3/Miles Sound System wrappers.
  • Text & Data Formats – Localized Talk Tables (TLK), rule mappings (2DA), and hierarchical layout geometries (LYT, VIS).

Ready to dive in? Head over to the Goals & Roadmap to see where the project is heading, or look into the Architecture logic that powers the Rakata suite.