target+dat

= TARGETS.DAT =
 * Places the general location in the EAW world of towns and airbases**

//These notes should be read in conjunction with DOM's Editing Notes on EAW Terrain and Airfield/Target Files, and Pilot Officer Prune's notes and utilities for EAW editing//



The first few records in targets.dat set up in AXE with line length at 32 bytes and starting at byte 4 after the header]

Targets.dat was principally cracked by DOM, and places what I think of as the principal marker for all target locations - towns and airfields, by setting the coordinates in the EAW world and then determining how many actual targets there will be at this location.



This is what the EAW world actually looks like. It's a map created by Pilot Officer Prune by converting the terrain tile data file EAW.tm into a bitmap image. The lines of the map EAW coordiante grid are arranged to form the large area squares each of which is dealt with by griddata.dat

In targets.dat with 302 lines of 32 bytes, each line constitutes a "record" for each target location whether town or base.


 * The first 8 bytes (0-7) are the cooordinates in the EAW world - see DOM's notes for an explanation of how this works.
 * The next 8 bytes (8-15) are as yet unknown in purpose though 10-11 are always null
 * Bytes 16-17 identify the record (or line) number in targets.str and therefore the name of the target location
 * Bytes 18-19 fix the numbers of records (or lines) pertinent to this target location in tardata.dat, and therefore the number of actual target mods in this location.
 * Bytes 20-21 identify the commencing record (or line) number in tardata.dat.
 * Bytes 22-23 are always null.
 * Bytes 24-25 identify the Airbase code if the location is a base, or is null if the location is a town.
 * The purpose of the final bytes 26-31 are as yet unknown.

By changing the coordinate values (bytes 0-7) in targets.dat you can move the whole target location and all relevant target mods controlled by tardata.dat at that location with it. This is subject to any adjustments you may have to make to griddata.dat (as DOM's notes explain) if the move is a large one. By changing bytes 18-19 you can allow for an increased number of target mods at the target location, and specify the new mods in new records in tardata.dat



The above screenshot soes how the X and Y coordinates in targets.dat were used to lay out the four target locations which constituted the principlal Japanese attack fleet in "Main Body Sighted" the Midway addon. Each of the four carriers Akagi, Kaga, Hiryu, and Soryu were set up as separate target locations in tardata.dat, and from each each of those target locations the actual objects (carriers, ships) were put in place by tardata.dat.



This diagram shows the central section of the map for the Dunkirk addon. This is a section of Pilot Officer Prune's bitmap conversion of the actual EAW world, where each tiny square represents an actual EAW terrain tile. The lines of the main EAW coordinate are arranged in the intervals to form the large squares whose data is contained in griddata.dat. In the second row of squares appears the griddata.dat offset. Arranged on this map the small purple squares are target locations whose centre is placed using the targets.dat bytes as explained above. The target locations here include ground force and naval locations in and around the Dunkirk pocket, the locations which form the evacuation fleet, and the towns and harbours in England. The red line shows the nodal points on the section of the frontline forming the pocket.



This diagram shows another example of layout for the Dunkirk addon, ground targets in and around Sedan with the main EAW coordinate grid shown in red, and griddata.dat offsets shown in purple.