File formats

What the game reads from the disc and writes to the disk, as far as known. Each page gives the layout, the loader in CMR2.exe and what is still open. The reference decoders are in tools/ (stdlib Python): bfl.py reads the containers, cmr2fmt.py decodes textures, sounds and models (and exports them to PNG, WAV and OBJ). Community knowledge may inform the notes; the exe is the authority.

Page	Formats
BFL containers	gzip + CMPR wrapper, .bfl archives, archive slots, texture lookup
PP_F models	.c3d (cars, stage mesh), .sky, .gro, .obj, .sht
Stages	The 25 members of a stage archive, surfaces, replays (.rpl, .grp)
Cars	Car codes, model and texture sets, .cin, engine sounds
Textures, sound, music, movies, text	TGA, DDS/DXT5, PCM WAV, MS ADPCM .adp, Bink .bik, text files, fonts (.pcf), .dmd

The disc

The CD (CMR2.ISO, ISO 9660, volume CMR2, 683,599,872 bytes) is an InstallShield setup (cabinet format below). The game data is on the disc as files and is read from there or from a copy on the hard disk; the executables and a few small files are only in the setup cabinets:

Path	What
data1.cab, data2.cab, data1.hdr, layout.bin, setup.*, ikernel.ex_	InstallShield 6. The cabinet holds CMR2.exe, CMR2Network.exe, binkw32.dll, Msadp32.acm, ReadMe.txt, CMR2.0 help.chm, Game/Bigfiles/*.bfl (copies of the disc's), Game/DemoRuns/*.rpl, Game/Info/Osdinfo.dat
Launcher.exe	Autorun launcher (install / play), not part of the game
dx7a*.exe	DirectX 7a redistributables
FrontEnd/, Game/, SetupRep/, Sounds/, CountrySpecific/	Game data (bfl.md)
Manual/CMR2-PC-UK.pdf, Acrobat Reader/	Manual

The program is CMR2.exe version 1.11 (version resource "Colin McRae Rally 2.0", Codemasters 2001): 1,228,800 bytes, CRC-32 44c022f4, SHA-1 299a29409e92242b4f66f50388a5866d46babf02, PE32 i386, image base 0x400000, sections .text 0x1000 (1,111,798 bytes), .rdata 0x111000, .data 0x116000 (3.2 MB virtual, 80 KB initialised), .rsrc 0x432000. Not packed or protected. CMR2Network.exe is the same size but a different build (network play); the port targets CMR2.exe.

InstallShield cabinet

The installer's files are in one cabinet split into volumes: data1.hdr (the file table), data1.cab and data2.cab (the data). OpenCMR2 reads it in place (src/vfs_cab.c, reference reader tools/iscab.py), so the user gives just the CD or its image. Layout (InstallShield 6; version field 0x0100600c):

Both kinds of file start with a 20-byte common header: ISc(, u32 version, u32 volume info, u32 offset and u32 size of the cabinet descriptor (0x200 in data1.hdr).

Where	Offset	Content
Descriptor	+0x0c	u32 offset of the file table, from the descriptor
	+0x1c	u32 directory count (CMR2: 31)
	+0x28	u32 file count (964)
	+0x2c	u32 offset of the file descriptors, from the file table
File table	+0	One u32 per directory: the offset of its name (from the file table)
File descriptor	0x57 bytes	+0x00 u16 flags (1 split across volumes, 2 obfuscated, 4 compressed, 8 invalid), +0x02 u64 size, +0x0a u64 compressed size, +0x12 u64 data offset in its volume, +0x3a u32 name offset, +0x3e u16 directory, +0x55 u16 first volume
data<N>.cab after the common header	+0x1c	u32 index of the first and (+0x20) last file in this volume
	+0x24	u64 offset and (+0x34) compressed size of the first file's part in this volume
	+0x3c	u64 offset and (+0x4c) compressed size of the last file's part

A file's data starts in its volume at its offset; if that volume ends first (it is the volume's last file and the volume's last-file size is smaller), the rest is at the first-file offset of the next volume. Compressed data is a sequence of chunks, each a u16 length and an independent raw deflate stream. CMR2.exe is stored uncompressed in data2.cab. The file table has stale duplicates (a second Game\Bigfiles\common.bfl with data offset 0): the first entry of a name is the real one. Directory names are the installed paths (Game\DemoRuns, empty for the install root), so the cabinet's files appear at the paths an installed game has.

Paths and registry

The original reads HKLM\SOFTWARE\Codemasters\Colin McRae Rally 2 (Registry_GetString 0x4aa720): Language (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, American), Game_HDPath, Game_CDPath, Install_Version (Minimum, Medium, Network Only, ...). Paths_Init 0x40e8d0 builds the data roots from them: %s\Game\Cars, %s\Game\Tracks, %s\Game\BigFiles, %s\sounds, %s\sounds\music, %s\FrontEnd, %s\FrontEnd\Videos, %s\CountrySpecific, %s\SetupRep, %s\CMR2Saves. A minimum install leaves the data on the CD.

The port has no registry: the language and the data root are launch parameters, and every name resolves case-insensitively in the file layer (the disc mixes Fra02Hi.bfl and fra01hi.bfl).

Files the game writes

Path	What
CMR2Saves\Configuration\Controller.rcf	Controller bindings (FUN_0040bf70 / 0040bff0)
CMR2Saves\Configuration\GameInfo.rcf	Options (FUN_004ea5e0 / 004ea840)
CMR2Saves\gamesave\game_<n>.rcs	Championship / game saves (FUN_004f4ef0, FUN_004f5150)
CMR2Saves\NetworkLeaderboards\leaderboards.nlb	Network leaderboards
replays\<stage>H/L	Saved replays
c:\error.txt	Debug log ("FILE PRINT DEBUG INFORMATION", "Program finished normally")

In the port these go to gasm:storage keys with the same names. Their layouts are open; they matter only for compatibility with old saves, which is not a goal.