PALT Resource Format
The following information is not based on any proprietary knowledge or restricted documentation—it was entirely derived from observation, experiment, and public information, thus it may be inaccurate or incomplete.
Analyzed by Greg Noel.
The PALT resource translates an eight-bit color index into a 24-bit color value. It consists primarily of a 256-entry table containing the color values. It is always 784 bytes long.
In the description below, integers are in little-endian order (least significant byte first).
| PALT layout | ||
| Offset | Size | Value |
| 0 | 4 | always one |
| 4 | 4 | always 256 |
| 8 | 4 | always zero |
| 12 | 4 | always zero |
| 16 | 3 * 256 | RGB entries |
The first four bytes of the file contain a one. This is either the version of the PALT resource or the count of the number of palettes contained in the resource.
The next four bytes always contain the value 256. This almost certainly is the number of palette values in this resource (which is always 256, even if only a few of them are used).
The next eight bytes are always zero. It is unknown if they have any meaning.
There are 256 RGB entries, each three bytes long. Each byte of an entry is the red, green, or blue intensity, respectively, of the color defined by the entry.
The Sims™ is a trademark of Maxis and Electronic Arts.
This page was last modified Monday, 28-Oct-2002 16:12:48 UTC.
