Level Data Format

LM-related information is accurate as of version 2.51.

Pointer Tables

Address	Description	Format
$05E000	Layer 1 data	0x200 levels, 3 bytes each (1,536 bytes)
$05E600	Layer 2 data	0x200 levels, 3* bytes each (1,536 bytes)
$05EC00	Sprite data	0x200 levels, 2** bytes each (1,024 bytes)

* If the long byte of the Layer 2 data is #$FF, it will get replaced by #$0C and the data will be interpreted as a BG tilemap rather than object data.
** In the original SMW, all sprite data is in bank 7. Lunar Magic adds a 512-byte table for the bank byte at $0EF100.

Primary Level Header

The first five bytes of object data for Layer 1 is the primary level header, which dictates various information about the level. Layer 2 object data also contains this header, but it is skipped over and ignored.

Format
BBBLLLLL	CCCOOOOO	3MMMSSSS	TTPPPFFF	IIVVZZZZ

BBB	BG palette
LLLLL	Length of level (number of screens, -1)
CCC	Back area color
OOOOO	Level mode
3	Layer 3 priority
MMM	Music
SSSS	Sprite GFX setting
TT	Timer setting
PPP	Sprite palette
FFF	FG palette
II	Item memory setting
VV	Vertical scroll setting
ZZZZ	FG/BG GFX setting

Secondary Level Header

The secondary level header consists of four bytes, spread across four seperate tables with one byte per level. Lunar Magic adds a fifth byte as well, at $05DE00.

Format
$05F000	$05F200	$05F400	$05F600	$05DE00*
SSSSyyyy	33AAAxxx	MMMMFFBB	IUVEEEEE	LWPYX---

SSSS	Layer 2 scroll setting
(Y)yyyy	Level entrance Y position**
33	Layer 3 setting
AAA	Level entrance Mario action
(X)xxx	Level entrance X position**
MMMM	Midway entrance screen number
FF	FG initial position
BB	BG initial position
I	Disable No-Yoshi Intro flag
U	Unknown/unused vertical position flag
V	Vertical positioning flag
EEEEE	Level entrance screen number
L	Slippery flag*
W	Water flag*
P	Flag to use X/Y position method 2*

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

* Added by Lunar Magic; not used in the original game.
** The capitalized Y and X bits are added by Lunar Magic when using X/Y position method 2, but are unused in the original game.

Midway Entrances

Lunar Magic also adds similar data for midway entrances when they're set to have seperate settings. This data is stored in a dynamically-located set of tables, however; they can be found in order at read3(read3($05D9E4)+$0A).

Format
Table 1	Table 2	Table 3
LWIMYAAA	yyyyXXXX	----FFBB

L	Slippery flag
W	Water flag
I	Flag to use seperate midway entrance (only the M bit is used otherwise)
M	Bit 5 of midway screen number
Yyyyy	Midway entrance Y position
AAA	Midway entrance Mario action
XXXX	Midway entrance X position
MMMM	Midway entrance screen number
FF	Midway FG initial position
BB	Midway BG initial position
----	Currently unused

Sprite Header

The first byte of sprite data is the sprite header, which handles some miscellaneous sprite-related information.

Format
SBMMMMMM

S	Sprite buoyancy1
B	Sprite buoyancy (disable sprite-Layer 2 interaction)
MMMMMM	Sprite memory2

¹ Sprite buoyancy is a pair of flags that controls how sprites interact with water or lava. It is required for some sprites to behave correctly. Enabling this can cause lag if too many sprites are onscreen at once. Disabling Layer 2 interaction can mitigate this lag.
² Although values up to #$3F are possible, only up to #$12 are actually intended for use.

Object Data

Object data is used to define Layer 1 and Layer 2 foreground data. The Z order of the objects is determined by the order they're written; an object earlier in the data, for instance, will appear below an object written later.

The data consists of a five byte header, followed by a list of all the objects. If the first byte of an object is #$FF, it indicates the end of the data has been reached.

The "new screen" flag described in most of the below formats increases the high X position of it and all following objects by one. In order to decrease it or increase it by a larger amount, a screen jump must be used.

Standard Objects

Standard objects are 3 bytes long. The 'settings byte' usage varies depending on the object, but generally specifies the height and width of the object.

Format
NBBYYYYY	bbbbXXXX	SSSSSSSS

N	New Screen flag
BBbbbb	Standard object number
YYYYY	Y position
XXXX	X position
SSSSSSSS	Settings

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

Standard Object List
ID	Object name	Settings byte usage
00	(Extended Objects)	Extended object ID
01	Water (Blue)	Height	Width
02	Invisible coin blocks	Height	Width
03	Invisible note blocks	Height	Width
04	Invisible POW coins	Height	Width
05	Coins	Height	Width
06	Walk-through dirt	Height	Width
07	Water (Other color)	Height	Width
08	Note blocks	Height	Width
09	Turn blocks	Height	Width
0A	Coin ? blocks	Height	Width
0B	Throw blocks	Height	Width
0C	Black piranha plants	Height	Width
0D	Cement blocks	Height	Width
0E	Brown blocks	Height	Width
0F	Vertical pipes	Height	Type
10	Horizontal pipes	Type	Width
11	Bullet shooter	Height	Unused
12	Slopes	Height	Type
13	Ledge edges	Height	Type
14	Ground ledge	Height	Width
15	Midway/Goal point	Height	Type
16	Blue coins	Height	Width
17	Rope/Clouds	Type	Width
18	Water surface (ani)	Height	Width
19	Water surface (not ani)	Height	Width
1A	Lava surface (ani)	Height	Width
1B	Net top edge	Height	Width
1C	Donut bridge	Unused	Width
1D	Net bottom edge	Height	Width
1E	Net vertical edge	Height	Type
1F	Vert. Pipe/Bone/Log	Height	Unused
20	Horiz. Pipe/Bone/Log	Unused	Width
21	Long ground ledge	Width
22	LM - Direct Map16 page 0	Special handling
23	LM - Direct Map16 page 1	Special handling
24	LM - Old FG/BG/SP bypass	Special handling
25	LM - Old AN2 bypass	Special handling
26	LM - Music bypass	Special handling
27	LM - Direct Map16 object	Special handling
28	LM - Time limit bypass	Special handling
29	LM - Reserved	N/A
2A	LM - Reserved	N/A
2B	LM - Reserved	N/A
2C	LM - Reserved	N/A
2D	LM - Reserved	N/A
2E	Tileset Specific 1	Various
2F	Tileset Specific 2	Various
30	Tileset Specific 3	Various
31	Tileset Specific 4	Various
32	Tileset Specific 5	Various
33	Tileset Specific 6	Various
34	Tileset Specific 7	Various
35	Tileset Specific 8	Various
36	Tileset Specific 9	Various
37	Tileset Specific 10	Various
38	Tileset Specific 11	Various
39	Tileset Specific 12	Various
3A	Tileset Specific 13	Various
3B	Tileset Specific 14	Various
3C	Tileset Specific 15	Various
3D	Tileset Specific 16	Various
3E	Tileset Specific 17	Various
3F	Tileset Specific 18	Various

The above list shows the usage of the settings byte for each standard object; when an object has two columns for the usage, the right column is the lower nibble while the left is the higher nibble (i.e. #$HW for most objects). The usage can also be seen in Lunar Magic's object window, next to the object ID, though LM displays them in reverse order.

Extended Objects

Extended objects function as standard object 00, and are also 3 bytes long.

Format
N00YYYYY	0000XXXX	BBBBBBBB

N	New Screen flag
YYYYY	Y position
XXXX	X position
BBBBBBBB	Extended object number

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

Extended Object List
ID	Object name
00	Special - Screen Exit
01	Special - Screen Jump
02-0F	Unused
10	Small door
11	Invisible ? block (1-UP)
12	Invisible note block
13	Top left corner edge tile 1
14	Top right corner edge tile 1
15	Small POW door
16	Invisible POW ? block
17	Green star block
18	3-UP moon
19	Invisible 1-UP #1
1A	Invisible 1-UP #2
1B	Invisible 1-UP #3
1C	Invisible 1-UP #4
1D	Red berry
1E	Pink berry
1F	Green berry
20	Always turning block
21	Bottom right of midway point (unused)
22	Bottom right of midway point (unused)
23	Note block (flower/feather/star)
24	ON/OFF block
25	Direction coins ? block
26	Note block
27	Note block, bounce on all sides
28	Turn block (Flower)
29	Turn block (Feather)
2A	Turn block (Star)
2B	Turn block (Star 2/1-UP/Vine)
2C	Turn block (Multiple coins)
2D	Turn block (Coin)
2E	Turn block (Nothing)
2F	Turn block (POW)
30	? block (Flower)
31	? block (Feather)
32	? block (Star)
33	? block (Star 2)
34	? block (Multiple coins)
35	? block (Key/Wings/Balloon/Shell)
36	? block (Yoshi)
37	? block (Shell)
38	? block (Shell)
39	Turn block, unbreakable (Feather)
3A	Top left corner edge tile 2
3B	Top right corner edge tile 2
3C	Top left corner edge tile 3
3D	Top right corner edge tile 3
3E	Top left corner edge tile 4
3F	Top right corner edge tile 4
40	Transculent block
41	Yoshi Coin
42	Top left slope
43	Top right slope
44	Purple triangle, left
45	Purple triangle, right
46	Midway point rope
47	Door
48	Invisible POW door
49	Ghost house exit
4A	Climbing net door
4B	Conveyor end tile 1
4C	Conveyor end tile 2
4D	Line guide, top left 1/4 large circle
4E	Line guide, top right 1/4 large circle
4F	Line guide, bottom left 1/4 large circle
50	Line guide, bottom right 1/4 large circle
51	Line guide, top left 1/4 small circle
52	Line guide, top right 1/4 small circle
53	Line guide, bottom left 1/4 small circle
54	Line guide, bottom right 1/4 small circle
55	Line guide end, for horizontal line
56	Line guide end, for vertical line
57	Switch palace bottom right corner tile
58	Switch palace bottom left corner tile
59	Switch palace top right corner tile
5A	Switch palace top left corner tile
5B	Bit of brick background tile 1
5C	Bit of brick background tile 2
5D	Bit of brick background tile 3
5E	Bit of brick background tile 4
5F	Large background area
60	Lava/mud top right corner edge
61	Ghost house clock
62	Ghost house top left to bottom right beam 1
63	Ghost house top right to bottom left beam 1
64	Ghost house cobweb, top right
65	Ghost house cobweb, top left
66	Ghost house top right to bottom left beam 2
67	Ghost house top left to bottom right beam 2
68	Cloud fringe, bottom and right edge
69	Cloud fringe, bottom and left edge
6A	Cloud fringe, bottom right
6B	Cloud fringe, bottom left
6C	Cloud fringe on white, bottom and right edge
6D	Cloud fringe on white, bottom and left edge
6E	Cloud fringe on white, bottom right
6F	Cloud fringe on white, bottom left
70	Bit of canvass 1
71	Canvass 1
72	Canvass 2
73	Canvass 3
74	Canvass 4
75	Canvass tile 1
76	Canvass tile 2
77	Canvass tile 3
78	Canvass tile 4
79	Canvass tile 5
7A	Canvass tile 6
7B	Canvass tile 7
7C	Bit of canvas 2
7D	Bit of canvas 3
7E	Bit of canvas 4
7F	Torpedo launcher
80	Ghost house entrance
81	Water weed
82	Big bush 1
83	Big bush 2
84	Castle entrance
85	Yoshi's house
86	Arrow sign
87	! block, green
88	Tree branch, left
89	Tree branch, right
8A	Switch, green
8B	Switch, yellow
8C	Switch, blue
8D	Switch, red
8E	! block, yellow
8F	Ghost house window
90	Boss door
91	Steep left slope (vert. lev.)
92	Steep right slope (vert. lev.)
93	Normal left slope (vert. lev.)
94	Normal right slope (vert. lev.)
95	Very steep left slope (vert. lev.)
96	Very steep right slope (vert. lev.)
97	Switch palace right and bottom edge tile
98-FF	Unused

Screen Exits

Screen exits function as extended object 00. Unlike the rest of object data, they're 4 bytes long rather than 3.

Format
000ppppp	0000wush	00000000	dddddddd

ppppp	Screen number
w	Midway / Water flag**
u	LM-modified flag***
s	Secondary exit flag*
hdddddddd	Destination level / secondary exit ID

* Added by Lunar Magic; not used in the original game.
** If the secondary exit flag is clear, links to the destination level's midway entrance. Else, makes the destination level a water level.
*** Indicates the screen exit uses the secondary exit flag added by LM rather than SMW's default functionality.

In an unmodified SMW, if the last screen exit in the data has the secondary exit flag set, all screen exits in the level will be interpreted as secondary exits.
Additionally, in an unmodified SMW, the high bit of the current level is used as the high bit of the destination level / secondary exit ID.

As of Lunar Magic v2.50, an alternate version of this object also exists as extended object 02. This version adds an extra byte to the data, for the purpose of having 15-bit destinations (0000-1FFF) instead of 9-bit (000-1FF). It's used for the secondary exit expansion hijack.

Screen Jump

Screen jumps function as extended object 01, and change the high X position of proceding objects to a specified screen. They can be used to skip over screens if no objects exist on them, or to move back a screen to change the Z ordering of an object crossing over a screen boundary. Like standard and extended objects, they consist of three bytes.

Format
000PPPPP	0000----	00000001

PPPPP	Screen number
----	Currently unused

Lunar Magic Objects

Lunar Magic adds some additional objects under standard IDs 22-28, with 29-2C additionally reserved for future use, and object 2D reserved for user-defined objects.

Object 22/23

Object 22 and 23 are used for direct tiles from Map16 pages 0 and 1 respectively. They're four bytes long rather than three.

Format
N10YYYYY	001BXXXX	HHHHWWWW	bbbbbbbb

N	New Screen flag
Bbbbbbbbb	Map16 tile number
YYYYY	Y position
XXXX	X position
HHHH	Height
WWWW	Width

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

Object 24/25

Objects 24 and 25 are deprecated objects used to handle the old GFX bypass system, which used a list system for specifying ExGFX files. The new Super GFX bypass renders these unnecessary.

Format
Object 24	N10-SSSS	0100ssss	FFFFFFFF
Object 25	N10-UUUU	0101uuuu	AAAAAAAA

N	New Screen flag
SSSSssss	GFX list to use for sprite GFX, plus 1
FFFFFFFF	GFX list to use for FG/BG GFX, plus 1
UUUUuuuu	Unused? Stored to $FA.
AAAAAAAA	GFX file for AN2, plus 1
-	Currently unused

Note: the GFX list for FG/BG graphics does not include the extra files BG2 and BG3.

Object 26

Object 26 handles the music bypass.

Format
N10-UUUU	0101uuuu	MMMMMMMM

N	New Screen flag
MMMMMMMM	Song ID to use, plus one.
UUUUuuuu	Unused? Functions identical to the M bits.
-	Currently unused

Object 27/29

Objects 27 and 29 handles Map16 objects other than those handled by object 22/23. Object 27 in particular handles Map16 pages 00-3F, while object 29 handles 40-7F. There are four different forms of the objects, depending on how the tiles are selected and stretched.

Format (for object 27)
Single-screen, single tile	N10YYYYY	0111XXXX	HHHHWWWW	00BBBBBB	bbbbbbbb
Multiple tiles unstretched	N10YYYYY	0111XXXX	hhhhwwww	01BBBBBB	bbbbbbbb
Single-screen, multiple tiles	N10YYYYY	0111XXXX	HHHHWWWW	10BBBBBB	bbbbbbbb	hhhhwwww
Multi-screen	N10YYYYY	0111XXXX	WWWWWWWW	11BBBBBB	bbbbbbbb	hhhhwwww	HHHHHHHH

* Object 29 is handled identically, except the high 4 bits of the second byte are 1001 instead of 0111.

N	New Screen flag
BBBBBBbbbbbbbb	Base Map16 tile number
YYYYY	Y position
XXXX	X position
HHHH(HHHH)	Height*
WWWW(WWWW)	Width*
hhhh	Height of Map16 selection
wwww	Width of Map16 selection

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

* Although the height and width of multi-screen objects are 8-bit, only values up to #$80 are valid due to the way their routine is coded.

Object 28

Object 28 handles the time limit bypass.

Format
N10-BBBB	0001CCCC	R---AAAA

N	New Screen flag
AAAA	Ones
BBBB	Tens
CCCC	Hundreds
R	Force timer reset flag
----	Currently unused

Object 2D

Object 2D is reserved by Lunar Magic for 5-byte custom user-defined objects. Although it's parsed by LM's hijacks, it's not actually tied to any routines normally.

Format
N10YYYYY	1101XXXX	SSSSSSSS	AAAAAAAA	BBBBBBBB

N	New Screen flag
YYYYY	Y position
XXXX	X position
SSSSSSSS	Settings
AAAAAAAA	Extension byte A
BBBBBBBB	Extension byte B

ObjecTool uses extension byte A as the custom object number, while byte B is left free for use.

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

Extended Object 02

Extended object 02 serves as an expansion to the standard screen exit object. It's mostly identical to the original object, except byte 2 is moved to end to allow its high bits to be used.

Format
000ppppp	0000----	00000010	dddddddd	HHHHw11h

ppppp	Screen number
w	Water flag
HHHHhdddddddd	Secondary exit ID
----	Currently unused

Background Data

When Layer 2 is stored as a background tilemap, it's written as raw Map16 data compressed in the LC_RLE1 format:

Format
RLLLLLLL	...

R	RLE flag
LLLLLLL	Length
...	If the RLE flag is clear, the following (length + 1) bytes are intepreted as direct tile data. If the RLE flag is set, the following byte is repeated (length + 1) times.

The entire left half of the BG is stored first, then the right half. A command of FF FF indicates the end of the data.

In the original game, whether or not Layer 2 is a BG tilemap or object data is determined by the bank byte of the data's pointer; if #$FF, it gets interpreted as a BG, whereas any other value indicates object data. Lunar Magic changes this functionality so that BG tilemaps use the full 24-bit pointer, and instead moves the flag to determine its format to $0EF310:

Format
bbBB-FD-

D	Data type; object (0) or tilemap (1)
F	Flag to indicate the usage of the high nibble
BB	F bit set: Map16 bank to use for the BG
bbBB	F bit clear: high byte for all BG Map16 tiles (deprecated?)
--	Unused

Sprite Data

Sprite data consists of a single-byte header, followed by a list of all the sprites. If the first byte of a sprite is #$FF, it indicates the end of the data has been reached.

Format
yyyyEESY	XXXXssss	NNNNNNNN

Yyyyy	Y position
EE	Extra bits
XXXX	X position
Sssss	Screen number
NNNNNNNN	Sprite ID

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

Secondary Entrances

Secondary entrance data consists of four bytes, spread across four seperate 512-byte tables with one byte per secondary exit ID.

Format
$05F800	$05FA00	$05FC00	$05FE00
DDDDDDDD	BBFFyyyy	xxxSSSSS	LPYXHAAA

DDDDDDDD	Low byte of destination level
BB	BG initial position
FF	FG initial position
(Y)yyyy	Entrance Y position**
(X)xxx	Entrance X position**
SSSSS	Entrance screen number
L	Slippery level flag*
P	Uses X/Y position method 2*
H	High bit of destination level*
AAA	Entrance Mario action

In vertical levels, the X and Y position values are swapped.

* Added by Lunar Magic; not used in the original game.
** The capitalized Y and X bits are added by Lunar Magic when using X/Y position method 2, but are unused otherwise.

As of Lunar Magic v2.50, the secondary entrance tables may also be dynamically moved to expand their size. They can be found at:

$05F800	read3($0DE191)
$05FA00	read3($0DE198)
$05FC00	read3($0DE19F)
$05FE00	read3($05DC81)

ExAnimation Data

ExAnimation data is stored in two parts, the first being the general animation information and the second being the individual animation information. Note that, unlike most other data on this page, the below values are being described in hexadecimal rather than binary.

General Animation Format
SS	EE	cc	CC	ii	II	mm	MM	FF...	dd DD...

SS	Highest used animation slot, plus 1
EE	Which alternate GFX file the level uses
CCcc	Which custom triggers start uninitialized, bitwise
IIii	Initial states for each custom trigger, when initialized
MMmm	Which manual triggers are initialized, bitwise
FF...	Frame numbers to initialize each of the specified manual triggers to
DDdd...	Indices to each animation slot's data* (with #$0002 referring to the byte after this value)

* Indices are included up to the highest used slot. If a slot before that isn't used, its indice is 0000.

Individual Animation Format
AA	TT	FF	dd	DD	mm MM...

AA	Animation type
TT	Trigger
FF	Number of frames (-1)
DDdd	Tiles only: VRAM destination*
DD	Colors only: number of colors to animate (-1)*
dd	Colors only: palette destination
MMmm...	Memory address for each frame's tile/color data, or direct SNES RGB values when animating a single color

* The highest bit being 1 indicates the slot uses the level's alternative GFX file.

Global ExAnimation data can be found with read3(read2(read3($0583ae)+$5B)<<8 | (read2($0583ae)+$65)). If read2(read3($0583ae)+$5B) returns #$0000, the ROM has no global ExAnimation data.

The 24-bit pointers to level ExAnimation data can be found with read3(read3($0583ae)+$EA). If the second byte of the pointer is zero, then that level doesn't have animation data.

Additionally, there's a 512-byte table at $03FE00 that stores each level's animation settings.

Format
PTLG----

P	Disable original game's palette animations
T	Disable original game's tile animations
L	Disable LM's level animations
G	Disable LM's global animations
----	Currently unused

ExGFX Files

ExGFX files can be found in a large table at read3($0FF7FF), with 32 bytes per level. The files are listed in 16-bit, in the order:

AN2

LT3

BG3

BG2

FG3

BG1

FG2

FG1

SP4

SP3

SP2

SP1

LG4

LG3

LG2

LG1

Additionally, the high bytes of some of these files contain extra information:

Format
AN2	G3T?----
LT3	DDFF----
SP1	SCXX----
LG4	y?IB----
LG3	YYYY----
LG2	HHHH----
LG1	VVVV----

G	Enable Super GFX Bypass
3	Enable Layer 3 Bypass
T	Enable Layer 3 Tilemap Bypass
DD	Layer 3 destination for file
FF	Layer 3 file size
C	Enable CGADSUB for Layer 3
S	Move Layer 3 to subscreen
XX	Initial Layer 3 X position
B	Enable advanced bypass of Layer 3
I	Fix layer 3 scroll sync issue
YYYYy	Initial Layer 3 Y position
HHHH	Layer 3 horizontal scroll setting
VVVV	Layer 3 vertical scroll setting
??	Unused?
----	Normal high byte of GFX files

Note that the actual GFX data pointers can be found in various places:

File	Pointer location
00-31	$00B992 (low), $00B9C4 (high), $00B9F6 (bank)
80-FF	$0FF600 (24-bit pointers)
100-FFF	read3($0FF937) (24-bit pointers)

Palette Data

Palette data is normally handled by the primary level header. More information on parsing the data there can be found here.

Lunar Magic determines whether a level uses SMW's original palette system or a custom palette by a 24-bit table at $0EF600. If a level's pointer is $000000, it does not use a custom palette, else the value is used as a pointer to the palette data. Custom palettes contain all 257 colors the level uses, with the first color being the back area color.

All palette data is stored as 16-bit SNES RGB values:

Format
-BBBBBGG	GGGRRRRR

BBBBB	Blue component (divided by 8)
GGGGG	Green component (divided by 8)
RRRRR	Red component (divided by 8)