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Created by
Jasperre on May 29, 2023
4 minute read
encoding.2da is used for language encoding UTF8 mappings. It is one of the few 2da files not included in the game files by default (leading to default engine behaviour).
2da Usage
A module can ship a custom encoding.2da file that just looks like:
2DA V2.0
Codepoint
0 0x0
1 0x1
2 0x2
3 0x3
4 0x4
5 0x5
6 0x6
...
This specifies a mapping between UTF8 (Basic Multilingual Plane only, i.e. codepoints <=0xFFFF) and whatever internal game codepage is. The module would also need to ship an appropriate set of font files that contain the same symbols at values 0...255.
As an example, Turkish is not a supported language, and Turkish characters such as ğĞşŞ cannot be typed. However, the Turkish codepage (ISO 8859-9) is very similar to the English/western one (ISO 8859-1), except that it replaces Icelandic characters (ðÐþÞ) with Turkish ones.
For a module to support Turkish, they first modify the English font and make the ð glyph look like ğ. Then, in the encoding 2DA they change the line 240 from 0xF0 to 0x011F. Players then type the unicode symbol ğ into the chatbar, but it's remapped to ð instead; however, the font displays it as ğ, so the player is none the wiser. When it comes time to convert it to UTF8 the reverse mapping is done, so the UTF8 text remains the same.
Only drawback is if you dump the cp1252/ISO8859-1 text to a file somewhere and then open it with a different program, you'll get gibberish.
2da Columns
| Column Names | Example | Valid Values | Description and Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Codepoint | 0x1 | UTF8 codepage IDs | See usage above. |
encoding.2da Unchanged example
This is the games original unchanged encoding.2da if it was included in the game files.
2DA V2.0
Codepoint
0 0x0
1 0x1
2 0x2
3 0x3
4 0x4
5 0x5
6 0x6
7 0x7
8 0x8
9 0x9
10 0xa
11 0xb
12 0xc
13 0xd
14 0xe
15 0xf
16 0x10
17 0x11
18 0x12
19 0x13
20 0x14
21 0x15
22 0x16
23 0x17
24 0x18
25 0x19
26 0x1a
27 0x1b
28 0x1c
29 0x1d
30 0x1e
31 0x1f
32 0x20
33 0x21
34 0x22
35 0x23
36 0x24
37 0x25
38 0x26
39 0x27
40 0x28
41 0x29
42 0x2a
43 0x2b
44 0x2c
45 0x2d
46 0x2e
47 0x2f
48 0x30
49 0x31
50 0x32
51 0x33
52 0x34
53 0x35
54 0x36
55 0x37
56 0x38
57 0x39
58 0x3a
59 0x3b
60 0x3c
61 0x3d
62 0x3e
63 0x3f
64 0x40
65 0x41
66 0x42
67 0x43
68 0x44
69 0x45
70 0x46
71 0x47
72 0x48
73 0x49
74 0x4a
75 0x4b
76 0x4c
77 0x4d
78 0x4e
79 0x4f
80 0x50
81 0x51
82 0x52
83 0x53
84 0x54
85 0x55
86 0x56
87 0x57
88 0x58
89 0x59
90 0x5a
91 0x5b
92 0x5c
93 0x5d
94 0x5e
95 0x5f
96 0x60
97 0x61
98 0x62
99 0x63
100 0x64
101 0x65
102 0x66
103 0x67
104 0x68
105 0x69
106 0x6a
107 0x6b
108 0x6c
109 0x6d
110 0x6e
111 0x6f
112 0x70
113 0x71
114 0x72
115 0x73
116 0x74
117 0x75
118 0x76
119 0x77
120 0x78
121 0x79
122 0x7a
123 0x7b
124 0x7c
125 0x7d
126 0x7e
127 0x7f
128 0x20ac
129 0x81
130 0x201a
131 0x192
132 0x201e
133 0x2026
134 0x2020
135 0x2021
136 0x2c6
137 0x2030
138 0x160
139 0x2039
140 0x152
141 0x8d
142 0x17d
143 0x8f
144 0x90
145 0x2018
146 0x2019
147 0x201c
148 0x201d
149 0x2022
150 0x2013
151 0x2014
152 0x2dc
153 0x2122
154 0x161
155 0x203a
156 0x153
157 0x9d
158 0x17e
159 0x178
160 0xa0
161 0xa1
162 0xa2
163 0xa3
164 0xa4
165 0xa5
166 0xa6
167 0xa7
168 0xa8
169 0xa9
170 0xaa
171 0xab
172 0xac
173 0xad
174 0xae
175 0xaf
176 0xb0
177 0xb1
178 0xb2
179 0xb3
180 0xb4
181 0xb5
182 0xb6
183 0xb7
184 0xb8
185 0xb9
186 0xba
187 0xbb
188 0xbc
189 0xbd
190 0xbe
191 0xbf
192 0xc0
193 0xc1
194 0xc2
195 0xc3
196 0xc4
197 0xc5
198 0xc6
199 0xc7
200 0xc8
201 0xc9
202 0xca
203 0xcb
204 0xcc
205 0xcd
206 0xce
207 0xcf
208 0xd0
209 0xd1
210 0xd2
211 0xd3
212 0xd4
213 0xd5
214 0xd6
215 0xd7
216 0xd8
217 0xd9
218 0xda
219 0xdb
220 0xdc
221 0xdd
222 0xde
223 0xdf
224 0xe0
225 0xe1
226 0xe2
227 0xe3
228 0xe4
229 0xe5
230 0xe6
231 0xe7
232 0xe8
233 0xe9
234 0xea
235 0xeb
236 0xec
237 0xed
238 0xee
239 0xef
240 0xf0
241 0xf1
242 0xf2
243 0xf3
244 0xf4
245 0xf5
246 0xf6
247 0xf7
248 0xf8
249 0xf9
250 0xfa
251 0xfb
252 0xfc
253 0xfd
254 0xfe
255 0xff