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Resource management

Resource Partitions​

Packages and parittions​

The game's data is split into package files, which have an .rpkg extension. They commonly use either chunk or dlc as followed by an index as name. These packages contain all the assets the game uses. Each of these "base" packages can also be accompanied by "patch" packages, which will postfix patchX to the filename (e.g. chunk0patch2.rpkg, dlc2patch5). A base package together with its patch packages is called a partition.

To share content between partitions a packagedefinition.txt file is used. This file must be present inside the same folder the packages are in.

When the game tries to load a level it will try to find the partition that level is in, using the packagedefinition.txt file.

A partition can access all of the resource it stores, and all of the resources stored by its parent, recursively. This means that the resources in the root partition (usually chunk0) are always "globally" accessible,

Special package usages:​

  • Language partitions: In the Hitman 2016 japanese dlc you can find special language dlc package. These use the chunk0langjp.rpkg -> chunk0langjppatch1.rpkg format and behave like normal dlc partitions.
  • Overflow packages: Hitman 3 VR: Reloaded, developed by XR games, contains the chunk0.rpkg -> chunk0overflow0.rpkg format. These packages overflow are used to get around the FAT32 limit on the Quest 3.
  • Part packages: Hitman 3: IOS edition contains chunk0part1.rpkg -> chunk0part2.rpkg format. Despite the "part" in the name these are still standalone resource packages. Their use is likely related to the revamp of the resource management system on IOS, where storage is limited.

Resource ids​

Runtime Resource Id​

To uniquely identify resources, the Glacier engine generates an ID derived from the resource's path. Instead of tracking resource paths directly the engine uses a Runtime Resource ID (RRID). This is a 64-bit hash value usually represented in hex (0x00123456789ABCDE). These RRIDs serve as small and efficient references to resources within the engine. Originally these values were often referred to as a resource's hash.

Resource Id​

A Runtime Resource ID is generated from a Resource ID. Resource IDs are structured paths that include additional information about the resource, such as platform tags, parameters, and derived extensions. This structure enables the resource pipeline to efficiently track, derive, and manipulate resources.

Resource ID examples​

  • Simple resourceID example without parameters

    [assembly:/images/sprites/player.jpg].pc_jpeg

    In this example, the source path assembly:/images/sprites/player.jpg was used to generate a ResourceID. This ID is derived for the pc platform and specifies a jpeg extension.

  • Nested resourceID with derived IDs and parameters:

    [[assembly:/images/sprites/player.jpg](asspritesheet).png].orbis_gif

    Here, assembly:/images/sprites/player.jpg was the source resource, which was used to generate an intermediate .png resource with the asspritesheet parameter. This intermediate resource was then used to derive a .gif format resource for the orbis (ps4) platform.

  • Complex resourceID with multiple levels of nesting and parameters:

    [[[assembly:/materials/materialclasses/test.materialclass].fx](small).mate](dx12).pc_mate
    1. The source resource path assembly:/materials/materialclasses/test.materialclass was used to create an intermediate .fx resource.
    2. This .fx resource was further used to create another intermediate resource, .mate, with the dx11 parameter.
    3. Finally, this .mate resource was derived as a pc platform-specific resource with the mate extension and the dx12 parameter.

Multiple ResourceID can be derived from the same Source resource:

[assembly:/scenes/missions/test/practice_mission.entity].pc_entitytemplate
[assembly:/scenes/missions/test/practice_mission.entity].pc_entityblueprint
[assembly:/scenes/missions/test/practice_mission.entity].pc_preload

In this case, a single entity file is used to generate different resources specific to templates, blueprints, and preload data for the PC platform.

To generate a RuntimeResourceID from a ResourceID, a md5 digest is used.

  1. The Resource ID string is hashed using MD5, resulting in a 128-bit digest.
  2. The Runtime Resource ID is generated by extracting the lower 64 bits and setting the lower 8 bits to zero.

example:

ResourceID:        [assembly:/images/sprites/player.jpg].pc_jpeg
Md5 digest:        4c56778efc29f02772b6219b270a8fb7
RuntimeResourceID: 0056778EFC29F027