AIM Images (.aim)
The engine's image format, handled by AIM.dll and selected as
ShaderFormat=aim in iso.ini. It is used both for tile bitmaps in
./images/module_stadtkarte/ and for baked town overview images in
./iso/towns/<id>.aim.
The file starts with the magic AIM\0, followed by an embedded name string and
a sequence of chunks of the form { Type, Size, Data }:
0000 41 49 4d 00 ... "AIM\0"
0009 6c 61 6c 61 00 embedded name string
... chunks { Type, Size, Data }
| Chunk Type | Encoding | Example |
|---|---|---|
22 | RGB / BGR, uncompressed | town overview 0.aim (272 x 155) |
34 | compressed indexed BGRA | tile bitmaps |
Tile bitmaps are sheets of 34 x 21 diamonds keyed on magenta (FF 00 FF); a
single file may hold several variants. The overview iso/towns/<id>.aim decodes
to a 272 x 155 painted image (the same size as the matching .tga), not a tile
render.
.aim files can be converted to and from PNG with the community aim_converter
tool (to-png / to-aim).
[To be completed]