LIT Files

These files are obsolete!

LIT files have stored lighting-information until some patch. Today, lightning is stored in the following DBC files:

Light.dbc

LightFloatBand.dbc

LightIntBand.dbc

LightParams.dbc

LightSkybox.dbc

For worlds that have terrain data, a corresponding LIT file includes information about the sky color, and possibly lighting conditions. They are stored in World\name\lights.lit

Header

Offset  Type  Description
0x00   uint32 Always 05 00 00 80
0x04   uint32 nSkies - number of skies defined in this file

64 bytes per sky:

Offset Type      Description
0x00   3 * int32 (-1,-1,-1) for the 'default' first record, (0,0,0) otherwise
0x0C   3 * float Coordinates (X,Y,Z)
0x18   float     Smaller radius for area (?)
0x1C   float     Larger radius
0x20   char[32]  Sky name

The float values seem to be multiplied by 36. Dividing by 36 gives back the original scale (I think) In the case of "I think", I think that the game client uses the floats to perform some kind of Cube-Mapped LightMapping (hence the X, Y, Z, -X, -Y, -Z values). -DG

Sky data

4 * 0x15F0 bytes per sky.

The first block of the four seems to have the sky colors, the second and fourth are usually all black, the third might be lighting colors or something else entirely.

Offset Type            Description 
0x0000 18 * int32      Lengths 
0x0048 18 * 64 * int32 Color + time records 
0x1248 32 * float      Float values A 
0x12C8 32 * float      Float values B 
0x1348 uint32          Int value I 
0x134C 32 * float      Float values C 
0x13CC 32 * float      Float values D 
0x144C 32 * float      Float values E 
0x14CC 32 * float      Float values F 
0x154C uint32          Int value J 
0x1550 32 * float      Float values G 
0x15D0 8 * uint32      Padding (all 0)

The color and time records are in the following format:

Each row of 64 integers contains 32 pairs of integers: the first value is the time in half-minutes (on a scale of 0 to 2880 from midnight to midnight), the second value is a BGRX color. The i-th row contains Lengths[ i ] records like that. I think the color values for intermediate times are interpolated based on the times given in this list.

So there are 18 time-based color rows described here, for the first block these are always the sky colors (well, the first 8 at least). WoWmapview is currently only drawing a very crude, fake sky globe - the colors may or may not match up

The 7 sets of floating-point values have to describe the arrangement of the sky colors somehow, but they're pretty difficult to interpret. They usually contain at most 8 values, the rest being 0.

So today I experimented with a custom .LIT file (red and blue skies are hilarious), so here are the meanings for the various color tracks:

Number Description
  0    Global diffuse light
  1    Global ambient light
  2    Sky color 0 (top)
  3    Sky color 1 (middle)
  4    Sky color 2 (middle to horizon)
  5    Sky color 3 (above horizon)
  6    Sky color 4 (horizon)
  7    Fog color / background mountains color
  8    ?
  9    Sun color + sun halo color
  10   Sun larger halo color
  11   ?
  12   Cloud color
  13   ?
  14   ?
  15   Ground shadow color
  16   Water color [light]
  17   Water color [dark]

The different skies are interpolated based on distance.

The four sets of data are completely different.

Number  Description
   0    The default look. 
1 and 3 are usually all black. 
   2    might be the 'ghost view' lighting for when you're dead.