Distributed message layer

The distributed message layer, also abbreviated as DML, is a subsidary data layer that the game client employs to distribute data packets through in-game systems. It is also utilized to transmit game actions to and from the server in KiNP.

Data Types

DML supports a wide array of data types. Below represents a table said formats.

Name	Type	Binary
BYT	int8_t	Signed 1-byte integer.
BOOL	int8_t	Signed 1-byte boolean.
UBYT	uint8_t	Unsigned 1-byte integer.
SHRT	int16_t	Signed 2-byte integer.
USHRT	uint16_t	Unsigned 2-byte integer.
INT	int32_t	Signed 4-byte integer.
UINT	uint32_t	Unsigned 4-byte integer.
STR	uint8_t[]	A length prefix (uint16_t) string of UTF-8 characters..
WSTR	uint16_t[]	A length prefix (uint16_t) string of UTF-16 characters.
FLT	float	32-bit floating point.
DBL	double	64-bit floating point.
GID	uint64_t	Unsigned 8-byte integer used exclusively for global IDs.

Figure A.I -- The binary sizes of each DML element type.

DML Templates

For serialization purposes, a template must be known ahead of time to serialize binary data accordingly. In the case of the game client, the DML messages are kept internally, and can be represented as XML.

Using an unpacking tool such as katsuba, these message templates can be found in Root.wad in the GameData directory. Once unpacked, a user may search for "*Messages.xml" to find the XML representation of these templates.