MapInfo

Binary map metadata file present in every .SC2Map archive.

Source: https://sc2mapster.wiki.gg/wiki/File_Formats/Maps/MapInfo

Purpose

Stores high-level map identity: dimensions, playable bounds, tileset/theme, loading screen, and per-player slot configuration. This is the first file to parse after opening the archive.

Binary Layout

All integers are little-endian. Variable-length strings are null-terminated (char[]).

struct MapInfo
{
    DWORD   magic;           // "MapI"
    u32     fileVersion;

    u32     unknown0;        // present in current retail maps before dimensions
    u32     unknown1;
    u32     width;           // map cell width
    u32     height;          // map cell height
    u32     unknown2;
    u32     unknown3;

    char    theme[];         // null-terminated; tileset/theme string
    char    planet[];        // null-terminated; planet string

    u32     boundaryLeft;    // playable bounds in cell coords
    u32     boundaryBottom;
    u32     boundaryRight;
    u32     boundaryTop;

    u32     unknown4;
    u32     unknown5;

    char    loaderImagePath[];   // null-terminated; loading screen image path
    u32     loaderImageFormat;   // 0x00 = stretch_none
                                 // 0x01 = stretch_fullscreen
                                 // 0x02 = stretch_widescreen
    u32     unknown6;        // always -1
    u32     unknown7;
    u32     unknown8;
    u32     unknownWidth;
    u32     unknownHeight;
    u32     unknown9;
    u32     unknown10;

    u8      playerCount;     // assumed; number of player slot records that follow

    struct PlayerSlot
    {
        u8  isUnused;        // usage flag
        u8  pUnk1;
        u8  pUnk2;
        u8  index;           // player index (0-based)
        u8  owner;           // player type enum (see below)
        u8  pUnk3;
        u8  pUnk4;
        u8  pUnk5;
        u32 playerColor;     // -1 = use default team color
        char playerRace[];   // null-terminated; empty/null = random race
                             // race string ID defined in GameData\RaceData.xml
        u8  pUnk6;
        u8  pUnk7;
        u8  pUnk8;
        u8  pUnk9;
        u8  pUnk10;
        u8  pUnk11;
        u8  pUnk12;
        u8  pUnk13;
        u8  pUnk14;
        u8  pUnk15;
    } players[playerCount];

    // additional unknown fields follow
};

owner Enum

Value	Constant	Meaning
0	c_playerTypeNone	No player / empty slot
1	c_playerTypeUser	Human player
2	c_playerTypeComputer	AI
3	c_playerTypeNeutral	Neutral (resources, critters)
4	c_playerTypeHostile	Hostile neutrals
5	c_playerTypeReferee	Referee
6	c_playerTypeSpectator	Spectator

Parser Notes

• Check the MapI magic (bytes 0x4D 0x61 0x70 0x49) before reading anything.
• Parse variable-length char[] strings explicitly with strlen; never use packed C structs across string boundaries.
• width/height here may differ from t3CellFlags dimensions. Use t3CellFlags as the authoritative map size once terrain files are loaded, since the editor writes consistent dimensions there.
• Current retail maps include 8 bytes after fileVersion before width/height; TRaynor01.SC2Map stores 136x160 at offsets 16/20, matching its 137x161 height-map vertex grid.
• Many fields are marked unknown. Treat them as opaque and preserve their bytes in any re-serialization.

Cross-Reference With sc2reader

sc2reader parses MapInfo and exposes: - map.name — from GameStrings.txt, not MapInfo - map.players — list of MapInfoPlayer objects with pid, name, race, color - map.region, map.map_hash — from the Battle.net filename

The width/height fields and boundary* fields are the same in both parsers.