Ghost Data (File Format)
In Mario Kart 8, Ghost Data is stored in DAT-files. This includes player ghosts, staff ghosts, and downloaded ghosts. Although MKTV replays are also some sort of replay and also stored in DAT-files, their file format is entirely different. Each Ghost File is stored in a separate DAT-file.
Player Ghosts, Downloaded Ghosts, and MKTV Replays are stored in the user's save folder. Staff Ghosts are stored among the game files.
Differences with Mario Kart Wii
In Mario Kart Wii, as well as earlier titles, ghost files most notably store controller inputs. When a ghost is viewed, the game replays these controller inputs. If the game is perfectly deterministic, the same controller inputs should always yield the same finishing time. In practice however, Mario Kart Wii is not quite able to recreate the circumstances in which the ghost was recorded leading to the rare Wiggler Glitch. This causes the ghost to descynchronise from the original Time Trial, often failing to finish.
In Mario Kart 8, this is different. Ghost files must also contain kart positions in some form, possibly in addition to controller inputs (unknown). In practise, this means that a ghost is always able to finish a race in the exact same way as it was recorded in. This can be verified by replacing the file contents of a ghost file with that of another. When doing so, the ghost will ignore any collisions of the track (e.g. drive through walls) and follow the layout of the course it was initially recorded in.
As a result, this means that the Wiggler Glitch cannot occur in Mario Kart 8.
Filename
Some ghost data information is encoded into the filename of the ghost file. The first two characters indicate what type of ghost data is inside the file. The remaining characters should be interpreted as hexadecimal values.
| Offset (#characters) | Size (#characters) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 2 | Ghost Type. "sg" for Staff Ghost, "gs" for Player Ghost (possibly a shorthand for "ghost save"), "dg" for Downloaded Ghost, "rp" for MKTV Replay. |
| 2 | 2 | Track Number. Each track has a unique value here, together forming a range of [0,47] without gaps. This does not correspond to the order in which they appear in the game's cups. E.g. Mario Circuit has a value of 0. |
| 4 | 2 | Track ID. Each track has a unique value here. This does not correspond to the order in which the apear in the game's cups. E.g. Mario Circuit has a value of 16. |
| 6 | 2 | Character ID. E.g. Green Yoshi has a value of 4. |
| 8 | 4 | Unknown. Probably Padding (Always 0). |
| 12 | 2 | Kart ID. E.g. Buggybud has a value of 9. |
| 14 | 2 | Wheels ID. E.g. Button Wheels have a value of 6. |
| 15 | 2 | Glider ID. E.g. Cloud Glider has a value of 1. |
| 18 | 1 | Minutes of total finishing time. |
| 19 | 2 | Seconds of total finishing time. |
| 21 | 3 | Milliseconds of total finishing time. |
| 24 | 1 | Minutes of lap 1 finishing time. |
| 25 | 2 | Seconds of lap 1 finishing time. |
| 27 | 3 | Milliseconds of lap 1 finishing time. |
| 30 | 1 | Minutes of lap 2 finishing time. |
| 31 | 2 | Seconds of lap 2 finishing time. |
| 33 | 3 | Milliseconds of lap 2 finishing time. |
| 36 | 1 | Minutes of lap 3 finishing time. |
| 37 | 2 | Seconds of lap 3 finishing time. |
| 39 | 3 | Milliseconds of lap 3 finishing time. |
| 42 | 1 | Minutes of lap 4 finishing time. "9" if there is no 4th lap. |
| 43 | 2 | Seconds of lap 4 finishing time. 3b (i.e., "59") if there is no 4th lap. |
| 45 | 3 | Milliseconds of lap 4 finishing time. 3e7 (i.e., "999") if there is no 4th lap. |
| 48 | 1 | Minutes of lap 5 finishing time. |
| 49 | 2 | Seconds of lap 5 finishing time. |
| 51 | 3 | Milliseconds of lap 5 finishing time. |
| 54 | 40 | Player Name in ASCII (or possibly Unicode; unverified). |
| 94 | 2 | Flag ID. E.g. The Dutch flag has a value of 5e. |
| 96 | 6 | Unknown. Probably padding (Always 0). |
| 102 | 1 | Minutes of lap 6 finishing time. |
| 103 | 2 | Seconds of lap 6 finishing time. |
| 105 | 3 | Milliseconds of lap 6 finishing time. |
| 108 | 1 | Minutes of lap 7 finishing time. |
| 109 | 2 | Seconds of lap 7 finishing time. |
| 111 | 3 | Milliseconds of lap 7 finishing time. |
| 114 | End of filename; ".dat" extension here. | |
Game Versions
Lap 4 and 5 finishing times are unused before version 4 of the game. It's unknown if these values are properly read or written to if modifying the lap count of an existing track. Lap 5 and 6 finishing times were only introduced in version 4 of the game. Before that, these values were absent from the filename entirely. Attempting to load Ghost Data from this version of the game in an earlier version will make the game unable to recognise the file. However, renaming the file by removing these extra values will make the Ghost Data load properly. Furthermore, Ghost Data created before v4 of the game is recognised in v4 (and beyond), even though the extra lap finishing times are missing.
This change is a direct result of the introduction of GCN Baby Park in the second DLC pack, as it is the only track that has more than three laps.
Effect In-Game
Changing these values by renaming the file affects how a ghost is displayed. Changing any of the values will result in the game displaying the modified information on the ghost summary (the additional info accessed by pressing "+" on the controller). Furthermore, changing the Character ID, Kart ID, Wheels ID, or Glider ID will result in the game using these during the ghost race itself, regardless of the values for these inside the file itself.
Furthermore, a character's animations can break if the Character ID in the filename does not match the one inside the file contents.
If the Track Number and Track ID do not correspond to the same track, then the game will be unable to recognise the file.
If multiple Ghost files for the same track are present in the game's files, then the game will only show one. It's unverified if it picks the fastest time, the one recorded earliest, or based on something else.
Player Ghost File Header
The following header is absent for Staff Ghosts. However, a Player Ghost can easily be converted into a Staff Ghost by removing this header and renaming the first two characters of the filename from "gs" to "sg".
| Offset | Size | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0x00 | 4 | "CTG0" in ASCII. Unknown abbreviation. |
| 0x04 | 68 | Unknown. |
Data
This section is a work in progress.
Tools
The following tools can handle Ghost Data (DAT) files:
- (none)