Total Annihilation Knowledgebase

This is where the technical knowledge about Total Annihilation lives — gathered from chats, websites and old documentation, cleaned up and explained.

Where to start?

File Formats in TA — HPI, UFO, TNT, OTA, FBI, TDF, BOS, COB — what is what?
Reverse Engineering TA Files — how we deciphered HPI, Cavedog’s encryption and the hidden 252×252 minimaps, with working code.
Map Building Basics — From TNT/OTA via TAE to Terragen.
Unit Building Basics — FBI definitions, 3D models, scripts.
Download Verification & Safety — How every file on this site is checked.
Cheats & Console Commands — +atm, +shootall, DRDEATH and every command the manual forgot.
The totala.ini File — Unit limits, sound fixes and the config file the game never created.
The AI and its Profile Files — aiprofile=, weight/limit/plan — how TA’s skirmish AI thinks.
Procedural Map Generation — how the Map Builder writes valid TNTs from noise + a Cavedog tile atlas.
Map Editors & Terrain Research — what Annihilator, TAE, Mappy, TAUtil and the Spring engine reveal about height, slopes and walkability.
Map Archive Import Pipeline — how 1,674 r2010 maps came from FileUniverse into this site: download, virus scan, metadata, minimaps, URL-encoding traps.

3DO Animation Rendering Lessons

Reusable findings from Annihilator and ARMARAD reconstruction.

Cheats & Console Commands

Every TA cheat code and console command — from +atm to DRDEATH — plus the keyboard shortcuts the manual forgot.

COB Bytecode: Reading TA's Compiled Unit Scripts

How to disassemble .COB files, the real number formats TA uses for angles and distances, and the original Annihilator activation sequence recovered from ARMANNI.COB.

COB-Exact Unit Animation — What the Bytecode Really Says

How TA Archive renders unit animations 1:1 from the original COB bytecode: verified number formats, transform conventions, sign pitfalls and the engine effects that have no geometry. Evidence from 18 reanimated units.

Download Verification & Safety

How every file on this site is checked

File Formats in TA

HPI, UFO, TNT, OTA, FBI, TDF, BOS, COB — what is what?

Generic 3DO Animation Rules

How COB transforms and the 3DO scene graph generalize across unknown units.

How real mods write BOS — reading 24 shipped mod scripts

The Secret Forces ships full BOS source next to its compiled COBs — a rare window into how real modders wrote TA unit scripts. Style, patterns, a modern BOS dialect, and a round-trip compile of third-party source against its own shipped bytecode.

HPI/GAF Feature Extraction

Technical reference: HPI archive layout (v1/v2), GAF animation frames and feature extraction — validated against 591 real archives.

Map Archive Import — FileUniverse Pipeline

How 1,674 r2010 maps were mass-imported from FileUniverse into TA Archive: download, virus scan, metadata extraction, minimap rendering and URL-encoding pitfalls.

Map Building Basics

From TNT/OTA via TAE to Terragen — how a TA map is made

Map Editors & Terrain Research

What Annihilator, TAE, Mappy, TAUtil and the Spring engine reveal about TA's height, slope and walkability rules — and how our generator uses them.

Official releases & the classic modding toolkit — File Universe mirror

Cavedog's patches (including Boneyards), demos, soundtrack and editors — plus the community toolkit every 1999–2005 modder used: Mappy, Upspring, HPI tools, FBI/GAF editors, TAM. Self-hosted, checksummed.

One Unit, 100% Decoded: AMPH (ARMALT) — 3DO, COB to BOS, Masks, Light

The complete worked example: every byte of the TA unit AMPH (ARMALT) explained — the 3DO mesh, the COB bytecode reconstructed as BOS source, every mask and number format, and how the renderer lights it. Self-contained, step by step.

Procedural Map Generation

How the Map Builder works — noise heightmap, tile matching against a Cavedog atlas, and writing a valid TNT from scratch.

Reverse Engineering TA Files

How we deciphered HPI archives, Cavedog's encryption and compression, and found the hidden 252×252 minimaps — a practical walkthrough with working code.

TA 3DO Texture Mapping

Evidence-based reconstruction of 3DO texture coordinates and visibility.

The AI and its Profile Files

How TA's skirmish AI actually works — the aiprofile= line, the weight/limit/plan format, and how to write profiles that build a real army.

The TA BOS toolchain, archived — ggs' BOS compiler, Mafia's BASM & COBASM

Complete mirror of the Total Annihilation BOS scripting toolchain from TAUniverse's Central Consciousness (©2003): every BOS compiler version 0.2f–0.8.2, Mafia's BASM and COBASM with source code, all readmes, checksums.

The totala.ini File

TA's hidden configuration file — unit limits, sound fixes, and every documented option. The file the game doesn't create for you.

TNT Map Format — Programmer's Field Guide

A visual, byte-accurate guide to Total Annihilation terrain files: header, tilemap, attributes, graphics, features and minimap.

Unit Building Basics

FBI, 3DO models, BOS/COB scripts — how to build your own units

Unit, map & total-conversion downloads — Central Consciousness archive

Mirrored mod downloads from TAUniverse's Central Consciousness server: ~30 unit mods (several with full BOS source), six maps, and the Total Battletech total conversion. Checksums included.