NoMansSky:Understanding EXML Files

EXML Files

by: Lo2k

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Introduction

.EXML files are the final files obtained after decompressing .pak files and decompiling .MBIN files via MBINCompiler. But what are these files ?
.EXML files are a human-readable expression of an .MBIN File and can be read as any text file.
Where .MBIN files are a list of flags and values, .EXML files expose all the values in a structured manner, with names and labels.

For example in the image below, the same data are described in the selected lines.
On the left, the 8 raw encoded values in the .MBIN file. On the right, the same 8 values exposed with their names and structure.

To get this readable structure, MBINCompiler applies the data structure as stored in the game executable and format it in a .txt file we all could read.

Structures, Properties and Values

The structure of each .EXML file is basically a database and as any database, data are sorted in a list of properties.
And each property has a name and an associated content. This content could be a value, with a defined type, but this can also be another structure storing more content.

In the example below, we can see that the ScanAlpha property has for content a single value : 0.7.
It can also have more complex ones, like this color property:

Here, we can see that the ScanColour property has for content a file named Colour.xml. This file is a template. It basically says : the 4 next values are named R,G,B and A and have for values floating point values. So when reading the .MBIN file values, MBINCompiler wrote the 4 values with this information, creating a nested layout.

All in all, any nested structure always ends with values of one of the 4 types below :

A boolean : "true" or "false"
An integer : a rounded value like "1124"
A decimal aka float or floating point value : a non rounded value like "0.793". Note that "3.0" is valid as is "3". So beware to not confuse a decimal and an integer value.
A string : a text like "Medium" or "High"

This Colour.xml template is just one amongst a thousand ones, store in the game executable. So even if you search in all the game content, you will never find a file named Colour.xml.
But these templates has been extracted and referenced and you have at least two ways to consult them :

Monkeyman192's extracted libMBIN structures lists all the existing structures, sorted in 5 categories.
AMUMSS and more specifically the NMS PAK Explorer-Unpacker tool provided with it, gives access to the same libMBIN structure list but in an interactive way, allowing to search for any .xml file or property to discover its content and the type of its values as nested as they are.

Last but not least, as much as knowledge will develop around these templates, you will also be able to browse custom annotations on some of them in the XML Files page.

In the end, .EXML files are nothing more than databases : values ordered and ready to be read by the game.