i think. none of the normals numbers from TS format will react the same as RA2 format. in other words, if you took a TS voxel and changed the 2 to a 4 it would not light up the same.

flyby i want you to make a square or rectangle test slab that is 6x6 for TS format and another one that is 15x16 (columns and rows) for ra2 format. if you make it 16x15 you will get a diagonal effect. make pictures of those facing various directions and show everybody. why on earth are you messing with cubes? use squares or rectangles.

i think the 255 is a fullbright flag.

for Ra2 format i seem to recall vaguely that the numbers go from 0 to 240 which doesn't make much sense coz it should stop at 239 and then there's a gap and then 244 is used.