Game Files

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Revision as of 02:25, 17 June 2006 by MikeTheRed (talk | contribs) (Copied program files to here)
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Not-for-profit, just-for-fun reverse engineering.

Contains a quick introduction to using a most unlikely program to edit your game files, and suggestions on other editors out there.
Information on how to manage directories, files, plus other neat tricks that can be done through the command console that should not be forgotten in today's era of point and click madness.

Hatfarm / Chris Voss and DaiShiva (see file formats) also have notes on a number of XCOM's file formats not yet detailed on this wiki.

Program Files

These are program files and static data files that are not part of the saved game files.

  • GEODATA - Text for localization.
  • GEOGRAPH - Graphics for UFOpaedia and research screen backgrounds.
  • MAPS - Pre-generated Battlescape terrain blocks (.MAP). These are filled in with terrain tiles. A few dozen blocks make up a battlescape.
  • MISSDAT - Holds the data from the previous mission (Can be exploited)
  • ROUTES - Alien route maps (.RMP) for moving around the pre-generated Battlescape terrain blocks.
  • SOUND - 1990-era sound drivers, or MIDI files for Windows version.
  • TERRAIN - Battlescape graphic tiles for buildings, ships, and terrain.
  • UFO2EXE\TACTICAL.EXE - The "Battlescape" program in DOS-release of UFO.
  • UFOEXE\GEOSCAPE.EXE - The "Geoscape" program that handles base management and aircraft.
  • UFOEXE\BLACK.EXE - The black screen UFO.BAT puts up when swapping between the above two programs.
  • UFOGRAPH - Misc graphics (.PCK) for soldier equipment screens, smoke, motion detector blobs
  • UFOINTRO - Holds the introduction movie (.FLI) and the endgame pictures (.LBM)
  • UNITS - Battlescape graphics for soldiers, aliens, and the pixelated guns they hold. (.PCK and .TAB)

Geoscape Files

These are savegame files used by the Geoscape portion of the game. This can be considered a 'standard' save.

  • ACTS.DAT
  • AKNOW.DAT
  • ALIEN.DAT - Contains Alien activity in Countries and areas, for graphs
  • ASTORE.DAT - Has the info on aliens in alien containment.
  • BASE.DAT - Has all of the base layout and contents information, radar scanning abilities and other base information.
  • BPROD.DAT - List of goods being produced.
  • CRAFT.DAT - Has all the craft info, weapons, fuel, damage and items onboard. Also stores UFO information, although information is handled differently from friendly aircraft.
  • DIPLOM.DAT - Diplomacy info.
  • DUM.BIN - Dummy file for keeping directory structure. Not used.
  • FACIL.DAT - Info on facilities you can build.
  • IGLOB.DAT - Date and time.
  • INTER.DAT
  • LEASE.DAT
  • LIGLOB.DAT - Money!
  • LOC.DAT - Location of bases on the planet as well as other things like ships, waypoints and missions. Basically anything that is an icon on the Geoscape.
  • MISSIONS.DAT
  • PRODUCT.DAT - Info on things you can produce.
  • PROJECT.DAT - These are things you are researching.
  • PURCHASE.DAT - Info on stuff you can buy.
  • RESEARCH.DAT - Completed research.
  • SAVEINFO.DAT - Name of the saved game.
  • SOLDIER.DAT - Data about the soldiers.
  • TRANSFER.DAT - Personnel and goods being transferred.
  • UIGLOB.DAT - the name suggests global user interface data, but this file appears to store scores earned for completing research.
  • UP.DAT - UFOpaedia info.
  • XBASES.DAT - Alien Base information
  • XCOM.DAT - Contains X-Com activity in Countries and areas, for graphs
  • ZONAL.DAT

(28 files. Note that if you find a geoscape save with additional files, this simply means a battlescape save was made in that slot at some prior point. UFO does not remove unused save files).

Battlescape Files

These are savegame files created and used by the tactical portion of the game. They are only created if the game is saved while in the battlescape. Battlescape saves also contain all the files used in a standard save.

  • BGLOB.DAT
  • GEODATA.DAT
  • MAP.DAT - Stores tile information for the whole map. Basically all static structures, such as trees, walls, floors and furniture.
  • MISDATA.DAT
  • OBPOS.DAT - Stores all the objects that your soldiers can pick up (guns, corpses, etc).
  • ROUTES.DAT - Stores nodes for soldier and alien spawn points, also acts as waypoints for AI pathfinding.
  • SEEMAP.DAT - Fog of war overlay.
  • SMOKBIT.DAT - Smoke particles and fire patches on the map.
  • SMOKREF.DAT - Smoke particles and fire patches on the map.
  • SOURCEMP.DAT and TERMP.DAT - Both files are light source overlays. Ones for mobile light sources (i.e. your soldiers) and the other is for ambient (or fixed) lighting.
  • UNITPOS.DAT - Controls every section of a small unit or a large unit in the map. Works hand in hand with UNITREF.DAT. Controls ownership, visibility, whether the unit is under temporary mind control, etc.
  • UNITREF.DAT - Contains the primary stats for all units in combat. X-Com owned soldiers in this file are virtual copies of the soldiers in soldier.dat. Works very closely with unitpos.dat.
  • WGLOB.DAT - Battlescape map global information such as map dimensions and the number of turns that have elapsed.

(14 unique files, plus all 28 standard save files, totaling 42).

Missdat Files

These temporary files are used at run time, when a battlescape game is in progress. The missdat folder also contains all the files needed to create a standard Geoscape save for the game in progress.

When a new tactical mission is begun (as opposed to when you load an old one), these files are created:

If you load a game, the only file created is DIRECT.DAT (which details the path to the save slot).

When combat ends, these files are created:

How does the game know whether to load from the save slot, or the missdat folder? - BB

(12 unique files, plus 27 standard save files (does not use dum.bin), totaling 39).

Did You Know? If your game crashes and you are returned to previous mission, the game is actually referring to the battlescape information in the MISSDAT directory.

Also, if a tactical mission is abnormally aborted, the results are obtained from the MISSDAT folder as well. Because the game was not able to update the files that hold the results of the last mission, your current game will be updated with information from the previous mission that was able to end normally.

Abnormal program termination simply means that the tactical game engine crashed or was forced to crash by the user.

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