List of File Formats

This is a (hopefully) complete list of all the file formats used by SimCity 4. Note that these file types are generally found inside DBPF files (such as .dat files). Some of them, however, can be freestanding files.

Completely Decoded Files

ATC - Animation Texture Collection

AVP - Animation Viewpoints

BMP - Bitmap

Bridge RUL - Complex bridge RULs.

DBPF - DataBase Packed Files

Delocalizers - Text De-Localizers

DBDF/DIR - DBPF Directories

FSC - Freshness Scores

FSH - Franks PC Shapes (Textures)

HIT - Audio file format

HLS - Hitlist playlist

ID - Radio ID

INFO - Photo album info files.

INI - Initialization files, including the Network INI.

JPG/JPEG/JFIF - Joint Photographic Experts Group images.

LDAT - Lot Data (LD)

LTEXT - Language Text (LTEXT)

LUA - Lua programming language.

PNG - Portable Network Graphics images.

RUL - Network Rules files, including Bridge RULs.

S3D - SimGlide 3D

SC4Path - SimCity4 Network Paths

SGR - SimCity Graphics Rules

TAB - KeyCFG Accelerator Tables

WAV - Waveform Audio File Format

XA - Maxis EXtendable Audio

XML - XML files

Incompletely Decoded Files

The following formats have yet to have their physical structures fully decoded:

AB - Audio Bank

CFG - SimCity4 Startup Config

MAD - EA MAD Video

SAVEGAMES - SimCity 4 Savegame files (.sc4), which themselves contain several additional unknown file formats.

The following formats have properties that have yet to be defined:

AE - U-Drive-It settings

EFFDIR - Effect Resource Tree

EXMP - Exemplar

TLO - Track Logic Object

TRK - Track Definition

UI - Maxis User Interface Definitions

Other File Types

HTML - HyperText Markup Language files - not found in DBPF files.

MP3 - Used for "radio station" music - not found in DBPF files.

MXF - Used for in-game fonts - not found in DBPF files.

TGI - Type Group Instance files - not found in DBPF files. For the definition of TGI, see Type Group Instance.

TXT - Text files.