Information on the different files in the game resources, and how they are edited or what they do. Information, apart from being provided by Relic, has been found from the old wiki, as well as from the forums, and people themselves.
Many files are stored in the .SGA archives in the game – these act like ZIP files. You need to use the Mod Packager which comes with the mod tools to extract them.
Modding file list
Here is a list of file extensions you'll come across, what they mean and how to access them.
.SGA (archive). These files contain compressed game data.
You must extract the .SGA to access the game data. Currently you can use the Mod Packager/Spooky's Extractor/Corsix's Extractor to decompress the archive. The game will use the extracted files instead of the compressed ones.
.SCREEN (ui layouts – this extension is self explanitory.),
.RAT (sound playback effects – stands for Relic Audio Tool),
.SCAR (missions – stands for Scripting At Relic, and is a subsidery of Lua),
.MODULE (for loading mods – this extension is self explanitory.).
.AI (Artificial Intelligence files, using hardcoded AI-only parts of the engine)
These files all contain lua code and data for the embedded scripting engine. They can be edited with a normal text editor (NOTE: Microsoft Word, OpenOffice and Wordpad are NOT normal text editors!). Use Notepad or better still download http://scintilla.sourceforge.net/Scite. Scite has Lua syntax highlighting and many other cool features – It's also completely free.
Note that Attribute data for patches 1.3 onwards, compiled into:
.RGD (Compiled attribute data). A relic chunky file containing pre-compiled LUA information. Relic says it makes the game load faster.
This format can be read by many paint programs such as Photoshop (Commercial), Paint Shop Pro (Shareware) or The GIMP (Completely free). Your paint program must handle and save TGA transparency. Note: All TGA files need to be 32 bit, with the alpha transperency layer on, else they will be replaced by pink in game, and pictures don't like to be pink!
Quick note: Pixel size for some textures: Badges: 64x64 pixels. Banners: 64x96.
.RSH (Textures) require special tools.
.DDS (Textures)
.WTP (Banner textures)
Use Spooky's RSH extractor to convert these. Most textures are in DDS (DXTC) format. This is a compressed format that can be stored in the VRAM of your graphics card. They may contain multiple Levels Of Detail (Mip Maps) so the engine renders less pixels on distant models. Nvidia has some DDS tools but there are also plugins available for a few popular paint packages. You could also use a standalone DDS-to-bitmap converter. I can't recommend a method because I've never done it.
.WHM (Models),
.WHE (Models) no tools to edit these exist at the moment.
I'd imagine that they are basically meshes with texture ids, hardpoints, shaders, and animations (skeleton). The model files can also contain cameras (I have no idea why)! I'm also guessing that Relic have used either Gmax as they have before or maybe even Blender (there's a reference to PlayBlender in the code) and will release a plugin for either or both.
.SGB (Map)
These are scenario/map files, opened in the Mission Editor. It is a relic chunky file, like most of the other Relic files, and contains the data on map sizes, where what things are placed, and what mod is used to run it along with its name and description. Basically, everything apart from the mini-map, the heightmap, terrain painter information, and icon.
Trivia: In Impossible Creatures™, the last Relic game, the. SGB format was used for models.
.FDA (Audio) no tools available.
These are a bit like MP3 files, compressed (to varying degrees) sound files. You can burn them using the Audio Editor, although there currently no known way to play these back or reverse engineer them – apart from playing them in the Audio Editor and recording the sound that goes to the speakers (detailed in the Audio Editor pages). The source for the files are. AIF or. WAV.
.BURN (Audio / Burning information file. Text file)
These contain text information about how to burn something, using the Audio Editor.
.FNT (Fonts) Probably truetype.
These can be opened in any text editor, and contains some information on displaying fonts.
.AVI (Movies) These are DivX (5.2.1) format in an AVI container with the FourCC code changed to DXGM.
These files can be edited or added using freeware DivX tools. Currently no tutorials on the wiki for these files, although encoding and resizing among other things VirtualDub is recommended.
.UCS (Language) These files contain strings in various languages.
They make it easier for the game to be translated by not mixing printable text with the game logic. Whenever you see a string like "$90034" in the code it will refer to text in one of these files. See the UCS information page for how to use this file.
.CON ? I have no idea what these are, they only contain a single letter.
All I know is they have something to do with audio! Speculation: With sub-folders of sounds for speech (eg: “die”, “damage”, “morale”), this is a file which is placed in the units root folder for speech, probably indicating that the actual sounds to use are in the sub-folder of the same name, although the letter seemingly is meaningless.
Other files list
.TEAMCOLOUR (text file with teamcolour information in it).
In the \ProfileXXX\ModName\Schemes folder are where these are found, being a simple text file with information about the RBG colour scheme chosen, and the icons chosen, for cirtain armies.
.REC (a Recorded game file)
This file is a recorded game. The size varies on the length of the game, but is smaller then almost all saved games because it records the actions (obviously) and plays them back in the game using this file. You won't be able to edit these, however.
.SAV (a Save game file)
A snapshot of a single or multiplayer game, saving the progress will create one of these files. There is no way to edit them, however.
.DLL (Binary Code) These are compiled 'C/C++' libraries; but if you didn't know that then you defineately shouldn't touch them.
.DAT (Data file) Unicode text files usually. Not used an awful lot in the game resources.
.EXE (Executable file) These are the games program files. Leave them alone!
.TXT (Text file) Log files, and readme's are just plain normal ASCII text files.
.LOG (Log files) Text files with a different extensions. When tools/the game is run, it creates a warningsX.log file which records the main events, and any errors. It can create them manually, for instance, with AI debugging, that go in the /LogFiles folder.
.CSV (Spreadsheet information – Comma Separated Value File Format) Used for some log dumps from console commands, it is a spreadsheet seperated by commas, but otherwise just plain text, openable in any text program.
.INI (Initilisation information files). Usually contain configuration data for most of the executable files, such as key maps, levels of detail, and other information.
.DMP (Memory dump file). When the game crashes, this gets created and could be sent via. the bug tool to Relic. It probably contains a section of memory where Dawn of War was running when it crashed. They are usually very small.
.JPG (Screenshot file). Screenshots are saved as JPG files. They are not used in-game at all.
Lua means moon in Portuguese and is pronounced LOO-ah)