Home For Developers The Encapsulated Resource File Format (ERF)

The Encapsulated Resource File Format (ERF)

Intended Audience:
By Sydney Tang

The Encapsulated Resource File (ERF) format is one of BioWare's methods of packing multiple files into a single file so that they may be treated as a single unit. In this regard, it is similar to .zip, .tar, or .rar.

BioWare Aurora Engine/Toolset files that use the ERF format include the following: .erf, .hak, .mod, and .nwm.

NOTICE: This documentation provides information about specific file formats used with the BioWare Aurora Engine. It is intended for the use of software developers to create third-party software to work with the BioWare Aurora Engine and the BioWare Aurora Toolset. While this documentation is provided as a service, we may or may not provide updates, fixes and additions to the information provided herein. We reserve the right to change file formats without updating the documentation. Please refer to the For Developers FAQ and the NWN End User License Agreement (EULA) for more information.

Contents:

1. Global ERF Structure and Header Format
2. ERF Localized String List
3. ERF Key List
4. ERF Resource List and Resource Data
5. Resource Types

You can also download this document in Adobe Acrobat PDF Format.

To see a tutorial on using the ERF Documentation to create a program, check out Don Moar's tutorial on Building a Custom ERF Data Extractor. For an example of an internal tool which access ERF formats, check out BioWare's ERF Editor (Windows Only).

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