Flurry: Created page with "'''Valve Data Format (VDF)''' files are key-value stores used by Source games and Steam. == Text VDF == Most VDF files you'll see are text-based. The spec is pretty well-defined on the [https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/KeyValues Valve Developer Community wiki]. "ParentElem" { "Key1" "1.25" "Key2" "String of text" "ChildElem" { "Key3" "15" // and so on } } == Compiled VDF == In..."

2023-07-11T19:06:48Z

Created page with "'''Valve Data Format (VDF)''' files are key-value stores used by Source games and Steam. == Text VDF == Most VDF files you'll see are text-based. The spec is pretty well-defined on the [https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/KeyValues Valve Developer Community wiki]. <syntaxhighlight lang="c"> "ParentElem" { "Key1" "1.25" "Key2" "String of text" "ChildElem" { "Key3" "15" // and so on } } </syntaxhighlight> == Compiled VDF == In..."

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'''Valve Data Format (VDF)''' files are key-value stores used by Source games and Steam.

== Text VDF ==

Most VDF files you'll see are text-based. The spec is pretty well-defined on the [https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/KeyValues Valve Developer Community wiki].

<syntaxhighlight lang="c">
"ParentElem"
{
"Key1" "1.25"
"Key2" "String of text"
"ChildElem"
{
"Key3" "15"
// and so on
}
}
</syntaxhighlight>

== Compiled VDF ==

In some cases, the VDF will be in a "compiled" form.<ref>As far as I've seen, this is only really with shortcuts.vdf.</ref> Each entry is in the following format:

<type> <key> <value>

<code>type</code> is exactly one byte, and appears to be related to the following enum:<ref>From [https://github.com/ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013/blob/0d8dceea4310fde5706b3ce1c70609d72a38efdf/sp/src/public/tier1/KeyValues.h#L227-L238 ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013] on Github.</ref>

<syntaxhighlight lang="c">
enum types_t
{
TYPE_NONE = 0,
TYPE_STRING,
TYPE_INT,
TYPE_FLOAT,
TYPE_PTR,
TYPE_WSTRING,
TYPE_COLOR,
TYPE_UINT64,
TYPE_NUMTYPES,
};
</syntaxhighlight>

The <code>key</code> is always a null-terminated string. Arrays appear to be emulated with numeric strings; e.g., <code>"0", "1", "2", ...</code>.

The <code>value</code> format is determined by the <code>type</code>. All values are little endian.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto"
|-
! Type !! Data format
|-
| <code>0x00 (TYPE_NONE)</code> || Represents a nested key-value map. The "value" is the first entry onward. All maps (including the "root" map) must be terminated with <code>0x08</code>.
|-
| <code>0x01 (TYPE_STRING)</code> || Null-terminated string.
|-
| <code>0x02 (TYPE_INT)</code> || Little-endian 32-bit (unsigned?) integer.
|-
|}

Any types not mentioned above haven't been encountered, and I don't know if they exist in "compiled" form.

== Notes ==
<references />

Valve Data Format - Revision history