DAT

DAT is the extension used for general data files for Grand Theft Auto. They are commonly plain text files (although there are binary ones) and many have different structures.

List of data files

Files that do not have a specific game are present in every game of GTA 3D series (GTA III, GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas) and GTA HD series (GTA IV, GTA V).

Game	File	Description	Notes
||CAPS.DAT||Stores information about the capabilities of the user video card.||binary file
||FemalePlayerSettings.dat, MalePlayerSettings.dat||Contains info necessary to render the multiplayer player||
||spath*.dat||Defines script path data for objects||
||ambient.dat||||
||animgrp.dat, animgrp1.dat||Contains predefined animation sequences (By default different types of walking)||
	animviewer.dat
||ar_stats.dat||||Present in GTA IV but unused?
||bloodFx.dat||||
	carcols.dat	Contains information about vehicle colors
||cargrp.dat||||
||carmods.dat||Defines vehicle tuning abilities and additional car components which can be attached to vehicles using the tuning garages.||
||CHASE*.DAT||Controls all cars in the introduction sequence||binary files located in the .\data\paths directory
||cj_gta.dat||||
||clothes.dat||Defines different rules for clothing. There are different commands to generate special behaving rules for different clothes the player is able to buy.||Present in GTA IV and GTA V but unused.
||credits*.dat||||
||cullzone.dat||Contains cullzones flags and coordinates||binary file, unused in Vice City
||cullzoneempty.dat||||binary file, unused
	default.dat	General map listing file
||distantlights.dat||||binary file
||entityFx.dat||||
||explosionFx.dat||||
||fistfite.dat||Contains information for melee attacks||
||flight*.dat||Defines path data for all airborne NPC aircraft||
	fonts.dat	Contains information about the fonts used in the game	The fonts are split up into sprites. Fonts themselves are located in the .\models\fonts.txd texture dictionary.
||frontend.dat||||
||furnitur.dat||This file is unused and can be left blank, but it must not be deleted since the game tries to parse it. It originally contains information about furniture which was planned to be used for automatically generating different furniture in interiors. However, this file and the interior models/collision files are not used by the game engine, and other required files are missing.||Present in GTA IV but unused?
||gridref.dat||Defines responsibilities of certain map areas and their owners for Rockstar's internal bug tracking system called Bugstar.||Leftover from San Andreas development stage, apparently not required by the game.
	gta.dat	General map listing file	called gta3.dat for GTA 3 and gta-vc.dat for Vice City
||gta_quick.dat||||
||handling.dat||Contains the attributes of all vehicles in the game (handling.cfg from previous games)||
||hud.dat||Contains initial display settings for each HUD component||
||hudcolor.dat||Contains RGB colour values that the game uses||
||loadingscreens*.dat||Contains the animation of static loading screen images||
||map*.dat||||located in the .\data\maps directory, unused
||materialFx.dat||||
||materials.dat||||
||melee.dat||||Present in GTA IV but unused?
||meleeAnims.dat||Specifies all anims available to the melee system||
||moveblend.dat||Contains some parameters for blended ped animation||
||nav.dat||This file is read in to initialise the "CPathServer" pathfinding class||
||navprecalc.dat||||binary file
||networktest.dat||
||numplate.dat||||Present in GTA IV and GTA V but unused.
	object.dat	Defines additional object information for dynamic objects
	ped.dat	Contains information about pedtypes and their relationships
||pedProps.dat||
	pedgrp.dat	Contains information about default spawned characters for each zone
||pedpersonality.dat||
||pedpopulation.dat||||binary file
||pedstats.dat||Specifies properties of characters||
||plants.dat||||
||polydensity.dat||||
||popcycle.dat||||
||procobj.dat||||
||scenarios.dat||||
||shopping.dat||Describes additional shopping information for various features (like car modifications or clothes). It defines their price just as their influence on different statistics. All information of this file can be requested by the script where it gets processed.||
||statdisp.dat||||
||surface.dat||Contains friction multipliers for all surfaces||
||surfaud.dat||||
||surfinfo.dat||||
	timecyc.dat	Controls the weather and the game's appearance
||timecycp.dat||Controls the weather and the game's appearance||
||tracks*.dat||||located in the .\data\paths directory
||train.dat, train2.dat||Stores fixed train camera nodes||Present in Vice City but unused
||visualSettings.dat (IV)||Stores initial values for configuration of in game elements||
	water.dat	Controls sea level and water maps
||water1.dat||||
||waterpro.dat||||
	weapon.dat	Controls weapon properties

See also

• CFG, the extension for configuration files