Help:Accessing the game files

Accessing the game files can be done by anyone who downloads Team Fortress 2. The accessible files consist of textures (for backpack icons, HUD elements, decals, etc.), voice lines (for all classes, the Administrator, Halloween bosses, etc.), models (for props, weapons, classes, etc.), and other miscellaneous files. These files are all contained in .vpk (Valve Pack File, also shortened to simply Pack) files, which require special programs to open. Note that any files used on community-created maps are contained within the .bsp file instead.

Accessing the files

.vpk files require a special program to open, some examples of programs that can open them:

• GCFScape (also supports opening .bsp files)
• VPKEdit
• Gibbeds VPK Extractor

These programs open the vpk files and show the contents, but may not be able to open the files contained within. To find the .vpk files for Team Fortress 2, navigate to steamapps\common\Team Fortress 2\tf. There are many files, but the _dir files will contain everything that is in the other files too. There are 4 different types, tf2_misc_dir.vpk, tf2_sound_misc_dir.vpk, tf2_textures_dir.vpk, and tf2_sound_vo_[lang].vpk (this file depends on your in-game voice language setting. Supports English, Russian, Spanish, French, and German. Only the language you've selected will appear in your folders).

Texture files

Texture files are stored in .vtf files, some examples of programs that can open them:

• VTF Explorer
• VTFEdit

The texture Pack files contain textures for most things in the game, such as the classes, background images, HUD elements, backpack icons, etc. Certain HUD elements using team colours or other colours may appear in black and white instead of their coloured variant. Kill icons are all contained in the same few files together (with the name dneg_images or d_images).

Sound files

Most sound files are stored in .mp3 or .wav files. These files can be opened using most programs that play sound files. There are 2 different Packs with different sound files, the "vo" (voice over) sound files and the "sound misc" sound files.

As the name suggests, "vo" contains voice lines such as the Responses, commands, and other voice lines (note that community announcers are contained within their own map files). This Pack will contain only one language's voice lines, the in-game setting (Options > Audio > Audio (spoken) language. Only supports English, Russian, Spanish, French, and German) must be changed in order for that language's .vpk file to appear.

The "sound misc" files contains the rest of the sounds, such as audio cues, environmental ambience, footstep noises, main menu startup music, etc.

Miscellaneous files

The miscellaneous files Pack contains several different types of files, such as models (.mdl), config (.cfg) files, facial expression presets, material files, and many more. These files share a similar file structure to the /tf/ folder.

Accessing other game files

Map files

The aforementioned GCFScape can be used to open up .bsp files, however, extracting the files does not work. Every map file contains a .zip file, which can be extracted from the map file, then unzipped in a desired location to obtain all the map files. Map files usually include textures, models, materials, VScript scripts, and anything else the map needs.

VScript files

As mentioned before VScript files are contained in the map's file, they come in the .nut format (associated with the Squirrel programming language, for documentation see this website). VScript files can be opened using programs such as Notepad++ or other text editors.