DAT Files
Author
I've read about DAT files, but I can't seem to find out how to create and edit them. Does anyone have any tips or editors?
DAT has no formal meaning.
Which application/game is this for? It's almost certainly a proprietary format.
Which application/game is this for? It's almost certainly a proprietary format.
Author
It's part of a tutorial I'm doing, using heightmaps. It's supposed to be easier to use DAT files over BMP files.
the .DAT file extension typically just means the file contains data for an application. Consequently, there are hundreds of different DAT formats (although there are a couple major ones) ranging from plaintext strings to encrypted, compressed blocks of heavily formatted data.
As medevilenemy said, it could be anything. Usually though .dat files are raw binary data, which you most likely don't know how to handle if you don't have any clues about the formatting.
In your case though it might be quite simple. Since you are referring to heightmaps, which are usually stored as 16 bit values, you probably have a square of X * X heights, each being stored in a 16 bit value. So your first 16 bits of the file represent (most likely) the upper left height in your heightmap. The next 16 bit represent the next 16 bit height in the most left column and so on.
I hope you get what I mean ;)
In your case though it might be quite simple. Since you are referring to heightmaps, which are usually stored as 16 bit values, you probably have a square of X * X heights, each being stored in a 16 bit value. So your first 16 bits of the file represent (most likely) the upper left height in your heightmap. The next 16 bit represent the next 16 bit height in the most left column and so on.
I hope you get what I mean ;)
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