Daggerfall:Hacking Guide

Want to know the hex location in the save game to give yourself tons of gold or that nifty item? Perhaps the format of the Daggerfall IMG files? Well here you can find that and much, much more. Please note that all the information/links contained on this page is third party information and, as such, may contain errors.

File Formats

Text Record Format

Description of the format used for the text records used in the game.

TEXT.RSC Format

Describes the structure of the file TEXT.RSC (uses Text Record Format).

TEXT.RSC Indices

Lists the indices of texts in the TEXT.RSC file.

Book format

The almost complete format to the book files found in the ARENA2\BOOKS directory (uses Text Record Format).

Quest Hacking Guide

A text file detailing the formats of the QRC and QBN files which contain the quest data (uses Text Record Format).

Quest OpCodes

Lengthy description of the OpCodes section used in the QBN quest files to script the game engine.

Building Types

List of town building type codes (used by MAPS.BSA and BLOCKS.BSA, as well as the Quest hacking guide).

Mobile Type Codes

The list of all (known) type codes for the mobiles found in Daggerfall.

Text Variables

The list of all (known) text variables ("_string_" through "____string_") and their associated hash.

BSA File Formats

Description of the various BSA files, which contain most of the map and 3D object information for the game.

ARCH3D.BSA

Description of the 3D objects database used by the game to generate the scene.

UV Texture Coordinates

Description of how Daggerfall works with textures on the various models and meshes.

BLOCKS.BSA

Description of the "prefabs" used to create the towns and dungeons in the game.

Angle Mathematics

Description of how Daggerfall stores and works with angles.

MAPS.BSA

Description of the overland map database, which is the "world map" of the game.

Region Numbers

List of all overland map areas and their indices used in the game (used by MAPS.BSA).

Location Types

List of overland map location type codes (used by MAPS.BSA, and the Quest hacking guide).

Block Record Indexes

Logic used for determining which records from BLOCKS.BSA to load.

WOODS.WLD Format

Description of the WOODS.WLD format which appears to give information about the creation of landscape within the game.

PAK file formats

Describes the PAK compression algorithm and lists the files which make use of it.

CLIMATE.PAK

Description of the format and purpose of the CLIMATE.PAK file, which determines the textures used for overland locations.

POLITIC.PAK

Description of the format and purpose of the POLITIC.PAK file, which determines which factions own which areas of the Iliac Bay.

Image Formats

Close to complete formats for all of the Palette, Colour Translation, RCI, SKY, IMG, CIF, and Texture files.

BIOG??T0.TXT Files

A compendium of information on how to edit those files which affect the character creation process.

SAVEGAME.DAT Description

A good partially complete description of the format and structure of the save game file.

Save Game Offsets

A close to complete listing of hex offsets and their description in Daggerfall save games.

MAGIC.DEF indices

Index and analysis for this file.

Custom Artifacts

Information on the format of the MAGIC.DEF and how to add artifacts into the game.

SPELLS.STD indices

Index codes for the spells in the game.

Hacking FALL.EXE

How to allow attributes and skills to exceed 100 by hacking the v1.07.213 FALL.EXE file.

Hacking Items

A very complete guide telling one how to change around item images to those not normally seen in the game.

Hacking Programs

DFTEXT.ZIP - 50kb

Add, modify, extract, or delete texts from the file TEXT.RSC, DOS program.

DFVTEXT.ZIP - 27kb

View, add, modify, or delete texts from the file TEXT.RSC, for Win95 (requires Visual Basic 5 runtime).

DEFEDIT.ZIP - 80kb

Add, modify, or delete magical items+artifacts from the MAGIC.DEF file, DOS program.

WinQEdit.ZIP v1.4 - 320kb

Good versatile quest editor for Win95.

ANDYPIC.ZIP - 43kb

An improvement over the DagPic utility allowing one to view just about all IMG, CIF, and texture files in the game. Cannot yet successfully import pictures into all texture formats (if you don't change the images size it works better). Same command prompt syntax as DagPic with several expanded options.

BOOKEDIT.ZIP - 101kb

Edit and add your own book in the game, DOS program.

DFITEM.ZIP v0.1b - 80kb

DOS program to edit any item in you savegame! Change name, uses, cost, enchantments, type, picture and more. Unzip into your Daggerfall directory.

DFHACK.ZIP - 280kb

Save game editor for Windows. Can edit/view just about everything including items, reputation in addition to the normal stats/skills etc.

EDITBIO.ZIP - 111kb

Edit your biography file created during character creation.

DFQEdit Manual

The HTML manual page for the start of a close to complete quest editor for Daggerfall.

Hacking Links

• Daggerfall Workshop hosts Interkarma's tools for exploring Daggerfall resources.
• King Svatopluk's Court hosts a fair selection of Daggerfall hacking tools and documents.
• Galfar's Lair hosts an image and texture viewer that is able to display all images, multi-images and textures (*.img, *.cif, texture.*) from Daggerfall and export them to PNG/JPG/TGA/BMP file format.
• Daggerfall Tool Repository Patches, and hacking tools and information.