ESO Mod:DAT File Contents

The following is a brief description of the kinds of files found within the various DAT files. Note that the following information is based on initial beta tests and may be out of date.

game00000.dat
     - Appears to be all UI related files (LUA, XML, TTF, DDS, etc...)
     - Last entry (MNF index 0xC15) is ZOSFT with 2087 entries
     - The Feb/2014 beta patch changes the format of the sub-file data

esoaudioen0000.dat
esoaudioen0001.dat
esoaudioen0002.dat
esoaudioen0003.dat
     - Appears to be all audio files
     - While the format looks like a RIFF WAV file it does not play in any media player
     - Information found from GSpot (http://www.headbands.com/gspot/v26x/index.htm)
           - 24kHz
           - 1 channel
           - Codex 0xffff (development use)
     - Overall format is a regular WAV file.
     - The large ''data'' chunk looks like a custom format (thus why it is not readable in any regular sound player)
            byte   ChunkName[4] = "data"
            dword  ChunkSize
            block  Blocks[] 
                   word   BlockSize
                   byte   Data[BlockSize] 

eso0000.dat
     - Looks like all the same, unknown, file format (no obvious pattern or information)
     - Has similar 4 byte headers like ''FB FB EC EC'' or ''FA FA EB EB''
         - ''FA FA EB EB'' files appear to contain some floating point numbers so may be 3D data of some form
         - ''FB FB EC EC'' files are composed of multiple dwords, which generally grow larger and larger
     - From the ZOSFT these appear to be GR2 animation files
     - The Feb/14 beta patch results in a bunch of sub-files in this archive not having a valid compressed format

eso0001.dat
     - All another, unknown, file format
     - Looks like a small header followed by very random data (possibly compressed) 
     - Has similar long header: ''29 DE 6C C0 BA A4 53 2B ...''
     - From the ZOSFT these appear to be GR2 animation files

eso0002.dat
     - A few DDS files that look like for development and testing use (e.g.: ''missing'' texture)
     - Beta trial agreement text file (0x000180E9, 0x000180DC, 0x000180CB)
     - Has an ANFT entry at MNF index 0x00001E6D (contains 7,612 entries)
     - Has a ZOSFT entry at MNF index 0x00018133 (contains 68,642 entries)
         - All character animation and texture files
     - Three files that contain quest text:
         - Files 0x00018624 (french), 0x00018483 (english), 0x00018326 (french)
         - Header bytes of ''00 00 00 02 00 09''
         - Short header followed by a series of 0x10 byte records followed by text
         - Text is not NUL terminated

eso0003.dat
     - Havok data
     - One XML file (0x0001A4C7) containing Havok data
     - The rest appear to be Havok data files (physics system)
     - Common header bytes of ''1E 0D B0 CA CE FA 11 ...''

eso0004.dat
     - DDS files with a variety of purposes (character/NPC, landscape, architecture, etc...)
     - Rest are files with the ''PSB'' header containing binary data
     - From the ZOSFT these are ''\art\fx\texture\'' files

eso0005.dat
eso0006.dat
eso0007.dat
     - All DDS files
         - Map files
         - Treasure maps 
         - Loading screens 
         - Map icons 
         - Inventory icons
         - Ability icons

eso0008.dat - eso0014.dat
     - Appear to be all an unknown file format (same as in eso0001.dat)
     - Some GR2 files

eso0015.dat - eso0020.dat
     - Sound files (RIFF WAV but don't play)

eso0021.dat
     - Sound files (RIFF WAV but don't play)  
     - File 0x0001F6F7 is a C/C++ header file (WWISE_IDS.h) with sound ID definitions

eso0022.dat
     - Sound files (RIFF WAV but don't play)
     - File 0x0001E03A is a Wwise SoundBank file, with a BKHD, STMG, and HIRC section

eso0023.dat
     - Sound files (RIFF WAV but don't play)

eso0024.dat
     - Sound files (RIFF WAV but don't play)
     - File 0x00022DD0 contains sound ID info

eso0022.dat - eso0031.dat
     - Sound files (RIFF WAV but don't play)

eso0032.dat - eso0098.dat
     - All DDS files (all texture related: architecture, landscape, character, NPC, etc...)

eso0099.dat - eso0203.dat  
     - Assumed to be landscape/world data
     - Some DDS files
          - Looks like files are 512x512 overhead views of the world
     - A variety of other files in unknown formats
          - Includes a few that looks like it has a DDS file following a short header
          - A bunch are exactly the same size (1MB)

eso0204.dat - eso215.dat
     - All empty files except for the header
     - Assumed to be missing or future world data?
     - Some files are referenced in the MNF file indexes