Wikis / Unreal Wiki / Legacy:T3D File

The T3D file format or Unreal Text File holds a text list of Unreal map objects. An entire map can be saved as this file format, or just a single actor or brush.

Note that while brushes, their applied textures and light actors are saved, the Unreal Geometry itself is not saved: upon importing a T3D file the map must be built.

Copying objects from UnrealEd and pasting into a text editor produces the same format.

Unreal Text format

Exported brushes and (other) actors. See T3D file.

• Created by:
  • UnrealEd's File -> Import command
  • UnrealEd's Brush -> Import command (see Data Import and Export for more on both these commands).
  • is this created by external stuff too?

Exporting T3D

• Export the whole map
  • File -> Export... (UnrealEd 1,2,3)
  • File -> Export -> All.. (UnrealEd 4 - UT3)
• Export selected actors: File-> Export-> Selected Only ... (UnrealEd 4 only - UT3)
• Export one brush: Brush -> Export ...
• Copy/Paste: can copy paste any actor from any UnrealEd version to another one (Except for UnrealEd 4) or to any text editor such as notepad (Windows)

Importing T3D

File -> Import...

(note importing may take a LONG time)

Overheard on #utjb... :-)

<tarquin> t3d stores brushes & actors but not texturing, right?
<Mychaeel> Texturing as well.
(melds into the opening speech from Reservoir Dogs...)
<DaveA>Stores links to textures, and texture transforms, but not the pixels themselves

The T3D format is a text file which stores information about map actors. It's in fact identical to what can be copied from UnrealEd to a text editor. An exported map looks like this:

Begin Map
Begin Actor Class=LevelInfo Name=LevelInfo0
    TimeSeconds=17.008888
    Summary=LevelSummary'Entry.LevelSummary'
    DefaultGameType=Class'Botpack.UTIntro'
    AIProfile(0)=23784352
    AIProfile(1)=52
    AIProfile(2)=41
    AIProfile(3)=42
    AIProfile(4)=40
    AIProfile(5)=44
    AIProfile(6)=45
    AIProfile(7)=21846171
    AvgAITime=0.000000
    Level=LevelInfo'Entry.LevelInfo0'
    Tag=LevelInfo
    Region=(Zone=LevelInfo'Entry.LevelInfo0',iLeaf=-1)
    Name=LevelInfo0
End Actor
Begin Actor Class=Brush Name=Brush0
    MainScale=(SheerAxis=SHEER_ZX)
    PostScale=(Scale=(X=0.250000,Y=8.000000,Z=3.000000),SheerAxis=SHEER_ZX)
    TempScale=(Scale=(X=0.250000,Y=8.000000,Z=3.000000),SheerAxis=SHEER_ZX)
    Level=LevelInfo'Entry.LevelInfo0'
    Tag=Brush
    Region=(Zone=ZoneInfo'Entry.ZoneInfo0',iLeaf=1,ZoneNumber=1)
    Location=(X=464.000000,Y=-16.000000,Z=64.000000)
    Begin Brush Name=Brush
       Begin PolyList
          Begin Polygon Item=OUTSIDE Texture=black1 Flags=4194304 Link=0
             Origin   -00160.000000,+00000.000000,+00128.000000
             Normal   +00000.000000,+00000.000000,+00001.000000
             TextureU +00004.000000,+00000.000000,+00000.000000
             TextureV +00000.000000,+00004.000000,+00000.000000
             Vertex   -00128.000000,-00128.000000,+00128.000000
             Vertex   +00128.000000,-00128.000000,+00128.000000
             Vertex   +00128.000000,+00128.000000,+00128.000000
             Vertex   -00128.000000,+00128.000000,+00128.000000
          End Polygon
          ...
       End PolyList
    End Brush
    Brush=Model'Entry.Brush'
    Name=Brush0
End Actor
Begin Actor Class=PlayerStart Name=PlayerStart0
    Level=LevelInfo'Entry.LevelInfo0'
    Tag=PlayerStart
    Region=(Zone=ZoneInfo'Entry.ZoneInfo0',iLeaf=1,ZoneNumber=1)
    Location=(X=183.134430,Y=-987.334167,Z=33.978027)
    OldLocation=(X=-217.561523,Y=-44.538128,Z=-87.899948)
    Name=PlayerStart0
End Actor
...
End Map

External link: http://web.archive.org/web/20060710080159/http://unreal.jall.org/tutorials/t3d.html (new URL)

T3D File Structure

Ux,UT,UT200x Maps

Begin Map
    Begin Actor Class=<ClassName>
    ...
    End Actor
    Begin Actor Class=<ClassName>
    ...
    End Actor
    ...
End Map

UT3 Maps

Begin Map
   Begin Level NAME=PersistentLevel
      Begin Actor Class=<ClassName>
      ...
      End Actor
      Begin Actor Class=<ClassName>
      ...
      End Actor
      ...
   End Level
Begin Surface
End Surface
End Map

Note: as UT3 T3D files have different header, any other not-UT3 t3d file can't be imported into UT3 editor (UnrealEd 4)

T3D brush geometry

Information geometry is contained in the following actors:

• Brush
• Mover (only UT and U1 game)

For more information about T3D brushes, see T3D Brush.

T3D Utilities

• MapScale scales an entire .t3d file
• MeshMaker converts a prefab in .t3d format to a decoration
• UnrealROC converters: from 3DMF, to VRML/X3D/OBJ (including textures et al).

Related Topics

• Data Import and Export
• Brush Exporting And Importing
• Brush Hacking
• T3D Brush

Kefik: There can be also a tag 'CsgOper' which have one of two values ... 'CSG_Subtract' -> subtract the brush from space or 'CSG_Add' -> add this brush to shape.

Sobiwan: New to WIKI editing, but not using it. I was searching for the actual format of T3D and found Mongo's description of Planetunreal to be extremely helpful. I'll ask him (mongo@planetunreal.com) if we can use and/or edit his description here. The format is much more involved than described here. We can even supply examples of how to do particular hacks.

MadNad: Interestingly, I was able to convert a Quake3_Level into a unreal map. Quite interesting. First i converted a *.bsp to a *.map in quake, then I made a level that was just a huge cube and converted it to *.t3d. With an external app (i'll have to find the name of it ) I was able to merge these two together. After some scaling and switching additive brushes in quake to subtractive brushes in ued and subtractive to additive, I compiled and had q3dm7 geometry. I don't necessarily recommend doing this, as it will take more time to fix than create it from scratch, but I thought I would share a little experience I had with this.