DBPF, or Database-Packed File, is a file used by Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

 to store and index

Index (database)

A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval operations on a database table at the cost of slower writes and increased storage space...

 data inside a single file for several computer games

Computer Games

"Computer Games" is a single by New Zealand group, Mi-Sex released in 1979 in Australia and New Zealand and in 1981 throughout Europe. It was the single that launched the band, and was hugely popular, particularly in Australia and New Zealand...

. These games include SimCity 4

SimCity 4

SimCity 4 is a city-building/urban planning simulation computer game developed by Maxis, a subsidiary of Electronic Arts. It was released on January 14, 2003. It is the fourth installment in the SimCity series. SimCity 4 has a single expansion pack called Rush Hour which adds features to the game...

, The Sims 2

The Sims 2

The Sims 2 is a strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims, which debuted on February 4, 2000. It was first released on September 14, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. A port to Apple Mac OS X...

, The Sims Online

The Sims Online

The Sims Online was a massively multiplayer online variation on Maxis's highly popular computer game The Sims. It was published by Electronic Arts and released on December 17, 2002 for Microsoft Windows. In March 2007, EA announced that the product would be re-branded as EA-Land and major...

, Spore

Spore (2008 video game)

Spore is a multi-genre single-player god game developed by Maxis and designed by Will Wright. The game was released for the Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating systems in September 2008 as Spore...

/Spore Creature Creator

Spore Creature Creator

The Spore Creature Creator is software that allows players to create their own creatures with a standalone version of the Creature Editor from Spore; the software was one of the first aspects of the game to receive focused development, and underwent ten rewrites since the start of development...

and The Sims 3

The Sims 3

The Sims 3 is a 2009 strategic life simulation computer game developed by The Sims Studio and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims 2. It was first released on June 2, 2009 simultaneously for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows...

.

Like many game data format

Data format

Data format in information technology can refer to either one of:* Data type, constraint placed upon the interpretation of data in a type system* Signal , a format for signal data used in signal processing...

s, the file is able to archive

File archiver

A file archiver is a computer program that combines a number of files together into one archive file, or a series of archive files, for easier transportation or storage...

 several file

Computer file

A computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...

s used by the game. These may include graphics

Graphics

Graphics are visual presentations on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, computer screen, paper, or stone to brand, inform, illustrate, or entertain. Examples are photographs, drawings, Line Art, graphs, diagrams, typography, numbers, symbols, geometric designs, maps, engineering drawings,or...

, 3d models, animation

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

s, sound files, and script

Scripting language

A scripting language, script language, or extension language is a programming language that allows control of one or more applications. "Scripts" are distinct from the core code of the application, as they are usually written in a different language and are often created or at least modified by the...

s.

This particular file format uses more than one filename extension

Filename extension

A filename extension is a suffix to the name of a computer file applied to indicate the encoding of its contents or usage....

. These include:

• .dat (Data provided with the SimCity 4, user downloadable
  Uploading and downloading
  In computer networks, to download means to receive data to a local system from a remote system, or to initiate such a data transfer. Examples of a remote system from which a download might be performed include a webserver, FTP server, email server, or other similar systems...
  
   plugins/mod
  Mod (computer gaming)
  Mod or modification is a term generally applied to personal computer games , especially first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer, and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not standalone software and...
  
  s for SimCity 4)
• .SC4Model (User created building models for SimCity 4)
• .SC4Lot (User created lots for SimCity 4)
• .SC4 (Savegame file provided with SimCity 4, User created savegame files for SimCity 4)
• .Package (Data provided with The Sims 2, user downloadable plugins/mods for The Sims 2,data files for SPORE, and data files for The Sims 3)

In most cases, DBPF files are not named with a .dbpf extension; one can determine that the file is a DBPF file by looking at its header in a hex editor

Hex editor

A hex editor is a type of computer program that allows a user to manipulate the fundamental binary data that makes up computer files. Note that computer files can be very small to very large...

. The first four byte

Byte

The byte is a unit of digital information in computing and telecommunications that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, a byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the basic addressable element in many computer...

s in ASCII of every DBPF file read DBPF.

External links

• The Sims Wiki is a collaborative effort to gather information about The Sims 2, and there's an extensive analysis of the DBPF format, including coverage of the formats for Sims 2 and Sims 3.
• TSOWiki, which includes a link to the open source 3rd-party package libfar which can read from DBPF files
• SimPE - open source package editor (Does not read Spore packages)