Data File Format

This article describes the syntax of Unturned’s .dat and .asset files.

Each line is a key-value pair separated by a space. The key and/or value can optionally be in quotes. For example:

Key1 First value
"Key2 in quotes" Second value
Key3 "Third value"

Will be parsed as:

"Key1" = "First value"
"Key2 in quotes" = "Second value"
"Key3" = "Third value"

The only reason to quote a value is to enable comments on the same line. Quotation marks within a quoted key/value can be escaped with a \ backslash. For example "a \"b\" c" is parsed with quotation marks around b. Keys support quotes in case a space is required, but no keys in the vanilla game use spaces.

Note

Keys are case-insensitive. i.e., Use_Cool_Option true and UsE_cOoL_oPtIoN true are identical. Keys should be unique within their dictionary.

Flags

Some older asset types look for the presence of a particular key, not its value. These are referred to as flags. Their value can be left empty.

For example: item assets check for the Pro flag marking them is a Steam economy item.

Flag1
Flag2

Objects / Dictionaries

Each series of key-value pairs is a dictionary (sometimes called an object). The top level of the file is treated as a dictionary, and child dictionaries can be added with { } curly braces. Adding { on the line after a key opens a dictionary, and the matching } closes it.

In this example object1 is a child dictionary in the root dictionary, and object2 is a grand-child:

object1
{
        object2
        {
                key value
        }
}

Arrays / Lists

Lists (sometimes called an array) can be added with [ ] square brackets. Adding [ on the line after a key opens a list, and the matching ] closes it.

In this example values is a list of strings:

values
[
        first value
        second value
        third value
]

Lists can also contain dictionaries as seen in this example:

List_Of_Objects
[
        {
                x 1
                y 2
        }
        {
                x 3
                y 4
        }
]

Note

Many older asset properties predate the addition of lists. In these cases arrays/lists are typically handled by a key specifying the number of items, and then appending the index number to each element’s key. For example:

// Total number of elements in old-style list
Elements 2

// First element has an index of 0
Element_0 A

// Second element has an index of 1
Element_1 B

Comments

Lines starting with // are comments. (excluded from parsing) Comments can also be added to the end of a line if the value is quoted.

For example these comments are valid:

// a comment
key1 value1
key2 "value2" // in-line comment

Whereas this comment will not be excluded from the value:

key value // this is not treated as a comment because the value is not in quotes

Vector3

3D vectors can be parsed as a single value from 3 floats optionally surrounded by parenthesis, or from a dictionary with X, Y, and Z keys.

For example these are all valid 3D vectors:

Position 1, 2, 3
Offset (4, 5, 6)
Scale
{
        X 7
        Y 8
        Z 9
}

Certain older properties support the newer format while also supporting separate _X, _Y, and _Z keys, namely: LOD_Center, LOD_Size, Explosion_Min_Force, Explosion_Max_Force, and Center_Of_Mass.

Color

Colors can be parsed as a single hexadecimal value with optional “#” in front, or from a dictionary with R, G, and B keys.

For example these are all valid colors:

SkyColor 0000ff
GroundColor #00ff00
FogColor
{
        R 255
        G 0
        B 0
}

Certain older properties support the newer format while also supporting separate _R, _G, and _B keys, namely: Laser_Color, and Nightvision_Color.

For example, this would be also be valid for any older property that supports the legacy format:

Laser_Color_R 0.5
Laser_Color_G 1
Laser_Color_B 0

History

Prior to the 3.23.6.0 update there were two sets of custom Unturned syntax: “v1” for .dat files and “v2” for .asset files. v1 only supported key-value pairs, whereas v2 introduced dictionaries, lists, and required keys/values to be quoted. This is why { and [ must be on a new line. (Existing v1 assets may have { or [ as the first character of a value.)