World of Warcraft WTF file extension (.wtf)

[menace97]

i often use beyond compare (3) to make changes to world of warcraft files with the extension .wtf

it has been fantastic for making changes to multiple characters that i want specific values copied/transferred to other characters files.

unfortunately, i recently had a hard drive fail and lost some data... yes, i know... and among some of the files lost was my scooter software updates and additional file formats. i swear i downloaded an additional extension for precisely WTF files. in fact, i had been editing them up to the incident, and have since done a clean install of my computer. now when i go to compare two WTF files, it sometimes defaults to HEX compare, which i can simply change to text compare... but i downloaded the 'additional file formats for bc3/4 and i don't see the WTF extension there, perhaps i got it from somewhere else, but i cannot seem to locate it.

it truly is, as far as i know, just a text format the blizzard entertainment has used for preferences & settings. so i have simply added the extension to the list manually as a 'text' comparison type, and all seems to be well. i guess i was just wondering if somebody might know of a better implementation than the simple one i just added? am i missing out on anything in particular/special that a more complex extension filter would provide.

thanks very much, i appreciate any insight into others editing WTF files.

[Aaron]

Hello,

We haven't hosted this format on our site, but it is possible you found the download on an enthusiast forum, as any user can use the Tools menu -> Export to bundle up and provide a format for download.

If the file is opening in the Text Compare given the simple format definition, then that's good. This is likely the core of the format you were using earlier, and it may have had additional grammar definitions.

[menace97]

Thanks very much Aaron. I've created a basic file format (text based) mask without any trouble up to only today, where something had become corrupt (one of these .wtf files) so i deleted it and had World of Warcraft recreate the files, as it does. When I went to compare a previous version of that file to the one that was generated, some odd characters where present where they were not in a previous version.

I was wondering if I should include some sort of encoding conversion in the extension mask. I'm very familiar with the differences between these but I'll share what I see on-screen and maybe this will make sense to someone more than myself not knowing much about encoding, if that is what this is.

The one WTF file is showing as WTF > ANSI > PC (after the date and file size near the top) --- PC is underlined in red.
The other WTF file I'm comparing it to shows WTF > Binary > ANSI > MIX --- Binary and MIX are underlined in red.

[Aaron]

Hello,

The red underlines mean there is a difference between the left and right file for that criteria. In this case: PC vs Mixed refers to the Line Ending characters in the file. Since the corrupted file is corrupted (and detects as having binary gibberish), it is also detecting as having a combination or Windows, Mac, or Linux line endings.

You can copy over from the corrupted file, but be careful not to introduce any of the binary or mixed line endings into the fixed file, as that would also likely cause it to begin to fail.

[menace97]

Hello,

The red underlines mean there is a difference between the left and right file for that criteria. In this case: PC vs Mixed refers to the Line Ending characters in the file. Since the corrupted file is corrupted (and detects as having binary gibberish), it is also detecting as having a combination or Windows, Mac, or Linux line endings.

You can copy over from the corrupted file, but be careful not to introduce any of the binary or mixed line endings into the fixed file, as that would also likely cause it to begin to fail.

Excellent. Thank you very much Aaron

[Zoë]

One clarification on Aaron's comments: Beyond Compare will never intentionally create a file with mixed line endings if it doesn't already have them. If the file is detected as having PC line endings and you copy from a file with Unix or mixed line endings those will be converted to PC ones on the target side.

[menace97]

Thanks Craig. I'm getting a better understanding of the differences between the two finally. I didn't know anything about "line endings" before, and was baffled how a file format could change like that