NAME

     gff2xml — BioWare GFF to XML converter

SYNOPSIS

     gff2xml [options] input_file [output_file]

DESCRIPTION

     gff2xml converts BioWare's GFF files (versions V3.2/V3.3 and V4.0/V4.1) into human-readable
     XML.  GFF are hierarchical data files, similar to XML in concept, but stored in binary.  As
     such, these files are used as a basis for many of the file formats found in the BioWare
     games.  For example, an UTC file is a GFF holding a template for a creature, while a GUI
     file is a GFF describing an in-game menu.

     Both version 3 of the format (V3.2/V3.3) and version 4 (V4.0/V4.1) are supported.  While
     they are similar, the 4th version carries several changes to make the files more efficient
     to read in-game.  This includes replacing the string field names (which map to XML tags)
     with numerical identifiers, resulting in converted XML files that are stripped of their
     meaning.  To compensate, this tool adds readable aliases to many of these numerical
     identifiers, giving them back their meaning.  Unfortunately, not all of them are known.
     Most notably, the identifiers introduced in Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood and
     Dragon Age 2 are still missing.

     The changes in the minor versions (V3.2 vs. V3.3 and V4.0 vs.  V4.1) are less significant.
     V3.3 simply changes which languages are supported, and V4.1 adds a common string table at
     the start of the file.  Both of these additions are handled transparently.

     LocStrings found in GFF V3.2 and V3.3 contain localized string data, which, depending on the
     game and the language, can be encoded in various ways.  There is no way to autodetect the
     specific encoding.  gff2xml employs a simple heuristic to combat this, but it may fail for
     certain strings and files.  However, there are options to explicitly specify the game this
     GFF file is from.  gff2xml will then use the correct game-specific encoding tables.

     Unfortunately, even these tables might not be completely correct in all cases.  Neverwinter
     Nights, for example, treated many strings as being encoded in the native encoding used for
     the language of the game installation.  This lead to many people putting non-English strings
     into fields tagged as language ID 0, nominally reserved for English.  To read these files
     correctly, gff2xml provides an --encoding parameter to override the encoding used for a
     specific language ID.

OPTIONS

     -h
     --help
           Show a help text and exit.
     --version
           Show version information and exit.
     --cp1252
           Read GFF4 strings as Windows CP-1252.  Usually, strings in version 4 of the GFF format
           are encoded in little-endian UTF-16.  But some files store them as Windows CP-1252
           instead.  Since there's no clean way to autodetect the different encoding, this switch
           manually selects Windows CP-1252.  This option only concerns strings embedded in GFF4
           files, not GFF3 LocStrings.
     --nwnpremium
           The GFF files found in the encrypted HAK files of Neverwinter Nights premium modules
           are deliberately broken.  This options tells gff2xml to work around the brokenness.
     --nwn
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for Neverwinter Nights.
     --nwn2
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for Neverwinter Nights 2.
     --kotor
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for Knights of the Old Republic.
     --kotor2
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for Knights of the Old Republic II.
     --jade
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for Jade Empire.
     --witcher
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for The Witcher.
     --dragonage
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for Dragon Age: Origins.
     --dragonage2
           Read LocStrings in an encoding appropriate for Dragon Age II.
     --encoding str
           Override an encoding.  The string has to be of the form n=encoding, for example
           0=cp-1252 to override the encoding of the (ungendered) language ID 0 to be Windows
           codepage 1252.  To override several encodings, specify the --encoding parameter
           multiple times.
     input_file
           The GFF file to convert.
     [output_file]
           The XML file will be written there.  If no output file is specified, the XML data is
           written to stdout.  The encoding of the XML stream is always UTF-8.

EXAMPLES

     Convert the GFF file1.utc into an XML file:

           $ gff2xml file1.utc file2.xml

     Convert the GFF file1.utc into an XML file on stdout:

           $ gff2xml file1.utc

     Convert the GFF file1.utc, which uses Windows CP-1252 strings:

           $ gff2xml --cp1252 file1.utc file2.xml

     Convert the GFF file1.utc, which encodes language ID 0 in LocStrings as Windows CP-1250:
           $ gff2xml --encoding 0=cp1250 file1.utc file2.xml

SEE ALSO

     convert2da(1), fixpremiumgff(1), tlk2xml(1), ssf2xml(1)

     More information about the xoreos project can be found on its website: https://xoreos.org/.

AUTHORS

     This program is part of the xoreos-tools package, which in turn is part of the xoreos
     project, and was written by the xoreos team.  Please see the AUTHORS file for details.