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Formats
This section enumerates the file and markup formats used by Freelancer which flint can read.
INI files are traditionally used to store brief configuration or initialisation files for programs, as the name suggests. However, Freelancer uses them essentially as crude relational databases. The simplicity of the format may be a factor in the growth of Freelancer's vibrant modding community. In the vanilla game, INI files are shipped in the compressed BINI format described below.
Python's standard library contains the module configparser which provides built-in INI file parsing. However, the INI files used by Freelancer do not conform to the standard it expects.
BINI (Binary INI) is the compressed format INIs are stored in in the vanilla game. Typically these are distributed in decompressed form by mods to enable the contents to be edited with a text editor. Technically, BINI is an elegant and simple format.
Windows resource DLLs are used to store names and infocards. DLLs are a subset of the PE format. Rich text is formatted in an XML-based markup language unique to Freelancer called RDL. flint's DLL implementation handles conversion of this to HTML.
Another of Digital Anvil's formats, UTF (Universal Tree Format), is used as a catch-all container for binary files (blobs). UTF files can have the file extensions .3db (icons and textures), .txm (effects and some textures), .ale (effects), .cmp (textures), .sur (models) and .mat (more textures) .