GXT

A GTA Text (GXT) file is a file that contains strings that are presented to the player in GTA2 and above. Their placement differs between games, but GXT files are usually located in a text directory in the game installation folder. In games other than GTA 2, there is one GXT file for each language, but the number of GXT files does not necessarily match the number of supported languages.

Purpose

GXT files act as dictionaries that map short, symbolic strings (or some other unique value) to longer strings. Programmers use only the short key strings (such as "GM_OVR"), and then before these strings are shown to the user they are replaced with translated versions in their own language – "Game Over" if the user selected the English language. This allows the game to be easily translated into other languages without the need for major code changes: translators can simply translate the game text into the correct language and strings from the new language's GXT file will be used if the player selects that language.

File format

GTA 2

GTA 2's GXT files begin with a header followed by a TKEY block and then a TDAT block. The TKEY block contains an array of entries that give the offset and name of the corresponding entry in the TDAT table. The TDAT entry contains the text that will be displayed in the game.

Header
Offset	Type	Description
0x00	char[3]	GBL
0x03	char	E: English F: French G: German I: Italian S: Spanish J: Japanese
0x04	word	File version, always 100
Block 1 (TKEY)
0x06	char[4]	TKEY
0x0A	dword	Size of TKEY block
0x0E	TKEY[n]	Array of TKEY entries, where n is the number of entries. All entries are sorted in alphabetical order.

TKEY (0xC bytes):

Offset	Type	Description
0x00	dword	TDAT entry offset. The value is relative to the location of the first entry of the array, which is, in absolute term, size of TKEY block + 22.
0x04	char[8]	TDAT entry name

The absolute location of the TDAT block is the size of TKEY block + 14.

Block 2 (TDAT)
Offset	Type	Description
0x00	char[4]	TDAT
0x04	dword	Size of TDAT block
0x08	TDAT[n]	Array of TDAT entries, where n is the number of entries. Entries are not sorted in alphabetical order but their order comes from the order of their entry in the GXT source file.

TDAT (m * 2 bytes):

Offset	Type	Description
0x00	wchar_t[m]	An array of wide characters (2 bytes per character) to be displayed in the game, where m is the number of characters. The array is terminated by a null character (0x0000). The location of the entry in absolute term is TDAT entry offset + size of TKEY block + 22. Characters beginning with 0x21 denote gang dialogue: 0x216B: Krishna 0x216C: Loony 0x216D: Russian 0x216E: Neutral 0x2170: Police 0x2172: Redneck 0x2173: Scientist 0x2179: Yakuza 0x217A: Zaibatsu

GTA III

GTA III's GXT files are identical to those of GTA 2, except that they do not have headers – they start with the TKEY block instead. There is also no special treatment of characters starting with 0x21 in TDAT entries.

The Xbox version of Vice City uses this format as well.

GTA VC/LCS/VCS

In Vice City, Vice City Stories and Liberty City Stories, there is a new TABL block which precedes the TKEY block. The Xbox version of Vice City uses the GTA III format.

Block 1 (TABL)
Offset	Type	Description
0x00	char[4]	TABL
0x04	dword	Size of TABL block
0x08	TABL[n]	Array of TABL entries, where n is the number of entries. All entries are sorted in alphabetical order except the first one, MAIN.

TABL (0xC bytes):

Offset	Type	Description
0x00	char[8]	TKEY entry name
0x04	dword	TKEY entry offset. The value is absolute.

The absolute location of the TKEY block is simply the TKEY entry offset. The TKEY block format is slightly different for the first block named MAIN. Hover over the dotted lines for information specific to that block. All other blocks follow the format shown below.

Block 2 (TKEY)
Offset	Type	Description
0x00	char[8]	TKEY entry name
0x08	char[4]	TKEY
0x0C	dword	Size of TKEY block
0x10	TKEY[n]	Array of TKEY entries, where n is the number of entries. All entries are sorted in alphabetical order.

TKEY (0xC bytes):

Offset	Type	Description
0x00	dword	TDAT entry offset. The value is relative to the location of the first entry of the array, which is, in absolute term, TKEY entry offset + size of TKEY block + 16.
0x04	char[8]	TDAT entry name

The absolute location of the TDAT block is the TKEY entry offset + size of TKEY block + 16.

Block 3 (TDAT)
Offset	Type	Description
0x00	char[4]	TDAT
0x04	dword	Size of TDAT block
0x08	TDAT[n]	Array of TDAT entries, where n is the number of entries. Entries are not sorted in alphabetical order but their order comes from the order of their entry in the GXT source file.

TDAT (m bytes):

Offset	Type	Description
0x00	wchar_t[m]	An array of wide characters (2 bytes per character) to be displayed in the game, where m is the number of characters. The array is terminated by a null character (0x0000). The characters are based on the character table in the fonts.txd file, which mostly follows ASCII. The location of the entry in absolute term is TDAT entry offset + size of TKEY block + 16.

GTA SA/IV

Each GXT file contains certain tables with entries. And each entry has a unique CRC identifier and a normal text.

Header

The header contains information about the GXT version.

INT16   - 2b   - Version (4)
INT16   - 2b   - Number of bits per character (8: ASCII, 16: UTF-16)

Table Block

The Table Block contains data about the subtables and their offsets.

CHAR[4] - 4b   - TABL
INT32   - 4b   - Blocksize

//Array of [Blocksize / 12 Entries]
CHAR[8] - 8b   - Subtablename
INT32   - 4b   - Offset

The Offset of the subtable points to an 8-byte Char Array with the subtable's name, followed by TKEY. For the MAIN Table this points directly to TKEY!

GTA San Andreas has a limit of max 200 tables to be stored per GXT file.

TKEY and TDAT

TKEY

The TKEY Block of an subtable contains the CRC32-values of the entrytitles. The game calculates the CRC32-value out of a given string and checks if they exist in the GXT.

CHAR[4] - 4b   - TKEY
INT32   - 4b   - Blocksize

//Array of [Blocksize / 8]
INT32   - 4b   - Entryoffset
INT32   - 4b   - CRC32 (Entryname)

The TKEY block is directly followed by the TDAT Block which contains the contents of the entries. The Entryoffset is relative to the TDAT + 8 offset.

TDAT

CHAR[4] - 4b   - TDAT
INT32   - 4b   - Blocksize

From here the entryoffset of each entry points to the content. The content can have different sizes. However it always ends in '\0'! For Example "Hello!" needs to be transformed to "Hello!\0" here and this gives a size of 6 bytes (To tell it in a short form content is a null-terminated string). If this is the 1st content in TDAT the next got an offset of 0x06!

Encodings

GTA SA          : Windows-1252 always.
GTA IV(8 bits)  : Custom Encoding
GTA IV(16 bits) : Well, its a fake 16 bits encoding, all you need to take care about first 8 bits(1 byte). 
                  Eg. A3F4 C2DD E922, read only A3, C2, E9.

Sorting

The sorting method for TABL, TKEY, TDAT is as follow:

Section	Sorting method
TABL	Sorted in alphabetical order
TKEY	GTA SA: Sorted from the lowest crc32 to the highest crc32, GTA IV: Unknown. Perhaps randomized order.
TDAT	Not sorted. The data is stored from the first line to the last line in the GXT source file

GTA 1 Format

GTA 1 language files have .fxt extension, and it's different from other games' format. Except the first 8 byte it uses very simple encryption. To get text, just substract 1 from every byte. First 8 bytes have different encryption, probably just to confuse modders. For every byte substract a value returned from left shifting 99.

Character maps

These character maps display all possible characters that can be used in the GXT file. Each character is represented by a hexadecimal value, which can be constructed by adding the value in the leftmost column to the value in the topmost row, e.g. a capital letter A is represented by 0x41 in hex.

GTA III

Font Style 0 (Bank)

	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	0A	0B	0C	0D	0E	0F
20		!	△	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	*	+	,	-	.	/
30	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;	◀	=	▶	?
40	™	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
50	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	[	\	]	^	°
60	`	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
70	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z		◯		~
80	À	Á	Â	Ä	Æ	Ç	È	É	Ê	Ë	Ì	Í	Î	Ï	Ò	Ó
90	Ô	Ö	Ù	Ú	Û	Ü	ß	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê
A0	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	Ñ	ñ	¿
B0	¡	'

Font Style 1 (Pager)

	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	0A	0B	0C	0D	0E	0F
20		!	"	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	-		,	-	.
30	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:					?
40		A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
50	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z
60		a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
70	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z				~
80	À	Á	Â	Ä	Æ	Ç	È	É	Ê	Ë	Ì	Í	Î	Ï	Ò	Ó
90	Ô	Ö	Ù	Ú	Û	Ü	ß	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê
A0	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	Ñ	ñ	¿
B0	¡

Font Style 2 (Heading)

	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	0A	0B	0C	0D	0E	0F
20		!	△	®	$	%	&	'	(	)		+	,	-	.	✕
30	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	▲	◀	▼	▶	?
40	™	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
50	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z		\		№	°
60	©	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
70	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z		◯		~
80	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó
90	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	ß	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê
A0	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	ñ	ñ	¿
B0	¡

• Characters in italic are the pager font.
• Characters in bold use Pricedown font or have a dirty look.
• Characters in both bold and italic use an italicized Pricedown font.
• Hover your mouse over the dotted line for characters that cannot be displayed in the browser.

Vice City

Font Style 0 (Bank)

	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	0A	0B	0C	0D	0E	0F
20		!			$	%	&	'	[	]		+	,	-	.
30	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:					?
40		A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
50	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z		\		¡	\
60		a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
70	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z				~
80	À	Á	Â	Ä	Æ	Ç	È	É	Ê	Ë	Ì	Í	Î	Ï	Ò	Ó
90	Ô	Ö	Ù	Ú	Û	Ü	ß	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê
A0	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	Ñ	ñ	¿
B0	i

Font Style 1 (Standard)

	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	0A	0B	0C	0D	0E	0F
20		!	"	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	*	+	,	-	.	/
30	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;		=		?
40	™	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
50	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	[	\	]	¡	°
60	`	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
70	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z		|	$	~	)
80	À	Á	Â	Ä	Æ	Ç	È	É	Ê	Ë	Ì	Í	Î	Ï	Ò	Ó
90	Ô	Ö	Ù	Ú	Û	Ü	ß	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê
A0	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	Ñ	ñ	¿
B0	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	a

Font Style 2 (Heading)

	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	0A	0B	0C	0D	0E	0F
20		!	"	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	*	+	,	-	.	/
30	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;		=		?
40	™	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
50	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z	[	\	]	¡	°
60	`	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
70	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z		|	$	~	)
80	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó
90	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	ß	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê
A0	ë	ì	í	î	ï	ò	ó	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	ñ	ñ	¿
B0	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	a	b	c	d	e
C0	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o	p	q	r	s	t	u
D0	v	w	x	y	z	à	á	â	ä	æ	ç	è	é	ê	ë	ì
E0	í	î	ï	ò	ó	ô	ö	ù	ú	û	ü	ß	ñ	¿	'	.

• Characters in italic use Rage Italic font.
• Characters in bold use Pricedown font or have a dirty look.
• Hover your mouse over the dotted line for characters that cannot be displayed in the browser.

• See also: Japanese character map

Tokens

A token is a character or string surrounded by ~ and is used for displaying colors, symbols, dynamic text, and button controls in text. Tokens with visible effects are listed in tables below. Note that using ~ by itself will crash the game when the game attempts to display it.

Symbols and colors

Token
~1~	number within a text				-
~A~	-	-	L3 icon (PS2) / LStick icon (XBOX)	-	-
~B~	-	bold and unbold text; text must be enclosed by two of these tokens	-	-	-
~K~	-	-	L1 icon (PS2) / LT icon (XBOX)	-	-
~Y~	-	-	-	yellow text	-
~a~	area text				-
~b~	blue text	blue text	blue text	blue text	blue text
~c~	-	-	R3 icon (PS2) / RStick icon (XBOX)	-	-
~d~	-	-	▼-icon	-	-
~g~	green text	hot pink text	green text	green text	green text
~h~	white text		highlight	white text	white text
~j~	-	-	R1 icon (PS2) / RT icon (XBOX)	-	-
~k~	key (followed by buttons)				-
~l~	black text	forces text to default color and ignores set colors	black text		black text
~m~	-	-	L2 icon (PS2) / WHITE icon (XBOX)	-	-
~n~	-	Empty character, allows blanking out subtitles	newline	newline	newline
~o~	-	pink text	Circle icon (PS2) / B icon (XBOX)	pink text	-
~p~	purple text		purple text	purple text	purple text
~q~	-	plum pink text	Square icon (PS2) / X icon (XBOX)	plum pink text	-
~r~	red text	hot pink text	red text	red text	red text
~s~	-	-	reset color to standard	-	white text
~t~	-	green text	Triangle icon (PS2) / Y icon (XBOX)	green text	-
~u~	-	-	▲-icon	-	-
~v~	-	-	R2 icon (PS2) / BLACK icon (XBOX)	-	-
~w~	gray text		white text	white text	white text
~x~	-	light blue text	Cross icon (PS2) / A icon (XBOX)	light blue text	-
~y~	yellow text	yellow text	yellow text	yellow text	yellow text
~z~	-	-	subtitle (doesn't shown when the Subtitles option is off)	-	-
~<~	-	-	◄-icon	-	-
~>~	-	-	►-icon	-	-
~f~	-	Text flashing	-	-	-

In GTA III's original GXT files for the PC version, the token l is unused. The token W appears erroneously in GXT key AS3_A in all language files except the Italian one. In Vice City's original GXT files for the PC version, the tokens B and l are unused. t and x are unused in the English language file but appear to be used erroneously in other language files. The token c appears erroneously in GXT key FIN_B5; it could have represented the cyan color to match the color of the blip the text represents.^[1] The token also appears in GXT key RCH1_3 in all language files except the English one.

Buttons

You can use opcode 00E1 to check if these keys are being pressed.

Foot Controls

Key	Game	Entry
Fire		~PED_FIREWEAPON~
Next Weapon / Target		~PED_CYCLE_WEAPON_RIGHT~
Previous Weapon / Target		~PED_CYCLE_WEAPON_LEFT~
Group Ctrl Forward		~GROUP_CONTROL_FWD~
Group Ctrl Back		~GROUP_CONTROL_BWD~
Conversation - No		~CONVERSATION_NO~
Conversation - Yes		~CONVERSATION_YES~
Forward		~GO_FORWARD~
Backwards		~GO_BACK~
Left		~GO_LEFT~
Right		~GO_RIGHT~
Zoom In		~PED_SNIPER_ZOOM_IN~
Zoom Out		~PED_SNIPER_ZOOM_OUT~
Enter+Exit		~VEHICLE_ENTER_EXIT~
Change Camera		~CAMERA_CHANGE_VIEW_ALL_SITUATIONS~
Jump		~PED_JUMPING~
Sprint		~PED_SPRINT~
Target / Aim Weapon		~PED_LOCK_TARGET~
Crouch		~PED_DUCK~
Action		~PED_ANSWER_PHONE~
Walk		~SNEAK_ABOUT~
Look Behind		~PED_LOOKBEHIND~
Look Left	[a]	~PED_1RST_PERSON_LOOK_LEFT~
Look Right	[a]	~PED_1RST_PERSON_LOOK_RIGHT~
Look Up	[a]	~PED_1RST_PERSON_LOOK_UP~
Look Down	[a]	~PED_1RST_PERSON_LOOK_DOWN~
Next Target	[a]	~PED_CYCLE_TARGET_LEFT~
Previous Target	[a]	~PED_CYCLE_TARGET_RIGHT~
Center Camera	[a]	~PED_CENTER_CAMERA_BEHIND_PLAYER~

Vehicle Controls

Key	Game	Entry
Fire		~VEHICLE_FIREWEAPON~
Secondary Fire		~VEHICLE_FIREWEAPON_ALT~
Accelerate		~VEHICLE_ACCELERATE~
Brake / Reverse		~VEHICLE_BRAKE~
Left		~VEHICLE_STEERLEFT~
Right		~VEHICLE_STEERRIGHT~
Steer Forward / Down		~VEHICLE_STEERDOWN~
Steer Back / Up		~VEHICLE_STEERUP~
Enter+Exit		~VEHICLE_ENTER_EXIT~
Trip Skip		~CONVERSATION_YES~
Change Radio Station		~VEHICLE_CHANGE_RADIO_STATION~
Next Radio Station		~VEHICLE_RADIO_STATION_UP~
Previous Radio Station		~VEHICLE_RADIO_STATION_DOWN~
User Track Skip		none
Horn		~VEHICLE_HORN~
Sub-mission		~TOGGLE_SUBMISSIONS~
Change Camera		~CAMERA_CHANGE_VIEW_ALL_SITUATIONS~
Handbrake		~VEHICLE_HANDBRAKE~
Mouse Look		~VEHICLE_MOUSELOOK~
Look Left		~VEHICLE_LOOKLEFT~
Look Right		~VEHICLE_LOOKRIGHT~
Turret Left / Special Ctrl Left		~VEHICLE_TURRETLEFT~
Turret Right / Special Ctrl Right		~VEHICLE_TURRETRIGHT~
Turret Up / Special Ctrl Up		~VEHICLE_TURRETUP~
Turret Down / Special Ctrl Down		~VEHICLE_TURRETDOWN~
Look Behind	[b]	~VEHICLE_LOOKBEHIND~

a. ^ Classic controls key only

b. ^ Hardcoded key in III and VC, unavailable in SA

Unused

Here are some keypress codes only used during development stage. They were removed or replaced later but probably they are still working. Maybe this is useful for further research. Some are only used in PS2 Version.

~TAKE_SCREEN_SHOT~

~SWITCH_DEBUG_CAM_ON~

~TOGGLE_DPAD~

~NETWORK_TALK~

Tools

	GTA2 GXT Editor v2.0 - by Delfi
	Grand Theft Auto GXT Editor v1.3 - by Zverik, retrieved from archive.org
	SAGE v0.9.7 - by AleX AciD
	GTA Texter v2.0b3 - by feroCT5
	GTAGarage: GXT Editor 1.3 - by Jevon
	GTA: Vice City GXT Editor v1.2 - by CyQ
	GXT Builder, by Silent
	GTA San Andreas Text Editor - by JernejL
	GTA: San Andreas GXT Editor v1.3 - by Hammer83
	A-GXT Editor v1.0a - by Aschratt
	X GXT Editor v2.1 - by xmen
	OpenIV - Have Inbuilt GXT file viewer

Reference

1. ^  Post on GTAForums

External links

• GXT entries in e.gxt
•    List of all English GXT entries
• San Andreas american.gxt file
• Vice City Stories american.gxt file
• Liberty City Stories english.gxt file
• IV american.gxt file
• List of non-English GXT entries
• Some of GTA IV GXT text entry names
•  GTAForums: List of usable characters