2da Files

Information on 2da files, which are essentially 2 dimensional array tables of information. See the left hand bar for a list of information on specific 2da files.

Note a lot of information on specific 2da files are on different pages, such as Spells and Abilities for spells.2da.

2da Format

The 2da format is relatively simple, and can be read about in the Bioware documentation. It looks like this:

2DA V2.0

  Column1 Column2   Column3
0 Entry1  "Entry2"  ****

• The top line must be 2DA V2.0
• You can optionally include a "DEFAULT:" definition for the string that will be returned if there is no data to otherwise return. **** returns a blank string still, but if you request via. Get2DAString() an invalid row or an invalid column entry it will return the DEFAULT: value. No Bioware 2da does this (and likely shouldn't) but may be useful for custom 2da files.
• There may be one or more blank lines before the first line that contains characters, which is considered the header line
  • The first column header must be blank, and that column is ignored (is usually a human readable number)
    • The first column number IDs can be wrong - the game just reads each new line as a new entry (incremented from 0)
  • The second and onwards columns must have the header match the in-game reference loaded, the order of columns doesn't matter. Label columns are generally ignored.
• Further lines are data rows:
  • Column data - but not the header name - can be in double quotes - "text here" - to include spaces. The maximum amount of text in quotes can be 256 characters. Whether or not the game understands that one being in quotes very much depends - see individual 2da notes.
  • Column data is separated by one or more whitespace characters (tabs, spaces)
  • Blank data is classified with 4 stars: ****
    • You can quote the stars ("****") or have a blank quoted field which, of course, is blank ("") but any other combination of stars (less, more, or in single quotes) will be returns literally.
  • Entire blank rows are skipped and not counted as data rows. You must define some characters for it to be a data row.

This all comes together to mean some very odd looking 2das can be completely valid.

You can find notes on reading 2DA files in scripts at the Lexicon page for Get2DAString. Main thing to note is on error (no column or row matching etc.) and on blank entries it returns an empty string.

Missing Columns versus Blank Columns (****)

There is different behaviour for certain columns where the column is missing entirely (eg; using a old 1.69 version of a 2da) versus the column being present but blanked (****). A notable example is the additional columns in racialtypes.2da which defaults to the 1.69 implementations if the columns are not present to maintain compatibility, and where **** can actually be counted as "Empty value" instead of "Missing value" meaning different behaviour.

Order of Columns

The game generally won't care what order columns are in except for some minor exceptions;

• swearfilter.2da cannot be rearranged
• The first column of the spell preference 2da files
• itemprops.2da appears to be hardcoded due to the PropColumn in baseitems.2da (although not sure if you can add more columns to it).

It is recommended not to reorder columns on any game 2DA just in case.

Adding Columns

Most game read 2da files (if not all) can have custom columns added but these are only useful for Get2DAString (and it's a much better idea to create a custom 2DA file for additional metadata to not hit NWSync 15MB file size limits).

In one instance in NWN:EE this has a valid use case the engine recognises: Additional "Spellbook" columns in spells.2da, which are now referenced by column name in classes.2da.

Referencing Columns

When a column for a 2da references another 2da, and the entry requires an ID to use from the other 2da (eg feats.2da having a column to link to a line in spells.2da), the ID you must give it is actually the line number offset from base (base being where index 0 starts). This basically just means 2da line ID numbers cannot be skipped, but is mostly only relevant where a persistent server has heavily modified 2da's.

2DA List

This is a list of the different core 2da files (we're ignoring tileset specific ones but there will be a generic entry for them, plus the multitude of class and package 2das) with a note about the usage for client or server, and line limits (if known). Anything in this list is used by the game, the unused ones are listed later on this page.

Note: If a 2da file is listed as "Server Loaded: No" it would still be recommended to include it in relevant hakpack files if altered since Get2DAString will break, and the size of the files is very tiny in any case.

There are a limit to the amount of lines the engine will properly use for 2da files. This is either restricted due to:

• Engine limits - the game handles the data around the engine in certain sizes, eg uint8_t, or int32_t and may truncate, lose or wrap around data if the 2da goes too big, or just ignore additional rows.
  
  • Note: nwscript has an inherent limit of int32_t so 2147483647 even if the engine could technically go beyond this number therefore we use 2147483647 (int32) as our functional maximum regardless of what the game reads (uint32, int32, uint64 or int64). Note having 2 billion rows is going to not go well if you ever try it so this should be considered functionally unlimited.
• GFF storage chosen - eg WORD vs DWORD vs BYTE vs CHAR etc. for save games, loading data from blueprints, areas, BICs etc. so becomes a practical hard limit since it's a mess to workaround usually.
• Network traffic limitations - even in SP there is a "server" running. Since the game was made for dialup so Bioware coded in a lot of practical limits to lower packet sizes, which causes some odd limits sometimes such as 128 or 65535 or 63 etc.

parts_xxx.2da files

**This section applies to ALL parts 2da files EXCEPT parts_robe.2da**

The toolset indexes each part according to the float value assigned to the ACBONUS column in descending order (e.g., 0.00 is listed at the top and 8.00 at the bottom of the Toolset dropdown menus). You can sort parts with the same ACBONUS value using the two digits to the right of the decimal in the float value (e.g., 0.01, 0.02, 0.03). 

The ACBONUS column is NOT used by any parts 2da EXCEPT parts_chest.2da. Here, the float value is used to determine the AC of that particular chest piece. However, only the digit to the left of the decimal matters - as in other parts 2da files, the right digits can be used to index chest pieces within their respective ACBONUS values (e.g., 8.01, 8.02, 8.03, etc.). 

NOTE, in most cases a body part's model number will NEVER match its number in the Toolset dropdown menu.

Designer 2da files

These are strictly used by Get2DAString and not used by the game inherently. However the systems they relate to are things like crafting, which is called by default game scripts and conversations the PCs can activate.

They are all prefixed des_ - and being only used by Get2DAString they are serverside only.

There is one special case here: x3restrict.2da is used in the default game spells to restrict polymorph spells when casting on a horse. Added for horse support.

Client and Serverside 2das

The game as a whole is made up of the client and the server. A singleplayer game essentially runs both at once for the local user - of course other players may still join if it is created as a network game. Therefore it is important to understand which is which, since some 2da files you don't need to include at all in hakpack or nwsync resource lists, and can be left in the .mod or override folder on a PW server perfectly fine.

The client ones tend to be based around levelling up, appeareances, visuals (icons, vfx, textures, etc.) and sounds (the latter 3 servers don't even load of course). Servers need to know about all the resources loaded by the game in regards to objects, spells, etc. and you can read any "clientside only" 2da file with Get2DAString.

Therefore it is recommended of course for the server to have copies of everything (if only for Get2DAString lookups) while you can lessen the amount put in client hakpacks or on nwsync if sending certain ones to the client.

The list of what is clientside and serverside and toolset is included in the table above.

Unused 2da files

Bioware left in some 2da files from early development (before game release) or they're now unused in NWN:EE. These files are not loaded by the game, toolset or Get2DAString at all and can be ignored. They do get confusing however.