XTX

The .xtx file format is used on Xbox 360 in place of the gameinfo.txt configuration file in Source Engine games.

Purpose

XTX files exist due to Xbox 360 Technical Certification Requirements (TCR), which prohibit .txt files from being stored on game DVDs. On Xbox 360, gameinfo.xtx serves as the direct equivalent of gameinfo.txt.

The gameinfo.xtx file is used during the Xbox 360 image build process and is read during filesystem initialization to set up search paths. This format is relevant only when building Xbox 360 disc images.

Technical Details

• XTX files are unencrypted and contain identical content to their .txt counterparts
• XTX is used exclusively for the gameinfo configuration file; no other Source files use this format
• They exist only outside of VPK/ZIP archives
• Inside packed files, the original .txt filename is still used
• The engine automatically falls back to .txt if the .xtx file is not found
• This format handling is isolated to filesystem initialization; the rest of the codebase works with .txt filenames

Code:The XTX format is handled in filesystem_init.cpp (line 41 - 51) during engine initialization:

#if !defined( _X360 )
    #define GAMEINFO_FILENAME       "gameinfo.txt"
#else
    #define GAMEINFO_FILENAME       "gameinfo.xtx"
#endif
#define GAMEINFO_FILENAME_ALTERNATE "gameinfo.txt"

See also

• gameinfo.txt - The configuration file that XTX format is used for on Xbox 360
• TXT - The standard plain text format