RedM Files

RedM Files is a workspace for RDR2 and RedM files that lives in your browser. Drop files or a whole resource folder and each file is identified from its bytes, not its name: a texture dictionary shows its textures, a model its LODs and collision, a map file its entities, a manifest whether RedM will start it. Then it points you at the RedM tool that takes it. Nothing is uploaded.

What it is for

• Finding out what a file really is when the name is no help, or when the name is wrong.
• Checking a resource before you put it on a server: is that .ytd encrypted, does the manifest have the rdr3_warning line, is that .ymap replacing a stock one.
• Keeping the files you are working on in one place, with older versions kept when you drop a new copy.

Quick start

1. Open the page. A new workspace has a RedM folder with resources inside it, and opens on resources.
2. Drag files or folders onto the page, or use Add files or Add a folder. A dropped folder keeps its structure, up to 8 levels deep.
3. Click a file. The panel shows what it was read as, what is inside, and where it can go next.
4. Use Open it in to jump to a tool. Browsers do not let one page hand a file to another, so drop the file again there (Save a copy gives you a copy to drop).

The workspace

The RedM and resources folders are fixed: they cannot be renamed, moved or deleted.

Limits: up to 256 MB per file and a 1 GB budget for the whole workspace. The browser sets its own quota as well, which the This browser box shows next to ours.

Versions

Adding a file whose name is already in the folder makes a new version instead of overwriting it. The History card of a file lists every version kept, with its size and date:

• the first copy and the nine newest after it are kept (ten in all), and the page tells you when an old one drops out;
• Make version N current only changes which one is current, nothing is deleted;
• each version can be saved or deleted on its own. The current one cannot be deleted from there.

How a file is identified

The first bytes decide, the name is only a hint. An RDR2 resource starts with RSC8 and carries a resource id, and the id says which family it is: texture dictionary, model, fragment, map file, clip dictionary and so on.

When the name and the bytes disagree, the file gets a not a .xxx badge and the panel says The name and the bytes disagree with what the bytes really are. When the page cannot read a file at all, it gets a locked badge and says why under Nothing here can open this.

What is inside

The What is inside card depends on the file:

Tables show up to 400 rows.

For a .ytd, .ydr, .ydd or .yft, the page also says whether RDR2 ships a file of that name, because a streamed file with a stock name replaces the game’s own. Most stock files are stored under a hash only, so “not among the names known from the game” does not prove a name is new. A .ymap whose name hash matches a stock imap says so, with whether that imap loads with the world or only on request and how many entities the game’s copy has.

Where a file goes next

Open it in lists the tools that take the file as it is. Works on this kind of thing lists tools that are about the same kind of file but cannot open yours.

A locked file gets no tool, except a GTA V file, which is sent to the FiveM side.

When the open folder looks like a resource, a card Open this folder in appears above the list: a folder with an fxmanifest.lua goes to the Resource Conflict Checker, a folder of map tiles to the Map Editor, a folder of pictures to Folders to YTD, a folder of photo mode files to the Photo Mode Converter.

The manifest check

Dropping an fxmanifest.lua lists anything that stops RedM from starting it. A manifest that passes looks like this:

fx_version 'cerulean'
game 'rdr3'
rdr3_warning 'I acknowledge that this is a prerelease build of RedM, and I am aware my resources *will* become incompatible once RedM ships.'

What it flags:

• no fx_version, or one that is not adamant, bodacious or cerulean;
• no game line, or a game list without rdr3 (or common);
• a game 'rdr3' resource with no rdr3_warning line, or one whose text is not word for word, asterisks around will included.

This is a quick look at the lines that decide whether the resource starts. The Resource Conflict Checker reads the whole resource with its files.

Common mistakes

• Dropping files straight out of the game’s archives. Those are encrypted and Oodle compressed, and a browser has neither the key nor the decompressor. Export them with CodeX on your own machine, unencrypted, with no compression or Deflate, and drop that.
• Trusting the extension. A .ydr that is really a .ydd, or a .ytd saved without its header, is flagged. Fix the file, not the page.
• Expecting the files on another browser or computer. They live in this browser only.

Limitations

These are the limits the page itself states:

• Where do the files go? Into this browser’s own storage on this machine, and nowhere else. No account, no server, no upload. The RedM workspace is kept apart from the FiveM one. Clearing site data for fivemad.com, or opening the page in a private window, means an empty workspace.
• How is a file identified? By its first bytes, then by its name. If the name and the bytes disagree, the page says so instead of trusting the name.
• What it will not do. It does not read your disk or your RDR2 install, and it cannot open an encrypted or Oodle compressed file, or look inside an RPF8 archive.
• Versions and backups. The first copy and the nine newest after it are kept, and restoring an older one only changes which is current.

On top of that: the page reads files, it does not change them. Some resource types (for example .ypm, .yad, .ywr) are recognised but only their container is read, and the panel says so rather than guessing at their contents.

Related tools

• Resource Conflict Checker
• Folders to YTD
• Blip Replacer
• Map Editor
• RedM Assets