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STF - Squirrel Transfer Format

A modular file-format for 3D assets Intended for (not only) game development use-cases.

Please note, STF is work in progress and likely to change.

Install STF support for:

Try to import this example model!

Relevant future implementation targets include: 3dsMax, Unreal Engine, Maya, Bevy, BabylonJs, ...

Concept

STF by itself is merely a shell format. It provides a framework for different modules to parse and serialize resourses.

Resources are stored as Json-objects, identified by a unique ID. Resources can reference binary buffers and each other.

A few modules, including but not limited to stf.prefab, stf.mesh, stf.material or stf.image, are provided by default.

Additional modules can be easily implemented by third parties. Each STF implementation provides an easy and convenient way to hot-load module-plugins.

As the format is focussed on interoperability, the default module for meshes for example stores its data both, triangulated, and the original topology. If it gets imported into a game-engine, the triangulated data will be used, if imported into a modeling tool, the original topology will be imported. This is possible with negligible storage impact.

Learn how STF compares to other 3d file-formats: Comparisons

Anatomy of an STF file

Date: 2025-09-22 17:54:08 • branch: master • commit: 5cf7a55