Install anatomy — what is actually on disk

Everything Tribes 2 loads lives under GameData/. This page is a guided tour, because you cannot override a file you cannot find.

Confirming your build

This handbook targets build 25034 — the patched v1.05 retail binary, released October 2002.

Open the in-game console (see Debugging) and type:

echo(getT2VersionNumber());

You should see 25034. [binary] The engine’s getT2VersionNumber handler is a single MOV EAX, 0x61CA; RET — 0x61CA is 25034 decimal — so this value is a hard constant, not a computed version. It is the canonical way to tell a patched install from an unpatched one, and it is what the TribesNEXT community patch gates on.

Tribes2.exe carries a TimeDateStamp of 2002-10-30, matching the v1.05 patch release window. [binary]

Top-level layout

GameData/
├── Tribes2.exe                  the game
├── console_start.cs             the first script the engine executes — loose, editable
├── base/                        the base mod: all vanilla content
├── Classic/                     the Classic mod: an alternate ruleset, ships with the game
├── *.dll / *.asi / *.m3d        runtime libraries (see below)
├── *CardProfiles.cs             GPU detection scripts
├── LowProfile.cs … HighProfile.cs   render quality presets
└── Classic_*.bat                launcher batch files for the Classic mod

base/ — the base mod

GameData/base/
├── base.vl2            engine bootstrap: console_end.cs, effects/
├── scripts.vl2         ★ all gameplay scripts + GUI (334 files)
├── shapes.vl2          .dts models + .dsq animations
├── skins.vl2           player/vehicle skins (the largest archive, ~103 MB)
├── textures.vl2        world and UI textures (~121 MB)
├── interiors.vl2       .dif building interiors
├── missions.vl2        .mis mission files + .nav navigation graphs
├── audio.vl2           sound effects
├── voice.vl2           voice pack clips
├── desert.vl2 · lava.vl2 · lush.vl2 · ice.vl2 · badlands.vl2
│                       per-environment terrain and prop sets
├── TR2final105-client.vl2 · TR2final105-server.vl2 · TR2final093-extras.vl2
│                       the v1.05 / v0.93 patch content
├── Classic_maps_v1.vl2 · zz_Classic_client_v1.vl2
│                       the Classic mod's maps and client scripts
├── music/              streamed music (loose)
├── prefs/              default preferences (loose; user prefs written here)
└── textures/           loose textures referenced directly by name

The archive you will spend the most time in is scripts.vl2. Unpack it and you get:

scripts/            gameplay code — the ~200 .cs files this handbook quotes throughout
  weapons/          one file per weapon (blaster.cs, disc.cs, chaingun.cs, …)
  packs/            one file per backpack item
  vehicles/         one file per vehicle
  turrets/          turret barrel definitions
  autoexec/         scripts auto-executed at startup
gui/                136 .gui interface definition files
help/               .hfl help documents for the mission editor

Classic/ — a complete worked example

GameData/Classic/scripts/ holds the Classic mod’s scripts as loose .cs files — no archive. This is the single most valuable thing in your install: an officially shipped, complete mod that you can read to see how overriding is done in practice. Read it early and often.

Loose files at the GameData/ root

What the Classic launcher batch files teach you

Classic_LAN.bat [script]:

del .\base\scripts\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\autoexec\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\packs\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\turrets\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\vehicles\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
del .\base\scripts\weapons\*.dso 1> nul 2>&1
REM …same six lines again for .\Classic\scripts\…

start Tribes2.exe -nologin -mod Classic

Two lessons, both important:

1. Sierra themselves deleted every .dso before launching a mod. Compiled script caches shadowing edited source is the single most common cause of “my change did nothing”. Adopt this habit.
2. -nologin -mod Classic is the canonical LAN/offline mod launch. -online replaces -nologin for a listen server; ispawn.exe 28000 Tribes2.exe -dedicated -mod Classic for a dedicated server.

Under the community patches

Everything above describes a clean vanilla install. Yours is almost certainly patched. See section 07 for the full picture; the disk-level differences are:

Files replaced

The IFC22.dll replacement is a proxy-DLL hijack: TribesNEXT ships a same-named DLL that stubs the 11 CImm* exports Tribes2.exe imports, so the import table resolves and the engine starts, then does all its real work registering console functions at DllMain [binary]. Force feedback is dead as a result.

Files added (QoL preview)

GameData/
├── console_client_patches.cs     47 KB — the master TorqueScript patch
├── console_client_discord.cs     9.7 KB
├── SDL3.dll                      window and input
├── soft_oal.dll                  OpenAL Soft
├── libcurl.dll + curl-ca-bundle.crt
├── discord_game_sdk.dll
└── base/
    └── t2csri.vl2                1.3 MB — patch scripts, .sdft fonts, login UI

RC2a instead ships t2dll.dll, rubyintersect.dll, msvcrt-ruby190.dll, and a 496 KB base/T2csri.vl2 — see RC2a.

And possibly a script library

Independently of the patches, many installs carry base/support.vl2 (392 KB) — the community script library and module system. It adds base/autoload.cs, a support/ module tree, a hook in scripts/autoexec/, and writes prefs/autoload.ini and prefs/autoload.log at runtime [support-script]. See 09 · The Support Pack.

What does not change

getT2VersionNumber() still returns 25034 — the patch requires it and refuses to load otherwise [patch-script]. console_start.cs, base/, Classic/, every .vl2, and the whole mod path mechanism are untouched.

Where files are looked up

A script asking for shapes/weapon_disc.dts does not give a full path. The engine resolves the bare relative path against the mod path stack, checking loose files before archives and taking the first hit. That mechanism is the subject of Mod paths and overrides — read it next.

Related

• What you need — tools for opening the archives described here
• Mod paths and overrides — how lookups resolve
• File formats — what each extension actually is
• 07 · Community Patches — what the patches change