Extract text from CGA files
To convert your CGA file to another format, you need CryEngine or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Geometry Animation Asset" file type, you need software like CryEngine or a similar tool.
The .CGA extension serves three distinct, incompatible purposes, creating significant confusion for users trying to open them.
Most commonly, a .CGA file is a CryEngine Character Geometry Animation file. These are proprietary binary files used by CryEngine to define the geometry of animated characters or breakable objects. The key problem here is engine lock-in; these are compiled assets, not editable source files. You cannot simply double-click to open them in Blender or Autodesk Maya without specific import plugins or the CryEngine SDK. For editing or use in other engines like Unity, you must convert these files to standard interchange formats like FBX or OBJ.
In the geospatial sector, .CGA stands for Computer Generated Architecture. These are text-based procedural rule files used by ArcGIS CityEngine to generate 3D urban environments from 2D data. While these are technically plain text and can be viewed in Notepad, they require the CityEngine compiler to actually generate visual 3D models. Users often need to convert the resulting 3D output to DAE (Collada) or KMZ for visualization, rather than the rule file itself.
Finally, you might encounter a Legacy CGA Image. These are low-resolution raster graphics (320x200 pixels) from the 1980s IBM PC era, limited to a 4-color palette. Modern operating systems (Windows 11, macOS) have zero native support for this archaic standard. To view these historical artifacts, the only practical solution is converting them to PNG or JPG.
Convert.Guru analyzes your CGA file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted CGAM, MESHSETUP, EGA, CGF, MTL, GIF, PNG, FPJ, SETUP, SKELETON and VGA files.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our CGA converter.