Extract text from COL files
To convert your COL file to another format, you need Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Collision Data" file type, you need software like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas or a similar tool.
The .COL extension primarily refers to Grand Theft Auto Collision Files used by the RenderWare engine (GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas). These binary files define the physical boundaries, invisible walls, and material properties (e.g., sound when walking on grass vs. concrete) of the game world. Because they are proprietary binary archives, they cannot be opened in standard 3D viewers or image editors. To modify a map's physics, modders must convert these files into editable 3D formats like OBJ or DAE using specialized tools like Steve-M's Collision Editor or DragonFF for Blender.
Less commonly, a .COL file may be a DIMACS Graph Data file. These are plain text files used in scientific computing to test graph coloring algorithms, where lines typically start with 'p' (problem) or 'e' (edge). These can be opened in any text editor like Notepad++ or processed by graph visualization software.
Convert.Guru analyzes your COL file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted COLLAGE, COLPKG, DFF, TAR, ZIP, UNKNOWN, PKPASS, BCH, DLG and KDT 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 COL converter.