Extract text from DEM files
To convert your DEM file to another format, you need Counter-Strike 2 or other Game software.
To convert other file formats to the "Replay Recording" file type, you need software like Counter-Strike 2 or a similar tool.
The .DEM extension refers to two distinct file types that users frequently mistake for standard video or image files.
1. Valve Game Replay (Dominant Use):
Most commonly, a .DEM file is a "demo" recording from games built on Valve's Source or Source 2 engines, such as Counter-Strike 2 and Team Fortress 2. Unlike a video file (MP4, AVI), this file does not contain visual frames; it contains a log of server ticks, player positions, and game events.
The Conversion Problem: You cannot convert a game .DEM to video using a standard online converter because the file requires the original game engine and installed map assets (BSP files) to "render" the scene.
The Solution: To convert a replay to video for YouTube, you must launch the game, play the demo file using the developer console (command: playdemo), and record your screen using OBS Studio or export frames using the built-in startmovie command to stitch into an MP4.
2. Digital Elevation Model (GIS Use):
In geospatial fields, a .DEM file is a legacy raster format defined by the USGS (United States Geological Survey) to store terrain elevation data.
The Solution: Modern GIS workflows often require converting these legacy ASCII or SDTS files to GeoTIFF (TIF) for better compatibility with QGIS or ArcGIS. For 3D printing or visualization in Blender, these are often converted to mesh formats like STL or OBJ.
Convert.Guru analyzes your DEM file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted DEMO, BZ2, ZST, GZ, INFO, TIF, ZIP, CDW, PNG, SIG, MP4, FRW and TGS files.
If you want to convert DEM file to MP4, DTM, TIFF, STL, TIN, DSM, EXE, ISO, BIN, CUE, PAK or WAD, you can use Counter-Strike 2 or similar software from the "Game Replay Recording" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert MOD, BIN, CFG, SCX, DAT, MPQ, LOG, CUE, INI, EXE, SCM or ISO files to DEM, try Counter-Strike 2 or another comparable tool in the "Game Replay Recording" category.
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 DEM converter.