Extract text from RELAX NG schemas (RNC)
To convert RNC schemas to another format, you need oXygen XML Editor or other Compressed software.
To convert other file formats to the "Archive or Schema File" file type, you need software like oXygen XML Editor or a similar tool.
The .RNC file extension is primarily used for two completely different purposes: a Rob Northen Compression archive and a RELAX NG Compact Schema. Understanding which type you possess is critical because their use cases and software ecosystems do not overlap.
Historically, the Rob Northen Compression (RNC) format was a proprietary data packing algorithm used extensively in the 1980s and 1990s. Game developers used it to compress sprites, audio, and code onto floppy disks for Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS systems. These files are closed, proprietary binary archives. The main disadvantage is that they are entirely obsolete. Modern operating systems and standard extraction tools like ZIP or RAR software cannot read them. Extracting the data requires reverse-engineered community utilities like dernc or running original DOS tools in emulators.
Alternatively, an .RNC file can be a RELAX NG Compact Syntax File. Developers use this plain text format to define the rules and structure of an XML document. While RELAX NG has an XML-based format (RNG), the .RNC variant uses a non-XML, human-readable syntax. Software like oXygen XML Editor is frequently used to write and validate these schemas. The main limitation of the compact syntax is that generic XML parsers cannot process it directly. Developers often need to convert .RNC files to standard RNG or XSD formats to ensure compatibility with broader development pipelines.
Most standard online converters fail to process .RNC files. They either lack the retro decompression algorithms for game files or do not include specialized XML schema parsing libraries. Just drag and drop your .RNC file into convert.guru to identify the format, view the plain text schema, and inspect the internal file headers. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
Convert.Guru analyzes your RNC file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted ENC, XPR, TEI and ESY files.
If you want to convert RNC file to ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, GZ, BZ2, XZ, LZMA, CAB, ACE, ARJ or LHA, you can use oXygen XML Editor or similar software from the "Archive or XML Schema" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert XXE, 7Z, Z, PAK, LHA, DEB, UUE, TAR, LZH, ZIP, PKG or RAR files to RNC, try oXygen XML Editor or another comparable tool in the "Archive or XML Schema" 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 RNC converter.