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What are .big, .psf, .xsf and .skate map files?

Skate 3 stores a world as streamed chunks, .psf on PS3 and .xsf on Xbox 360 and the recomp, packed into EA .big archives. .skate is a separate, portable single-file format made for the community Rust engine.

The retail formats

Skate 3 runs on EA’s RenderWare 4. A district isn’t one file. It’s a folder (DIST_*) of stream files that the game loads as you skate around:

  • PS3 worlds use .psf streams (PlayStation 3 StreamFile). Their arena meshes are .psg.
  • Xbox 360 worlds use .xsf streams with .xsm, .xmm, .xss and .xst manifests. Their arena meshes are .rx2.

RW4ArchiveTool and the Dumbads Skate 3 Modding Tools can read and write all of these. Worlds and DLC ship inside EA .big archives. On PS3 these are often encrypted as .big.edat.

Which platform uses what

Platform Map form Where it goes
PS3 / RPCS3 .psf streams in .big / .big.edat replaces files in the game folder (BLUS30464 or BLES00760)
Xbox 360 / Xenia .xsf streams in DLC .big packages DLC folders (Xenia) or RGH/JTAG
skate3recomp Xbox 360 form .big DLC packs, or the Level Loader
Rust engine .skate drag onto the launcher or pick from the map menu

.skate

.skate belongs to the Skate 3 Rust engine, a reimplementation with “its own portable .skate map format” (history). A whole map, collision included, sits in one file that can be shared and browsed in game through a custom maps catalog.

PS3 and Xbox 360 maps differ in byte order, vertex layout and texture tiling, so moving a map between platforms means rebuilding it. See how conversion works.

Updated 2026-10-01 · Improve this answer on GitHub