.AR File Extension
Midtown Madness Data File
| Developer | Microsoft |
| Popularity |
3.8 | 35 Votes |
What is an AR file?
An AR file is a game data archive used by Midtown Madness and Midtown Madness 2, racing games developed by Angel Studios and published by Microsoft. It contains game resources in a compressed format, including 3D models, textures, vehicle data, tracks, sounds, and menu elements. The game loads the resources in the AR file at runtime to render environments, display menus, and manage gameplay elements.
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The AR format acts as a container for multiple game assets, allowing the developers to package and distribute large amounts of data efficiently. This structure also enables the game engine to quickly locate and load necessary files without needing individual access to each resource. Players and modders sometimes extract or modify AR files to access or customize game content.
How to open an AR file
AR files are not intended to be opened or modified directly by users. Instead, Midtown Madness games reference the files and load their assets.
However, modders may use tools, such as deAR (for the original Midtown Madness) and deAR2 (for Midtown Madness 2), which can unpack the data stored inside these archives. Since AR files are stored in a structure similar to standard .ZIP compression, various ZIP-compatible utilities, such as 7-Zip and Corel WinZip can extract assets from AR files.
Programs that open AR files
Unix Static Library
| Developer | N/A |
| Popularity |
3.5 | 23 Votes |
An AR file may also be an archive created by the Unix archiver tool, ar. It stores one or more files in a single package, often containing object files or other binary data. AR files provide a simple way to group related files together for use in software development or distribution on Unix-based systems.
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Developers working with C or C++ projects are the primary users of AR files, as they form a standard part of the static linking process in traditional software builds. The developers use AR files to create static libraries that developers link to their applications during compilation.
These libraries, commonly named with the .a extension (such as libexample.a), contain precompiled code that multiple programs can reuse. The GNU linker (ld) and other build tools reference AR archives to include the necessary code directly in an executable.
How to open an AR file
You can open AR files with GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). You can also open AR files with other utilities, such as GNU Binutils, LLVM’s llvm-ar, or libarchive.
Programs that open AR files
Arc System Works Archive
| Developer | Arc System Works |
| Popularity |
1.0 | 6 Votes |
An AR file may also be a game data archive used by the video games Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations. Typically, AR files are part of a split archive, comprised of multiple numbered AR files. For example, an AR file may have the name cnz100.ar.00, cnz100.ar.01, etc.
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Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations are two later entries in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Both games store a variety of game assets, such as character models and level files, in AR archives.
However, the games use slightly different versions of the AR format. Specifically, the AR files included in Sonic Unleashed are compressed, while the AR files included in Sonic Generations are not.
How to open an AR file
You can open AR files and extract the assets they contain with Generations Archive Editor (Windows). However, before you can open a Sonic Unleashed AR file, you must first decompress it using QuickBMS (Windows) and an appropriate BMS script. You can find a link to the appropriate BMS scripts below.