.VDF File Extension

VDF files can often be seen when installing games distributed through Valve's Steam game client, such as Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike. The file features Valve's KeyValues format, which is a plain text format that saves key-value parameters in a tree hierarchy. The format is similar to JSON and YAML. While VDF files are meant to be used by the Valve Source game engine, you can open the files with a text editor to view the contents.

VDF files are saved to the AntiVir installation directory and have the filenames vbase000.vdf, vbase001.vdf, etc.

To use a VDF file with VirtualDub (Windows), either:

1. Place the file in VirtualDub's plugins folder. (If your VirtualDub installation does not include a plugins folder, create one in the program's main directory.)
2. Open VirtualDub, select Video → Filters... → Add... → Load..., and load your VDF file.

You can also use VDF files with VirtualDub2 (Windows) and VirtualDubMod (Windows), which are modified versions of VirtualDub.

VDF files may be edited with GoMan or a hex-editor, but typically should not be altered. Incorrectly modifying VDF files may make them unusable.