FAC File Extension

What is the .FAC file type?

The primary association of the .fac extension lies with the X-Plane Facade (FAC) file type and format. Both belong to X-Plane, a fully-featured flight simulation software title with a very high level of realism, commercially available from Laminar Research for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. X-Plane is used in both amateur flight simulation and professional pilot training.

As part of photorealistic surroundings within a simulation, X-Plane uses building facades rendered upon specifications in FAC files. A .fac file is a simple text file that contains a number of statements that define the structure and look of a building facade to be rendered. There are two versions of the FAC format, "type 1" (rectangular, UV-map) and "type 2" (3D mesh and warping).

FAC files do not contain any images, they just give instructions on how images should be applied and rendered. FAC facade files are always used in conjunction with the actual artwork (.png, .bmp) and meant to be edited in a text editor.

Differently, the .fac extension is also used in association with character face files (.fac) created with Facemaker (Face Creator), a simple face artwork editor included with the Hoyle Card/Puzzle/Board Games series. Facemaker/Face Creator allows visual clipart-like creation of custom face artwork saved in form of small (76 bytes) binary .fac files. Such files do not contain actual image data, but hold reference to face elements used.

In a similar meaning, the .fac extension is also used in conjunction with the FaceShop Face (FAC) file type and format used by FaceShop, a free and commercial plugin for the Digital Art Zone (DAZ 3D) Studio suite. FaceShop allows creation of realistic 3D face models based on 2D face pictures, with such face models saved as .fac files.

In computer gaming, the .fac extension can be associated with the Aurora Faction (.fac) binary file type/format. Aurora is a game engine developed by BioWare and used in such games as Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age: Origin etc. FAC faction files are part of the documented Generic File Format (GFF) used to store game data in BioWare games. Faction files define responses of game objects basing on their being friendly, neutral or hostile.

With reference to forex (foreign exchange) currency trading, the .fac extension can be also encountered in factor files created and used by Zorro, an online forex trading project. A Zorro .fac file is a plaintext file with a series of tabbed text lines with currency pair factors calculated for a trading portfolio.

Historically, the .fac extension was used with the now obscure Usenix FaceSaver bitmap image format. FaceSaver was a Unix program to manage a database of personal data along with black-and-white face images. FaceSaver images (.fac) can be handled/converted with the Netpbm package.

Software to open or convert FAC files

POM-QM for Windows by Pearson Education Inc

 

XnView

 

Crésus Facturation by Epsitec SA

 

Faces

 

Flash Album Creator

 

Free File Viewer Pro

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