ARB File

What are ARB files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening an ARB file or are you simply curious about its contents? We're here to explain the properties of these files and provide you with software that can open or handle your ARB files.

What is an ARB file?

ARB files have multiple uses, and ARB Fragment Shader is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

ARB Fragment Shader

ARB Fragment Shader files are plain-text programs written in the ARB fragment program language, part of the ARB_fragment_program OpenGL extension. They allow a developer to specify exactly how each pixel (fragment) in a 3D rendering is shaded by defining floating-point vector operations such as texture lookups, lighting or color blending. These files are created by graphics developers writing shader code for hardware compatibility with older or hardware-specific OpenGL implementations.

When such a file is used, the fragment program it contains is fed into the graphics driver via OpenGL commands. The driver parses the contents, compiles and links them into something the GPU can execute each time a pixel is rendered. These shaders run without branches or loops in their traditionally supported form, with all operations performed in a fixed sequence.

Files begin with the ASCII header string !!ARBfp1.0 at the very start (offset zero), marking them as version 1.0 fragment programs in the ARB assembly shader syntax.

How to open ARB files

Important: Different programs may use files with the ARB file extension for different purposes, so unless you are sure which format your ARB file is, you may need to try a few different programs.

While we have not verified the apps ourselves yet, our users have suggested three different ARB openers which you will find listed below.

Last updated: August 20, 2026

All known file formats using extension .ARB

While ARB Fragment Shader is a popular type of ARB-file, we know of 2 different uses of the .ARB file extension. Different software may use files with the same extension for different types of data.

ARB Vertex Shader

An ARB Vertex Shader file holds source code in the ARB vertex program assembly language, a low-level shader format defined by the OpenGL Architecture Review Board. It is used to write custom per-vertex operations - such as transforming vertex positions with matrices, computing normals, generating texture coordinates - and is processed by graphics drivers supporting the GL_ARB_vertex_program extension.

Creator tools emit these files as plain text describing the instructions of a vertex program. At run time, OpenGL functions like ProgramStringARB are used to load this text into the GPU. The driver compiles it into machine-specific code to execute on the graphics hardware. These shaders interact with existing rendering pipelines, replacing fixed-function vertex transformations with programmable ones.

Inside the assembly, all registers represent floating-point 4-component vectors; operations include vector arithmetic (like ADD, MUL), dot products (DP3, DP4), and other built-ins defined by the ARB_vertex_program specification. The formatting is strict: the file begins with the signature !!ARBvp1.0 at the very start and ends with END. Statements are separated by semicolons, with optional OPTION directives and comments beginning with #.

Various apps that use files with this extension

These apps are known to open certain types of ARB files. Remember, different programs may use ARB files for different purposes, so you may need to try out a few of them to be able to open your specific file.

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