BLUE File

What are BLUE files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a BLUE 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 BLUE files.

What is a BLUE file?

A .BLUE file is an EVE Online Data file.

EVE Online Data files store information used by CCP hf's EVE Online game engine to define how 3D objects are rendered. They are texture-oriented resource files that tell the game where to find and how to apply visual assets such as shaders, light effects, glow regions, color overlays, mounting points for attachments, and other rendering metadata associated with ship or object models. They do not themselves contain full mesh geometric data, which is stored separately, nor do they contain image bitmaps directly for textures, but carry references and configuration for how those textures and overlays should be used.

These files are created and used by EVE Online's client software. When the game engine loads a ship, station, or other object, it reads the corresponding Data file to discover which texture resources (.dds or similar) to load and how to combine them - for example, applying emissive maps, color tints, pattern overlay channels, flashlight effects, or blueprint variants (faction or tech-level skins). Editing or extracting them often involves reverse-engineering since CCP has not published a full public specification. There are community tools and readers that can parse parts of them to inspect what they reference. For gameplay these files ensure that the correct visual appearance is assembled at runtime.

One technical signature of this format is that Data files begin with the ASCII bytes "Blue" (hex 42 6C 75 65 00) at offset zero.

How to open BLUE files

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

We have not yet verified any programs for Windows that work with this specific file format. If you know one, please use the 'Suggest a program' link below. Thanks!

Last updated: August 24, 2026

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