CRS File

What are CRS files and how to open them

Are you having problems opening a CRS 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 CRS files.

What is a CRS file?

CRS files have multiple uses, and StepMania Course is one of them. Read more about the other uses further down the page.

StepMania Course

StepMania Course files define custom song playlists and challenge settings for the game StepMania. They are used to build courses in modes like Nonstop, Oni (Challenge), or Endless. A typical use is listing which songs play, in what order, with optional settings like how many lives or whether the course repeats. These files are created by the game engine when building or adding new structured groupings of songs for players to play sequentially. Software such as StepMania reads course definitions from these files to populate the Course Mode menu.

StepMania writes these files as plain-text scripts. They usually live in the Courses folder of the game installation. Inside, tags starting with a hash (#) define course-wide settings (title, author, lives, repeat behavior, meter, background visuals) followed by multiple #SONG entries. Each #SONG tag names a song (either by exact group/folder paths or using wildcards for random selection), its difficulty, and optionally modifiers that alter gameplay for that song (such as speed or note effects). StepMania uses these files at runtime to show and launch courses based on their content. If certain tags are present or absent (for example #LIVES or #REPEAT), the course is categorized as Oni, Nonstop, or Endless.

Signature details: files begin with the ASCII string "#COURSE:" at byte offset zero. They will also include the words "COURSE" and "SONG" as tags throughout.

How to open CRS files

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

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

Last updated: September 19, 2026

All known file formats using extension .CRS

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

WordPerfect Caracter/Font Resource

We know that one CRS format is WordPerfect Caracter/Font Resource. We have not yet analyzed in detail what these files contain and what they are used for. We're working on it.

Various apps that use files with this extension

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

Help us help others

File.org helps thousands of users every day, and we would love to hear from you if you have additional information about CRS file formats, example files, or compatible programs. Please use the links below or email us at submit@file.org to discuss further.