NFF File Format (.nff)
An NFF file is plain text written to Eric Haines' Neutral File Format, first drafted on October 3, 1988 as part of the Standard Procedural Databases project, listing a viewpoint, lights, a background colour and a handful of primitives like spheres, cones and polygons with one letter code starting each line.
NFF at a glance#
| Full name | Neutral File Format |
|---|---|
| File extension | .nff |
| Category | 3D Models |
| Developer | Eric Haines |
| First released | 1988 |
| Compression | Uncompressed |
| Specification | A Proposal for Standard Graphics Environments (NFF) |
| FileFlip support | FileFlip reads this format but does not write it |
What a .nff file can hold#
These are the things a NFF file either supports or does not, and they are what decides whether a conversion keeps everything or quietly drops something.
| Human readable | Yes |
|---|
Strengths and limitations of NFF#
What NFF does well
- Extremely small and easy to parse, since each line starts with a single letter naming what follows
- Was designed so the same scene could be fed to different renderers to compare their output on identical input
- Readable enough to write a test scene by hand without any tooling
Where NFF falls short
- No materials system beyond a single fill colour, reflectivity and transmittance per surface
- No skeleton, animation or texture mapping support
- Effectively obsolete outside ray-tracing research and old benchmark scene archives; almost nothing current writes it
Use NFF only when working with an existing ray-tracing benchmark scene or legacy renderer that already expects the format.
Convert NFF to OBJ when its primitives need to become a mesh that a modern 3D application can open.
How to open a .nff file#
A .nff file opens in the programs below, grouped by the platform you are on. If you would rather not install anything, FileFlip converts NFF into a format your machine already opens, and it does it in the browser tab rather than on a server.
| Platform | Programs that open it |
|---|---|
| Web | FileFlip |
NFF questions people ask#
What is an NFF file?
An NFF file is a plain-text scene description in Eric Haines' Neutral File Format, listing a camera, lights, a background colour and simple primitives like spheres, cones and polygons. Haines created it in 1988 as part of the Standard Procedural Databases project, a set of test scenes meant to let different ray tracers be compared on identical input.
What software can open NFF files?
NFF has no mainstream viewer today; support is limited to older ray tracers and a handful of 3D libraries, such as Assimp, that kept a reader for benchmark and archival purposes. A general-purpose 3D application is unlikely to open one directly.
Does NFF support textures or materials?
No, an NFF surface is described with only a fill colour, a diffuse and specular coefficient, shininess, transmittance and index of refraction, with no texture mapping at all. That simplicity is what made it easy for different renderers to implement consistently.
Converting NFF files#
Convert NFF to another format
FileFlip does not write .nff files, so nothing on the site converts into this format. It works as a source only.
Every conversion runs inside your browser. The file is read from your disk, the work happens on your own machine, and nothing is uploaded. How FileFlip works names the engine behind each family and how to verify that for yourself.