An .XOF file reflects the nonstandard nature of file extensions, commonly showing up either as a DirectX-style 3D file containing mesh and material data or as an OthBase XML Othello record holding moves and game information; the 3D file usually begins with "xof …" or appears binary, whereas the OthBase format opens as readable XML, so using a text editor is the quickest way to distinguish between the two.
When people say "XOF is a 3D graphics file," they’re noting that it stores the structural data of a 3D model—geometry, normals, UVs, materials, hierarchy, and occasionally animation—within an older Microsoft/DirectX lineage, appearing as either text with readable tags or binary that looks messy in Notepad, and most modern workflows convert it to formats like FBX/OBJ/GLTF, identifying it quickly by opening it and checking for an "xof …" header rather than unrelated XML.
To quickly tell what kind of .XOF file you have, note the environment it came from and then open it as plain text: 3D asset origins hint at the DirectX-style model format, while Othello databases indicate XML; readable structured XML marks the OthBase type, whereas an "xof" header, 3D-centric labels, or mostly unreadable binary (often still starting with "xof") mark the 3D family, letting you sort it out before searching for any special importer or converter.
When we say "XOF is a 3D graphics file," we mean it’s a container for the structural parts of a 3D model rather than a flat picture, and in older Windows/DirectX pipelines it followed the legacy X-file style by storing meshes made of vertices and triangles, normals for lighting, UV coordinates for texture mapping, and materials describing color, shine, transparency, and linked texture filenames.
Depending on the export settings, it can also provide frame-based hierarchy for arranging components and may include animation-related information, with the file saved either as human-readable text showing clear labels or as binary that looks messy while still containing identical 3D data internally.
