What is the YAF file format?
A .yaf file is a Yuke's Audio Archive, a container format built by the game developer Yuke's. It bundles many separate audio tracks into a single file rather than storing sound on its own. YAF archives show up inside WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw games from roughly 2008 to 2011, across PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360 and Wii releases. The file you will most often meet is named music.yaf, and it holds the game soundtrack: wrestler entrance themes, menu music and in-match tracks.
Every YAF file starts with the ASCII signature SFAY in its first four bytes. A field near offset 0x18 records how many audio entries the archive contains, and the first audio block usually begins at offset 0x20000. The audio itself is stored as .adx (CRI's game codec) or .at3 (Sony ATRAC3), depending on the platform. In other words, YAF is a wrapper; the real sound lives in those inner streams.
Security & safety
RISK: LOWA .yaf is passive game data with no code execution, so the archive itself carries no malware risk. The only caution is that extracting and redistributing a game's copyrighted soundtrack is a legal rather than a technical concern. Download YAF Extractor only from established modding communities, since fan tools are not signed.
Format details
in a nutshell- YafaRay scene file - Older versions of the YafaRay / YafRay open-source raytracer used .yaf for exported scene description files. Unrelated to game audio.
- Yet Another Forum (YAF) data - The .NET forum software Yet Another Forum.NET is abbreviated YAF, and the acronym occasionally tags its export or config data. Not an audio format.
Programs that open YAF files
Windows3 apps
YAF Extractor
Free Open YAF Extractor, choose File then Load File, select your music.yaf, and click Extract All to write out the contained .adx or .at3 tracks; the same tool can repack custom audio back into the archive.
vgmstream (vgmstream-cli / foobar2000 plugin)
Open-source After extracting, drop the resulting .adx or .at3 files onto vgmstream to play them or convert them to .wav.
HxD (hex editor)
Free Open the .yaf in HxD to confirm the SFAY signature and inspect the header, entry count and audio offsets when a tool cannot parse the file. Technical details
deep spec| Encoding | Binary |
| Byte order | Little-endian |
| Container | Yuke's proprietary audio archive; bundles multiple audio streams behind a header and an index table |
| Signature | SFAY at offset 0x00 (four ASCII bytes) |
| Header Layout | Bytes 0x00-0x03 hold the SFAY signature. An archive name string follows in the header. A count field near offset 0x18 gives the number of audio entries. The first audio payload usually begins at offset 0x20000. |
| Compression | None at the archive level; individual entries are already compressed by their own codec (ADX or ATRAC3) |
| Stored Audio Codecs | CRI ADX and Sony ATRAC3 (AT3), depending on the platform build |
| Typical Content | In-game music: wrestler entrance themes, menu music and in-match tracks |
| Typical size | Tens to hundreds of MB (music.yaf holds a game's entire soundtrack) |
| Structure | Fixed signature, header with archive name and entry count, an offset/index region, then concatenated ADX or AT3 audio blobs |
| Platforms | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii |
| Notes | The recurring filename is music.yaf, shipped inside WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw 2008 through 2011. YAF is an archive wrapper, not a codec: the actual sound is ADX or AT3 data held inside. |
| Released | 2007 |
| Specification | smacktalks.org |
YAF conversions
Community Q&A
asked by usersNo questions yet - be the first to ask about YAF files.
Frequently asked questions
What program opens a YAF file?
.yaf archives. It extracts the .adx or .at3 audio inside, which you can then play or convert with vgmstream.What game uses music.yaf?
music.yaf file ships inside WWE SmackDown! vs. Raw titles from about 2008 through 2011, on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360 and Wii. It holds the game's entrance and menu music.Can I convert a YAF file to MP3?
.wav using vgmstream, then encode those to .mp3 with FFmpeg or Audacity.
