---
title: "cocos2d-x plist file format"
description: "This article describes the sprite sheet file format used for cocos2d, cocso2d-x and Axmol Engine"
canonical: "https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker/knowledgebase/cocos2d-plist-file-format"
product: "texturepacker"
source: "html"
---

# cocos2d-x plist file format

Description of the plist file format used for sprites sheets in [cocos2d](https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker/tutorials/cocos2d.md) and [cocos2d-x](https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker/tutorials/cocos2d.md) and [Axmol Engine](https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker/tutorials/axmol.md).

The top level layout of the file consists of 2 `<dict>` entries:

*   `frames` - containing the sprite frames
*   `metadata` - texture size, format, texture file name

```xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>frames</key>
        <dict>
            <key>sprite-name-1.png</key>
            <dict>
                ... sprite data ...
            </dict>
            <key>sprite-name-2.png</key>
            <dict>
                ... sprite data ...
            </dict>
        </dict>
        <key>metadata</key>
        <dict>
            ... meta data ...
        </dict>
    </dict>
</plist>
```

### Frames

`frames` is a dictionary containing the sprite names as key, the sprite values as `<dict>` .

### Sprite Data

#### Polygon mesh data

Cocos2d-x assumes sprites to be built from rectangular texture parts by default.

If `triangles` , `vertices` and `verticesUV` is found inside the plist file polygon sprite are used instead of rectangles.

Polygon sprites can be used to increase rendering performance — especially when the sprite have many transparent pixels.

See [Performance optimization for cocos2d-x using polygon sprite meshes](https://www.codeandweb.com/texturepacker/tutorials/cocos2d-x-performance-optimization.md) for more details.

#### Anchor point data

Anchor point can be added to a sprite to overwrite the default pivot point location in cocos2d-x. The default location is the sprite center (0.5/0.5).

#### XML example

```xml
<key>sprite-name-1.png</key>
<dict>
    <key>aliases</key>
    <array/>
    <key>spriteOffset</key>
    <string>{0.5,-37.5}</string>
    <key>spriteSize</key>
    <string>{251,181}</string>
    <key>spriteSourceSize</key>
    <string>{256,256}</string>
    <key>textureRect</key>
    <string>{{252, 1},{251, 181}}</string>
    <key>textureRotated</key>
    <false/>
    <key>triangles</key>
    <string>1 4 5 2 3 4 1 2 4 0 1 5</string>
    <key>vertices</key>
    <string>254 133 131 256 121 256 3 130 57 76 199 75</string>
    <key>verticesUV</key>
    <string>503 59 380 182 370 182 252 56 306 2 448 1</string>
    <key>anchor</key>
    <string>{1,0.5}</string>
</dict>
```

*   **`aliases`**  
    a reference to sprites containing the same image data (not used by TexturePacker)
*   **`spriteOffset`**  
    translation vector: the offset of the sprite's untrimmed center to the sprite's trimmed center
*   **`spriteSize`**  
    size of the trimmed sprite
*   **`spriteSourceSize`**  
    size of the untrimmed sprite
*   **`textureRect`**  
    sprite's position and size in the texture
*   **`textureRotated`**  
    true if the sprite is rotated
*   **`triangles` - cocos2d-x 3.9**  
    Optional: Triangle indices (3) for a polygon sprites
*   **`vertices` - cocos2d-x 3.9**  
    Optional: Vertex coordinates (pairs of x and y) of a polygon sprites — describing vertices in the sprite image
*   **`verticesUV` - cocos2d-x 3.9**  
    Optional: Vertex coordinates (pairs of x and y) of a polygon sprites — describing the vertex position in the texture
*   **`anchor` - cocos2d-x 3.11**  
    Optional: Anchor point for the sprite in coordinates relative to the original sprite size. Sprite center (0.5/0.5) is used by cocos2d-x if omitted. The anchor point is assigned to new sprites.

### MetaData

The meta data block stores additional information.

```xml
<key>metadata</key>
<dict>
    <key>format</key>
    <integer>3</integer>
    <key>realTextureFileName</key>
    <string>x.png</string>
    <key>size</key>
    <string>{504,183}</string>
    <key>smartupdate</key>
    <string>$TexturePacker:SmartUpdate:.....$</string>
    <key>textureFileName</key>
    <string>x.png</string>
</dict>
```

*   **`format`**  
    the file format version: 3
*   **`realTextureFileName`**  
    the file name of the texture
*   **`textureFileName`**  
    in cocos2d: contained the sprite name without -hd extension
*   **`size`**  
    size of the texture
*   **`smartupdate`**  
    Hash used by TexturePacker to detect changes in existing sprite sheets to speed up sprite sheet processing when used as part of the build process.

## Structured data

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```