A file with the .fpe extension is best known from FPS Creator and its successor GameGuru, game development tools from The Game Creators, where it saves plain-text entity definition files rather than raw mesh data. Within a typical .fpe file describes how a 3D game object should be built and behave by referencing external model files, textures, and sounds, along with properties such as physics settings, collision flags, and basic AI or gameplay parameters, so the engine can spawn the configured object correctly at run time. Because .fpe focuses on configuration and resource links instead of directly embedding 3D geometry like OBJ or FBX, most general-purpose 3D modeling tools and the operating system will not treat it as a normal model file and often cannot preview it visually. If you receive an .fpe file in a game project, modding setup, or asset folder and are not sure what it is, you can use FileMagic to recognize it as an FPS Creator or GameGuru entity definition file and, where supported, open or inspect its contents as text before deciding whether to edit the entity settings, convert the referenced 3D assets, or request a more conventional model export from the original creator.

A 3D graphics file is a special kind of file that describes a 3D model so that compatible software can render it, rotate it, or even play its motion. That’s why it is not the same as ordinary image files such as JPG or PNG, which only store flat pixels. A 3D file does more than that: it can say "there is a point here in 3D space", "this point connects to that one to make a surface", and "this surface should look like metal or plastic". Because of that extra structure, 3D image files are commonly used in many professional fields like games, product design, and simulation.

Inside a 3D image file, there is usually a description of the object’s shape, often called the geometry or mesh. This is built from points in 3D space and the faces that connect them, which give the object its form. On top of the shape, many 3D files also store the appearance of the object, such as materials and textures, so the program knows whether a surface should look glossy, dull, transparent, or colored. Some formats go even further and include camera positions and lights so the scene opens the way the author set it up. Others may contain animation data such as bones, keyframes, or motion paths, which turns the file from a static model into an asset that can move. For this reason opening a 3D file can sometimes recreate not just the object, but also the whole shot.

It’s common to see lots of different 3D extensions because 3D was developed separately for different goals. Older and desktop 3D programs created their own project files to save scenes, materials, and animation. Interactive applications created leaner formats to make assets load faster. Engineering and architecture tools preferred precise formats designed for measurement and manufacturing. Later, web and mobile needed lightweight 3D so products could be viewed online or dropped into AR. Over time this produced a long list of 3D-related file extensions, many of them fairly obscure. These files still show up in old project folders, client deliveries, traininor asking the sender for missing texture folders.

Working with 3D files often brings the same set of issues, and this is normal. Sometimes the file opens but appears gray because the texture images were moved to another folder. Sometimes the file was saved in an older version and the new software complains. Sometimes a certain extension was used by a game to bundle several kinds of data, so it is not obvious from the name alone that 3D data is inside. Sometimes there is no thumbnail at all, so the file looks broken even when it is fine. Being able to open or at least identify the file helps rule out corruption and tells the user whether they simply need to restore the original folder structure.

It is also common for 3D files to be only one piece of a set. A model can reference external textures, a scene can reference other models, and animation data can be meant to work with a base character file. When only one of those parts is downloaded or emailed, the recipient sees just one mysterious file. If that file can be identified first, it becomes much easier to request the missing parts or to convert it to a simpler, more portable 3D format for long-term storage. For teams that collect assets from multiple sources, or users who work with old projects, the safest approach is to identify first and convert second. If the file opens today, it is smart to export it to a more common 3D format, because niche formats tend to get harder to open over time.

In summary, this kind of file is best understood as a structured container for 3D information—shape, appearance, and sometimes animation—created by many different tools over many years. Because of that diversity, users frequently encounter 3D files that their system cannot open directly. A multi-format tool such as FileMagic makes it possible to see what the file really is, confirm that it is valid, and choose the right specialized program to continue the work, instead of guessing or abandoning the asset.