A "VS file" is commonly taken as a file ending with `.vs`, though the same term is used informally for Visual Studio’s `.vs` folder, so the real meaning depends on your current project context; when it’s a real `.vs` file, it’s usually a vertex shader text file for graphics pipelines and opens cleanly in editors, containing HLSL-like syntax such as `cbuffer` with semantics like `POSITION`, or GLSL-style code with `#version` and assignments to `gl_Position`.

Because the `.vs` extension can represent multiple unrelated file types, it may be a custom text or binary file from a specific application, and if its contents look garbled the best clue is the Windows "Opens with" info; on the other hand, if you’re looking at a folder named `.vs` next to a `.sln` file, that’s Visual Studio’s cache folder containing session data, not your code, so it’s normally excluded from Git and safe to delete because Visual Studio recreates it—though doing so resets local state like personal layout choices.

".vs" can mean something else because file extensions aren’t standardized, and Windows mostly uses them as a cue for file association rather than meaning, so developers can adopt `.vs` for anything they like, which is why you can’t automatically treat every `.vs` file as a vertex shader despite its popularity in graphics, since another piece of software might use `.vs` for vector-scene data and Windows will still display it generically unless a program has registered the extension.

A `.vs` file can also be "something else" because its usage scenario determines what the extension actually signals; in graphics work `.vs` typically hints at a vertex shader due to its placement beside `.ps` or `.fs` files under shader directories, but another tool might adopt `.vs` for text-based configs or scripts that remain readable yet have none of the HLSL/GLSL structure—showing JSON instead—and it may also be binary, displaying gibberish because it’s a compiled or cached asset, meaning the safest clues come from where the file originated and which program opens it correctly.

If you want a rapid way to verify the meaning of your `.vs` file, use the extension only as a starting clue and back it up with evidence: examine its folder context and surrounding files, check the file’s "Opens with" field, and open it in a text editor to see whether it resembles shader code, another readable format, or binary, which almost always resolves the mystery fast If you loved this post and you would such as to receive more info concerning VS document file kindly check out our own web site. .