Level Format

Byte Order

level.dat is stored in Big Endian byte order unless mentioned otherwise.

Parsing level.dat

Header

Name Size (in bytes) Description
Version 4 The version used to save the file. Always 1. Stored in Little Endian
Size 4 The size of the file subtracting the header. Stored in Little Endian

Global World Data

Name Size (in bytes) Description
Seed 4 The seed of the world
Spawn X 4 The X coordinate of the world spawn point
Spawn Y 4 The Y coordinate of the world spawn point
Spawn Z 4 The Z coordinate of the world spawn point
Estimated World Size 8 The world size represented in bits
Last Played 4 Unix timestamp indicating when the level was last saved.[1]
World Name Length 2 The length of the world name.
World Name Variable A CP437 encoded string.

Notes

  1. Will overflow and become negative at 03:14:08 UTC on 19 January 2038 due to the year 2038 problem and will overflow every ~136 years after that.