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Level Format

Byte Order

level.dat is stored in Little Endian byte order.

Parsing level.dat

Part 1 (Getting the level NBT data)

NameSize (in bytes)Description
Version4The version used to save the file. Always 3.
Size4The size of the file subtracting the header.
NBT CompoundVariableThe NBT data of the level.

Part 2 (Reading the NBT data)

  • World data
    • GameType: Whether in survival (0) or in creative (1) mode.
    • LastPlayed: Stores the Unix time stamp (in seconds) when the player saved the game.
    • LevelName: Specifies the name of the level.
    • Platform: Seems to store the platform that the level is created on. Currently observed value is 2.
    • Player: Player entity information.
      • Air: The number of ticks before the player starts to drown. Defaults to 300 and decresses when underwater.
      • Armor: Each CompoundTag in this list defines a piece of armor that the player is wearing. This is a list with length 4 - for helmet, chestplate, leggings, and boots.
        • id: Item or Block ID.
        • Damage: For armor, the amount of wear they have suffered. The maximum durability of the armor means undamaged. When the Damage reaches 0, it breaks and disappears.
        • Count: Number of items stacked in this inventory slot. Any item can be stacked, including tools. Range is 1-255. Values above 255 are not displayed in-game.
      • AttackTime: Number of ticks the player is immune to attacks for.
      • BedPositionX: The X position of the bed the player last slept in.
      • BedPositionY: The Y position of the bed the player last slept in.
      • BedPositionZ: The Z position of the bed the player last slept in.
      • DeathTime: Number of ticks the player has been dead for. (used for death animation)
      • Dimension: The dimension the player is in. 0 is the Overworld.
      • FallDistance: How far the player has fallen.
      • Fire: The number of ticks until the fire is put out. Negative values reflect how long the player can stand in fire before burning. Default -20.
      • Health: The number of hit points the player has. 20 is 10 hearts.
      • HurtTime: Number of ticks the player is red from being attacked.
      • Inventory: Each CompoundTag in this list defines an item the player is carrying or holding.
        • id: Item or Block ID.
        • Damage: For armor, the amount of wear they have suffered. The maximum durability of the armor means undamaged. When the Damage reaches 0, it breaks and disappears.
        • Count: Number of items stacked in this inventory slot. Any item can be stacked, including tools. Range is 1-255. Values above 255 are not displayed in-game.
        • Slot: Indicates which inventory slot this item is in.
      • Motion: The players motion in the X,Y, and Z directions. This list has a length of 3.
      • OnGround: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the player is on the ground.
      • Pos: The X,Y, and Z coordinates of the players position. This list has a length of 3.
      • Rotation: The players looking pitch and yaw. This list has a length of 2.
      • Score: The score of the player.
      • SleepTimer: The number of ticks the player had been in bed when this tag was saved. No effect.
      • Sleeping: 1 or 0 (true/false) - true if the player was in a bed when this tag was saved; has no effect on whether the player is in a bed when they log in.
      • SpawnX: X coordinate of the player's spawn position. Default is 0.
      • SpawnY: Y coordinate of the player's spawn position. Default is 64.
      • SpawnZ: Z coordinate of the player's spawn position. Default is 0.
    • RandomSeed: Random number providing the Random Seed for the terrain.
    • SizeOnDisk: Estimated size of the entire world in bytes.
    • SpawnX: X coordinate of the world's spawn position. Default is 0.
    • SpawnY: Y coordinate of the world's spawn position. Default is 64.
    • SpawnZ: Z coordinate of the world's spawn position. Default is 0.
    • StorageVersion: Version of Bedrock Edition NBT, is 3.
    • Time: Stores the current "time of day" in ticks. There are 20 ticks per real-life second, and 19200 ticks per Minecraft daylight cycle, making the full cycle length 16 minutes—4 minutes shorter than the standard 20 minute daylight cycle.

License & Credits

This file is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.

The information here is from this Minecraft wiki page with some wording tweaked and/or simplify

Contributors

The avatar of contributor named as BJTMastermind BJTMastermind

Changelog

Contributors



Documentation page was setup by DexrnZacAttack.


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