Xbox Savegame System

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The Xbox savegame management system is a simple organizational system that allows users to manage their saved games, downloaded contents from Xbox LIVE, and copy savegames to memory units.

Overview

The Xbox savegame system uses folders and metadata to organize savegames according to its game, type, and name (in that order). All game-generated data are stored in either E:\UDATA or E:\TDATA. The UDATA folder is generally used to store gamesaves (user data), and the TDATA folder is generally used to store LIVE contents and other configurations (such as downloaded levels, high-score tables, game updates, and other miscellaneous configurations). These are the universal elements of gamesaves:

• A title meta (universal)
• A title image (universal)
• A save title
• A save image

Saves are nested individually inside the game's folder, which are nested inside the game-data folders (UDATA and TDATA). Every XBE that had ever run will have a folder for itself in both of the game-data folders (however, the Xbox Dashboard is a special case).

Structure Layout

Here's a typical layout of a the savegame folders, shown with Splinter Cell and Xbox Dashboard Music.

+-E:
  +-TDATA
  | +-5553000c
  | | +-audiovideo.par
  | | +-contentimage.xbx
  | +-fffe0000
  |   +-music
  |     +-ST.DB
  +-UDATA
    +-5553000c
      +-8E6AA806E588
      | +-GMMAN_Profile.sg1
      | +-GMMAN_Profile.sg2
      | +-GMMAN_Profile.sg3
      | +-Profile.inf
      | +-SaveMeta.xbx
      +-SaveImage.xbx
      +-TitleImage.xbx
      +-TitleMeta.xbx

As you can see, in the top level there are two folders, TDATA and UDATA. Under each of those folders are folders named according to the game's ID (for example, Splinter Cell's ID is 5553000c). They are in both TDATA and UDATA folders.

UDATA Folder

The UDATA folder is generally used to store user content, such as save games, settings, and user-created customizations. Under this folder are folders for each individual game, named by their ID number. Under every game folder, there are two files: TitleImage.xbx and TitleMeta.xbx.

TitleImage.xbx

TitleImage.xbx is a 128*128px Xbox texture, used for displaying the game's logo at the left of the game's section in the Memory browser. If this file is missing or corrupted, a generic Xbox logo will be displayed in its place.

TitleMeta.xbx

TitleMeta.xbx is a text file for indicating what title of the game would be displayed in the Memory browser. The title is taken from the embedded title of the executable that created the game folder (ie. if you run Splinter Cell's default.xbe first, the title will be "Splinter Cell". If you run its downloader.xbe (same game ID), the title will be "Downloader"). If this file is missing or corrupted, the game's title will be displayed as "Unknown Title". The structure for TitleMeta.xbx is:

TitleName=Game Name

In the case of Splinter Cell, it is TitleName=Splinter Cell.

Localization

The TitleMeta.xbx file may contain localization:

[default]
TitleName=Network Configurations
[EN]
TitleName=Network Configurations
[JA]
TitleName=ネットワーク設定データ
[DE]
TitleName=Daten für Netzwerkeinstellungen
[FR]
TitleName=Données des paramètres réseau
[ES]
TitleName=Datos de configuración de red
[IT]
TitleName=Dati impostazioni di rete
[KO]
TitleName=네트워크 설정 데이터
[TW]
TitleName=網路設定資料
[BR]
TitleName=Dados de Configurações da Rede

There is a separate TitleName entry listed under each of the languages. The entry under [default] will be used if a localized game title cannot be found in this file for the current system language.

Gamesaves

Each individual gamesave or game profile is under the game's folder in the UDATA folder. Each save or profile has its own folder. The name of the folders differs from game to game, as there is not set format for the name of a save folder. Ie. one game may choose to name its save folder as "001aecf7", another game may name the save folder as "Profile01". There is always a SaveMeta.xbx file under the folder, and there may also be a SaveImage.xbx file there. Each save folder may contain whatever data that is needed for a valid save.

SaveMeta.xbx

SaveMeta.xbx is very similar to TitleMeta.xbx. This defines the name of a save and is displayed on the left side of the screen when the save is selected. If this file is missing or corrupted, the gamesave's name will be displayed as "Corrupted Save". Its format is as the following:

Name=Save Name

In the case of a Splinter Cell game save, it is something like Name=GMMAN_Profile.

SaveImage.xbx

SaveImage.xbx is a 64*64px Xbox texture, used to represent an individual save folder. It'll be located in the game's folder under the UDATA folder if all of the saves use the same image (to avoid unnecessary duplication), or under each individual save folder, if there are different kinds of saves located in each folder. The gamesave folder's SaveImage.xbx has precedence over the game folder's SaveImage.xbx. If this file is missing or corrupted, a generic Xbox logo will be in its place.

Universal save image:

+-UDATA
  +-5553000c
    +-SaveImage.xbx

Individual save image:

+-UDATA
  +-4d530013
    +-129E1A3F1B2A
      +-SaveImage.xbx

TDATA Folder

The TDATA folder is similar in structure to the UDATA folder. However, it is used to store Xbox LIVE contents, game configurations, and other miscellaneous data. With the TDATA game folders, there is no specific structure, so games may store whatever file it needs wherever inside its game folder.

contentimage.xbx

Contentimage.xbx is used in the same way as SaveImage.xbx, except that it is used specifically to indicate downloaded contents.

Special Case of Xbox Dashboard

The Xbox Dashboard does not abide by these structures. For one, it doesn't have a UDATA folder, and in the TDATA folder it doesn't have any .xbx files. However, in its TDATA folder (E:\TDATA\fffe0000), there is a folder named music. Inside it is a file named ST.DB and several folders with hexadecimal names. This is where soundtracks are stored.

If you go into the LIVE Dash's "Test Connections" screen and press the Black button, a folder that follows the structure will be created under the game folder fffe0000 under the UDATA folder. This contains diagnostic information about the connection to Xbox LIVE.

Other Occurrences in the UDATA and TDATA Folders

• Under the Dashboard's TDATA game folder, a blank file named <code>NoisyCamera</code> may be present. This is a marker for an Easter egg on the main menu of the Dashboard. Toggle it the same way as the full-screen visualization egg.
• Under the UDATA folder, there may be a file named <code>NICKNAME.XBN</code>. This stores the Xbox's nickname for online games.

Application to Xbox-Linux

One way the Xbox-Linux project can take advantage of the gamesave system is by having a all Xbox-Linux distributions reside inside an Xbox-Linux game folder. Each individual distribution would be a "gamesave." For example, suppose that the Xbox-Linux project uses the game ID ffffff00 and that we're using Xebian as the distro. Here would be the layout of the files following the gamesave structure:

+-E:
  +-TDATA
  | +-ffffff00
  |   +-linuxboot.cfg
  +-UDATA
    +-ffffff00
      +-debian
      | +-initrd
      | +-rootfs
      | +-SaveImage.xbx
      | +-SaveMeta.xbx
      | +-swap
      | +-vmlinuz
      +-TitleImage.xbx
      +-TitleMeta.xbx

Xromwell would search the gamesave directories for linuxboot.cfg and have a special method of handling of a special tag for the gamesave system, so that the following would point to the Xebian files in the UDATA structure:

title Xebian
kernel !gs/debian/vmlinuz
initrd !gs/debian/initrd
append init=/linuxrc root=/dev/ram0 kbd-reset xbox=fatx_e:/UDATA/ffffff00/debian ramdisk_blocksize=4096 
xboxfb y

Contents of SaveMeta.xbx:

Name=Xebian

Contents of TitleMeta.xbx:

TitleName=Xbox-Linux

SaveImage.xbx would show the Debian logo, and TitleImage.xbx would show Tux.

With this arrangement, it would be easy to uninstall or copy Xbox-Linux distributions simply by selecting its icon in the Memory browser. To completely get rid of Xbox-Linux distributions, just select the Tux icon. Distribution on a specially formatted USB drive would also be possible: create a pre-installed Linux image with a FATX filesystem, and then dd it onto the flash drive.