Principia stores levels with their filename as an incrementing integer counter and with the file extension .plvl. For sandbox levels they get saved into lvl/local/ in the Principia user data path, played community levels get downloaded into lvl/db/ for what seems to be caching purposes.
Throughout Principia's development, the level format has been changed to add new properties and features. In order to know which version a level file is saved in, the first byte of a level file is a numeric value denoting the version of the level format.
In the PC version each corresponding game version for each format version is shown, with pre-release beta revisions being referred to as "old_level". These are all revisions that occurred before the game's official 1.0 release.
Principia is supposed to have backwards compatibility with old levels, containing compatibility code to load level versions as far back as Beta 5 (used for the Smiley Man level, oldest currently available level). However during certain updates there has been minor changes to existing gameplay functionality leading to issues trying to play older levels.
The level file is divided up into two parts. The first part is the header and the second part is the level buffer, which contains a stream of object, connection, chunk and other level data that comprise of the actual level.
The level header begins with the byte denoting the level version and contains various metadata and level property values. The format of the level header has been thoroughly documented and is available as a Kaitai file.
The level header also contains a, rather wasteful, uncompressed 256x256 greyscale image (each pixel being one byte each, for 16kb of data). It is a screenshot of the level that was added in Beta 6 and is displayed as the level preview in packages. This screenshot is taken from the place you save the level, and since 1.5 it saves this screenshot in orthographic mode leading to a grid background showing up. It can be extracted from a level file and converted into a regular PNG image using the level-screenshot-converter tool.
The level buffer is currently undocumented outside of the source code, but it is known that during the 1.5 update, the level buffer is now compressed with zlib Deflate compression to save space. Previously it was uncompressed, leading to older level versions being more useful for modifying levels through hex editing as there is no level decompression needed. To decompress and extract the level buffer of a modern level you can use the level-decompressor tool.
More info coming about the level buffer... soon!
