Game Pass / Microsoft Store saves

Abiotic Factor on Game Pass / Microsoft Store stores its saves completely differently from the Steam version. The editor reads, edits and writes them anyway, and can convert a world between the two. This page explains how the format works, how to open a Game Pass save, where it lives on disk, and how conversion works.

How a Game Pass save differs from Steam

A Steam save is a folder of loose files:

…/SaveGames/<SteamID64>/Worlds/<World>/
  WorldSave_MetaData.sav
  WorldSave_Facility.sav
  …
  PlayerData/Player_<SteamID64>.sav

A Game Pass save is an Xbox "wgs" (Connected Storage) container: the whole world - every WorldSave_* region and every player character - is packed into one compressed blob inside a folder of GUID-named files plus a containers.index. There are no loose .sav files, and players are owned by a 16-19 digit Xbox account id (XUID) instead of a SteamID64.

The save content is identical to Steam (the same GVAS data); only the packaging differs. The editor unpacks the container, edits the saves with the normal tools, and repacks it - so a Game Pass save behaves like any other save in the app.

Opening a Game Pass save in the desktop app

You don't need to do anything special:

• Auto-detected worlds - Game Pass worlds appear in the start screen's discovered-worlds list with a GAME PASS tag. Click one to open it.
• Open Folder - pick the Game Pass save folder directly (the one that contains containers.index). The editor detects it and opens the world.

Once open, the sidebar shows a GAME PASS badge so you always know the save type. Edit and press SAVE as usual - the editor writes your changes straight back into the Xbox container and keeps a backup of the whole save folder on the first write. There is no separate "apply" step.

TIP

After editing, verify the save loads in-game before relying on it. The editor produces a valid container, but only the Xbox app / the game on your machine can confirm it accepts the rewrite.

Where Game Pass saves and installs live

The editor auto-detects both of these; you normally never type a path.

Saves are in one of (the editor scans both, on every fixed drive):

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Packages\<AbioticPackage>\SystemAppData\wgs\<XUID>_<id>\
<drive>:\XboxGames\GameSave\wgs\<XUID>_<id>\

Each <XUID>_<id> folder (the one with containers.index) is one Xbox account's save store. The discovered-worlds list shows the account id and the folder, so you can see exactly which one you're opening.

The game install (needed for item names, icons, recipes and trader data) is auto-detected from:

<drive>:\XboxGames\<Game Name>\Content\…\AbioticFactor\Content\Paks

If your install is somewhere the editor can't find, set it in Settings → Game Data → Set game folder. The Game Data card shows the install path currently in use.

Converting between Steam and Game Pass

Because only the packaging differs, a world converts losslessly in either direction. Settings → Convert offers both:

• Steam → Game Pass - pick a Steam world folder; a Game Pass container copy is written next to it.
• Game Pass → Steam - pick a Game Pass save folder; a loose-file Steam world folder is written next to it.

You can optionally enter a player account id to re-home the (single) player to a different account while converting - for example, converting a Game Pass world to Steam and giving it your SteamID64 so your Steam game loads it as yours. Leave it blank to keep the existing ids.

When you create a new world, the editor also writes a Game Pass copy next to the Steam folder, so the world is ready for either platform.

Where to put a converted save

• A converted Steam world goes under %LOCALAPPDATA%\AbioticFactor\Saved\SaveGames\<SteamID64>\Worlds\.
• A converted Game Pass container goes under the game's wgs storage (see the paths above). The player ids are kept unless you re-homed them, so on the target platform a character may need re-homing to that account.

Command line

The CLI exposes the same operations under abioticeditor gamepass:

abioticeditor gamepass discover                       # list Game Pass saves on this machine
abioticeditor gamepass list <wgs-folder>              # the worlds/players packed in a save
abioticeditor gamepass extract <wgs-folder> <member> <out.sav>
abioticeditor gamepass import  <wgs-folder> <member> <in.sav>   # backs up the folder
abioticeditor gamepass to-steam    <wgs-folder> <dest> [--player-id <id>]
abioticeditor gamepass to-gamepass <steam-world> <dest> [--player-id <id>]

gamepass discover prints each detected save's account id and folder, so it doubles as "where are my Game Pass saves".

How it works internally (for the curious)

Four nested layers, from outside in:

1. wgs container - containers.index maps logical container names to GUID folders; each folder has a container.N manifest pointing at a GUID blob file.
2. ABF_SAVE_VERSION bundle - the world blob is a small archive: a table of contents (member path + save class + size) followed by one Oodle-compressed stream of every member.
3. Headerless members - each packed save is the GVAS property body only; the save class lives in the table of contents. The editor splices a class-matched header back on to read it, and strips it again on write.
4. GVAS - the same save data the Steam version stores.

Oodle (de)compression uses the same library the editor already uses for the game's pak files; it is downloaded on demand if it isn't already present.