A two-dimensional optical storage (TwoDOS) format with binary modulation is being developed in which channel bits are arranged on a two-dimensional hexagonal lattice [W. M. J. Coene, in Optical Data Storage, Vol. 88 of OSA Trends in Optics and Photonics Series (Optical Society of America, Washington, D.C., 2003), pp. 90–92]. The aim is to increase the capacity by a factor of 2 and the data rate by a factor of 10 over third-generation Blu-ray Disc technology. Following a route similar to that used in one-dimensional conventional optical storage [Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 42, 1074 (2003)] could lead to a further increase in capacity by the addition of another dimension to writing data, such as the use of multiple levels instead of the two levels (pit and land) used in the binary TwoDOS disk format. We present a nonlinear signal-processing model for signal waveform generation as a function of the M -ary channel symbols, as well as simulated signal readouts for multilevel TwoDOS.