What is DSMapStudio?

DSMapStudio is a standalone, open-source modding studio for FromSoftware games. Created by katalash in 2018, it was the first tool to combine the three things you need to mod a Souls game — editing the 3D world, the gameplay parameters, and the in-game text — into one application with one workflow. Before it, those jobs meant juggling separate, narrower tools. DSMapStudio unified them, and became the foundation the modern FromSoftware modding scene was built on. Rather start? Jump to download or the installation guide.

Three editors, one studio

Integration is the defining idea — three editors sharing one project:

• Map Editor — a Vulkan-rendered 3D viewport where you place and move enemies, objects, and trigger regions, and assign the entity IDs event scripts reference. Map Editor guide.
• Param Editor — a spreadsheet-style editor for the params packed in regulation.bin that define weapon stats, enemy HP, drops, shop stock, and almost all gameplay. The most-used editor — Param Editor hub.
• Text Editor — localization: item names, descriptions, dialogue, and menu text across the game's languages.

Because all three read the same project and game files, one change — adding a weapon — can flow across params (its stats), text (its name), and maps (where it's found) without leaving the tool.

Supported FromSoftware games

Nine titles spanning the studio's modern catalog:

• The Souls trilogy — Dark Souls (Prepare to Die Edition and Remastered), Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin, Dark Souls 3.
• Spin-offs and predecessors — Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
• Modern titles — Elden Ring and Armored Core 6 (the latter experimental).

Support depth varies by game, and the exact tool-version-to-patch compatibility — especially the Elden Ring post–Shadow of the Erdtree boundary — is on the download page. Game-specific setup: Elden Ring, Dark Souls 3, and the others.

Who uses it

Effectively anyone modding gameplay or levels in these games. The balance overhauls, enemy randomizers, custom-weapon packs, and quality-of-life mods on Nexus are overwhelmingly built on param edits made in tools like this, and a large share of written and video tutorials assume DSMapStudio's workflow. With hundreds of GitHub stars and years as the community standard, it's less a niche utility than shared infrastructure for a whole modding scene.

How it fits the ecosystem

DSMapStudio sits at the center of a small toolchain:

• Smithbox — the actively maintained fork (by vawser) that extends support to the newest game patches.
• DSMSPortable — a command-line companion for scripting param/CSV operations.
• SoulsFormats — the library for reading/writing FromSoftware's file formats that tools like this rely on.
• Paramdex — the community database of param definitions and row names that makes the Param Editor readable.
• ModEngine2 — the runtime loader that injects your finished mod into the game.

DSMapStudio edits the files; ModEngine2 loads them; SoulsFormats and Paramdex make the editing possible. (Full ecosystem map.)

DSMapStudio vs Smithbox

The question every new modder eventually asks. Short version: DSMapStudio is the stable original, ideal for the Souls games and pre-1.12 Elden Ring; Smithbox is its fork, the one for the latest Elden Ring patches and current AC6, and it skips UXM unpacking. Same DNA and editing concepts. Full breakdown — feature matrix and per-game guidance — in DSMapStudio vs Smithbox.

A short history (2018–2024)

• 2018 — katalash begins DSMapStudio to bring 3D map editing to modern FromSoftware games.
• 2019 — the tooling reaches the point of enabling early custom map work in Dark Souls.
• 2022 — the v1.00 milestone release.
• 2023 — the v1.08 line moves to .NET 7; the v1.09 line adds the Low Requirements build (no GPU) and Armored Core 6 support.
• June 2024 — v1.11.1, the most recent release.
• Ongoing — active development largely continues through the Smithbox fork.

(Full version-by-version detail: the changelog.)

Technical foundation

Written primarily in C#, renders its 3D viewport through Vulkan (via the Veldrid library), builds its interface with ImGui.NET, and reads/writes game files through SoulsFormats. The whole project is open-source under the MIT license, with code and releases on GitHub — free to use, fork, and contribute to, which is exactly how Smithbox came to exist.

Ready? Download DSMapStudio, follow the installation guide, and create your first project. On the latest Elden Ring patch? Check DSMapStudio vs Smithbox first.