Elden Ring Modding with DSMapStudio

Elden Ring is the most-modded game DSMapStudio touches, and exactly two things decide whether your setup works on the first try: your game patch (v1.11.1 can't read post–Shadow of the Erdtree files) and unpacking (it reads UXM-unpacked files, not the packed Steam install). Skip the unpack and the Param Editor opens empty; ignore the patch boundary and regulation.bin throws "Unknown DCX format." Get both right and everything else — weapons, drops, maps, merges — is the same workflow as every other FromSoftware game.

Is your Elden Ring version supported?

v1.11.1 reads Elden Ring up to but not including patch 1.12, the line that shipped with Shadow of the Erdtree. On 1.12+ the format changed and loading regulation.bin fails with "Unknown DCX format." Check your patch in the bottom-right of the title screen.

On 1.12 or newer, the honest call is Smithbox — the actively maintained fork that reads current patches and, conveniently, skips UXM unpacking. On pre-1.12 (or after a rollback), v1.11.1 is the right tool. The full version-by-patch table and the rollback method live on the Unknown DCX format page — that's the canonical reference, not duplicated here.

Setup, in order

1. Install DSMapStudio — release build, Visual C++ x64 + .NET 7 runtimes, extracted outside Program Files (installation guide).
2. Unpack with UXM Selective Unpack — required. Extract regulation.bin's data plus map, chr, asset, and msg if you'll use the Map Editor.
3. New Project → Game Type: Elden Ring, with the Game Directory pointed at the unpacked files, not the packed Steam folder (first project setup).
4. Verify — open EquipParamWeapon and confirm named rows with sensible values.

Almost every Elden Ring setup failure — empty editor, garbage values — is step 2 (didn't unpack) or step 3 (wrong Game Type or packed path).

Elden Ring at a glance

What you can edit

Most Elden Ring mods are param edits inside regulation.bin. The one structural gotcha that trips people coming from older games: Elden Ring splits drops into ItemLotParam_map and ItemLotParam_enemy instead of the single drop table DS3 and earlier use — so "change what this enemy drops" means the _enemy table, keyed to the enemy variant. Other heavy hitters: EquipParamWeapon (stats and scaling), ShopLineupParam (merchant stock), SpEffectParam (Scarlet Rot, Frost, Bleed build-up), and Ashes of War through SwordArtsParam plus the gem items that grant them. Navigation, search, and the Modified filter are in the Param Editor hub; rebalancing hundreds of rows is what CSV export/import exists for.

The Map Editor opens the open-world tiles and legacy dungeons for placing enemies and objects and assigning entity IDs — and it's the part that needs a Vulkan 1.3 GPU. A black viewport on an Intel chip is the GPU limit, not a bug: Intel GPU / no Vulkan.

Map structure

Elden Ring's world is a grid of numbered open-world tiles plus self-contained legacy dungeons (Stormveil, Leyndell…), each its own map ID you load individually. Place an object into a specific map, give it a unique entity ID so scripts and triggers can reference it, and save. There's no headless path for the 3D viewport, so map work is where the Vulkan requirement actually bites.

Merging and troubleshooting

Running two mods that both edit regulation.bin is the single most common Elden Ring task, and overwriting one file with the other deletes the first mod — do the row-level CSV merge in how to merge regulation.bin for Elden Ring instead. The two issues that are effectively Elden Ring–only: "Unknown DCX format" (game past 1.12 — fix) and a black Map Editor (Intel GPU — use the Low Requirements build).

Oriented? Start with the installation guide, create your project, then the Param Editor hub or straight into merging mods.