Smithbox: a modding workbench for nine FromSoftware titles

Nine editors in one window, and no unpacking step

Smithbox is a modding tool for Elden Ring, Elden Ring: Nightreign, Armored Core VI, Sekiro, Dark Souls 3, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls 1, Bloodborne and Demon's Souls. The primary language is C#, the licence is MIT, and the project is a fork of the DSMapStudio repository.

The editors are listed as separate features, and each one is a real format rather than a view onto the same data. There is a Map Editor, described as a visual editor for editing maps. There is a Model Editor for viewing and editing models, similar to the FLVER Editor. There is a Param Editor, a table editor for the parameters that contain most of the data that defines each game, which is the single most important one for a modder working on gameplay values. There is a Text Editor for editing text localization, a Graphics Param Editor for GPARAM files, a Material Editor for MTD and MATBIN materials, a Texture Viewer for looking and extracting textures, and a File Browser over the data directory and the project directory that allows easy extraction. The last is the Havok Editor for HKX files, which supports Elden Ring and Nightreign projects only.

The sentence that changes the workflow for a new user is short: you no longer need to unpack a game for any of the editors. Older modding workflows for these games began with an unpacking step, and removing it is the practical difference between a tool you can open and try and a tool you have to set up a pipeline for first.

Vulkan by default, OpenGL as the fallback

The usage section describes two executables, and the difference between them is the graphics backend. Once installed, you click Smithbox.Vulkan.exe to launch the fully featured version. If your computer cannot use Vulkan, which the documentation attributes to an old graphics card, you use Smithbox.OpenGL.exe instead.

The OpenGL build provides most of the features, except for anything to do with the viewport, which mostly affects the Map and Model Editor. So the fallback is not a diminished copy, it is the same application with the 3D view removed.

The backend is configurable, and the troubleshooting section says how. If Smithbox starts and immediately closes, the likely cause is a graphics card lacking Vulkan support, because by default Smithbox launches and tries the Vulkan backend. You go to %AppData%\Local\Smithbox\Configuration, open Configuration.json in a text editor, and change the System_RenderingBackend variable to 0, which makes Smithbox use the OpenGL backend, supported by almost all graphics cards, at the cost of disabling viewport functionality.

That is a two-minute fix that the documentation gives you before you have to install anything, and it is worth knowing about before you conclude the application is broken.

The requirements list is where the hardware talk happens

The requirements section is unusually specific, and each line corresponds to a real failure mode.

The operating system requirement is Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10 or 11, 64-bit only. The Visual C++ Redistributable x64 is required. And for the error message You must install or update .NET to run this application, the documentation insists on exact download links, saying that it is not enough to install the default .NET runtime: you need both the Microsoft .NET Core 7.0 Desktop Runtime and the Microsoft .NET Core 7.0 ASP.NET Core Runtime. Two runtimes for one desktop application is unusual, and the ASP.NET Core one in particular is not something you would have installed by default.

The graphics requirement is a Vulkan 1.3 compatible graphics card with up to date drivers, NVIDIA Maxwell, 900 series, and newer, or AMD Polaris, Radeon 400 series, and newer. The documentation then adds that Intel GPUs currently do not seem to be working properly and that at the moment you will need a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD GPU. That is a genuine exclusion rather than a preference, and it is worth checking against your hardware before anything else.

The memory requirement is tied to a specific task: 4GB of VRAM, with 8GB recommended, if modding DS3, Bloodborne, Sekiro or Elden Ring maps, due to huge map sizes. So the VRAM requirement is not about the tool in general, it is about the map editor on the largest titles. A modder working only on params or text is not bound by it.

The tool is a fork, and the credits tell you the lineage

Smithbox is a fork of the DSMapStudio repository, and the credits are split into two lists, which is a plain statement of where the code came from. The Smithbox credits name Vawser, who is the maintainer, along with ivi, nex3, gixxpunk, Strackeror, FireWolf700, GoogleBen, LordExelot, Pear0533, Metito, WarpZehpyr, twistedgwazi, FeeeeK, colaaaaaa123, alson041 and gracenotes. The DSMapStudio credits name Katalash, philiquaz, george, thefifthmatt, TKGP, Nordgaren, Pav, Meowmaritus, PredatorCZ, Horkrux and Shadowth117.

The libraries section names the components the tool is built from, and they are the pieces worth understanding if you want to extend it. SoulsFormats from JKAnderson, credited to TKGP, handles the game file formats. SoapstoneLib from the soulsmods organisation, credited to gracenotes, handles the multiplayer mod communication. HKLib from The12thAvenger handles the physics assets. Hexa.NET.ImGui from HexaEngine is the immediate mode GUI layer. Veldrid from veldrid is the rendering library, and Tracy Profiler from wolfpld is the profiler.

The repository layout follows the same structure, with src/ for the code, Smithbox.Release/ for the release project, a Documentation/ directory, a Directory.Build.props for shared build settings, .gitmodules for the library dependencies, and Smithbox.sln as the solution. The project also publishes an AI disclaimer stating that elements of the code and metadata have been produced with AI tools, which is unusual to see stated plainly and is something a team with a policy on generated code needs to notice.

What Smithbox deliberately leaves to other tools

The links section is short but it is the clearest statement of scope in the project, because it names the tasks Smithbox does not do and points at the tools that do them.

For unpacking game files, the documentation points to Nuxe. For editing EMEVD scripts, DarkScript3. For editing ESD scripts, ESDLang, or ESDStudio if you want a graphical interface. And for tutorials and guides, soulsmodding.com.

So Smithbox is the authoring environment for the data that a mod actually consists of, and it delegates the two chores that have their own mature tooling: getting the files out of the game, and editing the scripting languages the games use for events and dialogue. That is a sensible division, and it also means a modder working on EMEVD content needs two tools.

The launch side has a similar split. The troubleshooting section addresses a Save Corruption error when launching a mod, and the answer is that this is an issue with the mod launch setup. For most modern games it is recommended to use ME3 to launch mods, and Smithbox has support for creating an ME3 profile built in. For DS1, DS2 and pre 1.15.2 DS3, you still need ModEngine2 or another mod launching solution, and in that case you typically need to run the game with vanilla once when creating a new character and then enable any mods.

The built-in ME3 profile support is a meaningful convenience. Launching a mod is a separate operation from editing one, and if the tool that writes the data also writes the launch profile, a whole class of Save Corruption error disappears.

Official releases versus the in-development build

There are two ways to get a build, and the documentation is honest about the trade-off between them.

The official releases are the ones tagged on the repository, and the recent ones are 2.2.6 from 2026-09-20, 2.2.5 from 2026-08-29 and 2.2.4 from 2026-07-24. The release badge in the readme points at the latest release page.

For the latest build outside the official releases, the instructions are a walk through the GitHub Actions interface: click on the green tick next to the latest commit when viewing the repository, click on Details, then on Summary, and scroll down to find a link starting with Smithbox-SHA, which downloads the latest build. You need a GitHub account to navigate into the Actions page and download the build.

The trade-off is stated directly. The latest build may be incomplete, since it is the in-development build, but it does allow you to immediately benefit from new additions and changes, whereas the official builds are only created when a substantial amount of changes has been finished.

So a modder who wants a stable tool takes the release, and a modder who wants the newest feature takes the Actions artifact and accepts a possible crash. The project also has a Discord for reporting crashes, and the documentation asks for error messages to be posted in the Issues tab of the repository, which is how a maintainer of a single-person project finds the causes of crashes.

Where Smithbox is the wrong tool

The first limit is the audience. Smithbox is for people who author mods, not for people who want to play someone else's. Installing a curated mod is a different activity, and a tool this large with a nine-game scope is not what that person needs.

The second is the hardware floor, which is the most likely reason a given user cannot run it at all. A Vulkan 1.3 capable card is required, Intel GPUs are excluded, and the 4GB minimum of VRAM for the map editor on the larger titles rules out a lot of laptops. The OpenGL fallback removes the viewport, which is most of the Map and Model Editor, so it is a workaround rather than an equal substitute.

The third is the boundary around scripting and unpacking. EMEVD editing needs DarkScript3, ESD editing needs ESDLang or ESDStudio, and getting files out of the game needs Nuxe. For a mod whose content is mostly events or dialogue, Smithbox is one tool in a set rather than the tool.

The fourth is the per-game specialisation. The Havok Editor supports only Elden Ring and Nightreign projects. The other editors are described in general terms in the readme rather than per title, and the per-title detail lives in the documentation directory and the tutorials site, so the question of exactly what a given game supports is answered elsewhere.

The fifth is the platform. Windows only, 64-bit only. There is no macOS or Linux build mentioned, and the project is written in C# with a Windows-specific presentation stack, so a cross-platform version is not a configuration change.

Editorial conclusion

Smithbox is the right tool for a modder who wants to edit the original game data directly, across several FromSoftware titles, because it puts a map editor, a param editor, a text editor and the format-specific editors in one application and removes the unpack step that older workflows required, and because the project supports a long list of titles rather than one. It is the wrong tool for someone who only wants to install existing mods, since it is an authoring environment rather than a manager, and it is the wrong tool for scripting work, since EMEVD and ESD editing are delegated to DarkScript3, ESDLang and ESDStudio. Before you install it, check the three things the documentation is explicit about: your graphics card, since a Vulkan 1.3 capable card is needed and Intel GPUs are stated not to work properly, with a dedicated NVIDIA or AMD card needed; the VRAM, since 4GB with 8GB recommended is called for when modding DS3, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring maps because of their size; and the runtime, since the .NET Core 7.0 Desktop and ASP.NET Core runtimes are both needed and the default .NET runtime is not enough.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. License: MIT
3. README
4. Releases
5. vawser/Smithbox on GitHub