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FWEledit

A free, open-source elements.data editor for Forsaken World private servers.

FWEledit lets you browse, edit, and save the binary game data tables that drive items, equipment, NPCs, monsters, skills, descriptions, and more — directly from your game installation folder. It ships with config files covering seven known server versions and handles PCK resource packages automatically.

FWEledit is based on sELedit++ by Wrechid, which is itself a modified edition of the original sELedit from PW-Tools — a Perfect World elements.data editor written in C#. FWEledit extends that foundation with Forsaken World-specific data formats, PCK integration, a new icon and model workflow, a description editor, and a range of stability and usability improvements.

Why open source? The Forsaken World private server community has seen free editors disappear over the years simply because their source code was never shared — when the original author moved on, the tool died with them. FWEledit exists to break that cycle. By keeping the source open, any developer can pick it up, fix it, extend it, or fork it. The tool survives as long as the community does.

Current development focus: this release was built and validated against FW v608 data. Config files for other versions (v547, v595, v610, v773, v834, v849) are included as a starting point, and versions below v608 are now allowed to load with a warning instead of being hard-blocked, but they still may require adjustments — both to the .cfg field definitions and possibly to the editor's parsing logic — to work correctly with those binaries. Making those versions fully functional is one of the intended goals of opening this project to community contributions.

What's New in v0.9.5.27

  • Added reverse references for [81] Title Prop Config by resolving title definition IDs used by reward fields, including references from [149] Random Gift Bag Essence.
  • Title rows now use the icon from the first external item that references the title, making title lists easier to scan visually.
  • Added custom portrait import from PNG with automatic conversion to game-ready TGA assets and path.data registration.
  • Added safer item import ID handling, including cross-list item ID collision checks and a right-click Set unique ID action.
  • Added a Custom Icons... manager for icon fields with PNG import, DDS/icon atlas registration, optional capacity expansion with confirmation, and custom icon removal.
  • Kept the experimental NPCGen map preview code in the project for future work, but disabled the Map View button and disabled client PCK/cache map loading from that feature.
  • Updated project/app version metadata to v0.9.5.27.

Previous release notes were moved to docs/WHATS_NEW.md.

Table of Contents

Features

Core editing

  • Browse all lists (tables) in elements.data with a searchable item list and a field-value grid
  • Edit any field in place — changes are tracked, highlighted in blue, and validated before write
  • Add, clone, and delete items with automatic unique ID generation and duplicate ID protection
  • Batch field replacement across multiple items at once
  • Cross-reference search: find every item in any list that references a given ID

Resource integration

  • Game-folder workflow — point to your game root and the editor locates elements.data and all resources automatically
  • PCK package support — reads model, icon, description, script, and asset data from .pck packages without requiring manually extracted resource folders
  • Built-in PCK Explorer / Importer with live 3D preview, dependency discovery, cross-package imports, progress feedback, and audit logs
  • Automatic per-client workspace/cache hydration for package-backed resources such as configs.pck and surfaces.pck
  • path.data integration for deterministic icon and model path resolution

Icon picker

  • Visual icon browser populated from the game's iconlist_ivtr0 DDS atlas
  • Thumbnails load progressively in the background; the picker opens immediately
  • Search by path ID or filename; hover tooltip shows usage count across the current list
  • Single-click to select and apply

Model chooser

  • Browse file_model* and file_models* fields with a full Choice Model window
  • Enumerates entries directly from PCK index tables (no extraction required)
  • Package filter, text search, usage counts, and CSV export
  • Displays current path ID and resolved path side by side

Description editor

  • Dedicated tab for reading and editing item_ext_desc.txt per item
  • Live preview pane renders FW color tags (^RRGGBB) so you see styled output while editing
  • Staged save: description changes are held in memory and written together with the main save pipeline
  • ID remap: renaming an item's ID automatically migrates its description entry

Added Attribute display

  • Full FW-specific label mapping for addon types 0–145 (elemental resistances, crit stats, masteries, movement speed, and more)
  • Type picker lets you choose addon types from a labeled list instead of typing numeric IDs
  • Percentage-based params (param1–param3) are decoded from packed int to human-readable float and written back correctly on edit
  • Translation lookup order: addon_table_en.txt → addon_table_pt.txt → addon_table.txt

Edit safety

  • Valid changed fields highlighted in blue; invalid entries (duplicate or non-numeric IDs) highlighted in red and blocked from write
  • Pre-save duplicate ID validation across every list
  • Atomic save pipeline: writes to a temp file, creates/updates .bak, then replaces the target — a failed save cannot corrupt your data
  • Close confirmation when there are unsaved changes
  • Timestamped ZIP backups are created on save (see Saving)

Session restore

  • Remembers last game folder, last selected list, and last selected item ID across restarts
  • File > Load Last Folder for one-click reopen

Requirements

  • Windows (the application is a Windows Forms desktop app)
  • .NET Framework 4.5.2 or later (included with Windows 8.1+; downloadable for Windows 7)
  • Bundled tools — releases include the PCK, DDS, archive, and helper tools required by the editor under tools/, and copy them to the output folder on build.

The editor no longer depends on users manually extracting client resources. Package-backed features use the bundled/internal tooling shipped with the application.

Installation

  1. Download the latest release from the Releases page.
  2. Extract the zip to any folder — no installer required.
  3. Run FWEledit.exe.

Getting Started

  1. Launch FWEledit.exe.
  2. Go to File > Load... and select your game's root folder (the folder that contains the elements directory or elements.data directly). The editor auto-locates elements.data and binds all resource lookups to that installation.
  3. The left panel populates with all data lists. Select a list from the dropdown at the top, then click any item in the grid below it.
  4. The right panel shows the Values tab with all fields for the selected item. Click any value cell to edit it.

On the next launch, File > Load Last Folder reopens the same game folder immediately. The last selected list and item are also restored automatically.

Interface Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  File   Edit   Tools   About                                    │
├──────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  < > List selector │  Values  │  Description                    │
│  ───────────────   │  ────────────────────────────────────────  │
│  ID │ Icon │ Name  │  Property label       Editable value       │
│  ── │ ──── │ ────  │  id                   1234                 │
│  1  │  🗡  │ ...   │  name                 Iron Sword           │
│  2  │  🗡  │ ...   │  file_icon            4521  [...]          │
│  Search + filters  │  file_model           8800  [...]          │
└──────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  • List selector (left panel): chooses the active data table (e.g., Equipment, MEDICINE_ESSENCE, NPC_ESSENCE). Back/forward arrows return to recently selected items.
  • Item grid (left panel): shows ID, icon thumbnail, and name for every entry in the selected list. Click a row to load its fields on the right; right-click opens search and preview actions.
  • Values tab (right panel): shows every field for the selected item as read-only property labels and editable value cells. Technical type/index columns are hidden by default. Changed fields turn blue; invalid entries turn red.
  • Description tab (right panel): shows a styled color-tag preview and the raw description text. FW color/control tags are rendered in the preview while the source remains editable.
  • Inline picker button ([...]): appears on file_icon and file_model* rows in the Values grid. Click to open the icon or model chooser for that field.

Screenshots

Main window Main window

Search Search

Item description editor Item description

Icon picker Icon picker

Model selector Model selector

Attribute selector Attribute selector

Quality item change Quality item change

Supported Server Versions

FWEledit ships with config files for the following Forsaken World server binary versions:

Config file Version Status
FW_X.X.X_v547.cfg v547 Untested — community contributions needed
FW_X.X.X_v595.cfg v595 Untested — community contributions needed
FW_X.X.X_v608.cfg v608 Primary target — actively developed and validated
FW_X.X.X_v610.cfg v610 Untested — community contributions needed
FW_X.X.X_v773.cfg v773 Untested — community contributions needed
FW_X.X.X_v834.cfg v834 Untested — community contributions needed
FW_X.X.X_v849.cfg v849 Untested — community contributions needed

The correct config is matched automatically when you load elements.data. If no config matches, the editor shows a message and allows you to select or create a matching config file manually.

Using a version other than v608? The bundled config files for other versions are provided as a starting point based on known field layouts. You will likely need to verify and adjust the field names, types, and order in the .cfg file to match your server's actual binary layout. In some cases, parser-level changes in the editor code may also be needed. See Configuration Files for the config format and Contributing for how to submit fixes.

Working with PCK Files

FWEledit hydrates package-backed data into a per-client workspace/cache under %LOCALAPPDATA%\FWEledit\workspace\<hash>. This happens automatically when a game folder is loaded and refreshes when the source package changes.

Model, icon, description, script, and asset lists are read from PCK package data instead of depending on manually extracted folders.

The PCK Explorer / Importer can open an external package, preview supported 3D assets, filter by file type, and import selected entries into the current client. Imports resolve associated dependencies across packages where possible and finish with an audit summary showing which packages and file types were updated.

On Save, the editor:

  1. Writes elements.data atomically (temp → backup → replace).
  2. Updates any modified packages (configs.pck if descriptions changed, plus resource packages touched by import tools) back into the game's resources folder.
  3. Creates a .bak backup of the previous .pck before replacing it.

PCK helper tools are bundled with release builds; missing helper binaries only affect package-backed operations, not basic elements.data editing.

Editing Data

Finding Items

  • Type a name or numeric ID into the search bar above the item grid and press Find Next or Enter.
  • Check Search All to search across all lists simultaneously.
  • Use Exact Matching and Match Case for precise lookups.
  • The search bar shows auto-complete suggestions as you type.

Editing Fields

  1. Select an item in the left grid.
  2. Click the Value cell for any field in the right grid.
  3. Type the new value and press Enter or click away to confirm.

Changed fields are highlighted blue. If a value is invalid for its field type (e.g. a non-numeric value in an int32 field, or a duplicate ID), the cell turns red and the value is not written to the data model until corrected.

To apply the same value to multiple selected items at once, select them in the left grid, type a value in the Set Value box at the top, and click Set Value To Selected.

Added Attributes

The EQUIPMENT_ADDON list (list 0) uses a numeric type field to identify stat bonuses. FWEledit decodes these into readable labels automatically in both the item list and the Values grid.

To change an addon type without memorizing IDs, double-click the type field value to open the type picker. The picker lists all known types with readable labels and opens pre-selected at the current value.

Percentage-based params (param1, param2, param3) for types such as crit chance, elemental resistances, and damage modifiers are displayed as human-readable floats (e.g., 0.05 for 5%). The editor encodes them back to packed int on save automatically.

Item Descriptions

  1. Select any item.
  2. Click the Description tab in the right panel.
  3. Edit the raw text in the upper box. FW color tags (^RRGGBB...^r) are supported; the lower preview renders them styled.
  4. Click Stage Description to stage the change. Description changes are held in memory and flushed back to configs.pck during the next Save.

If you change an item's id field, the description entry is automatically remapped from the old ID to the new one. Cloning an item copies its description, and deleting an item removes its stale description entry on save.

Icons

Double-click any file_icon or file_icon1 field value, or click the [...] button that appears on that row, to open the Icon Picker.

The picker loads thumbnails from the game's iconlist_ivtr0 DDS atlas and populates progressively in the background — the window opens immediately. Hovering over an icon shows its path ID, filename, and how many items in the current list already use it. Click an icon to select and apply its path ID.

Models

Double-click any file_model*, file_models*, or model_name_* field value to open the Choice Model window.

The model list is populated from the PCK index of the selected package (models, gfx, grasses, etc.) and shows path, name, path ID, and usage count. Use the package dropdown and search box to filter. The current model is pre-selected when the window opens.

Select a model and click OK (or double-click the row) to write the path ID back to the field. The Values grid displays model fields as PathID | mapped_path for readability; only the numeric path ID is stored in elements.data.

To export the current model list for external comparison, use the Export CSV button inside the Choice Model window.

Cloning and Deleting Items

Right-click an item in the left grid (or use the Edit menu) to access:

  • Clone Selected Items — creates a deep copy with a new unique ID assigned automatically, appended to the end of the list.
  • Delete Selected Items — removes the selected item(s) permanently (takes effect on save).
  • Move items to top / to end of list — reorders selected items within the list.
  • Export Selected Items / Replace Selected Item — export or import item data as JSON for sharing or applying changes across installs.

Saving

Action Description
File > Save Overwrites elements.data in place and repacks any changed PCK files.
File > Save As Saves to a chosen path; the editor switches context to that path for future saves.
Stage Description Stages description changes in memory without writing any file. Flushed during the next Save.

Save pipeline for elements.data:

  1. Validates all lists for duplicate or non-numeric id field values. Save is blocked if any are found, and a per-list report is shown.
  2. Writes to a temp file (<filename>.tmp_fweledit).
  3. Copies the existing file to <filename>.bak.
  4. Replaces the target with the temp file.
  5. Any error is appended to logs/fweledit-errors.log.

A failure at any step does not corrupt the original file.

Additional backups: On each save, the editor also writes a dated ZIP backup of:

  • elements.data to backup_elements/
  • configs.pck (when modified) to backup_configs/
  • path.data (when modified) to backup_path/

Tools Reference

Menu item Description
Edit > Clear Cache Clears the current editor/client cache after confirmation, then restarts the application.
Tools > EL Version Displays the detected elements.data version and structure summary.
Tools > GShop Editor Opens the integrated gshop.data editor.
Tools > Import Item Package Imports .fweitem packages into the current client, including related resource dependencies where available.
Tools > NPCGen Editor Opens the integrated npcgen.data editor.
Tools > Advanced Title Editor Edits title_def_u.lua from script.pck, including graphic title and chat display controls.
Tools > PCK Explorer / Importer Browses external PCK files, previews supported models/effects, and imports selected entries plus resolved dependencies into the current client.
Tools > Open Empty Instance Opens a second editor instance without loading the current folder.
Tools > Create List with Counts Generates a list summary with entry counts.
Search xrefs to Item (right-click on item) Finds all entries across all lists that reference the selected item's ID.

Configuration Files

Config files (configs/*.cfg) define the field structure of each list in elements.data for a given server binary version. The format is plain text:

<total list count>
<conversation list index>

<list number> - <LIST_NAME>
<element size in bytes>
<field1;field2;field3;...>
<type1;type2;type3;...>

<list number> - <LIST_NAME>
...

Supported field types: int16, int32, int64, float, double, string:<n>, wstring:<n>, byte:<n>.

To add support for a new server version:

  1. Copy the closest existing config file.
  2. Adjust field names and types to match your server's binary layout.
  3. Name the file FW_X.X.X_v<version>.cfg and place it in the configs/ folder.
  4. The editor will pick it up automatically on next load.

Config files can be edited manually in the configs/ folder. The legacy config editor code is still kept in the project for developers, but it is no longer exposed in the main Tools menu.

Localization Files

FWEledit reads the following optional text files to improve label and tooltip display. Each file is looked up first under the editor's resources/data/ folder, then under the game root's data/ folder:

File Purpose
language_en.txt English strings for skill names, stat labels, and item property tooltips
buff_str.txt Buff/debuff name strings
skillstr.txt Skill name strings used in Added Attribute display
item_ext_desc.txt Item extended descriptions (read from and saved back to configs.pck)
addon_table_en.txt English labels for Added Attribute type IDs
addon_table_pt.txt Portuguese labels for Added Attribute type IDs (fallback)
addon_table.txt Default labels for Added Attribute type IDs (last resort)

None of these files are required. Missing files are silently skipped and the editor starts normally without them.

Session Restore

FWEledit persists the following settings between sessions:

Setting Description
LastGameFolder Last successfully loaded game root path
LastListIndex List that was active when the editor was closed
LastItemId Item ID that was selected when the editor was closed

On startup, if a previous game folder is found in settings, the editor loads it automatically and restores the last list and item. This can be bypassed at any time by choosing File > Load... to switch to a different folder.

Error Logging

Save errors and unexpected exceptions are written to:

logs/fweledit-errors.log

This file is located in a logs/ folder next to FWEledit.exe. Each entry includes the operation context, exception type, message, and stack trace. The file is appended on each run and is not rotated automatically — delete or archive it manually if it grows large.

When reporting a bug, including the relevant portion of this file is very helpful.

Project Structure

FWEledit/
├── FWEledit.sln
└── FWEledit/
    ├── MainWindow.cs              # Main window — UI, navigation, edit state, search
    ├── AssetManager.cs            # PCK extraction, icon/model/path resolution
    ├── ConfigWindow.cs            # Config editor window
    ├── IconPickerWindow.cs        # Visual icon picker window
    ├── FieldReplaceWindow.cs      # Field-Replace tool window
    ├── RulesWindow.cs             # EL Structure Diff (Rules) window
    ├── FieldCompare.cs            # Field Compare window
    ├── JoinWindow.cs              # Join new Elements window
    ├── ClassMaskWindow.cs         # Class Mask Generator window
    ├── LoseQuestWindow.cs         # Lost quest helper window
    ├── ReplaceWindow.cs           # Logic-Replace window
    ├── ReferencesWindow.cs        # Cross-reference results window
    ├── DDSReader/                 # DDS texture decoder (DXT1, DXT3, DXT5)
    ├── COMMON/
    │   ├── eList.cs               # Single list (table): fields, types, values, get/set
    │   ├── eListCollection.cs     # Loads and saves elements.data binary; holds all lists
    │   ├── eListConversation.cs   # Conversation list model
    │   ├── CacheSave.cs           # Runtime cache: icon bitmaps, themes, path maps
    │   ├── Extensions.cs          # Item property helpers, localization, color-tag parser
    │   └── GetProps/              # Per-list tooltip renderers (one file per list type)
    ├── configs/                   # FW version config files (v547–v849)
    ├── Resources/                 # Embedded images (placeholder icons, loading animation)
    └── OOP_NET/
        └── oops/
            └── Newtonsoft.Json/   # JSON serializer (included as source)

Building from Source

Prerequisites:

  • Visual Studio 2017 or later (Community edition is free)
  • .NET Framework 4.5.2 targeting pack

Steps:

git clone https://github.com/<your-org>/FWEledit.git
  1. Open FWEledit.sln in Visual Studio.
  2. Build → Build Solution (Ctrl+Shift+B).
  3. Output is written to FWEledit/bin/Debug/ (or Release/ for release builds).

The configs/ and rules/ folders are copied to the output directory automatically by the build rules, along with required tools under tools/ (spck, packdll, p2sp_4th_lib, Pfim, 7za). No NuGet packages are required ? Newtonsoft.Json is included as source and Ionic.Zlib as a compiled DLL, both inside the repository.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. A few ground rules:

  • Open an issue first for any non-trivial change — new features, behavior changes, new config versions — so it can be discussed before you invest time coding.
  • One pull request per concern. Keep changes focused and easy to review.
  • Do not break v608. It is the validated baseline. If your change affects binary read/write logic or field parsing, confirm that v608 still loads and saves correctly.
  • Document new or fixed config versions. If you add or correct a .cfg for any version, describe in the PR which server build you tested against, what fields you changed, and how you validated the result (e.g. items load without errors, specific fields match expected values).
  • Append to the changelog. Add a plain-English entry to CHANGELOG.md describing what changed, why, and what the observable impact is.

Helping with other server versions is one of the primary goals of this open-source release. If you run a v547, v610, v773, v834, or v849 server and want to get FWEledit working for your version, here is where to start:

  1. Load your elements.data — the editor will attempt to match a config automatically.
  2. If lists load with wrong field counts or garbled values, compare the matching .cfg with the client structure and adjust the field names, types, and entry sizes.
  3. Compare the field layout in the .cfg against your server's source or a known-good reference.
  4. Correct field names, types, and order as needed.
  5. If the editor crashes or produces wrong output even with a corrected .cfg, open an issue with your findings — it may indicate a parser-level fix is needed in the code.

For bug reports, please include:

  • The server version (visible in the title bar or under Tools > EL Version).
  • The config file in use.
  • The contents of logs/fweledit-errors.log if a crash or save failure occurred.

Acknowledgements

FWEledit stands on the work of others. Credit where it is due:

  • Wrechid/sELedit++ — the direct upstream this project is forked from. sELedit++ adapted the original PW-Tools editor for a broader set of server versions and is the codebase FWEledit was built on top of.
  • sELedit (PW-Tools) — the original open-source Perfect World elements.data editor in C# that established the core binary read/write model, the config file format, and the list/field data structure still used in FWEledit today.
  • Newtonsoft.Json — JSON serialization library included as source under the MIT license.
  • Ionic.Zlib — zlib/deflate implementation used for PCK index decompression, included as a compiled library.
  • DDSReader — DDS texture decoder (DXT1, DXT3, DXT5) included as source for loading icon atlas files.

License

This project is released under the FWEledit License — a custom license that permits free use for any purpose. Commercial use is allowed provided that a free tier of the product remains publicly available.

FWEledit is an independent community tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the original Forsaken World game, its publishers, or any official software distribution.

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Forsaken World Editor. Free, open source, community-maintained.

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