Essentials Studio

A modern, cross-platform editor for Pokémon Essentials v21.1 projects

The original RPG Maker XP editor is a 32-bit Windows app from 2004. Essentials Studio replaces it with a native, cross-platform desktop application that reads and writes both .rxdata binary files and the full Pokémon Essentials PBS text format — no Ruby runtime, no Wine, no compromises.

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Screenshots

PBS Editor — Pokémon	PBS Editor — Items

Event Editor — PE Commands

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What's inside

Map Editor

Tile painting across 3 layers, full autotile support (all 48 patterns), pencil / rectangle / fill / eraser tools, undo/redo, zoom, pan, grid overlay. Events layer shows inline sprite previews. Right-click context menu for copying events and setting the starting position.

Event Editor

Every RMXP command type, organised into searchable categories. Multi-line commands (Show Text, Comment, Script) fold their continuation lines into a single editable block — just like RMXP itself presents them. A dedicated Pokémon Essentials category provides one-click inserts for wild battles, trainer battles, item/Pokémon gifts, badge checks, screen fades, fly destinations, and more — each pre-filled with the correct PE API call. Complex commands get rich parameter editors (conditional branches, variable control, move routes, audio, transfers). Full copy/paste/duplicate, undo/redo.

PBS Data Editor

A purpose-built editor for every PBS file in a PE v21.1 project:

Panel	What you can edit
Pokémon	Base stats · Types · Abilities · Level-up / TM / tutor / egg moves · Evolutions · EV yield · Category · Pokédex entry · Wild held items · Incense · Egg groups · Metrics · Forms (per-form types, stats, abilities, Mega Stone)
Moves	Power · Accuracy · PP · Category · Type · Function code (autocomplete across ~200 PE effect functions) · Flags · Priority · Effect chance · Description
Items	Price · Pocket · Field use · Battle use · BP price · Move (TM/HM/TR) · Consumable · Flags · Description — with icon thumbnails in the list
Types	Damage relations · Icon position · Pseudo-type · Flags
Trainers	Trainer types with sprite previews and BGM fields · Full party builder per trainer (moves, item, ability, nature, IVs, EVs, nickname, Poké Ball, shadow flag)
World	Per-map flags · Environment · Weather · Healing spot · Battle backgrounds · Fly destination · Parent map · Map connections (table editor + visual canvas diagram) · Region map (drag pins directly onto the map image)
Settings	Starting map/position · Start money · Start item storage · Wild/trainer battle BGMs · Surf/Bicycle BGMs · Player character list with all charset fields

Script Editor

CodeMirror 6 with Ruby syntax highlighting, per-script dirty tracking, and global search across every script at once (Ctrl+Shift+F).

Database Editor

All 13 standard RMXP database tabs (Actors, Classes, Skills, Items, Weapons, Armors, Enemies, Troops, States, Animations, Tilesets, Common Events, System). Common Events and Troop battle events use the same full event command editor as the map editor.

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Stack

Layer	Technology
Frontend	React 19 · TypeScript · Vite
Desktop shell	Tauri v2 (Rust)
Binary parser	Custom Ruby Marshal v4.8 reader/writer (pure Rust)
PBS parser	Custom section-based text reader/writer (pure Rust)
Map rendering	HTML5 Canvas 2D · requestAnimationFrame
Code editor	CodeMirror 6
Audio preview	rodio (Rust)
Theme	Catppuccin Latte

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Getting started

Prerequisites: Node.js v18+, Rust stable, Tauri v2 system deps

npm install          # install frontend dependencies
npm run tauri dev    # development (hot reload)
npm run tauri build  # production bundle → src-tauri/target/release/bundle/

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Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Context	Action
Ctrl+O	Global	Open project folder
Ctrl+S	Global	Save all dirty editors
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Map · Event Editor	Undo / Redo
Ctrl+Shift+F	Script Editor	Global search across all scripts
Double-click	Map canvas	Open / create event
Right-click	Map canvas	Context menu (copy/paste event, set start)
Middle-click drag	Map canvas	Pan
Ctrl+scroll	Map canvas	Zoom
Insert / Delete	Event command list	Add / remove command
Ctrl+C / V / D	Event command list	Copy / Paste / Duplicate

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Architecture

src/
├── App.tsx                        # Root — project state, unified save context
├── components/
│   ├── MapEditor/                 # Canvas tile editor
│   ├── EventEditor/               # Page editor, command picker, move route editor
│   │   └── CommandParamEditor     # Rich editors for complex command parameters
│   ├── ScriptEditor/              # CodeMirror panel + global search
│   ├── DatabaseEditor/            # 13 RMXP data tabs + shared controls
│   └── PbsEntityEditor/           # PBS file editor shell
│       ├── panels/                # One panel per PBS file
│       └── shared/                # ChipListEditor, EntityListPanel, TypeChip…
└── services/
    ├── pbsUnified.ts              # PBS loaders (all entity types)
    ├── pbsDistributor.ts          # PBS serializers
    ├── pbsIndex.ts                # Cross-file section index (autocomplete)
    ├── eventCommands.ts           # Command catalog + PE command library
    └── mapRenderer.ts             # Tile/autotile/event canvas renderer

src-tauri/src/
├── commands/                      # Tauri IPC handlers
│   ├── pbs.rs                     # PBS read / write / section parse
│   ├── map.rs                     # Map load / save
│   ├── database.rs                # All rxdata database files
│   ├── scripts.rs                 # Scripts.rxdata (zlib + Marshal)
│   └── audio.rs                   # Audio preview
└── marshal/                       # Ruby Marshal v4.8 reader + writer

Data formats

.rxdata — Ruby's binary Marshal v4.8 format. The Rust backend includes a complete reader/writer for every RMXP object type (RPG::Map, RPG::Event, RPG::Tileset, RPG::System, Table, Color, Tone, RPG::AudioFile, …). Scripts.rxdata is zlib-compressed and handled transparently.

PBS .txt — Section-based plain text ([SECTION_ID] / Key = Value). The Rust parser handles inline comments on section headers, optional fields, multi-value lists, and all PE v21.1 field names. Edits round-trip cleanly without disturbing unrecognised fields.

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Roadmap

[x] Ruby Marshal v4.8 parser / serializer
[x] Map editor — layers, autotiles, drawing tools, undo/redo, zoom/pan
[x] Event editor — full command set, move routes, character sprites
[x] Multi-line command folding (Show Text / Comment / Script)
[x] Pokémon Essentials command library
[x] Database editor — all 13 RMXP tabs
[x] Script editor — CodeMirror 6, Ruby highlighting, global search
[x] PBS editor — Pokémon, Moves, Items, Types, Trainers
[x] PBS editor — Map Metadata, Global Metadata (Settings)
[x] Region map pin editor (drag on real map image)
[x] Map connections — table + visual canvas diagram
[x] Pokémon Forms (per-form types, stats, abilities, Mega Stone)
[ ] Encounter editor — visual encounter table per map zone
[ ] Playtest launcher
[ ] Plugin / script snippet library

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_{Not affiliated with Enterbrain, Maruno, or the Pokémon Essentials team · MIT License}