World Editor

The FxDK World Editor is the in-editor tool for placing map objects, editing existing maps, and building custom interiors directly inside a running FxDK project, with a live preview against the actual game view. It’s the tool behind most custom MLOs, prop-based builds, and map edits you see on FiveM servers. See FxDK for the broader development kit this tool lives inside.

What it’s for

• Placing props and objects into the world — furniture, decoration, structural pieces — either to dress up an existing location or build a new one from scratch.
• Editing existing GTA V map data: moving, hiding, or replacing objects that are already part of the base map.
• Building custom interiors (“MLOs” in community terminology) that didn’t exist in the base game, using GTA V’s own object set or added custom models.
• Iterating with a live preview — changes you make in the editor are reflected in the embedded game view without a full resource restart.

Core workflow

1. Open it from FxDK. With a project loaded and the server running, enable World Editor mode from the FxDK toolbar.
2. Browse and search for objects. The object browser lets you search GTA V’s object catalog by name or category rather than needing to know exact model hashes ahead of time.
3. Place and transform objects. Click to place an object into the world, then use the standard move/rotate/scale gizmo to position it precisely. You work directly against the live game view, so placement is visual rather than coordinate-guessing.
4. Save as a map resource. The World Editor persists your placements as a resource — a self-contained package of the objects and their transforms — that FxDK (and later, any FXServer) can load like any other resource.

Practical tips

• Group related objects. When building anything more complex than a handful of props, group them so you can move, hide, or delete a whole cluster together instead of fighting individual pieces.
• Use snapping. Snapping to grid or to other objects makes it dramatically easier to align furniture, wall pieces, and repeated elements cleanly instead of eyeballing rotation and position by hand.
• Know what you’re editing. There’s a real difference between moving/hiding existing GTA V map data and adding new props. Edits to base map data affect the underlying world for everyone loading your resource; added props are purely additive. Keep track of which you’re doing, since removing or moving base map objects can have side effects (collision, navigation, other resources that reference the same objects) that adding new props doesn’t.
• Package it as a proper resource. The exported map resource should follow the same structure as any other FiveM resource (an fxmanifest.lua, resource files) so other servers can drop it into their resources/ folder and ensure it like anything else.

Common pitfalls

• Performance on large custom maps. Every object you place is something the client has to stream, render, and often collide-check. Large, prop-dense builds can tank client FPS if you don’t keep an eye on object count and draw distance. Test on a range of hardware, not just your dev machine.
• Collision behavior. Added or moved objects don’t automatically get sensible collision for free — verify that players and vehicles interact with your build the way you expect, especially around doors, stairs, and interior transitions, rather than assuming visual placement alone is enough.
• File size for player downloads. Every model and texture you add is something every connecting player has to download before they can join. Keep custom asset sizes reasonable, reuse existing GTA V assets where you can instead of adding new ones, and avoid bundling unnecessarily large textures — a map that looks great but adds hundreds of megabytes to your server’s download size will cost you players.