# OpenIV, CodeWalker and Sollumz — which one you actually need

> Three tools that overlap enough to confuse everyone. What each is genuinely for, and which one your job needs.

Source: https://fam-tools.com/guides/openiv-codewalker-sollumz · FAM Tools · published 2026-10-25 · updated 2026-10-25 · about 6 min

**Short answer.** Three tools that overlap enough to confuse everyone. What each is genuinely for, and which one your job needs.

All three open GTA 5 files. They are not interchangeable, and picking the wrong one is how people end up rebuilding a weapon to change a colour.

## OpenIV — the archive browser

OpenIV was built for exploring the game's own archives: opening .rpf files, finding assets, extracting them. It reads textures and can put them back, which is why it is the tool most people meet first.

What it is not is a modelling tool. It shows you a .ydr; it does not let you change its geometry.

## CodeWalker — the world and asset editor

CodeWalker goes further: it renders the world, opens .ydr models and .ytd dictionaries, and can import and export both. For weapon work it is the practical desktop choice, because it handles the resource formats directly rather than through a conversion.

It is also where you go to inspect a UV map when you want to know why a decal is landing somewhere unexpected.

## Sollumz — the Blender bridge

Sollumz is a Blender add-on that imports and exports GTA 5 formats, so you can model in Blender and export something the game will load. This is the route for building a weapon, changing its shape, or re-unwrapping a mesh whose UVs mirror the receiver.

It is the heaviest of the three to learn and the only one that can change what a weapon is rather than how it looks.

## Which one for which job

- Extract a texture to look at it — OpenIV or CodeWalker
- Replace a texture inside a .ytd — CodeWalker, or a browser tool that preserves the format for you
- Inspect a UV map — CodeWalker
- Change the shape of a weapon — Blender with Sollumz
- Fix mirrored UVs — Blender with Sollumz, and it is real work
- Put a logo on an existing weapon — none of them are required

## Questions

### Do I need any of these to use a weapon pack?

No. Installing a finished resource is a folder and a line in server.cfg. These tools are for changing what is inside it.

### Which is best for texture editing?

CodeWalker, if you are doing it by hand. The hard part is not the editing but preserving the compression format and the mip chain on the way back in.

### Is Sollumz worth learning?

If you want to build or reshape weapons, yes. If you want to brand existing ones, it is a large detour.

## Related

- https://fam-tools.com/guides/ydr-vs-ytd-explained
- https://fam-tools.com/guides/codewalker-vs-browser-skinning
- https://fam-tools.com/guides/mirrored-uv-weapon-decal