Whats Pk2 Edit?
"Pk2 Edit" is a phrase used to describe the altering of the game's data files so it looks differently than it is supposed to. If you see a iSRO screenshot and it shows 9th degree, Reuro Mobs, Uniques in towns they do not belong in, then people say you did a "Pk2 Edit" to get that.
Since theres a "2", is there other versions? Like Pk1, Pk3, etc
I'm sure there are other versions, but the version Silkroad uses just happens to be named PK2. It is just an archive format used to package together game assets.
What it do?
Think about if you had the following setup:
File A
File B
File C
Now when you made a game, you would have to distribute all 3 files. Rater than doing that, what you can do is "archive" files, so you would now have just one file:
File 1 [File A, File B, File C]
In addition you can "encrypt" the contents so the game can use them but not anyone else (unless someone finds out how to decrypt it)
Any Flaws/Problems?
That gets into game programming theory but it works like this:
Pros:
* Single File for multiple files
* Content is easily secured
* A bit more efficient in terms of disk I/O since you only open one file handle and can seek/buffer the file
Cons:
* Usually no corruption fixing, if something gets messed up you gotta get the whole file again
* For people that want to mod the game, they have to first learn how to edit the file structure
Teach Me?
Google will:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=pk ... gle+Search