How to add a custom livery to a FiveM car

Open the car in Livery templates: each page says how many factory liveries it has and whether they are "texture" or "mod kit". From a script, GetVehicleLiveryCount(vehicle) counts texture liveries, and GetNumVehicleMods(vehicle, 48) counts mod kit ones after SetVehicleModKit(vehicle, 0).

The other 339 vehicles have no factory livery we could extract. Putting a livery on one of those means shipping a modified copy of its model with the body switched to a livery shader, which is a job for a 3D tool, not an image editor.

1. 1

   Get the template

   Download the factory livery from the car's page in Livery templates, or open the car's .ytd in OpenIV or CodeWalker and export the texture (for the Police Cruiser, policenew_sign_1).

2. 2

   Paint over it

   In Photoshop, GIMP or Photopea, at the same size. The sheet is cut into pieces that are rotated, stretched and sometimes mirrored, so keep the factory livery as a guide layer to see where each part of the body sits.

3. 3

   Put it back

   In OpenIV or CodeWalker, replace the texture in a copy of the .ytd, keeping the exact same name. Use DXT compression with mipmaps.

4. 4

   Stream it

   Make a resource folder with an fxmanifest.lua (fx_version 'cerulean' and game 'gta5') and the .ytd in stream/. Add ensure with the folder name to server.cfg and restart the server.

5. 5

   Pick it in game

   With SetVehicleLivery(vehicle, index) or the livery option of your garage or mod shop menu.

Replacing the .ytd this way puts Rockstar's whole texture dictionary in your resource, and two resources that replace the same .ytd overwrite each other. The script route avoids both: put only your texture in a .ytd with a new name, and from a client script tell the game to draw it wherever it would draw the original. This is what the resources THE ORB Studio exports do:

CreateThread(function()
    RequestStreamedTextureDict('my_livery')
    local waited = 0
    while not HasStreamedTextureDictLoaded('my_livery') and waited < 5000 do
        Wait(50)
        waited = waited + 50
    end
    -- Where the Police Cruiser draws its first livery, draw ours.
    AddReplaceTexture('police3', 'policenew_sign_1', 'my_livery', 'my_livery_tex')
    AddReplaceTexture('police3+hi', 'policenew_sign_1', 'my_livery', 'my_livery_tex')
end)

Here my_livery.ytd sits in stream/ with one texture called my_livery_tex. The second line covers the high detail dictionary the game uses up close. Your design now shows on every Police Cruiser set to livery 1 (SetVehicleLivery(vehicle, 0)).

Here each livery is its own small model. The Sultan RS has eight: sultanrs_livery1.yft to sultanrs_livery8.yft, each with its 2048 × 2048 texture inside, listed in the car's mod kit in carcols.meta.

1. 1

   Make the livery model

   Copy one of the car's livery .yft files, give it a new name, and replace the texture inside it in OpenIV or CodeWalker.

2. 2

   Copy the mod kit

   In a new carcols.meta, copy the car's whole mod kit, give the copy a new kitName and a new id, and add an <Item> of type VMT_LIVERY_MOD whose modelName is your livery model.

3. 3

   Point the car at the copy

   In a carvariations.meta entry for the car, put your kit's name in <kits> in place of the original.

4. 4

   Load it

   In fxmanifest.lua: data_file 'CARCOLS_FILE' 'data/carcols.meta' and data_file 'VEHICLE_VARIATION_FILE' 'data/carvariations.meta', both files listed in files, and the livery .yft in stream/.

5. 5

   Pick it in game

   Livery, in the mod shop, or SetVehicleMod(vehicle, 48, index, false) after SetVehicleModKit(vehicle, 0).

Why a copy of the kit and not one more item in the original: we tested it in game on the Sultan RS. An item added to the game's own kit did nothing, because the game keeps the kit it registered first. A new kit with its own id, with the car's carvariations pointing at it, works. Streaming a file with the same name as a factory livery does not replace it either: the game loads mod kit liveries from the car's own package. The catch: two resources that add liveries to the same car both rewrite its carvariations, so only one of them wins.

On the game's own car, with the Livery Creator:

1. 1

   Pick the car

   Every vehicle in GTA V is in the garage, with its livery layout and its factory liveries.

2. 2

   Design on the car

   Add text, images, shapes or a base colour, or a video or GIF for an animated livery. Images are projected onto the bodywork and baked into the sheet. You can also import a finished PNG, .ytd or .dds, and save the sheet or the UV template as PNG.

3. 3

   Choose how it goes in

   Replace one of the car's liveries, keep it on every car of that model, or, on a mod kit car, add it as a new option in the mod shop. A car the game gave no livery can get its model switched to the livery shader.

4. 4

   Install

   Drop the folder in resources/, add ensure to server.cfg and restart. The README has the command that spawns the car wearing the livery and the native to set it from a script.

On a new car, with the Vehicle Creator: the Livery step uses the same editor and can start from one of the car's factory liveries. The design is baked into the car's model, next to the parts, wheels and paint you chose, and the car spawns with its own name (/car <name>). The game's car is not changed. The button on each page in Livery templates opens that car here.

Free to try with your Discord login: 10 exports the first month and 5 a month after on the Free plan, unlimited on any paid plan. Uploading your own car needs a paid plan or the Pro Pass. See pricing.