FiveM YTD File Explained
The 16 MB Limit, Compressing and Resizing

Updated November 2026 • 7 min read • By the FiveMRides Team

A .ytd file is a GTA V texture dictionary: one file holding the compressed textures a car, ped, prop or map uses, streamed to players from the stream folder of a FiveM resource. On FiveM Legacy each texture inside it must stay under 16 MiB; the file itself can be bigger. Oversized textures are fixed by compressing them with the right format (DXT1, DXT5, BC5) and resizing the largest ones, usually from 4096 to 2048 pixels.

Compress a YTD Online The 16 MB Rule

What Is Inside a YTD File

YTD stands for texture dictionary. GTA V keeps a model (.yft for vehicles, .ydr for props, .ydd for ped clothing) separate from the pictures painted on it, and the pictures live in a .ytd. Each texture inside has a name, a size in pixels, a compression format and a chain of mipmaps (smaller copies the game uses at a distance).

A typical add-on car resource looks like this:

mycar/
  fxmanifest.lua
  data/       vehicles.meta, carcols.meta, carvariations.meta, handling.meta
  stream/     mycar.yft
              mycar_hi.yft
              mycar.ytd        <- paint, interior, lights, liveries

The model refers to its textures by name. That is why you cannot rename a texture inside a YTD freely: the model would look for the old name and show nothing, or a default texture. Tuning parts often bring their own small YTDs, and liveries are extra textures in the car's main YTD. More file types are defined in the FiveM glossary.

The 16 MB Limit Is Per Texture

FiveM Legacy cannot stream a single texture larger than 16 MiB. The rule applies to each texture inside the YTD, not to the size of the .ytd file: a 40 MB YTD made of many small textures can load, while a 17 MB YTD with one huge texture will not. When a texture is over the limit, that texture shows up missing or broken, and a car can even fail to stream and spawn as a fallback model.

Texture memory depends on pixels and format, so you can work it out before you open a tool:

Texture	Format	Size with mipmaps	Under 16 MiB?
4096 x 4096	Uncompressed (A8R8G8B8)	about 85 MiB	No
4096 x 4096	DXT5 / BC3 / BC7	about 21 MiB	No
4096 x 4096	DXT1 / BC1	about 11 MiB	Yes
2048 x 2048	Uncompressed (A8R8G8B8)	about 21 MiB	No
2048 x 2048	DXT5 / BC3 / BC7	about 5.3 MiB	Yes
2048 x 2048	DXT1 / BC1	about 2.7 MiB	Yes

Staying under the limit is the minimum. Every texture still costs video memory on every player's machine, and heavy cars and maps together are a classic cause of the city losing its textures. See the texture loss fix for that symptom and the oversized assets guide for the console warnings that name a heavy file.

How to Open, View and Edit a YTD

OpenIV

The classic Windows tool. Its texture editor works as a YTD viewer: it lists each texture with size, format and mipmaps, exports it as DDS and imports an edited one back.

CodeWalker

Opens YTD files from the game archives or from a resource folder and shows every texture, which makes it a quick free YTD viewer while you check a model.

Desktop optimizers

Free desktop tools such as EasyOptimizer-V batch-resize oversized textures in a folder. They are handy for packs; check the result in game, liveries first.

To edit a texture (a YTD editor job), export it as DDS, change it in an image editor that saves DDS (GIMP, Paint.NET or Photoshop with a DDS plugin), and import it back under the same name. A "YTD converter" in the PNG to YTD sense does the same thing: it builds a dictionary from textures you import.

How to Compress and Resize a YTD

Find the heavy textures. Sort by size in your YTD viewer. On most add-on cars a few 4096 textures (body, interior, wheels) make up most of the weight.
Pick the format per texture type. DXT1 (BC1) for colour without transparency, DXT5 (BC3) when the texture has an alpha channel (glass, decals, grilles), BC5 for normal maps. Uncompressed textures are almost never needed.
Resize the largest ones. 4096 to 2048 divides the memory by four. Keep 4096 only where you see the difference up close; liveries with small text are the usual exception.
Keep mipmaps. Without them the texture shimmers at a distance and the game streams the full size even far away.
Import under the same names and test. Check paint, glass, lights and liveries in game on a test server before you replace the live resource.

Compression is not free

DXT and BC formats are lossy. Done per texture type and at sensible sizes, the change is minimal quality loss at normal camera distance, but it is never pixel-identical. Keep the original files. The full method for whole cars, including polygon counts, is in the FiveM vehicle optimization guide.

YTD Files on FiveM Enhanced (gen9)

Everything above is about FiveM Legacy. GTA V Enhanced uses a newer resource format, and a Legacy .ytd does not load there as it is: it has to be converted to the gen9 format along with the models. The steps and the common failures are in the FiveM Enhanced vehicles guide.

Do It in the Browser: the FiveM YTD Optimizer

The FiveMRides YTD Optimizer works as a YTD compressor and resizer online: upload a single .ytd, a car resource ZIP or RAR, or a car pack (up to 50 vehicles), review the texture analysis, pick a preset or set the maximum size and format yourself, and download the optimized resource. It picks the format per texture type (BC5 for normal maps, BC7 for specular, DXT1 or DXT5 for colour) and shows the measured result.

Price: 1 credit per vehicle, a single YTD counts as one. Analysis is free with an account, and Studio Unlimited members optimize without credits. What every Studio tool costs. The optimizer is in beta: keep your original files and test the output on a test server.

Open the YTD Optimizer Read the optimization guide

YTD Optimizer on a Studio plan

YTD Optimizer costs 1 credit per optimized vehicle. Pay as you go with credits, or take a monthly plan:

Studio Pro$9.99 a month
45 credits a month.
= 45 optimized vehicles a month.
Studio Max$24.99 a month
120 credits a month.
= 120 optimized vehicles a month.
+ 1 free shop car a month.
+ Server Panel license while the plan is paid.
Studio Unlimited$49.99 a month
Optimized vehicles with no credit charge.
+ 2 free shop cars and 2 free MLOs a month.
+ Server Panel license while the plan is paid.

Yearly billing saves 20%. Cancel anytime.

No plan? Credit packs go from 3 credits for $1.99 to 500 credits for $119.99, and credits work in every Studio tool. What every tool costs

Create a free account: 2 welcome credits to start.

Create a free account Compare Studio plans

FiveM YTD Questions

What is a YTD file in FiveM?

A .ytd file is a GTA V texture dictionary: one file that holds the compressed textures (paint, interior, lights, decals, liveries) a model uses. In a FiveM resource it sits in the stream folder next to the model files, for example mycar.yft, mycar_hi.yft and mycar.ytd, and the server streams it to players automatically.

What is the FiveM YTD limit?

On FiveM Legacy the limit is 16 MiB per texture, not per file. A .ytd can be larger than 16 MB on disk as long as every texture inside it stays under the limit. A single 4096 x 4096 texture in DXT5 with mipmaps is about 21 MiB, so it is over; the same texture at 2048 x 2048 is about 5.3 MiB.

Is there a YTD converter for PNG or DDS files?

A YTD is not converted from one image, it is built: you import DDS (or PNG) textures into a texture dictionary with OpenIV or CodeWalker and save it as .ytd. The texture names must match the names the model expects, or the model shows the wrong texture or none.

How do I view a YTD file?

OpenIV and CodeWalker both open a .ytd and list every texture with its size, format and mipmap count, and both can export a texture as DDS. That is the quickest way to find the texture that breaks the 16 MiB limit.

How do I compress a YTD for FiveM?

Compress each texture with the right block format: DXT1 (BC1) for colour without transparency, DXT5 (BC3) for colour with transparency, BC5 for normal maps, and keep mipmaps. By hand you export, convert and re-import each texture; the FiveMRides YTD Optimizer does it per texture type online for 1 credit per vehicle.

Can I resize the textures in a YTD?

Yes. Halving a texture from 4096 to 2048 pixels on each side divides its memory by four, which is usually enough to get under the 16 MiB limit with minimal quality loss at normal camera distance. Resize the biggest textures first and check liveries and decals, where small text suffers first.