Seats guide

How to Add Seats to a FiveM Car (Seat Bones and Vehicle Layouts)

A FiveM car often shows four seats and lets only two players in. The game does not count the seats you see: it counts seat bones in the model and seat entries in the car layout, then applies a cap from vehicles.meta. Here is how GTA decides, how to add real seats by hand, and how to do it in your browser.

By FiveMRides. Updated October 19, 2026.

How GTA decides how many seats a car has

Seat bone names

GTA uses 16 seat bone names, which is also the most seats a car can have (buses use all 16):

• seat_dside_f (driver), seat_pside_f (front passenger)
• seat_dside_r, seat_pside_r (first back row)
• seat_dside_r1 to seat_dside_r6 and seat_pside_r1 to seat_pside_r6

“dside” is the driver’s side (left), “pside” the passenger’s side. The game finds the bones by name hash, so the spelling must be exact.

Why a LAYOUT_LOW car stays at 2 seats

A lot of add-on sports cars use LAYOUT_LOW. In the current game files that layout has only two seats (a later update replaced an older 4-seat version), so adding bones to such a car is not enough: it needs a layout of its own. Cars on LAYOUT_STANDARD often hit the numSeatsOverride cap or the missing bones instead.

Back seats in a 2-door car

The vanilla Sentinel XS shows how GTA does it: its back seats have no door of their own. The front seat info names the back seat in <RearSeatLink>, the front door entry point serves both, and players reach the back through the front door. The vanilla front seat infos SEAT_STANDARD_FRONT_LEFT and _RIGHT already link to SEAT_STANDARD_REAR_LEFT and _RIGHT, so a 2-door car can reuse them. We tested this wiring on a 2-door add-on coupe in October 2026: four peds seated, and the player entered the back seat through the front door.

Seats with no door at all (a pickup bed, a van bench) use a warp entry point instead, the way the stretch limo and the bus do (MPWarpInOut).

Example: a 2-door coupe from 2 to 4 seats

vehiclelayouts.meta (trimmed: the tail of the layout is copied from the car’s original layout):

<CVehicleMetadataMgr>
  <VehicleLayoutInfos>
    <Item type="CVehicleLayoutInfo">
      <Name>LAYOUT_MYCOUPE_4SEATS</Name>
      <Seats>
        <Item>
          <SeatInfo ref="SEAT_STANDARD_FRONT_LEFT" />
          <SeatAnimInfo ref="SEAT_ANIM_STANDARD_FRONT_LEFT" />
        </Item>
        <Item>
          <SeatInfo ref="SEAT_STANDARD_FRONT_RIGHT" />
          <SeatAnimInfo ref="SEAT_ANIM_STANDARD_FRONT_RIGHT" />
        </Item>
        <Item>
          <SeatInfo ref="SEAT_STANDARD_REAR_LEFT" />
          <SeatAnimInfo ref="SEAT_ANIM_STANDARD_REAR_LEFT" />
        </Item>
        <Item>
          <SeatInfo ref="SEAT_STANDARD_REAR_RIGHT" />
          <SeatAnimInfo ref="SEAT_ANIM_STANDARD_REAR_RIGHT" />
        </Item>
      </Seats>
      <EntryPoints>
        <Item>
          <EntryPointInfo ref="ENTRY_POINT_STANDARD_FRONT_LEFT" />
          <EntryPointAnimInfo ref="ENTRY_POINT_ANIM_STANDARD_FRONT_LEFT" />
        </Item>
        <Item>
          <EntryPointInfo ref="ENTRY_POINT_STANDARD_FRONT_RIGHT" />
          <EntryPointAnimInfo ref="ENTRY_POINT_ANIM_STANDARD_FRONT_RIGHT" />
        </Item>
      </EntryPoints>
      ...
    </Item>
  </VehicleLayoutInfos>
</CVehicleMetadataMgr>

vehicles.meta:

<layout>LAYOUT_MYCOUPE_4SEATS</layout>
<numSeatsOverride value="4" />

fxmanifest.lua, layouts first:

data_file 'VEHICLE_LAYOUTS_FILE'   'data/vehiclelayouts.meta'
data_file 'HANDLING_FILE'          'data/handling.meta'
data_file 'VEHICLE_METADATA_FILE'  'data/vehicles.meta'
data_file 'CARCOLS_FILE'           'data/carcols.meta'
data_file 'VEHICLE_VARIATION_FILE' 'data/carvariations.meta'

The manual route: Blender, Sollumz and a text editor

1. Back up the resource and note the car’s current <layout> and numSeatsOverride.
2. Import the model (.yft and _hi.yft) in Blender with Sollumz.
3. Add the seat bones at the end of the skeleton, so no existing bone changes index. Copy the parent, orientation and flags of the front seat bone on the same side. Place the bone about where the front one sits relative to its cushion: on our test coupe the front bones are 3 cm under the cushion surface.
4. Export and check: the original bones keep their index, name and position, and the car still spawns with working doors and windows.
5. Write the layout in vehiclelayouts.meta, point <layout> at it and raise numSeatsOverride in vehicles.meta.
6. Load the layouts file first in fxmanifest.lua.

The browser route: FiveMRides Vehicle Studio BETA

1. Upload the car (one vehicle per upload) and open Seats. The original seats show a seated ped in blue.
2. Click Add a seat, then the cushion. Turn on “see through the body” to reach the back seats. A seated GTA ped shows where the player will sit.
3. Adjust: arrows move the seat 1 cm at a time, “Add the same on the other side” mirrors it, and “Seat N in game: Earlier / Later” sets the seat order. Head room and seats too close together are flagged while you place.
4. Build and download one FiveM resource with the bones, the layout, numSeatsOverride and the manifest order set up. Back seats of a 2-door car are reached through the front door.

Only the “sitting forward” pose is tested in game; the bus and sideways poses are marked experimental in the editor. Seats cost 1 credit per car, charged after the build is verified.

Test in game

• Close FiveM completely after you update a car. Restarting a resource does not reload a model your game already loaded.
• Pressing F near a car targets the free driver seat, even from the passenger side. To test a back seat, fill the front seat on that side first (a friend or a ped), then enter.
• Check that heads stay under the roof and feet stay inside the car with real players.

FiveM car seats FAQ

Why can only 2 players sit in my FiveM car?

A seat exists in game only when the car layout lists it and the model has the matching seat bone. Many add-ons only have the seat_dside_f and seat_pside_f bones, use a 2-seat layout such as LAYOUT_LOW, or cap the count with numSeatsOverride in vehicles.meta. Seats drawn in the cabin without a bone are only decoration.

How do I add seats to a FiveM car?

Add a seat bone to the model for each new seat (for example seat_dside_r and seat_pside_r), write a vehicle layout that lists every seat with an entry point, point the car at it in vehicles.meta, raise numSeatsOverride, and load the layouts file first in the manifest. The FiveMRides Vehicle Studio does all of it from your browser.

What are the seat bone names in GTA V?

seat_dside_f and seat_pside_f for the front, seat_dside_r and seat_pside_r for the first back row, then seat_dside_r1 to seat_dside_r6 and seat_pside_r1 to seat_pside_r6. That is 16 names, the most seats a car can have; buses use all of them.

How do players get into the back seat of a 2-door car?

Through the front door, like the vanilla Sentinel XS: the front seat info links to the rear seat (RearSeatLink) and the front door entry point is shared. We tested it in game on a 2-door add-on: with the front seat taken, the player entered the back seat through the front door.

Can I add seats to a FiveM car online?

Yes. The FiveMRides Vehicle Studio (beta) runs in your browser: click the cushion to add a seat, see a seated GTA ped where the player will sit, mirror it to the other side, and download a FiveM resource with the bones, the layout and the metas set up. Uploading, analysis and the 3D preview are free with a FiveMRides account. Emergency lights cost 1 credit and seats 1 credit per car (debadging, if you also remove badges, 2 credits per vehicle), charged only after the resource is built and verified: a failed build is not charged.