Livery guide

How to Add a Livery to Any FiveM Car (Even Without a Livery Slot)

A GTA car shows a livery when four things line up: livery textures named after the car texture dictionary, a livery shader on the body panels, a clean second UV map on every detail level, and the livery slots declared in carvariations.meta and vehicles.meta. Most add-on cars miss at least one of them. Here is how each part works, how to add them by hand, and how to do it in your browser instead.

By FiveMRides. Updated October 19, 2026.

Quick answer

Textures: add <txd>_sign_1, <txd>_sign_2… to the car .ytd, where <txd> is the txdName from vehicles.meta.
Shader: put the panels on vehicle_paint3 and point its second diffuse texture (DiffuseSampler2) at <txd>_sign_1.
UVs: give those panels a clean second UV map, the same on every LOD.
Slots: add a <liveries> block to every colour in carvariations.meta and FLAG_HAS_LIVERY to vehicles.meta.
Or let the FiveMRides Livery Studio BETA do all four.

How GTA car liveries work

Part	Where	What it does
Livery textures	`<model>.ytd`	GTA counts liveries by name: it looks for `<txd>_sign_1`, `<txd>_sign_2`… in the car texture dictionary.
Livery shader	`.yft` and `_hi.yft`	The panels use `vehicle_paint3`. Its second diffuse texture, `DiffuseSampler2`, shows the livery over the paint and reads the second UV channel.
Second UV map	Every LOD of both models	Decides where each pixel of the livery lands on the body.
Livery slots	`carvariations.meta`	A `<liveries>` block inside each colour, one `<Item value="true" />` per livery.
Livery flag	`vehicles.meta`	`FLAG_HAS_LIVERY` in `<flags>`. Without it the native livery menu lists nothing.

The livery block goes right after </indices> in every colour of the car:

<Item>
  <indices content="char_array">
    0
    0
    0
    156
  </indices>
  <liveries>
    <Item value="true" />
    <Item value="true" />
  </liveries>
</Item>

Showing a livery texture and having a livery the menu can switch are two separate things. A car can display a livery and still show no liveries in the menu when FLAG_HAS_LIVERY or the <liveries> block is missing.

Why most add-on cars have no livery slot

Car makers unwrap the body for their own textures. The second UV channel is often missing, or holds a small repeating layout made for another texture, and the lower detail models are simplified on their own. A livery needs one clean layout across the whole car, on every LOD, plus the slots in the metas. Without that there is nothing for a livery menu to switch.

The livery template

You paint a livery on a flat sheet that maps onto the car through that second UV map. A good template is laid out so you can recognise the car: the Livery Studio projects six views (left, right, top, bottom, front and back) straight onto the panels you pick, so a stripe painted on the side view lands on the side of the car.

Keep the sheet at 2048 x 2048: sharp enough for a car and light for servers. FiveM cannot load a single texture over 16 MiB, and a 4096 x 4096 texture in DXT5 or BC7 with mipmaps is about 21 MiB.

The manual route: Blender, Sollumz and CodeWalker

Back up the resource. Import <model>.yft and <model>_hi.yft into Blender with the Sollumz add-on.
Select the body panels (the parts on the vehicle paint shaders) and create the second UV map with a clean layout where nothing overlaps. Do it on every LOD with the same layout, so the livery does not change or vanish at a distance.
Switch those materials to vehicle_paint3, keep their paint layer and existing textures, and set the second diffuse texture to <txd>_sign_1 as a texture that is not embedded in the model.
Export both .yft files with Sollumz and check that the car still opens in CodeWalker.
Paint the livery on a template of that UV layout, then add it to <model>.ytd as <txd>_sign_1 (CodeWalker can add textures to a .ytd). Add _sign_2, _sign_3… for more liveries.
Add the <liveries> block to every colour in carvariations.meta and FLAG_HAS_LIVERY to vehicles.meta.
Test on a server: livery in place, listed in the menu, still there at a distance and on a damaged body.

Expect to repeat steps 2 to 4 for every LOD of both model files, and to redo the template if you change which panels carry the livery.

The browser route: FiveMRides Livery Studio BETA

The FiveMRides Livery Studio does the steps above for you. Drop the resource (.zip or .rar, or the .yft with its .ytd, up to 100 MB) and the car appears in 3D in a few seconds, in its own spawn paint. Click the panels that should carry the livery, or use Body only, and the six-view sheet is built in your browser. Paint it with layers, brushes, text, shapes, your logos and presets such as racing stripes or a police Battenberg, or paint straight on the 3D car with symmetry. You can make several liveries per car and add a “No livery” slot.

	By hand	Livery Studio
Second UV map	You unwrap the panels on every LOD	Written with the same projection on every LOD of the `.yft` and `_hi.yft`
Shader	Switched material by material	Panels switched to `vehicle_paint3`
Template	You render one from the UV map	Six-view sheet built from the panels you click
Painting	In a separate image editor	Layered editor, or straight on the 3D car
Textures and metas	CodeWalker and a text editor	`_sign_N` textures, `carvariations.meta` and `vehicles.meta` set up in the ZIP

Uploading a car and the 3D preview are free with a FiveMRides account. An export costs 2 credits, charged only after the resource is built and verified; a failed export is not charged, re-exporting the same car is free for 7 days, and it is free with Studio Unlimited. We tested an export in game on a FiveM server on October 18, 2026: the livery showed in the right place, vMenu Vehicle Liveries switched between the liveries and removed it, and it stayed visible at a distance and on a damaged body. It is a BETA, so test your car before players use it. Escrowed or locked (.fxap) resources cannot be edited.

Open the Livery Studio (BETA)All Studio tools

Install the car and switch liveries in game

Put the resource folder in your server resources folder and add ensure <resource name> to server.cfg (or place it in a folder you already ensure).
Restart the server and spawn the car.
Open a menu that changes the native livery, such as vMenu Vehicle Liveries, and pick one. With a “No livery” slot, pick it to show the bare paint.
In scripts, GetVehicleLiveryCount(vehicle) returns the number of liveries and SetVehicleLivery(vehicle, index) applies one. The first livery is index 0.

LODs: why liveries vanish at a distance

GTA draws a car with simpler models as it moves away (LODs: high, medium, low and very low). Each LOD has its own geometry and its own UVs. When only the high model got the livery UV and shader, the livery disappears or smears at a distance. Give every LOD the same layout. If your livery already has this problem, see FiveM livery not showing: the fixes.

FiveM car livery FAQ

How do I make a FiveM car livery-ready?

Four things must line up: livery textures named <txd>_sign_1, <txd>_sign_2 and so on in the car .ytd, the body panels on the vehicle_paint3 shader with its second diffuse texture set to <txd>_sign_1, a clean second UV map on every LOD, and the livery slots declared in carvariations.meta (a liveries block in every colour) and vehicles.meta (FLAG_HAS_LIVERY).

What is a FiveM livery template?

It is the flat image you paint the livery on. It maps onto the car through the second UV map of the body panels, so the layout of that UV map decides where your paint lands. The FiveMRides Livery Studio builds a template with six views of the car (left, right, top, bottom, front and back) from the panels you pick.

Why does my livery menu say No Liveries Available?

The game found no livery slots for that car. Check that vehicles.meta has FLAG_HAS_LIVERY, that every colour in carvariations.meta has a liveries block, that the carvariations modelName matches vehicles.meta, and that the .ytd holds <txd>_sign_1 named after the txdName of the car.

Can I make a FiveM car livery online?

Yes. The FiveMRides Livery Studio (BETA) runs in your browser: upload the car, click the panels, paint the livery and download a FiveM resource with the livery slots set up. Uploading a car and the 3D preview are free with a FiveMRides account. An export costs 2 credits, charged only after the resource is built and verified; a failed export is not charged, re-exporting the same car is free for 7 days, and it is free with Studio Unlimited.

How big should a FiveM livery texture be?

2048 x 2048 is a good size: sharp on a car and light for servers. FiveM cannot load a single texture over 16 MiB, and a 4096 x 4096 texture in DXT5 or BC7 with mipmaps is about 21 MiB.