FiveM Liveries Not Showing on an Add-On Car: Causes and Fixes

The mod page shows the car in six paint schemes. On your server it has one, and the livery option in your menu is empty or missing. Before changing any file, find out which kind of livery the car has, because "livery" means three different things in GTA V and each one fails for a different reason.

Three things that are called a livery

Menus keep these apart. vMenu's source code, for example, says that its liveries section shows the vehicle's own liveries and that liveries from a mod kit appear with the modifications. Looking in the wrong one of the two is the most common reason for "no liveries".

The two-minute test

Ask the game what the car has. Put this in a client script of any resource you can restart (a file listed with client_script in its manifest):

RegisterCommand('liverytest', function(_, args)
    local veh = GetVehiclePedIsIn(PlayerPedId(), false)
    if veh == 0 then
        print('Sit in the car first.')
        return
    end
    SetVehicleModKit(veh, 0)
    print('Texture liveries: ' .. GetVehicleLiveryCount(veh))
    print('Mod kit liveries: ' .. GetNumVehicleMods(veh, 48))
    local kind, index = args[1], tonumber(args[2])
    if kind == 'tex' and index then SetVehicleLivery(veh, index) end
    if kind == 'kit' and index then SetVehicleMod(veh, 48, index, false) end
end, false)

Sit in the car, type /liverytest and read the two lines in the F8 console.

• Texture liveries is the number of texture liveries. The native reference says it returns -1 when the vehicle has none.
• Mod kit liveries is the number of livery parts in the car's mod kit.
• /liverytest tex 0 sets the first texture livery and /liverytest kit 0 the first mod kit livery. vMenu's source notes that the game counts liveries from zero.

The script uses only natives from FiveM's reference. Remove it when you are done.

If both numbers are zero or less, the game sees no liveries on this car. The sections below go from the most to the least likely cause.

Cause 1: The livery is in the other menu

The test shows mod kit liveries and you were looking at the livery option of an admin menu, or the other way round. Nothing is broken. Mod kit liveries are tuning parts: set them at a mod shop or in the modifications part of your menu.

Cause 2: The flag is missing (texture liveries)

Texture liveries need FLAG_HAS_LIVERY in the car's <flags> line in vehicles.meta. This is the line from a converted Volkswagen Tiguan add-on:

<flags>FLAG_RICH_CAR FLAG_IS_OFFROAD_VEHICLE FLAG_HAS_LIVERY FLAG_HAS_INTERIOR_EXTRAS FLAG_ATTACH_TRAILER_ON_HIGHWAY FLAG_ATTACH_TRAILER_IN_CITY</flags>

If the mod's .ytd contains livery textures (next cause) and the flag is not there, add it to the list, separated by a space. Restart the server and reconnect.

Cause 3: The textures are missing or named differently

For a texture livery the game looks in the vehicle's own texture dictionary, the .ytd named in <txdName>. The textures are typically named after the model with _sign_ and a number:

tiguan_sign_1
tiguan_sign_2
tiguan_sign_3

A second set, typically named modelname_lvr_1 and so on, works the same way and needs the same flag. For both, the reference gives up to 30 liveries and a texture name of at most 31 characters.

To see what is in the file without installing anything, drop the .ytd into the YTD Optimizer. It reads the file in your browser and lists every texture by name. Then check:

• No _sign_ textures at all. The download did not include them, or they are in a different .ytd. Livery packs on gta5-mods.com are often separate downloads with instructions for single player.
• The textures are in another dictionary. They have to be in the car's own .ytd. A livery added to a different file is not found.
• The names do not follow the mod's own pattern. Keep the prefix of the mod's existing first livery and continue its numbering.
• You renamed the car. The .ytd file name and <txdName> must still match: see changing the spawn name.

If the car turns white or black when a livery is set, the cause can be a texture that fails to load: see missing textures.

Cause 4: The model was not built for texture liveries

According to the reference, the livery texture is applied to a second texture slot of the car's paint material. That slot is part of the model. If the author did not build it in, then in our reading adding _sign_ textures and the flag changes nothing: the car reports no liveries or looks the same with every one.

This cannot be fixed in the meta files. Use a version of the mod that lists liveries as a feature, or use the liveries the model does support.

Cause 5: The mod kit is broken (mod kit liveries)

A mod kit livery is a part like a spoiler. In carcols.meta it looks like this:

<Item>
  <modelName>tiguan_window_livery_01</modelName>
  <modShopLabel>tiguan_window_livery_01</modShopLabel>
  <type>VMT_LIVERY_MOD</type>
  <bone>chassis</bone>
  ...

It shows up only when the whole kit works:

• tiguan_window_livery_01.yft is in stream/.
• carcols.meta and carvariations.meta are loaded and name the same kit.
• No other resource uses the same kit ID.
• The script has selected the mod kit before setting the part. The native reference says body modifications mostly take no effect until SET_VEHICLE_MOD_KIT was called with 0, which is why the test above calls it.

All of this is covered in fixing a mod kit ID conflict. If the car's other tuning parts are missing too, start there.

Cause 6: The "livery" is an extra

Police and service car packs commonly build lightbars, roof numbers and some markings as extras. They appear in the extras list of a menu, not under liveries, and both counts in the test can be zero while the car still has several looks. Open the extras section of your admin menu and switch them one by one.

What about the liveries block in carvariations.meta?

Each colour combination in carvariations.meta carries a list of true and false values:

<liveries>
  <Item value="false"/>
  <Item value="false"/>
  ...
</liveries>

In our reading these belong to the colour combination: they say which liveries go with that colour when the game picks a look for the car itself. In the add-on files we inspected, all of them were false while the car had FLAG_HAS_LIVERY set. We found no primary source saying that false values stop a script or menu from setting a livery, so check causes 1 to 6 before editing this block.

What the converter does and does not do

A conversion from this site's converter carries over the mod's .ytd, its part files and its meta files as the author made them. Liveries that are in the mod are in the zip; liveries that are a separate download are not, and nothing is added or renamed. To check a resource before it goes on the server, the Resource Inspector reads the zip or folder in your browser and reports manifest lines that point at nothing and a mod kit that carvariations.meta names without carcols.meta defining it. What else is in the zip is listed in what is in a converted car zip.

FAQ

How do I set a livery in game to test it?

With the livery option of an admin menu such as vMenu, at a mod shop for mod kit liveries, or with the test command above: /liverytest tex 0 for the first texture livery, /liverytest kit 0 for the first mod kit livery.

What does FLAG_HAS_LIVERY do?

According to the reference we use, it makes the vehicle switch between the livery textures in its texture dictionary, and both kinds of texture livery require it. It is one word in the <flags> line of vehicles.meta.

Can I add my own livery to any add-on car?

Only if the model has the livery slot. If the car already has at least one working texture livery, adding a texture with the next number to its .ytd in a texture editor is the commonly used method; keep a copy of the original file. If the car has none, the model would have to be changed.

The livery shows when I set it, then is gone after I store the car. Why?

Then the files are fine. Garage scripts save a car's properties and put them back when it is taken out; if the livery is not among what yours saves, it is reset. That is a setting or a limit of the garage script.

Why do I see liveries in single player but not on FiveM?

A common reason is that the liveries were a separate download, installed into the single-player game in its own step and never part of the add-on itself. Check the .ytd in your resource for the _sign_ textures.

Sources

• GTAMods wiki: Vehicles.meta, read on 2026-10-10: FLAG_HAS_LIVERY, the _sign_ and _lvr_ texture names, the paint material slot, the 30-livery and 31-character limits
• FiveM natives: SET_VEHICLE_LIVERY, GET_VEHICLE_LIVERY_COUNT, SET_VEHICLE_MOD (mod type list with VMT_LIVERY_MOD = 48), SET_VEHICLE_MOD_KIT, GET_NUM_VEHICLE_MODS, SET_VEHICLE_EXTRA
• vMenu source, liveries section, read on 2026-10-10: own liveries and mod kit liveries are listed separately
• vehicles.meta, carcols.meta and carvariations.meta of a real add-on conversion (Volkswagen Tiguan), inspected on 2026-10-10
• Tutorial on mod kit liveries on the Cfx.re forum, for the VMT_LIVERY_MOD method