Picking a prop

The files it takes

The Reskin Studio works on a GTA prop model, the .ydr file (a drawable). It starts with a drop zone that takes one of two combinations:

12

1. 11. Reskin a prop: drop the .ydr, plus its .ytd if it has one
2. 22. What makes a great prop: embedded textures, the original prop

• name.ydr

  The prop carries its textures inside the .ydr. Most GTA props do.

• name.ydr + name.ytd

  The prop keeps its textures in a texture dictionary next to it, as props made with the 3D Generator or GLB to FiveM do. Drop both files at once.

• Each file can be up to 64 MB.
• The .ydr must be the binary game file, not an XML export.
• Other formats such as .yft (vehicles, breakable props), .glb or .fbx are not read here. For your own 3D model use GLB to FiveM.

Where props come from

• GTA V props

  Export the prop from your own copy of the game with a tool such as OpenIV or CodeWalker. Take the .ydr and, if the prop uses one, its .ytd.

• A resource you own

  Take the files from its stream folder. Only use props you have the rights to.

• Your SwisserAI props

  The 3D Generator and GLB to FiveM put a .ydr and a .ytd into the stream folder of their zip. The quick start uses one of those.

What makes a good prop

The drop zone lists two tips under What makes a great prop:

• Embedded textures. The studio edits the textures inside the .ydr, or the ones in the .ytd you drop with it.
• The original prop. Start from the original, not from an earlier reskin. Every export loses a little texture quality.

Props with a few large, clear textures are the easiest: signs, posters, boxes, crates, barriers and vending machines. Props made by the 3D Generator often have a texture cut into many small pieces. Recolours and AI Design work well on those; painting text on them is harder.

Reading the prop

After the drop the studio reads the prop and opens it. That took 8 seconds for our road barrier; the drop zone says it can take about 20. Reading a prop is free.

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1. 11. 0/3: edited textures out of all textures
2. 22. texture_diffuse: the texture of the full-detail model
3. 33. Download, Replace: appear when you point at a row

• Name. The texture's name inside the prop, for example texture_diffuse.
• Role and size. diffuse is the colour texture you see. Other roles such as normal or specular maps shape light and shine.
• Counter. 0/3 at the top counts the changed textures. A dot on a thumbnail marks a changed one, and the row says edited or replaced.
• Row buttons. Pointing at a row shows download and replace buttons for that texture.

thumbnail only in the texture bar means the full resolution image could not be loaded for that texture. Your edits still apply at full quality, but AI Design cannot run on it.

Finding the right texture

A prop can list textures its full detail model does not use. Our road barrier lists three, and only texture_diffuse is on the model in the 3D preview. The other two, ending in lod1 and lod2, belong to the simpler models the game shows from far away.

• Change a texture and look at the 3D preview. If the model does not change, undo it with Revert.
• Textures of the far-away models cannot be changed. A build with such a texture changed fails with an error that names the texture and ends in nicht unter tex-nodes, and costs nothing. See the build failed.