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Basics

Get started with the basics of GTA V cloth modding

Let's get down to basics. First, let's discuss the file types we'll be working with.

YDD

This is a 'drawable dictionary'. If you've worked with mapping, you'll probably have seen these used as building LODs. For what we're doing, the YDD is your 3D model and (in most cases) it's LODs.

YTD

This is a 'texture dictionary'. Unlike with mapping, your YTDs will contain a SINGLE TEXTURE. For multiple clothing textures, we make multiple YTDs. Any clothing component or prop can have up to 26 textures, and you name them down the alphabet from "A" to "Z".

YFT

This file contains the multiplayer skeleton. We won't be editing this file, but you should understand it's importance. For making clothing components, it is REQUIRED to also acquire the YFT file to use as an 'external skeleton' reference for our YDDs. If you neglect this file, your clothing will either not export correctly or will not move with the body correctly in-game.

You should STUDY these files before trying to do anything with them. Open up CW RPF and type in "mp_f_freemode" or "mp_m_freemode" and look around. Open files. Click all the buttons and explore. The more you understand what you're looking at, the better off you'll be.

Next, let's talk about some general, important information about clothing.

COMPONENTS & PROPS

There are two different types of mp_freemode clothing & they are treated differently when working with them in blender. COMPONENTS are rigged pieces of clothing that use the MP Skel to move with the body. Because they're rigged, they have vertex groups that are weight painted, and have high/medium/low LODs (level of detail).

There are 12 components:

  1. ACCS also known as 'undershirts'

  2. BERD also known as 'masks'

  3. DECL also known as 'decals'

  4. FEET also known as 'shoes'

  5. HAIR self-explanatory

  6. HAND also known as 'bags' or 'parachutes'

  7. HEAD self-explanatory. the MP heads.

  8. JBIB also known as 'tops' or 'shirts' or 'jackets'

  9. LOWR also known as 'pants'

  10. TASK also known as 'body armor'

  11. TEEF also known as 'accessories'

  12. UPPR also known as 'torso'. upper body parts. gloves go here, too.

Props, on the other hand, are very similar to regular map props. They are not rigged. They are not actually a part of the mp character, but are objects that are "attached" to the body. Props use the same vertex colors, but do not usually have LODs. There are 5 prop categories:

  1. P_HEAD also known as 'hats'

  2. P_EYES also known as 'glasses/sunglasses'

  3. P_EARS also know as 'earrings'

  4. P_LWRIST also known as 'bracelets/watches'

  5. P_RWRIST also known as 'bracelets'

POLYCOUNT

This is something you should ALWAYS be paying attention to, whether you're converting assets from other games or modeling things yourself. A typical GTA ped component has around ~3600 verts or less. For modding, my general rule-of-thumb is 10k verts or less for any one piece of clothing. If you are making things for yourself, for Singleplayer mode, you can be much more lenient with this rule. However if you're planning to release anything for MP/FiveM you should be trying to keep your polycount as low as possible.

If you are making a clothing component, you should also be creating LODs (level of detail) for your clothing that should be increasingly LOWER poly. Medium should be at least half of the polycount of your high-LOD and your Low-LOD should be less than 500 verts.

You can check this by clicking the Materials tab when you have your YDD open in CW RPF.

Showing the vertex count of a piece of GTA clothing with High, Medium, and Low LODs.

Notice the high, medium, and low details. Those are the LODs.

VERTEX COLORS

Like mapping, clothing has vertex colors that are important for in-game appearance. Many people neglect this aspect of clothing and end up making bad mods. I'll detail this in more depth later, but you should know that ALL clothing, both components and props, use 2 vertex colors labelled 'colour0' and 'colour1' in-game. colour0 is almost always #FF8000 (an orange shade) and colour1 is usually #000. If you don't know why you would use a different color, then stick with these shades.

You can check this by clicking the Options tab when you have your YDD open in CW RPF. Note that they are labelled '1' and '2' in CW RPF instead of 0 and 1.

You can find a more detailed explanation on the vertex colors page: Vertex Colors

an example of vertex colour 1
an example of vertex colour 2

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