Skin Tone Data

Learn when and how to use Skin Tone Data for clothes with exposed body skin

What Skin Tone Data Does

Some clothing models include visible body parts, such as ankles attached to shoes, legs attached to pants, or skin around the upper body. If that skin were baked as one fixed color, it would only match a small number of player appearances.

Enabling Has skin tone data configures those exposed areas to follow the ped's current skin appearance. The clothing texture and its embedded blend mask must be prepared for the matching body region.

Skin Tone Data is not a color picker. The final result depends on the ped's current head blend and can fall between the preset examples shown in the preview.

When to Enable It

Use Skin Tone Data only when the drawable contains exposed, modeled skin that must follow the player ped.

Drawable type	Typical use
Head	A head drawable prepared to match the ped's skin tone
Body	Tops or torsos containing exposed chest, shoulders, arms, or other upper-body skin
Legs	Pants or lower-body models containing exposed legs or waist skin
Shoes	Shoes containing modeled feet, ankles, or lower-leg skin

Leave it disabled for ordinary opaque clothing and for components that do not contain exposed body skin. Transparency by itself is not a reason to enable it.

The supported body-skin regions are Body, Legs, and Shoes. Other clothing component types should remain universal. Head is handled separately and is not previewed as a body region.

Setting It Up in Durty Cloth Tool

1. Select the drawable in your project.

2. Enable Has skin tone data in the drawable details.

3. Make sure the model, external texture, alpha, and embedded blend textures were authored for skin-tone composition.

4. Open the 3D preview and try several skin presets.

5. Build the resource and test the same item on multiple in-game appearances.

Durty Cloth Tool handles the generated naming and metadata for you:

• A component without Skin Tone Data uses a model ending in _u.ydd and textures ending in _uni.ytd.

• A component with Skin Tone Data uses a model ending in _r.ydd and textures ending in _whi.ytd.

The _whi suffix is part of the required naming. It does not lock the final result to one skin color.

If you import files that are already named, keep the model and texture pair consistent. See Files Naming for the complete naming pattern.

Texture and Model Requirements

Skin-tone composition depends on more than the filename. A working item normally needs:

• a compatible _r model;

• a matching _whi external texture dictionary;

• correctly authored transparency in the clothing diffuse;

• a correctly named and authored embedded spec/blend texture in the model.

Keep the intended clothing diffuse as the first, and preferably only, texture in its external YTD. Embedded normal and spec textures should keep the component prefix, for example uppr_normal_000 and uppr_spec_000 for a Body drawable. Durty Cloth Tool reports naming problems it can detect.

A transparent diffuse is not enough on its own. A missing or incorrectly authored embedded blend mask can produce solid patches, incorrect skin coverage, or an item that does not match the ped as expected.

Using the 3D Preview

For skin-toned Body, Legs, and Shoes drawables, the Clothes preview can show these representative presets:

• whi

• ara

• chi

• lat

• bla

• pak

These are legacy preset labels used to inspect contrast and alpha coverage. They are not a list of six exact player skin colors. An in-game head blend can produce results between the preview examples.

The preview is an approximation. The in-game result can differ depending on the current head blend, the authored textures, graphics settings, and target game build.

Use the preview to catch obvious coverage and contrast problems, then use in-game testing as the final check.

Texture Resolution

For skin-toned Body, Legs, and Shoes drawables, use a maximum of 512 × 512 for the external diffuse texture. Durty Cloth Tool warns when a skin-toned texture exceeds this size because a larger source does not add detail to the final body-skin result.

This guidance applies to Body, Legs, and Shoes. Head uses a separate skin-tone workflow and is not covered by this 512 × 512 recommendation. Durty Cloth Tool does not automatically resize an oversized source during the build, so resize and optimize it yourself when the warning appears.

FiveM Resources

No extra client script is required just to apply Skin Tone Data. The generated collection metadata and streamed model/texture files carry the required setting, and the component can be selected normally.

For addon collections, prefer FiveM's collection-name and collection-local-index natives. This avoids global drawable IDs that can move when base-game or DLC content changes.

Always test the built resource on the GTA edition, game build, and FiveM client version used by your server. Legacy and Enhanced should not be assumed to render every custom material identically without a test.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Skin remains one fixed color	Confirm Has skin tone data is enabled and the model/texture pair uses _r and _whi
Solid or invisible patches	Check the diffuse alpha and the embedded spec/blend texture
Texture is missing	Check that drawable type, index, texture letter, and suffix all match
Skin looks soft or blurry	Keep the skin-toned diffuse at or below 512 × 512 and check compression/mipmaps
Preview and game look different	Test several head blends; the preview is a representative approximation
It works on one ped but not another	Check multiple genders and head-parent combinations, then verify the resource uses the intended collection

Recommended Test Checklist

Before publishing a skin-toned item:

1. Test at least one light, medium, and dark appearance.

2. Test intermediate head-blend values, not only the preview presets.

3. Check seams where clothing meets the neck, wrists, waist, ankles, or feet.

4. Check the item in bright daylight and dark interiors.

5. Test every texture variation and both supported genders where applicable.

6. Verify the exact resource build on the server/client configuration you intend to support.