This is why all vanilla cars have a second UV map, refered to as UV map 1, which is not mirrored and is designed specifically for making paint schemes. The first UV one, called UV map 0, is mirrored, and is designed to optimize the use of UV space for mechanical components, normal map details and others. When playing in the material editor, you should only edit the second layer, and leave the first layer as is.Īs for the UV maps, each of the vanilla cars is set-up with 2. The 2 layers consist of a base layer that has all elements of the vehicle, and a second layer with only the car’s painted areas, along with a opacity map.

Non colorable skins, which aren’t affected by the color selector.Ī small particularity of most vanilla cars is that they have 2 different UV maps, and 2 separate layers on the main material.

Partially colorable skins, where most of the skin can be adjusted using the color selector, but some sections like badges and logos are a fixed color.

Fully colorable skins, where the color of the entire skin can be adjusted using the color selector.

This tutorial includes examples for the 3 most common use cases when it comes to vehicle skins : For the materials you should start with the car’s file, found in the car’s zip file.

GIMP and Paint.Net are very good free options.

While you can use MS Paint to make skins, it’s heavily suggested that you learn to use a program that supports layers.

This file will be used as the reference for drawing your skin. All vanilla cars should have a png file with a name like “skin_UVs” in their folder. To make your own skins there are a few things that you will need :

Install custom cars beamngdrive