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How to replace a texture in a GTA V .ytd file

Export a texture, edit it in your image editor and put it back into its texture dictionary with the right format and mipmaps, safely in the mods folder.

Updated · 3 min read

RPFView – Texture viewer
RPFView texture viewer showing a 2048×2048 BC3 livery texture from a DLC pack, with zoom, mip level and R, G, B and A channel togglesRPFView texture viewer showing a 2048×2048 BC3 livery texture from a DLC pack, with zoom, mip level and R, G, B and A channel toggles

Before you start

  • RPFView with the game folder and keys set up. See how to open RPF files for the first start.
  • An image editor such as GIMP, Paint.NET or Photoshop.

1. Find the texture dictionary

Textures live in .ytd texture dictionaries. A vehicle's own textures are usually in a .ytd with its name, such as adder.ytd; clothing textures sit next to their models in the ped's folders.

  1. Press Ctrl+F, search for the name with ext:ytd (for example adder ext:ytd) and press Enter.
  2. Double-click the result to open its folder, then click the .ytd once. The texture viewer opens in the preview pane on the right, with every texture of the dictionary in a list.
  3. Click through the list to find the texture you want to change. Zoom, mip levels and the R, G, B and A channel buttons help you check what you're looking at.

2. Export the texture

  1. With the texture selected, open Export and choose Selected texture as PNG…. PNG opens in every image editor; choose Selected texture as DDS… instead if your editor handles DDS and you want all mip levels.
  2. Edit the image and save it, keeping the same size.

3. Replace the texture

  1. Back in RPFView, select the same texture and click Replace… in the bar above the list (or right-click it and choose Replace…, or drop your image onto the preview).
  2. Pick your edited image. PNG, JPG, BMP, GIF, TIFF and DDS files work.
  3. In Replace texture, leave Match the replaced texture ticked. Your image then gets the original's size, format and number of mipmaps, so the game sees the same layout.
  4. Click Replace. The texture is marked as changed but not saved yet.

To choose the format yourself, untick Match the replaced texture and pick a Format: DXT1 (BC1) – opaque, smallest, DXT5 (BC3) – with alpha, ATI2 (BC5) – normal maps, BC7 – high quality or A8R8G8B8 – uncompressed. Keep Generate mipmaps on, and tick Normal map for normal maps; RPFView then filters the mipmaps as vectors instead of colours.

Add… adds new textures to the dictionary, and Rename and Remove work the same way. Every change stays pending until you save.

4. Save, into the mods folder

  1. Click Save in the texture bar.
  2. If RPFView asks to turn on Edit mode, click Enable Edit mode.
  3. For an archive of the game itself, RPFView offers to copy it to the mods folder first. Click Copy to mods: the original stays untouched and you edit the copy. (If a copy is already there, click Edit mods copy.)
  4. The texture dictionary is now updated inside the archive, but the archive isn't written yet. In the main window, choose File → Save all (Ctrl+Shift+S).

Saving is crash-safe: RPFView writes the archive to a temporary file and swaps it in only when everything worked. For an extra copy, turn on Keep a backup (.bak) of archives when saving in Tools → Settings….

5. See it in the game

Like OpenIV, RPFView saves archives in the OPEN format. The game needs an RPF/mods loader, such as OpenIV.asi, to load edited archives from the mods folder; RPFView doesn't install one. Mods are for single player only: modified game files in GTA Online can get your account banned.

Common problems

My texture looks blurry or blocky

Compressed formats lose some detail. For sharp details, untick Match the replaced texture and choose BC7 – high quality, or A8R8G8B8 – uncompressed at the cost of a much bigger file.

Nothing changed in the game

Check that you saved the archive with File → Save all, that the edited archive is in the mods folder, and that a mods loader is installed.

Copying to mods takes long

RPFView copies the whole game archive the first time, and some are more than a gigabyte. Later edits use the copy straight away.

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