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Turn a GTA5-Mods add-on car into a FiveM resource

Single-player add-ons ship the way single player wants them: one dlc.rpf you drop into dlcpacks and register in dlclist.xml. FiveM wants the opposite — files loose, in a resource, with an fxmanifest that registers each meta by type. Paste the mod page link and get that resource back.

Why the mod does not just work

Open almost any add-on car on GTA5-Mods and the install instructions are the same: put dlc.rpf in mods/update/x64/dlcpacks/ and add a line to dlclist.xml. That is a single-player packaging format. FiveM never reads either path.

A FiveM server wants the models under stream/, the metas at the root of a resource, and an fxmanifest.lua that names each meta with the right data_file type — VEHICLE_METADATA_FILE is not interchangeable with CARCOLS_FILE, and getting it wrong is a car that spawns untextured or does not spawn at all.

Doing that by hand means OpenIV, a lot of dragging, and knowing which meta needs which line. That gap is the whole tool.

You paste the mod page. The tool reads the page for the title, author and version, follows the download the same way a browser does, and pulls the archive. Only gta5-mods.com is accepted, the download is size-capped, and the archive is deleted once the resource is built — the mod is converted, never re-hosted, and the author and version go into the README that ships with it.

1Paste the linkthe mod page, not a file2Fetchpage, then the archive3Unpackrpf and archive opened4Builda FiveM resource zip
The download runs to a few hundred MB, so it goes on the job queue.

Because the download and the rebuild take longer than a request should be held open, the job is queued and you are told your position. Discord tells you when it is done if you have your account linked.

What lands in the zip

The resource is laid out the same way every other export from this site is laid out, so it looks like the rest of your server rather than like a converted mod.

carname.zipstream/the models, loose*.metaregistered by type in the manifestaudio/keeps its own folder layoutfxmanifest.luaeach meta on its right data_fileREADME.txtauthor, version, spawn name
Metas at the root, models under stream/, audio keeping its structure.

If the mod shipped without a meta the car needs, the missing one is generated and the result tells you which — a warning you should read, because a generated carcols is a sane default, not the author's intent. Cars that ship their own engine sound keep it: the audio folders are preserved and the manifest gets the lines that register them.

A replace mod can become an add-on

Plenty of the best-looking cars on the site are replace mods — they ship as adder or sultan and expect to overwrite a vanilla car. Install that on a server and the vanilla car is gone for everyone.

When the upload turns out to be a replace, you are asked before anything is built, and you can have it rewritten to a new name instead. The metas are rewritten with it, so the car spawns under its own name and nothing vanilla is touched.

Answering that question does not cost a second export. The download already happened; the rebuild runs from the tree still on disk.

What it costs

Two credits a car. Free on any plan, and free inside a credit pack's perk window — the importer is one of the tools a subscription is for.

You are asked to confirm you may use the mod on your server before anything downloads. That confirmation is the tool's line: the licence on the mod page is between you and its author.

Try it free

Create a free account, join the Discord for your credits, and build your first asset in minutes.