Creating Your First Vehicle Mod

Making a vehicle mod for GTA 6 can be divided into 4 parts: model preparation, material setup, handling configuration, and packaging. Expect to spend around 25-40 hours on your first vehicle; experienced modders take 8-12 hours. Make sure you have all the tools mentioned in Best Tools for GTA 6 Modding.

1. Prepare the model

Start with a clean base mesh under 100k tris. Create separate meshes for body, wheels, glass, interior, lights and door dummies. Copy the dummy naming pattern from existing vehicle add-ons, as Rockstar's parser is strict about exact name matching. You can also browse the Most Sold vehicles to see how shipped packs structure their meshes.

2. Set up materials (PBR)

Create PBR materials based on GTA 6's shader library. If your metallic, roughness and AO textures aren't packed properly, your vehicle will appear matte. The Best Tools guide covers texture viewers and conversion programs - most can be found in the Tools category.

3. Tune handling

Handling data lives in handling.meta. Copy stats from a similar real-world car (or an existing add-on) for realistic behavior - weight, traction curve, drive type, brake force. Iterate in-game with a trainer such as MenyoV that allows you to spawn-and-test in seconds.

4. Package and ship

Pack everything into an RPF archive with OpenIV, test drive it in-game, tweak handling values until satisfied, then upload your mod. With free uploads there is no configuration necessary; paid pricing unlocks once you complete Stripe onboarding (approx. 3 minutes). Refer to the Selling Mods - Creator Payout Guide for details on pricing your mods and the creator tier ladder.

Stuck on something specific?

The Vehicle Modding forum is where most of the active vehicle modding community hangs out. Post your work-in-progress there, ask questions about handling curves and get critiques on your model before you release it.