About carcols.dat


Tools: Notepad
Tutorial author: FunGt & Abe90

Carcols.dat file is located in common\data folder and contains the colors of the vehicles. The following table shows 134 IDs (starting by #0).


The color line:

226,6,6,bright,red # 27 very red
  • 226,6,6: color expressed in RGB (red green blue).
  • bright,red: it is needed for the police scanner audio.
  • # 27 very red: ID and name color.

Car color line:

schafter, 0,1,1, 70,133,8, 16,133,8, 22,133,8,
  • schafter,: car name.
  • 70,133,8,: first and second ID are the colors of the car body. The second ID is used for example by the Banshee. The 8 is the second specular.

Car4 section:
This section, located at the bottom of the file contains the cars with 4 IDs, 3 for body and 1 for second specular.

How to create a new color


  1. Run Paint and double-click on a color.
  2. In this small window click "define custom colors>>"
  3. Create the color you want (I chose aqua green).
  4. Now, don't close Paint, and open carcols.dat with Notepad.
  5. Scroll until ID 133 and make a copy of the last line to make a new one below.
  6. Replace the 3 numbers with those in Paint (Red, Green, Blue)(screen).
  7. Replace 133 with an higher number such as 134.
  8. Replace the rest with the name of the color, write whatever you like.
  9. The line just added should be like that:130,253,194,-,white # 134 aqua green

Now lets add the line to a car.

How to add the new color:
  1. Search a car in carcols.dat and at the end of its line add your new ID color, in this case 134. Remember to add a comma and a space between every color you add.
  2. Then, the line should look like this:
    schafter, 0,1,1, 70,133,8, 16,133,8, 22,133,8, 134,134,134,
  3. In the game the car with the new color should look like this: