Carcols.dat

carcols.dat is a file located in the data folder from GTA 3 to San Andreas or the common\data folder for GTA 4. The file contains a colour palette and numbers to associate them with specific cars. Cars may or may not have a colour palette.

Overview

Line comments are indicated by the character # (number sign) and empty lines are allowed. They can be placed anywhere in the file. Each section starts with a section identifier indicating how the content of the section gets interpreted by the game. The identifier is followed by the definition entries. Each entry takes one line and every line follows a specific format. The end of any section is indicated by the terminating string end. Both the section identifier and terminating string are case sensitive. Data are usually separated by the character , (comma) but can be separated by  (space). Extra tabs and spaces anywhere in the beginning of the line, between data, or after the data are omitted by the game and can be used to improve readability for human eyes.

Example

# line comment
col
# default style in col section
5,5,5
# valid style
	    5 5 5 # unread data
end

Format

Section	Supported games	Description
col		Color table
car		Car color assignments
car4
car3

col

col
# III/VC/SA
R, G, B
# IV
R, G, B, Prefix, Color
end

		Identifier	Type	Description
A,B,C		R, G, B	integer[3]	The color in RGB.
-	D	Prefix	string	Police scanner prefix name: - bright light dark
-	E	Color	string	Police scanner color name: black blue brown beige graphite green grey orange pink red silver white yellow GrottiRed DewbaucheGreen

Below are the colours available in the default carcols.dat file, numbered according to their respective index in the section. In GTA III and Vice City, the police scanner describes the color of the vehicle the player is currently in. The association between what SFX the games play for the police scanner and the color table index is hardcoded; the police scanner supports only 95 indices in both games. For GTA III v1.0, the array containing this data starts at 0x60E910. For Vice City v1.0, the array containing this data starts at 0x6D5338.

GTA III Index Police scanner name 0 black 1 white 2 blue 3 red 4 dark blue 5 purple 6 yellow 7 bright blue 8 light blue grey 9 light 10 dark 11 dark 12 dark red 13 red 14 red 15 red 16 red 17 red 18 red 19 light 20 dark 21 dark 22 dark 23 orange 24 orange 25 orange 26 orange 27 orange 28 orange 29 light 30 dark 31 dark 32 dark 33 yellow 34 yellow 35 yellow 36 yellow 37 yellow 38 yellow 39 light 40 dark 41 dark 42 dark 43 green 44 green 45 green 46 green 47 green 48 green 49 light 50 dark 51 dark 52 dark 53 blue 54 blue 55 blue 56 blue 57 blue 58 blue 59 light 60 dark 61 dark 62 dark 63 purple 64 purple 65 purple 66 purple 67 purple 68 purple 69 light 70 dark 71 dark 72 dark 73 silver 74 silver 75 silver 76 silver 77 silver 78 silver 79 light 80 light 81 light 82 light 83 light 84 light 85 light 86 light 87 light 88 light 89 light 90 dark 91 dark 92 dark 93 dark 94 dark

Vice City Index Police scanner name 0 black 1 white 2 blue 3 red 4 dark blue 5 purple 6 yellow 7 bright blue 8 light blue grey 9 light 10 dark 11 dark 12 dark red 13 red 14 red 15 red 16 red 17 red 18 red 19 light 20 dark 21 dark 22 dark 23 orange 24 orange 25 orange 26 orange 27 orange 28 orange 29 light 30 dark 31 dark 32 dark 33 yellow 34 yellow 35 yellow 36 yellow 37 yellow 38 yellow 39 light 40 dark 41 dark 42 dark 43 green 44 green 45 green 46 green 47 green 48 green 49 light 50 dark 51 dark 52 dark 53 blue 54 blue 55 blue 56 blue 57 blue 58 blue 59 light 60 dark 61 dark 62 dark 63 purple 64 purple 65 purple 66 purple 67 purple 68 purple 69 light 70 dark 71 dark 72 dark 73 silver 74 silver 75 silver 76 silver 77 silver 78 silver 79 light 80 light 81 light 82 light 83 light 84 light 85 light 86 light 87 light 88 light 89 light 90 dark 91 dark 92 dark 93 dark 94 dark

San Andreas

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39
40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59
60	61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79
80	81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90	91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99
100	101	102	103	104	105	106	107	108	109	110	111	112	113	114	115	116	117	118	119
120	121	122	123	124	125	126

Vice City Stories

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39
40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59
60	61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79
80	81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90	91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99
100	101

GTA IV

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39
40	41	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54	55	56	57	58	59
60	61	62	63	64	65	66	67	68	69	70	71	72	73	74	75	76	77	78	79
80	81	82	83	84	85	86	87	88	89	90	91	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99
100	101	102	103	104	105	106	107	108	109	110	111	112	113	114	115	116	117	118	119
120	121	122	123	124	125	126	127	128	129	130	131	132	133	134	135	136

134, 135, 136 - TBoGT

car

car
# III/VC/SA
ModelName, FirstColor1, SecondColor1, FirstColor2, SecondColor2, FirstColor3, SecondColor3, FirstColor4, SecondColor4, FirstColor5, SecondColor5, FirstColor6, SecondColor6, FirstColor7, SecondColor7, FirstColor8, SecondColor8
# IV
ModelName, FirstColor1, SecondColor1, FirstColor2, SecondColor2, FirstColor3, SecondColor3, FirstColor4, SecondColor4, FirstColor5, SecondColor5, FirstColor6, SecondColor6, FirstColor7, SecondColor7, FirstColor8, SecondColor8, FirstColor9, SecondColor9, FirstColor10, SecondColor10, FirstColor11, SecondColor11, FirstColor12, SecondColor12, FirstColor13, SecondColor13, FirstColor14, SecondColor14, FirstColor15, SecondColor15, FirstColor16, SecondColor16, FirstColor17, SecondColor17, FirstColor18, SecondColor18, FirstColor19, SecondColor19, FirstColor20, SecondColor20, FirstColor21, SecondColor21, FirstColor22, SecondColor22, FirstColor23, SecondColor23, FirstColor24, SecondColor24
end

	Identifier	Type	Description
A	ModelName	string	Model name of vehicle.
B	FirstColor1	integer	First car color of first pair. The value represents the index number in the col section starting with 0.
C	SecondColor1	integer	Second car color of first pair. The value represents the index number in the col section starting with 0.
D	FirstColor2	integer	First car color of second pair.
E	SecondColor2	integer	Second car color of second pair.
Repeat for a total of 8 pairs for GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas; and 24 pairs for GTA IV.

Vehicles that spawn with a randomized color will choose a random pair of colors for the vehicle model from this section. It is not required to fill all 8 or 24 pairs of colors for each model; the games will ignore unused pairs. It is not even required for a model to have an entry in this section; the games will default to the pair 0,0.

car3

Only used in GTA4, this section contains the same data as CAR section from previous games but has a third value, the specular colour.

car4

Included in GTASA, this section contains the same data as CAR section but has colours in sets of 4 instead of 2. These cars will need to have not only primary and secondary materials assigned within the dff, but also tertiary and quaternary materials. By default, only the Campervan, Cement Mixer and Squalo boat use 4 colours in the game.

In GTA4 the data is the same as in the CAR3 section but with a fourth value, the tertiary colour.

Adding new colours

This is incredibly simple. To begin with, you must come up with an RGB code that matches the colour you want a car to spawn as. As explained earlier, choose any number between 0 and 255 for each 3 values. If you choose 255,0,0 you will have the strongest red colour possible.

Now in the COL section, add a new line at the bottom, and give it a # number that follows on from the very last colour.

Make sure your new line does not have the same # number as any other line.

Once you have your new line ready, you can add a name for it on the right, similar to the other lines, but this is not necessary. You have now finished with the COL section.

Now we move onto the CAR and CAR4 sections. Find the vehicle you want your new colour(s) to apply to. This vehicle should already have one or more pairs assigned to it. You can either remove these, or add your new pair to the end. Whichever you choose will make no difference, but don't forget the last number of the car's line must not have a comma ending it.

A pair can also have the same colour in it twice, all this will do is match the primary and secondary colours together. Remember, many cars only make use of the primary colour in a pair - the dff model file will need editing if you want the secondary colour to function somewhere on a car. The secondary colour (and perhaps tertiary and quaternary if using CAR4) can be set to anything should the model not actually have any materials assigned to those values.

Note: In San Andreas, having more than 179 colors will crash the game.

Adding carcols functionality to your own model (ZModeler only)

This can be achieved simply using tags on the ends of your model's material names. You can force the game to apply the primary colour setting to a material by adding:

[prim]

to the end of the material name, separated by a space. Secondary is [sec], tertiary is [ter] and quaternary is [qua]. A model can have multiple materials using a specific data type.

Tool

•  GTAGarage: X Car Colors Editor