Adding Custom Car Tiles

This is an article on how to add custom car tiles in the car selection menu to match the custom liveries that you have added to the DiRT3 game so you dont get the default missing image like so:

 

 

DISCLAIMER: The following methods involve altering game files which could potentially stop Dirt 3 from working or cause it to have issues working. Therefore I take no responsibilty if you try these methods and something goes wrong. However I have used these methods sucessfully without issues and is highly unlikely to cause issues. ALWAYS BACKUP YOUR FILES before making any changes to it.

 

Notes:

The game does not normally use the method or files herein for its car selection tiles, they are normally saved in a slightly different format in compressed archives which I have not been able to make changes to. However I have been able to extract these tiles and convert them to a .dds file which is readable and editable and the game still recognises them. I have then found they can be saved to a location where the game looks for frontend images and then they appear in game.

 

Pre-Requisites:

Ryders PSSG Editor from my Tools page to inject your custom tiles into the game archive.

A custom car tile image available either with custom liveries (if included) or modified from an original car tile available from my download page here: Car Selection Tiles

Adobe Photoshop and nvidia dds plugin if you wish to edit the tiles. Or an image editor capable of reading and saving dds files.

 

Customising the image:

If you do no wish to customise the image or have downloaded it with a custom livery then skip to the next step.

Your image file will have the file extension .dds which is able to be opened in Photoshop with the Nvidia dds plugin if you wish to edit it: http://developer.nvidia.com/nvidia-texture-tools-adobe-photoshop

The files format is DXT1 ARGB 4 bpp | 1 bit alpha and DO NOT generate mip maps when saving.

 

Preparing the image:

Your custom tile image must be named in reference to the custom livery it will be representing using the car designation code and livery number i.e. aqb_07.dds will be for the Audi Quattro Rallye (aqb) and livery 07. This is coded into the game to refer to the database for each car and choose a tile starting at 00 and going up according to the livery number. 

You can find a list of which code is which car here: Car Designation Codes but the custom livery folder name should tell you what you will be naming it and the livery number is which ever you chose to use for your custom livery.

If you have added custom liveries to DiRT3 you should not need anymore explaination here.

 

Adding your custom tile to the game:

Browse through My Computer to your Dirt 3 game installation folder. This can be located in C:\Program Files\Codemasters\dirt 3\ or C:\Program Files\Steam\Steamapps\common\dirt3\ for steam users.

Browse to the frontend folder. Here you will find the b_nonpersistent.pssg.

MAKE A BACKUP OF THIS FILE IN CASE SOMETHING GOES WRONG

Open the b_nonpersistant.pssg with Ryders PSSG editor and you should see this:

 

 

Click on "Add" and you in the popup window enter your file name without the file extension i.e. aqb_07

 

 

Click o.k. and check that your new entry has been added. It will contain the same image as the la_coliseum_eve at first. Your new entry might not appear to be there but it might be hidden at the bottom of the list:

 

 

Make sure you have your new entry selected and then click on "Import".

Select your custom car tile and click o.k. and you should see it in the preview:

 

 

Now click on "File" then "Save" to save your customised b_nonpersistant.pssg file to the frontend folder of the dirt3 installation directory making sure you've backed up your original file first.

And thats it! your custom car tile image will appear in the game like so:

 

Thanks to Ryder25 for Ryders PSSG Editor.