Awesome Simracing

How-To: AC Rally Liveries

Custom liveries for Assetto Corsa Rally (AC Rally, from update 0.6): where the game keeps them, which files to upload and how to install them. The steps of the livery form are in Livery Upload.

Folders

AC Rally reads custom liveries from Documents\My Games\acr\Liveries. The game creates it with one folder per car when it starts the first time, e.g. AudiQuattroGr4. Each livery is a folder inside the folder of its car:

  • Documents\My Games\acr\Liveries\<car>\<folder name>: the livery folder with its files.

The Folder name in the livery form is the name of the livery folder. It must not start with _ (the game ignores such folders), and no other AC Rally livery of the same car may use it. The game lists at most 25 own liveries per car.

Painting a livery

The official templates come with the game, in acr\Content\LiveryTemplates of the game folder, with a README. Tools like LiveryStudio export a finished livery folder for AC Rally.

Livery files

  • livery.json (required): stickers on or off, and the base coat (colour, roughness, metallic) of the parts the paint does not cover. Saved as UTF-8 without BOM.
  • body_livery_albedo.dds (required): the paint, BC3 (DXT5), 4096×4096.
  • Optional textures: body_livery_roughness.dds and body_livery_metallic.dds (BC4), body_livery_coat_mask.dds (clear coat mask, BC3) and window_livery_albedo.dds (windows, BC3).
  • icon.png (optional): the icon of the livery list in the game, 48×48.

The files must keep these names. Each texture is a real DDS file whose width and height are powers of two up to 4096 pixels, at most 32 MB; all files of a livery together may have 150 MB.

The quickest way: select the livery folder, or the folder of the car with it, or drop it onto the form. All files are filled at once, together with the folder name and the car, which is the folder the livery folder is in. Old liveries as a mod (.pak files) cannot be uploaded: AC Rally reads them from Liveries since update 0.6.

Installing AC Rally liveries

The desktop client does not install AC Rally liveries yet. Install them from their ZIP:

  1. Close the game: it only finds new livery folders when it starts.
  2. Click Download ZIP on the livery page.
  3. Copy the folder of the car from the ZIP onto Documents\My Games\acr\Liveries, so the livery folder ends up in the folder of the car, e.g. Liveries\Peugeot206\my_livery\body_livery_albedo.dds.
  4. Start the game, pick the car and choose the livery.

Problems

  • The livery does not show up in the game: the livery folder must be directly in the folder of its car, must not start with _, and the game must be restarted after copying it. The game lists at most 25 own liveries per car.
  • The form says the JSON has a BOM: open livery.json in an editor and save it as UTF-8 without BOM.
  • The form rejects a texture: check its name, that it is a real DDS file and that width and height are powers of two (e.g. 2048 or 4096).