Hello. New to moding and need help.

[thablewprnt]

I'm new to modding, but I have been playing GTA SA for years. I'm currently on vacation and would like to kick back and enjoy SA all over again, this time with some mods. I am most interested in car mods. I am able to install car mods with little to no problems using "San Andreas Mod Installer" What I can't seem to figure out is how to alter certain aspects of cars like the paint. I searched google using various keywords pertaining to my question, but the only thing I found were mostly videos of people showing off, and a few good sites including this one. I have seen some really cool custom paint jobs with flames, or tribal decals. How is that done? Also I would like to make the wheels and tires bigger with some custom rims... I seen a few videos on Youtube where all of these changes are being made from the paint garage. I'm a do it myself kinda of guy. If someone can explain the processes and tools needed to make these kinds of mods, please explain, as I have no problems with trying to do it on my own. Hope my questions are clear and thanks for any help.

P.S. Here is one of those videos I was referring to, thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq45KITv0wY

[rockstarrem]

Hey, welcome to the forums. If you like screwing with things and not caring if something screws up (just backup, nothing can screw up then) then you can experiment with the file carcols.dat. This is located in C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\data , just open it up in notepad and have a good time.

The file is self explanatory, Rockstar even gave the "color names" for you, so if you need any help just ask, I haven't used the file before but it looks pretty simple. Good luck!

[thablewprnt]

Hey, welcome to the forums. If you like screwing with things and not caring if something screws up (just backup, nothing can screw up then) then you can experiment with the file carcols.dat. This is located in C:\Program Files\Rockstar Games\GTA San Andreas\data , just open it up in notepad and have a good time.

The file is self explanatory, Rockstar even gave the "color names" for you, so if you need any help just ask, I haven't used the file before but it looks pretty simple. Good luck!

Thx for the welcome. Sounds like some good advice. I'll give it a try and see what happens. Since I posted my question I continued my search, and came across a "wheel rendering" tutorial. I'm assuming that I would have to render my own wheels to my specifications, then some how swap my image using an image tool with the original wheel. Just like I would do with other mods, like guns, or buildings. I'm very good at PS, so I don't think rendering would be too difficult to deal with. The question is what 3d program is best for the job. Has anybody here had any experience making their own mods, and if so how did you incorporate them into the game?