Create combined textures for groups of custom airlines

Hello! First-time poster here, so please forgive any mistakes/faux pas or if I’ve otherwise posted this incorrectly. Update: I’m also doing this on my phone, which in hindsight was a terrible idea.

When I read this comment from Frederick, it seems one of the pieces that causes mods to quickly overload systems is that each modded airline (and it’s subsequent fleet models) requires a new texture file. The vanilla airlines, however, have been streamlined into fewer texture files, as shown in the pictures in Frederik’s comment (see esp. the vanilla E170 texture png).

When looking at mods, I can easily navigate to the native mod location where the livery png and it’s corresponding liveryData.json are located. I cannot, however, find the corresponding locations for the vanilla airlines. I can find their company data via Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps, etc. Yet the only pngs and jsons in those folders appear to be for the company logos, INVs, and info jsons (CEO name, fleet, etc.), plus their meta counterparts.

  1. Where are the vanilla liverydata.json and texture png files (or equivalents) in a Windows system? It seems like the json data could be replicated straightforwardly enough if you know the exact pixels, etc. those vanilla files use for each plane model and can save the appropriate liveries in the same place as the packed vanilla models. (As someone who would have a steep learning curve to even attempt it myself though, I’m sure it’s not as simple as I’m possibly making it out to be!)

  2. If they are visible, has anyone used this vanilla texture method to compile, say, US-based carriers’ 73X liveries in a more streamlined way? Are those what some of the mod packs on the workshop use, as opposed to simply a collection of individual mods?

Because I can’t seem to find the vanilla liveries, I may be missing some important structural understanding for why this doesn’t happen, but it was just on my mind enough to create an account and post this first topic! Thanks in advance for your insights.

PS - if anything I’ve suggested could be in any way be legally/ethically problematic, definitely let me know. My first deeper foray into this, and I’m sure there are rules about this kind of content modification I’m not aware of. Don’t want to cause any problems for/with those who have created such a great product!

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Quick disclaimer: I’m not an airline livery modder, so I don’t know how this stuff works too well. This info is based on my experiences and best guesses. I’m more of a gameplay modder…


I don’t think that JSON and PNG file is accessible to us at all… I think it’s somehow hidden in the compiled application. Does any actual modder know if this is correct?

Read this. I don’t quite know what the exact limits are, and what exactly happens if you break it. Maybe @Olof could explain?
Excerpt of EULA:
"You are not permitted to:

  • Edit, alter, modify, adapt, translate or otherwise change the whole or any part of the Software nor permit the whole or any part of the Software to be combined with or become incorporated in any other software, nor de-compile, disassemble or reverse engineer the Software or attempt to do any such things"

That was my leading theory as well, especially with something so fundamental. I’d completely understand if they hid it from amateurs like me, ha. Oh, the unnecessary bug reports…

Appreciate the EULA reminder link as well. My other working theory is the files were hidden as a way of protecting information proprietary info/intellectual property.

The mods out there already are great and devs support through the years (based on just reading through old posts on the forum) for users’ creativity has been awesome to see, so no complaints from me if the files are hidden for either reason. This was a question that was bouncing around in my head enough that I figured I should just ask it!

Edit: thank you so much, by the way!

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As far as I understood, the original liveries aren’t made the same way as mods. Those are part of a compilation/atlas which of course reduces the size and performance consumption.

I haven’t seen those, so no guarantee that it’s true what I’ve wrote.

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I mean, it does make sense. In mods it’s a “simple” call from json to a png in its folder, which has already been segmented by airline and base model. I’d imagine the game’s mod support structure would have to change on the back end to accommodate multiple companies’ json files all referring to a single (or a few) png files without that same segmentation.

Thanks for the educated guesses regardless! I’m appreciative of how active a core this game’s forum still has.

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The default liveries/planes are baked into the game application.

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Thanks for confirming.

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