If I'm Gonna Come In Last, I Might As Well Look Good Doing It
Trading Paints is a third party tool that is the unofficial official painting platform for iRacing. Users running the TP application can see other users custom paints in the sim, so just about everyone uses it. I started painting my cars almost immediately, because, well, it's super fun to make these things.
If you want to see them all, check out my Trading Paints profile.
Here's How I Make Them!
A vehicle in iRacing is obviously a 3D object. So we provide a UV mesh – essentially a flattened blueprint – as a 2048x2048 canvas. Each panel and piece of the car is represented on this canvas so users can create custom paints like I've made here. Everything you see here was designed primarily in Photoshop. Textures like metallic, matte, or satin finishes come alive through a "spec map." This map interacts with the in-game lighting, dictating how light reflects off your custom paint job. It's like adding an extra layer of detail, transforming a flat design into a car that gleams realistically.
It's an incredibly fun mental puzzle to design on such a weird canvas, but when you get it just right it's just
