FiveM Development Guide
The complete 2026 workflow for building, optimising, and shipping custom MLOs, vehicles, and props to a live FiveM server—without the guesswork. For developers who already know Blender.
You've got Blender open and a model that looks right in the viewport.
The asset streams fine on your dev machine. You push it to the live server and it's invisible, flickering, falling through the floor, or just not appearing at all. The Sollumz wiki assumes you already know what a YDR is. The YouTube tutorials skip the parts that actually break.
The 2.7-to-2.8 jump broke a lot of older guides. The biggest community complaint in 2026 isn't "Sollumz is hard"—it's "every guide I find is from before the version I'm running." You waste a weekend on a workflow that no longer works.
2.8.0 introduced direct binary export via PyMateria. Half the tutorials still tell you to export CodeWalker XML. You're not sure which path is current, which is deprecated, and what the actual difference is—and nobody's put it in one place.
"Read the docs." "Check the wiki." "Just look at the Sollumz GitHub." Helpful in theory, useless in practice. This is the doc.
Outcomes, not features. By the end, you'll have shipped work, not just learned theory.
Ten sections. Built around the current Sollumz 2.8.x line.
What Sollumz is, what 2.8.0 changed, and why the native binary path matters. The release timeline from GIMS EVO to where we are now.
The full setup: Blender 4.0+ (5.0+ recommended), Sollumz 2.8.x, PyMateria install, project scale, and the XML fallback for non-Windows users. Get your environment right once, so the rest just works.
Importing vanilla buildings as reference, building YDRs from scratch, materials and textures, LODs, vertex colours, collisions, and full MLO interiors with rooms and portals.
Importing existing vehicles, preparing your model, converting to fragment, materials and textures, the new automatic shattermap generation in 2.8.0, vehicle collisions, and rigging.
Static and dynamic props: import, prepare, convert to drawable, materials, LODs, embedded collisions, and vertex colours.
Polygon count management, texture optimisation, collision optimisation, portal and room optimisation, and lighting optimisation. The "why does my server chug" section.
The native binary export path (Windows), the CodeWalker XML fallback (macOS / Linux), creating a YMAP for placement, and preparing files for FiveM. Includes the MLO-specific modifications.
Copying resources to your server, adding to server.cfg, testing in-game, MLO teleports, and controlling MLO entity sets. The path from local file to live resource.
What a YTD is, embedded vs external trade-offs, the streaming math, organising your YTD folder structure, and protecting paid work via Tebex encryption.
An indexed reference for the failures you will hit: asset visibility, MLO-specific issues, collision issues, 2.8.0-specific regressions, export and conversion failures, performance, and where to get help when you're stuck.
Not every guide is for every developer. Here's who gets the most out of this one.
Honest answers. The things I'd want to know before paying.
Blender 4.0 minimum. The guide recommends Blender 5.0+ for the smoothest experience with Sollumz 2.8.x. Anything older than 4.0 won't load the add-on. If you're on 4.4 or 4.5, you need Sollumz 2.7.2 or later to clear a known terrain painter bug. If you're on 5.1, you need 2.8.3 or the archetypes UI breaks.
PyMateria is required for the native binary workflow and is installed automatically the first time you enable Sollumz. It's Windows-only. The guide covers the full CodeWalker XML fallback for macOS and Linux users—same end result, just an extra step.
Yes. The native binary export in 2.8.0+ supports both Legacy (Gen8) and Enhanced (Gen9) assets, and the guide walks through choosing the right game version on import and exporting to both formats from the same .blend file. Note: YMAP and YCD files still require CodeWalker XML—the native pipeline doesn't cover those yet.
The guide covers the full path: file structure, YMAP creation, server.cfg integration, MLO teleports, entity sets, and an entire troubleshooting section indexed by symptom (visibility, collision, MLO-specific, performance). If you follow it, it streams. The two things that cause "it doesn't appear" are almost always a server.cfg include order issue or a YMAP placement error, both of which are covered.
3D builders. There's no Lua, no fxmanifest.lua walkthrough, and no handling.meta. If you want to build a custom MLO or vehicle and have it load cleanly on your server, this is for you. If you want to script the gameplay around it, pair this with a Lua resource guide.
It's a Gumroad product. You get a PDF plus browser-based access. Read it on the web, or download and keep it local.
Yes. Free updates through the Sollumz 2.x line. When 2.9 ships or a meaningful 2.8.x patch lands, the guide gets updated and you get the new version. No subscription, no extra cost.
Yes. The blog covers decisions, comparisons, and version awareness (see Sollumz in 2026: What's Changed and Sollumz vs In-Game MLO Builders). The guide is the full operational workflow—ten sections, indexed, with troubleshooting by symptom. Different jobs.
One-time purchase
£24.99
PDF + browser access. Free updates through the 2.x line.