Before you start, it is worth reading this. Save the link in the tab because you will probably need it more than once. Remember that Mods Studio 2 is a free program. The creator did a great job completely for free and the program is in beta version. The creator of the program has to face many problems in order to maintain the project. Probably many people report problems and I am convinced that the creator is doing his best. Without this program, many people would not be able to make a skin. So let’s show our gratitude. If you have any problem with the program, you can go to the creator’s website and report the issue. But before this, please review the dealing with issue section here. If you are not convinced by what I wrote, make your own program. We’ll see how long it takes you. I think you shit sooner;-), but if I’m wrong then take the challenge and make a better program. For free of course.

Unfortunately you have to learn to use some graphics program. For example, GIMP, Photoshop etc. There are many tutorials on YT. I am not able to teach you that because it take time. Knowing the basics of using e.g. gimp, is good enough to do a skin without any problems.

Let’s start!

You need to download templates. There are plenty of them on the internet. Enter something like: Templates for ETS2 etc. Download and put them in a place where you can easily find it. Once that’s done, find the template for your standard scs box trailer. This template should look like this:

Both templates are from Dry freighter and I use them because the paintjobs/skins will suit all trailers best. (At least that’s my experience). Both templates should have at least the following dimensions: 1024px width / 512px height. Each subsequent size will make the skin of higher quality. 2048px / 1024px or 4096px / 2048px. Personally, I only use 4096px / 2048px because it gives the most beautiful effect and does not crash the game. Size 8196px/4096px will work too, but it happened to me that it crash the game when I put the skin on because it is an extremely large texture and can be up to 400mb. So I recommend the size 4096px / 2048px.

Once you’ve downloaded and opened the templates in your graphics program, make some beautiful painting and export them to a png file to a place that you can easily find later. Do not rush. Focus on the long trailer template for now. When you’re finished, it should look something like this:

When you have this done, go to Part Two

Write a comment if you have a question. English please.

So now it’s time to install MODS STUDIO 2. To do this, go to the developer’s website HERE

Go to the “Download” section and find the download links. See picture below.

Download the archive somewhere so you can easily find it. Choose a location on your computer where you can copy the archive and create a folder with whatever name you want, so you know it’s mods sudio. Move the archive to the created folder and extract it there. After unpacking, you can delete the archive because you won’t need it anymore. After unpacking it should look something like on the picture below.

We are interested in the file marked in red. Right-click on it and create a shortcut on the desktop. You can try to run mods studio but it probably won’t start. Go here

Download and install Microsoft .NET Core 3.1 Runtime and try to run mods studio, if it doesn’t start, follow the steps described on the developer’s website. In my case, I had to download and install Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2019. After these steps, you should be able to run Mods Studio 2. And you should see this:

In case of problems you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg599gwW0W4

Go to Part Three

In the last step, you installed mods studio 2 and you should be able to run it and see a window like this. Click:

Start a new mod product

A new window will open. Click ETS2 Mod Project.

Click “Trailer Skin”

Go to Basic now and fill out all the fields as shown in the pictures below.

This is the primary color, you have to set the color to suit your painting. If you made a template with a lot of red color, set a similar color here.

Next step is setting up the icon. Take a look at the photo below.

How to prepare your own icon? CLICK

Once done, do not close mods studio 2 and go to PART FOUR

The manifest file is mainly used to provide all information in the mod manager and to set mod properties such as game version, mod category or required dlc. Entering the game version in the game version field will cause the mod to be blocked and it will not be possible to enable it on a different game version than the one set in the manifest file. If you do not enter anything, the mod can be activated on all versions of the game. I think that when it comes to typical mods, it is worth using this security, but in the case of skins it is unnecessary, but this is my private opinion. Just as the game version affects whether the mod can be activated, the required dlc fields do the same. I think that in the case of skins it is unnecessary to check any box because if someone does not have, for example, a krone trailer, they will not use this skin anyway. It is different in the case of mods, but this is a separate topic and I will not deal with it now. I would not enter anything in the game version field and I would not mark any dlc.

See the picture below.

If you’ve done everything, it’s time to export your skin. Go to Part Five

To export a mod in older versions of mods studio 2 you need to set the mod icon. The default mod icon will be set automatically in the new version. What is this? This is the image you see in the mod manager. As pictured above. A thumbnail with where we can show a preview of the skin, etc.

To prepare such an icon, you need to create an image with dimensions of 276px / 162px, put on it whatever you want to be there and save it as JPG. You can also use the default icon. It doesn’t change anything. However, if you want your skin to look more professionally, it’s worth to make this icon by yourself.

Whatever you decide, it’s time to go to the last field, which is optional. It’s up to you. In this field you can add more information about your mod. You can write whatever you want there. By using prefixes in square brackets you can make the text colored. So, for example, you can write [red] Visit my website: www.papasmurfmods.com

Once done, click on the file in the top left corner and select Export Mod and at the bottom, click Export.

That’s it. Now copy and paste the received scs file into the mod folder in the game, activate the mod and check if the skin works.

If you want the skin to be also used on short trailers, you have to make a smaller template mentioned at the beginning and add it in the mods studio as a second picture. Then you select next to all fields that end the name with 78. See the picture below. There are 25 fields for a long and a short trailer in total. I always count them to make sure that I did not miss any. So 9 for long and 16 for short.

Outdated article. SCS solved this problem by implementing a missing mod detector in the game. Thanks to this, the game will automatically detect and sell the missing parts as soon as you go to the workshop.

The question seems silly, but in my experience most players don’t use mods properly.

What does it even mean to use mods correctly? So the point is that when installing a new mod, it’s worth having a single player profile for all mods. Why? Because when we enter multiplayer mode, all mods are deactivated and a problem arises. Each mod installed in our game adds something to the game. For example, suppose you have a mod that adds cabin accessories to the game. You get in your truck and drive to the workshop to decorate it. You buy pendants, mugs, stickers, etc. The truck looks great 😉 You drive like a free eagle over the ocean. After some time, you decide that you don’t like this mod anymore and you decide to deactivate it. What happens then? Your truck still “has purchased accessories”, but the game cannot find them. You have a error that you could have avoided by simply selling the purchased accessories before deactivating the mod. Sometimes there is a lot of it, and I know it’s not easy. You can sell the truck before deactivating the mod. I know it is quite bothersome but if we don’t do it then with each next mod we will have more and more “invisible” accessories which the game will demand and which are not there anymore because you deactivated the mod.

Another important thing is the quality of the mod. What does it mean? Well, I didn’t know much about it, but when I started to get into modding, I noticed that many mods are not skilfully done and are very cluttered. Not knowing how to unpack a mod to check what’s in the package and what shouldn’t be, there’s not much we can do. We can do a simple trick. After activating the mod and starting the game, we check the console. If it is clean, then we buy the item and check the consoles again. It’s best to check it after buying each item. It’s just one click and we know if the item is causing errors.

Most errors or warnings do not affect the quality of the game in any way, but the more there are, the sooner we will start to notice this influence, so it is worth taking care of it.

How to turn on the developer console?

There are a lot of tutorials on the Internet. If you can’t find one or you don’t want to search, click below; -0

Click here

Mods Studio is an easy to use program. You just have to follow a few tips.

TIPS

1. Remember about texture sizes (dds). It must always be 256px / 64px for the thumbnail visible in the store. If instead of 64px will be 65px probably the skin will not work or we will have a game crash. The same applies to the jpg photo shown in the mod manager, it must be 276px / 162px. However, when it comes to truck textures, sizes may vary, but you must follow a certain rule. So for example for each truck will work texture 512px / 512px and its doubled value, i.e. 1024px / 1024px and again doubled, i.e. 2048px / 2048px and 4096px / 4096px. (I even made a skin with 8192px / 8192px texture but it is an extremely large texture so 4096 will be enough for quality lovers).
   
2. The manifest file is the file responsible only for the information displayed in the mod manager. These are information such as: mod name, mod thumbnail setting, mod description, version and game compatibility (i.e. is it version 1.36 or 1.35 etc.).
   
3. For semi-trailers, the principle of doubling is identical, except the texture of the semi-trailer is a rectangle, not a square, as in the case of trucks. Its values ​​start from 1024px / 512px as well as 2048px / 1024px and up 4096px / 2048px. In my opinion, it is best to work with 4096px / 2048px and the quality is also excellent.
   
4. To use mods studio you must install the .NET Framework in the version specified on the mods studio developer website. However, to use the .NET Framework and for everything to display correctly you need to install Visual studio and this information is often provided on the website when downloading the .NET Framework. Read exactly what you need to run a specific package / program.
   
5. If you are doing an advanced truck, you also need to set accessories. You will know what’s going on when you start your first project. The point is that advanced trucks have a accessories. For some of them you will find templates in the internet, for others, I don’t know because I have never looked for every temp. I do it so that I create a png square with dimensions 64px / 64px (of course, if you do 16/16 it will work too). Then I set the square with a color matching the skin of the truck and that’s it. I set it later in the mods studio for accessories and mark all the boxes on the right. If you do not have boxes, only information about entering the name of the element, it means that you do not have correctly installed all components such as net framework or visual studio.
   
6. The most important tip 😉 Everything must match. As I mentioned, one pixel difference is enough and it will crash. If you don’t believe me, do an experiment. Skin internal name – the point is that it is like the name that the program will set in most file names, textures, tobj files etc. It must be unique with each new mod/skin so that there are no conflicts. DON’T GIVE MORE THAN 10 CHARACTERS.

Program author’s website https://www.mods.studio/

Go to Documents\Euro Truck Simulator 2 and find a file called:

config.cfg

Open it with Notepad and find a line:

uset g_developer “0”

Change it to:

uset g_developer “1”

Find the line:

uset g_console “0”

Change it to:

uset g_console “1”

Save the file and that’s it.

Start the game and you should be able to use console by pressing the button just below the Esc. In my case, this one:

Note!!! You have to do everything in the right order and the steering wheel will work properly.

Step 1 – Check the file attribute.

Go to: This Pc/Documents/The Crew 2/ and find the file called Bindings_f170bb45. Once you locate it, right click on it and select properties.

If the read-only attribute is unchecked, this is how it should be. Click ok and start the game.

Step 2 – Steering wheel settings.

Start the game, enter the steering wheel settings and set all settings to default and restart the game. When the game restarts, check in which direction the steering wheel is incorrectly twisted and remember this. Enter the steering wheel settings and set everything the way you like. Assign all necessary buttons. Set up the car, boat etc. Do it slowly and carefully because after you finish you won’t be able to change it. (This is because, finally, we will change the attribute of the file responsible for these settings and the game will not be able to overwrite it. Otherwise, after starting the game the file would overwrite and all our work does not make any sense).

If you have already set everything up, close the game and do not start it until until we finish!!! This is very important, do not START THE GAME!!!

Step 3 – File editing.

Now go to the file which we found earlier. This Pc/Documents/The Crew 2/ and open this file using notepad++. If you have opened a file, type in the program’s search box: COMBINED

Now, if your steering wheel turn right you have to delete COMBINED, but if the steering wheel turn left you have to delete COMBINED INVERT. Look at the picture:

As you can see, this is in the steering wheel settings section. You have to do exactly the same in boat section. It should be little bit lower. Look at the pictures:

In the car settings and in the boat settings you have to add button brake name. In line RoadBrake and BoatBrake you have to type RBWD between quotation marks at the end of the line. Look at the photo:

Save the file. We not finished yet.

Step 4 – Change the file attribute to Read-only.

Go to: This Pc/Documents/The Crew 2/ and find the file which we just edited. (Bindings_f170bb45). Once you locate it, right click on it and select properties and change attributes for Read-only.

That’s all. Run the game and check if it works. If you mixed up in a file and would like to start from the beginning, all you have to do is change the attributes of the file we just edited and the game will overwrite it with the default settings.

First, you need to find controls file. File is named controls.sii and is located in: This PC/Documents/Euro Truck Simulator 2/profiles/profile number.

Open the controls.sii file usung a notepad++ and search for this lines:

config_lines[151]: “mix dbgfwd keyboard.num8?0“
config_lines[152]: “mix dbgback keyboard.num5?0“
config_lines[153]: “mix dbgleft keyboard.num4?0“
config_lines[154]: “mix dbgright keyboard.num6?0“
config_lines[155]: “mix dbgup keyboard.num9?0“
config_lines[156]: “mix dbgdown keyboard.num3?0“

The numbers in brackets after config_lines may be different. We have to edit the the part just after keyboard. Delete num8 but only num8 and enter there the key you want to use. dbg…fwd – Forward – set the keys you want to use according to the shortcuts.

For example:

config_lines[151]: “mix dbgfwd keyboard.w?0“
config_lines[152]: “mix dbgback keyboard.s?0“
config_lines[153]: “mix dbgleft keyboard.a?0“
config_lines[154]: “mix dbgright keyboard.d?0“
config_lines[155]: “mix dbgup keyboard.q?0“
config_lines[156]: “mix dbgdown keyboard.e?0”

Save the file and that’s all!