LED Names & Model LEDs

An LED's name drives HUD display and pattern targeting. Follow this standard and a pattern written for one car works on the next. Set names per LED in the Editor.

Format

[ZONE][FACE?][SIDE?][NUM]

1. All uppercase, no spaces, no symbols.
2. Forward and rearward lights use sequential numbers only, no L/R suffix — RD1, RD2, LBF1, LBF2.
3. Side-facing lights take an L/R suffix — MRL, MRR, SRL1, SRL2. Omit NUM when there is one per side: LBAL, not LBAL1.
4. Names describe physical location only. Takedown, traffic advisor and alley lights are pattern behaviours, not names.
5. Numbers count left to right from outside the vehicle — see Numbering direction.
6. Numbering starts at 1. Start at 0 only to extend past the core — see Numbering beyond the core range.

Numbering direction

The observer stands outside looking in, so their left is not the vehicle's left every time.

Numbering beyond the core range

#1–#6 is the cross-vehicle core that patterns and the HUD target reliably. A face with more LEDs extends outward instead of renumbering: a rear lightbar with 8 LEDs uses LBR0–LBR7, keeping LBR1–LBR6 portable. A pattern silently skips a name the vehicle does not define.

Zone reference

Roof

Front exterior

Front interior (projects forward through the windshield)

Side

Rear interior (projects rearward through the rear glass)

Rear exterior

Specialty

HUD default LEDs

When no layout declares which LED names to show, the HUD resolves the first group below with at least one matching LED on the vehicle.

Only LEDs that exist are shown — RD1, RD2, RD3 gives three indicators, not six. With none of these names present, the HUD shows all LEDs. A custom layout overrides this with its own data-hud-led bindings.

Out of scope

Factory light circuits — headlight and tail light flashers — are native vehicle lights, not placed LEDs. Do not invent names like HLF or TLF.

Model-defined LEDs

For vehicle modellers. Author named bones into your model and tELS reads the LED layout off the skeleton — no tels.json, no placement work for whoever installs the vehicle. A v1 embedded layout is discovered whenever the vehicle has no saved leds section.

• You get geometry, not behaviour. Ship a patterns-only tels.json to light out of the box.
• You export the bones by hand. Nothing is read from lightbar meshes, GTA siren lights, modelling empties or custom properties, and there is no modelling plugin.

Authoring contract: v1

Include a bone named tels_v1 to opt in; its placement is unused.

• Number each LED 001 through 064. Gaps are fine; never renumber during a revision
• 64 is TELS_MAX_LEDS in config/render_config.lua. A server owner may raise it, but author against 64
• The centre bone's +X points right, +Z points up, +Y points out of the lens. The edge markers cannot correct a wrong rotation

What gets skipped

A failed set is skipped and named in the client console (F8); the rest still loads.

A vehicle that streams in without its skeleton ready is retried at most once every five seconds, so a transient failure is not permanent. The editor forces a fresh scan.

Stable pattern identities

An embedded LED's ID and initial name are both its centre bone name, such as tels_led_001, and its initial group is Model LEDs.

• Renaming or removing a marker breaks references to its old identity
• A new marker takes an unused number

A patterns-only tels.json references them without repeating placement:

{
  "example_vehicle": {
    "patterns": [
      {
        "name": "Example flash",
        "fps": 4,
        "colors": [{ "r": 255, "g": 0, "b": 0, "a": 1 }],
        "frames": [
          { "duration": 1, "cells": { "tels_led_001": 1 } },
          { "duration": 1, "cells": {} }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

Declare it in the vehicle resource, using your model's real spawn name in place of example_vehicle:

tels_config 'tels.json'

Do not include leds: [] in a patterns-only config — an explicit empty array deliberately disables the embedded layout.

Saved layout precedence

An ordinary editor save stores a full explicit layout overriding the model geometry. Your model file is never written to.

• The box icon — Import missing model-defined LEDs in the Lights tab appends only markers whose ID or centre-bone attachment is absent, keeping existing edits and patterns and respecting the LED cap. It persists only when you save
• To restore one marker, delete that LED and import it again
• Updating the model does not clear a saved override. The only way back to automatic placement is to back up the config and remove its leds section

Extras, modkits and appearance

Version 1 embeds placement, orientation and size only. Extra and modkit visibility, livery restriction, texture and group are not inferred — set those in the editor and save an explicit layout.

Legacy and Enhanced

The same markers work on both generations.