Install Vehicle Mods in Over the Hill

To install a vehicle livery in Over the Hill, subscribe to it through the in-game livery browser, make sure it is enabled, then select it at the garage or mechanic for the matching car. Downloading a mod and equipping its paint are separate actions.

For a private local livery, place the unpacked files in their own pack folder inside LocalLiveries, then use Show local mods on the car's Livery Mods tab. These instructions cover vehicle liveries; they do not establish support for replacement vehicle models, new maps or physics mods.

Install and equip a mod.io livery

1. Launch the game and open the livery mods browser. On first use, follow the mod.io Terms of Use prompt; authentication uses Steam.
2. Search for the livery by name, or filter the browser by its target vehicle.
3. Subscribe to the item and check that it is enabled. A disabled mod can remain downloaded while its liveries stay hidden.
4. Visit the garage or mechanic for the car that the livery supports.
5. Find the design in that car's livery list and select it. Its texture replaces the built-in paint, and the selection is saved for that car in your profile.

If you subscribed successfully but still see the original paint, check the enabled state and the garage selection before treating the download as a failure. Subscription supplies the files; the vehicle's livery list is where you choose the appearance.

Match the livery to its vehicle

Vehicle filtering depends on the tags attached to the mod. A missing or incorrect tag can keep an otherwise usable livery out of a particular car's filtered results. Searching for the mod directly is a separate way to find it.

The pack's manifest also identifies the target car. Its internal name has no spaces: for example, TrailBurner is an internal name, while the browser uses human-readable vehicle tags. A wrong car field is a different problem from a missing discovery tag.

Community livery preview; this is not a vehicle unlock screen.

Moss Runner is a Trail Burner livery. The preview identifies an appearance option for that vehicle; it does not show that the mod is subscribed, enabled or equipped on your account. A livery also does not replace the separate process of unlocking its underlying vehicle.

Choose between local files and mod.io

Use local files for a private design or for checking edits before publishing. Use the mod.io route when the livery needs to be discoverable or visible to other players. Copying a local pack onto your machine does not upload it or distribute it to a multiplayer group.

Put a local pack in the correct folder

Each local livery pack needs its own subfolder inside LocalLiveries. Keep the pack as ordinary files and folders, rather than leaving a ZIP archive in that directory.

On Windows, the documented location is:

C:\Users\<You>\Documents\My Games\over the hill\LocalLiveries\

Replace the user placeholder with your Windows account folder. A minimal example layout is:

LocalLiveries/
  ExamplePack/
    manifest.json
    example-paint.png

The example names are illustrative. Keep the actual texture filenames supplied with the pack, and make sure they agree with the manifest. A PNG alone does not provide the manifest that tells the game which car should use it.

For native Linux, the documented location is:

~/My Games/over the hill/LocalLiveries/

For Proton, the documentation gives this example, with the Steam installation path varying by distribution and package:

~/.steam/debian-installation/steamapps/compatdata/2929250/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/Documents/My Games/over the hill/LocalLiveries/

The game creates LocalLiveries when it first needs the folder. If Documents is not writable, it can use its persistent data path in AppData instead. Do not assume that the documented Documents path must exist before the game has needed it, or that every Proton installation uses the same Steam directory.

Show, equip and refresh local liveries

1. Open the garage or mechanic for the intended car and select its Livery Mods tab.
2. Use the Show local mods button prompt. Local designs are hidden by default; the prompt changes to Hide local mods while they are visible.
3. Find the design marked with a local badge and select it to paint the vehicle.
4. After editing a texture or manifest on disk, use Refresh local mods while local mods are shown. The game reloads the files without requiring a restart for that edit cycle.

The show/hide preference is remembered in your profile. A correctly placed pack can therefore be absent from the visible list simply because local mods are hidden. Check that toggle before repeatedly moving the files.

Local packs are always available once loaded; they do not use the subscription and enable steps required by mod.io items. Refreshing a local pack is also different from managing a mod.io download.

Check missing liveries by symptom

A pack uses a liveries array in its manifest. Each entry needs a car and a texture; an entry with a missing field or missing texture is skipped. Invalid JSON can prevent the whole pack from loading. Preserve the pack's filenames when extracting it, and keep comments and trailing commas out of JSON if you edit it.

The loader records warnings for problems such as a missing manifest, an unreadable manifest or a skipped entry. Those warnings can distinguish a file problem from a garage visibility setting. A preview image or a downloaded status alone does not establish that the correct design has been equipped.