Understanding YMT
Quick answer
A clothing YMT is a collection: one metadata file that declares a set of drawables for one ped model. GTA V can only load a fixed number of them, per gender, and Rockstar's own DLC already uses most of that number. That cap — not disk size — is what limits how much add-on clothing a server can run.
Difficulty: Core concept · Affects: both · Mixed tags
INFO
Search: ymt, collection, metadata, what is ymt, male female, creaturemetadata, slots.
Last verified 31 August 2026 · docs.gta.clothing · citizenfx/fivem#2938.
Important numbers
| Fact | Value | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| Total YMT ceiling per gender | ~80 before b2612, ~100 since | APPROXIMATE |
| Free add-on slots today | 3–5 per gender, depending on build | APPROXIMATE |
| Drawables inside one collection | 128 conservative, 0–255 on patched FiveM | VERSION DEPENDENT |
| Hard stop per drawable type | 255 | CONFIRMED |
How it works
Every add-on clothing pack generates one metadata file per gender it supports:
mp_m_freemode_01_mp_m_yourpack.ymt male collection
mp_f_freemode_01_mp_f_yourpack.ymt female collection
mp_creaturemetadata_yourpack.ymt heels / head-prop hair expressionsThe game keeps a fixed-size internal array of these collections for each freemode ped. Rockstar fills that array with every GTA Online DLC. What is left over is what add-on packs can use.
Male and female are separate
This is the single most misunderstood point. If a build has 4 free slots, that means 4 male and 4 female, not 4 total. A male-only pack costs nothing on the female side.
Never add the two numbers together. A server can be perfectly healthy on male and crashing on female.
Creature metadata is a third file
High heels and head-prop hair expressions need mp_creaturemetadata_<pack>.ymt. It is generated once, not per gender, but it consumes capacity. Durty Cloth Tool budgets it conservatively against both genders, and that is the safe operational assumption — treat one creature metadata file as costing one slot on each side.
Without that file, heels stay flat and hair modifiers do nothing, so deleting it to save a slot trades one problem for another.
Rockstar DLC eats your capacity over time
Your pack files never change, but the number of free slots shrinks with every game build. A server that ran three packs fine on b3095 can crash on b3889 without a single file being touched — Rockstar simply took the room.
What happens when you exceed it
The game does not warn you. It crashes, usually at the moment a freemode ped is created:
- Crash on join or when the character loads.
- One gender crashes, the other is fine.
- Console shows
InvokeNative: execution failed: Error executing native 0x00a1cadd00108836. - A three-word crash hash that matches the known list for your build.
What does not give you more slots
| Action | Reality |
|---|---|
| Clearing FiveM cache | Cache is not a slot |
| Downscaling textures to 512 | Saves memory, not slots |
| Putting several packs in one folder | Folders do not merge collections — the YMT files still load individually |
increase_pool_size "YmtLimit" | Does not exist. #2938 is still an open request |
Raising sv_maxclients | Unrelated |
The only real levers are: use fewer collections (repacking), pick a build with more free slots (limits by build), or stop adding collections at all (replace clothing).
