- 5,550
- The US of A
Ever wanted the DLC in GT5, but can’t get it due to it being pulled from PSN or maybe you had it once and lost it and have been unable to get it back again? Well, look no further than this tutorial, literally. Thanks to some recent discoveries, it is now possible to get them just by editing your save game. No need to install them into the game data, no need to connect to PSN, and best of all, what you get is the actual DLC cars and not some fake part swap that you’ll most likely lose if you update beyond 2.12. This even includes cars like the XJ13 and Edge Camaro that were only available in certain countries! 
That said, this can also be done on the latest update without issue. (good luck finding another tutorial like that)
I’ve been playing GT5 for nearly a decade now and I can honestly say this is the fastest, easiest and best method of getting the DLC I have ever seen. I could not find a better way if I tried. (no joke) With this tutorial, you can get everything from DLC cars, tracks, paints, and gear with ease! Before I begin, I need to address the big elephant in the room here because I feel like this needs to be said:
With that out of the way, here’s what you need to get started.
What you’ll need
PS3
GT5 2.10 or above. (I highly recommend 2.11 though)
USB flash drive (one in FAT32 format is preferred since the PS3 supports it, most flash drives are FAT32. As long as the PS3 can read it, you should be fine)
GT5 save game with at least one car in the garage (Not the backup save, but the other)
GT5 Save Editor (latest version is v0.0.10.3)
Once you got what you need, let’s get started! While this tutorial is long, my goal with this thread is to help you get all the DLC’s you want and to break it down enough so even those who have never done this sort of thing can do it. It’s really and truly not hard though. I have tested this method on both 2.10 and 2.17 prior to posting this and it works just fine.
Now here’s where we begin!
1. Plug your USB flash drive into your PS3, go to save data, and copy your save game to it. There are two save games, one is the regular save, the other is the backup. We only need the regular one, you can’t copy the backup anyways.
2. Plug your USB flash drive into your computer.
Hint: I recommend copying and pasting your save game somewhere on your computer before opening it in the garage editor, that way if something goes wrong, you have a backup. This will also help the creator fix whatever issue you may encounter.
3. Open the save editor you downloaded earlier. You might get this message if you’re on Windows 10:
Just click “More info” and then “Run Anyway”. Don’t worry, this program is not malicious or dangerous.
Note: If you can’t get it to open, download the latest version of .Net Framework and it should work then. If that don’t work, you may have to disable your virus protection. (I haven’t had to do this though)
4. Once the save editor is up, click “File” and “Open”
5. Now navigate to your USB drive and find your save game. It’s a folder labeled “PS3” and then inside that folder, there is another called “savedata” and finally inside the save data folder, theirs your save. Mine is in a folder labeled “BCUS98114-GAME”, but yours might be named differently if you live outside the US. Once you found it, click on it and then click “Select Folder”.
6. Once your save has loaded, click the DLC tab.
In there, click on “Persist DLC’s without license files (vou). This function tricks the game into thinking you have the DLC installed and allows you to use it simply by editing your save game.
7. Pick your DLC! Just click on whichever DLC on the list you want and it will come up with this:
Just click install and it will give you a message saying it has been installed or you can click "Mark as installed" if you don't want them in your garage yet. Now you don’t have to pick what I chose here, it can be one of them, it can be all of them, you can pick any DLCs you want here really, the choice is yours. I should note the Stealth cars, Chromelines, and that Edge Camaro are not in the DLC tab, but you can find them in the tickets tab though and they will work just fine if you followed step 6.
Note: The “Special Racing Gear” pack is currently disabled, but it may be available in a future update.
Warning: The Red Bull Charity C gives the Red Bull X2010 JP Flag Color, which was removed after 2.12, so you will not be able to use it if you’re on 2.12 and above. (the function does work though)
8. Once you picked the DLC you want, click “File” and then “Save”.
9. Eject your USB drive.
10. Plug your USB drive back into the PS3 and copy your save data back to your PS3.
And if you did everything here, the following things should happen:
1. If you installed DLC cars, they will be waiting there in “Car Delivery”
2. If you installed DLC tracks, they should show up in “Practice” and Arcade Mode. With the Speed Test DLC, you should see that option show up on the menu in GT Mode.
3. If you installed paint and gear-related DLC, it should all be in your “Items” section.
Enjoy!
If you have any questions or concerns let me know! Be sure to read the FAQ's! I must note this tool is a work in progress, so let me know if you have any issues with the program and I'll tell the creator. This program works for me though.
If you have any issues following these steps, please provide the following so I can help you sort it out:
1. Error text. This is generated by the editor itself in the directory you have the editor in and whatever information is on it can be useful to understanding the issue.
2. What GT5 update are you on? This is very important because the editor is designed to work on certain updates and some issues can be easily rectified when I know what you're on.
3. Have you tried running the program as administrator?
4. Are you on the latest .NET Framework? This program relies on this sort of thing to run.
I may have more questions if none of these help, but if all else fails, you can attach your save here and I can look into it.
Note: If you're having issues with the editor that aren't related to obtaining the DLC, please post them here and not in this thread. Also, please don't quote this entire post.
Credits to xfileFIN and all the people over at the Discord chat for making this possible! 👍
That said, this can also be done on the latest update without issue. (good luck finding another tutorial like that)I’ve been playing GT5 for nearly a decade now and I can honestly say this is the fastest, easiest and best method of getting the DLC I have ever seen. I could not find a better way if I tried. (no joke) With this tutorial, you can get everything from DLC cars, tracks, paints, and gear with ease! Before I begin, I need to address the big elephant in the room here because I feel like this needs to be said:
With all the tutorials on the internet already, why follow this one?
Over the years, I have seen a lot of tutorials on the internet telling you how to get the DLC cars via save editing. Most of which telling you to add a donor car and then swap its parts to what the DLC cars use, this being the most recent one I have seen. Honestly, don’t follow these types of tutorials. I have a lot of problems with them and here’s a list of good reasons why I discourage following them. I’ll use this thread as a point of comparison:
So with all these reasons, I have listed not to follow these part swap guides that have been around for years, why should you follow the one I have here? Simply put, you won’t have any of the issues I mentioned above. This tutorial is way easier, way less time-consuming, the cars you get are actually the real deal, you won’t lose them on 2.12 and beyond and you can even get them on the latest update. And that means all the DLC, cars, tracks, paints, gear, and everything that was available before can be obtained here and it’ll be as if you actually own it, but with even less inconveniences.
To be fair though, I understand why these old part swap guides exist because, for a long time, that was about as much as you could do with save editing. However, it's a flawed and outdated strategy no longer worth following since the relevant area to activate the DLC has been found in the save data. Unless you can't run this new save editor, theirs little reason to follow these old guides anymore.
Over the years, I have seen a lot of tutorials on the internet telling you how to get the DLC cars via save editing. Most of which telling you to add a donor car and then swap its parts to what the DLC cars use, this being the most recent one I have seen. Honestly, don’t follow these types of tutorials. I have a lot of problems with them and here’s a list of good reasons why I discourage following them. I’ll use this thread as a point of comparison:
1. They’re not the “real deal”. While they may look and perform as they should, when you change the view in your garage and look at the white text box, you’ll notice it will still display the name of whatever donor car you used. For example, I followed the tutorial I linked above and used the Shelby Cobra as a donor car and then swapped its parts for what the Chromeline used like it said and this is what it says when I change the view in the garage:
As you can see, it still displays the name of my donor car (Cobra 427 ‘66), even though I swapped all of its parts, and is therefore not what it should be. Whereas if it was, it would have the car's real name (Cobra 427 S/C Chrome Line) and it’d be asking you to reinstall it. Internally, the game still knows you used a donor car for this. This is what I mean by it not being the “real deal”, it’s literally just a series of part swaps and nothing more, you could say it’s “fake”. And no the name changer in GE 1.3.1 will NOT fix what is in the white text box. The name changer alters the car's name elsewhere and not what you see here, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
2. You’ll most likely lose them if you go to update 2.12 and beyond. Since the game still displays the name of whatever donor car you used and internally still recognizes it as that donor car, it knows you swapped parts to get it. If you update beyond 2.12 and then view the car in the garage, theirs a chance you will lose that car. I say “most likely” because I have had some instances where I didn't lose them, but it’s hit or miss as to how it occurs.
3. You cannot do this on updates 2.12 and beyond. Due to the nature of how updates 2.12 and beyond will reset whatever cars you do part swaps to, you can’t really follow tutorials like the one I linked above as a result. This can be a problem if you updated beyond 2.12, want the DLC, but don’t want to delete your game data since you have stuff you don’t want to lose.
4. They’re kind of time-consuming. Having to add a car ticket, go into the game and redeem it and then load your save game again into a save editor again to swap parts and such can be a little time-consuming depending on how many cars you add.
Note: When I say all this, I am referring to DLC cars and not tracks, paints, or gear-related DLC. I don’t really know what to say about those because I haven’t seen much about them via save editing. I think a method to get some of the tracks exists already, but I don’t know much about it.
As you can see, it still displays the name of my donor car (Cobra 427 ‘66), even though I swapped all of its parts, and is therefore not what it should be. Whereas if it was, it would have the car's real name (Cobra 427 S/C Chrome Line) and it’d be asking you to reinstall it. Internally, the game still knows you used a donor car for this. This is what I mean by it not being the “real deal”, it’s literally just a series of part swaps and nothing more, you could say it’s “fake”. And no the name changer in GE 1.3.1 will NOT fix what is in the white text box. The name changer alters the car's name elsewhere and not what you see here, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
2. You’ll most likely lose them if you go to update 2.12 and beyond. Since the game still displays the name of whatever donor car you used and internally still recognizes it as that donor car, it knows you swapped parts to get it. If you update beyond 2.12 and then view the car in the garage, theirs a chance you will lose that car. I say “most likely” because I have had some instances where I didn't lose them, but it’s hit or miss as to how it occurs.
3. You cannot do this on updates 2.12 and beyond. Due to the nature of how updates 2.12 and beyond will reset whatever cars you do part swaps to, you can’t really follow tutorials like the one I linked above as a result. This can be a problem if you updated beyond 2.12, want the DLC, but don’t want to delete your game data since you have stuff you don’t want to lose.
4. They’re kind of time-consuming. Having to add a car ticket, go into the game and redeem it and then load your save game again into a save editor again to swap parts and such can be a little time-consuming depending on how many cars you add.
Note: When I say all this, I am referring to DLC cars and not tracks, paints, or gear-related DLC. I don’t really know what to say about those because I haven’t seen much about them via save editing. I think a method to get some of the tracks exists already, but I don’t know much about it.
To be fair though, I understand why these old part swap guides exist because, for a long time, that was about as much as you could do with save editing. However, it's a flawed and outdated strategy no longer worth following since the relevant area to activate the DLC has been found in the save data. Unless you can't run this new save editor, theirs little reason to follow these old guides anymore.
What you’ll need
PS3
GT5 2.10 or above. (I highly recommend 2.11 though)
USB flash drive (one in FAT32 format is preferred since the PS3 supports it, most flash drives are FAT32. As long as the PS3 can read it, you should be fine)
GT5 save game with at least one car in the garage (Not the backup save, but the other)
GT5 Save Editor (latest version is v0.0.10.3)
Once you got what you need, let’s get started! While this tutorial is long, my goal with this thread is to help you get all the DLC’s you want and to break it down enough so even those who have never done this sort of thing can do it. It’s really and truly not hard though. I have tested this method on both 2.10 and 2.17 prior to posting this and it works just fine.
Now here’s where we begin!
1. Plug your USB flash drive into your PS3, go to save data, and copy your save game to it. There are two save games, one is the regular save, the other is the backup. We only need the regular one, you can’t copy the backup anyways.
2. Plug your USB flash drive into your computer.
Hint: I recommend copying and pasting your save game somewhere on your computer before opening it in the garage editor, that way if something goes wrong, you have a backup. This will also help the creator fix whatever issue you may encounter.
3. Open the save editor you downloaded earlier. You might get this message if you’re on Windows 10:
Just click “More info” and then “Run Anyway”. Don’t worry, this program is not malicious or dangerous.
Note: If you can’t get it to open, download the latest version of .Net Framework and it should work then. If that don’t work, you may have to disable your virus protection. (I haven’t had to do this though)
4. Once the save editor is up, click “File” and “Open”
5. Now navigate to your USB drive and find your save game. It’s a folder labeled “PS3” and then inside that folder, there is another called “savedata” and finally inside the save data folder, theirs your save. Mine is in a folder labeled “BCUS98114-GAME”, but yours might be named differently if you live outside the US. Once you found it, click on it and then click “Select Folder”.
6. Once your save has loaded, click the DLC tab.
In there, click on “Persist DLC’s without license files (vou). This function tricks the game into thinking you have the DLC installed and allows you to use it simply by editing your save game.
7. Pick your DLC! Just click on whichever DLC on the list you want and it will come up with this:
Just click install and it will give you a message saying it has been installed or you can click "Mark as installed" if you don't want them in your garage yet. Now you don’t have to pick what I chose here, it can be one of them, it can be all of them, you can pick any DLCs you want here really, the choice is yours. I should note the Stealth cars, Chromelines, and that Edge Camaro are not in the DLC tab, but you can find them in the tickets tab though and they will work just fine if you followed step 6.
Note: The “Special Racing Gear” pack is currently disabled, but it may be available in a future update.
Warning: The Red Bull Charity C gives the Red Bull X2010 JP Flag Color, which was removed after 2.12, so you will not be able to use it if you’re on 2.12 and above. (the function does work though)
8. Once you picked the DLC you want, click “File” and then “Save”.
9. Eject your USB drive.
10. Plug your USB drive back into the PS3 and copy your save data back to your PS3.
And if you did everything here, the following things should happen:
1. If you installed DLC cars, they will be waiting there in “Car Delivery”
2. If you installed DLC tracks, they should show up in “Practice” and Arcade Mode. With the Speed Test DLC, you should see that option show up on the menu in GT Mode.
3. If you installed paint and gear-related DLC, it should all be in your “Items” section.
Enjoy!
If you have any questions or concerns let me know! Be sure to read the FAQ's! I must note this tool is a work in progress, so let me know if you have any issues with the program and I'll tell the creator. This program works for me though.
If you have any issues following these steps, please provide the following so I can help you sort it out:
1. Error text. This is generated by the editor itself in the directory you have the editor in and whatever information is on it can be useful to understanding the issue.
2. What GT5 update are you on? This is very important because the editor is designed to work on certain updates and some issues can be easily rectified when I know what you're on.
3. Have you tried running the program as administrator?
4. Are you on the latest .NET Framework? This program relies on this sort of thing to run.
I may have more questions if none of these help, but if all else fails, you can attach your save here and I can look into it.
Note: If you're having issues with the editor that aren't related to obtaining the DLC, please post them here and not in this thread. Also, please don't quote this entire post.
Can this be done on the latest update?
Answer: Yes it can, I tested it myself.
Do I need to be connected to PSN?
Answer: Nope! Everything is done via save editing, PSN is not required!
Will I lose the DLC’s if I update to 2.12 and beyond?
Answer: Nope! I have tested this myself and you will not lose it as long as you followed step 6.
Do I need the Family Upgrade?
Answer: No, you don't need the Family Upgrade. Tested it myself without it installed and it works just fine! 👍
Does this install them into the game data?
Answer: No. What this tutorial does is it edits the save game and tricks the game into thinking you do have it installed there, even if you don't. So that way you can add them via save editing without having to install them to the game data like you would normally do.
Why do I need to have at least one car in my garage before following this tutorial?
Answer: Theirs a database in the save game that the tool reads and it needs to have at least one car in there or else the editor will not be able to load it. And that ain't just with this editor, pretty much any garage editor for GT5 has to have it in order to work correctly.
Why do I need to be on at least 2.10 to follow this tutorial?
Answer: Because all the DLC was added to the game data by then and you would not be missing out on any of it by updating to at least 2.10.
What happens if I try to follow this tutorial on an update below 2.10?
Answer: I haven't experimented with this a whole lot, but if you add a DLC car that wasn't yet introduced through a certain update, the game will crash if you try to open the ticket for a car that wasn't introduced yet.
For example, I experimented with adding the 2014 Corvettes on update 2.09 once, but since they weren't added until 2.10, I obviously could not obtain them and the game crashed upon opening the tickets.
Why do you recommend 2.11 the most?
Answer: It's not strictly required, but it is what I recommend the most because Update 2.12 and beyond started removing content, namely the X2010 JP Flag Color, and taking measures against people hacking their save games. Can you still follow this tutorial on 2.12? Of course you can, but you just would have to avoid adding the the Red Bull pack that has the X2010 JP Flag Color.
Answer: Yes it can, I tested it myself.
Do I need to be connected to PSN?
Answer: Nope! Everything is done via save editing, PSN is not required!
Will I lose the DLC’s if I update to 2.12 and beyond?
Answer: Nope! I have tested this myself and you will not lose it as long as you followed step 6.
Do I need the Family Upgrade?
Answer: No, you don't need the Family Upgrade. Tested it myself without it installed and it works just fine! 👍
Does this install them into the game data?
Answer: No. What this tutorial does is it edits the save game and tricks the game into thinking you do have it installed there, even if you don't. So that way you can add them via save editing without having to install them to the game data like you would normally do.
Why do I need to have at least one car in my garage before following this tutorial?
Answer: Theirs a database in the save game that the tool reads and it needs to have at least one car in there or else the editor will not be able to load it. And that ain't just with this editor, pretty much any garage editor for GT5 has to have it in order to work correctly.
Why do I need to be on at least 2.10 to follow this tutorial?
Answer: Because all the DLC was added to the game data by then and you would not be missing out on any of it by updating to at least 2.10.
What happens if I try to follow this tutorial on an update below 2.10?
Answer: I haven't experimented with this a whole lot, but if you add a DLC car that wasn't yet introduced through a certain update, the game will crash if you try to open the ticket for a car that wasn't introduced yet.
For example, I experimented with adding the 2014 Corvettes on update 2.09 once, but since they weren't added until 2.10, I obviously could not obtain them and the game crashed upon opening the tickets.
Why do you recommend 2.11 the most?
Answer: It's not strictly required, but it is what I recommend the most because Update 2.12 and beyond started removing content, namely the X2010 JP Flag Color, and taking measures against people hacking their save games. Can you still follow this tutorial on 2.12? Of course you can, but you just would have to avoid adding the the Red Bull pack that has the X2010 JP Flag Color.
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It makes no sense to me that all of that gets taken down, which ultimately means LESS money in your pockets.
Glad it's working for you now! However I have to know:
Kidding. Anyway, thanks. I'll see if I can disable Norton. 
