How do I install vinyls? 

1. Download the vinyl and extract it. 
2. There will usually be a readme.txt file, open it and read it. 
3. Open BinTex 
4. Load the proper VINYLS.BIN file from your NFSU installation folder (The readme or the website you downloaded it from usually will have the information on which car the vinyl is for) 
5. Select a appropriate entry for the vinyl (The readme may have a recommended slot to use. If you dont know what you are doing, use the recommended one!) 
6. Click on Texture->Import, and select the DDS file for the vinyl. (There are two DDS files, use the one WITHOUT the mask in the name) 
7. Repeat 5 and 6 for the MASK DDS. 
8. Click on File->Save. 
9. Run the game. 

How do I know which vinyl in the BIN corresponds to the vinyl in-game? 

Simple, you don't. You can only find matching vinyls by trial and error (and a little bit of sense perhaps). 

Can I replace any vinyl I want to? 

No, you can't. There are different types of vinyls in NFSU (Level 1, 2, 3, Manufacturer, Unique, etc). They are all different and a vinyl of a certain type should not be replaced with a vinyl of another type. Doing so may cause the game to crash. 

Can I replace a vinyl for Car X with a vinyl made for Car Y? 

Sometimes, but usually no. The texture templates for different cars may be similar but they are not always the same! 

I imported the DDS, but theres no change in the game. 

Did you save? Are you sure you checked the right vinyl entry in the game? 

If I import a vinyl, will others online see it too? 

No, they won't. They will see either the original vinyl or if they replaced the same vinyl with another vinyl, they will see their replaced vinyl. 

I have a modified/chipped XBOX. Can I replace vinyls on that? 

No. The texture formats used for the XBOX are different from the PC version. BinTex will load the BIN file, but will be unable to decompress/compress textures from/ the file. 

The Photoshop/PaintShopPro DDS plugin from nVidia doesnt load up. 

Did you install the two required DLLs into the Windows\System (or Windows\System32 for Windows 2000/XP)? http://download.nvidia.com/developer/NVTextureSuite/DLLs.zip 

BinTex Error message: "An error occured while trying to decompress texture data". 

You did not extract all the files from BinTex before running it! The file jdlzdll.dll should be in the same directory as BinTex. 

BinTex Error message: "Texture format has an error! (Make sure P8 textures are in ?8RG8B8 format)" 

You did not save the vinyls are a 8-bit index (also known as palette ARGB 256 colors) image. 

BinTex Error message: "Not enough mipmaps" 

You did not ask the DDS plugin to Generate Mipmaps. 

Corrupted a BIN file? 

Copy the BIN file from the first CD of NFSU to the directory in which you installed NFSU. Then right click on the file, go to properties and unset 'Readonly'. Click on OK.

Color problems in Unique vinyls 

Unique vinyls have a problem colors because of a bug with how BinTex handles the palette. It is unlikely that this bug will be fixed because it will break compatibility with the currently published unique vinyls. 

To fix the problem. you need to swap the Red and Blue channel to convert the colors. 

To do this in Photoshop 7: 
1. On the menu, go to Image->Mode->Adjustments->Channel Mixer 
2. Choose Red as the output channel. In the source channel, enter 0% for Red and 100% for Blue. 
3. Choose Blue as the output channel. In the source channel, enter 0% for Blue and 100% for Red. 
4. Click on OK 

Can't see the Alpha channel? 

The DDS plugin for Photoshop only shows the RGB components of the image. The alpha channel is also loaded but it is stored on a seperate channel called "Alpha1" and is hidden. To access this, use the Channels window (if its not visible, click on Window->Channels). 

How to search/find a vinyl in the list? 

There is no search feature in BinTex. You should sort the list. Click on the "Name" heading to sort the list. Then it should be easy to find the vinyl you are looking for.

rror Message: "Runtime Error 75" 

Make sure the BIN files you are editing is NOT READONLY. To do this: Right click on the file, go to properties and unset 'Readonly'. Click on OK. Also, don't try to access the BIN file through a Network Share!