TintFX · 3D Vehicle Prep

How to prep a car so tint, PPF & wrap just work

The simulator lets a customer apply window tint, paint protection film, and vinyl wrap on your model in real time. It finds your parts by their names. Name them the way this sheet says and everything wires up on its own — no back-and-forth.

Read time ~4 min
01

Name your meshes with these codes

Rename only these parts to the exact codes below. Everything else (paint, wheels, badges, trim) — leave the names alone.

CodePart
WSWindshield
F2Front door windows
R2Rear side windows (rear doors)
QWQuarter windows
BWBack window (rear glass)
SSSun strip (top band of the windshield)
MRMoonroof / sunroof glass
HL1 HL2Headlight — off look and on/glowing look as two overlapping meshes
TL1 TL2Taillight — off look and on/glowing look
HG TGClear lens over the head/taillight (for smoke-tint)
02

PPF coverage = paint the body, don't stack shells

Four coverage packages. Do this as material zones on the body itself.

On the body mesh, add four material slots named exactly PF, FF, TP, FB. In Edit Mode, select the faces each package covers and Assign. Each face gets one slot — the smallest package that first covers it:

SlotPackage — assign the faces it adds
PFPartial Front — front bumper + partial hood
FFFull Front — the rest of the hood, fenders, mirrors
TPTrack Pack — rockers / sills, A-pillars
FBFull Body — everything else (doors, roof, rear)

The app stacks them automatically (Full Front shows PF + FF, and so on). No separate film shells, no duplicated geometry. Don't cut holes for the badges — leave them as their own mesh.

03

The seven rules

  1. Glass is thin.Each window is a single thin surface facing outward. Do NOT give the glass thickness / do NOT solidify it, and never leave two panes stacked on one window.
  2. Normals face outward.Body and glass. Turn on the Face Orientation overlay — the outside of the car should read blue, never red. Inverted glass won't tint; inverted body breaks up in patches.
  3. PPF is one method.Material zones on the body (Section 02). If you keep old film shells as a backup, put them in a separate collection and turn it OFF before export.
  4. Interior has its own material.Never reuse the body paint material on seats/dash/trim, or the interior recolors with the car and shows through the glass. The body must be solid, not a hollow shell.
  5. Lights glow.On the HL2/TL2 materials set Emission (headlights white, taillights red) at strength ~15. Small marker/reflector lights stay lit.
  6. Materials are Principled BSDF.Custom or non-Principled shaders export unpredictably — some turn flat white. Rebuild them as Principled, or bake to textures.
  7. Panels line up cleanly.Real panel gaps are good — keep them. But panels must abut with an even gap and no overlapping edges, or the seams show as messy lines in the app.
04

Do / Don't — the mistakes that cost us days

Do

  • Single thin glass panes, facing out
  • PPF as material zones on the body
  • Interior on its own material; solid body
  • Recalculate normals outside (check the overlay)
  • Emission on for all lit parts (~15)
  • Inspect the car from every side before sending

Don't

  • Solidify / thicken the glass — brings back cabin "ghosting"
  • Ship both film shells AND material zones
  • Let panels overlap or float with gaps
  • Reuse the body paint material on the interior
  • Leave any normals facing inward
  • Cut badge holes into the PPF
05

Export settings (glTF / GLB)

Setting
FormatglTF Binary (.glb)
Apply ModifiersON
UVs + NormalsON
+Y UpON (under Transform)
Compression / DracoOFF — we compress on our side
PPF shell collectionTurned OFF if you kept shells as a backup
06

Before you send — done checklist

  • Every window tints (windshield, front doors, rear, moonroof)
  • No cabin ghosting through the glass — glass is thin, single-surface
  • Head + taillights glow when lights are on
  • PPF shows clean per package, borders on the panel lines
  • Paint recolors correctly; interior does not change color with it
  • Nothing exports white; checked from all sides
  • All normals outward; panels aligned with clean gaps