Spec Map: Shiny Side Up

We’ve rolled out our spec map test car — the Spec Tacular — to show an example of a special finish effect you can achieve on your custom iRacing paints.

This time, we’re featuring “Shiny Side Up”, a metallic-heavy finish that has an eye-catching smoothness. You’ll probably want to lighten up the base color when using this finish; the intense metallic effect can darken the look of your car quite a bit.

Here’s how you can use this finish to areas of your paints.

Applying this finish in Paint Builder

In Paint Builder, after you’ve enabled Finish options, select the desired layer, and in the properties panel under Finish, choose Custom and enter these values:

Metallic: 255

Roughness: 64

Clearcoat: 18

When you’re done, you’ll need to obtain a spec map MIP file with Sim Preview so you can fully apply it to your project. (Don’t worry, our guide walks you through how it’s done!)

Applying this finish in other apps

If you prefer to use external software like Photoshop or GIMP, you can create a spec map using the following values on your iRacing painting template to achieve this finish.

Color: #FF4012 (255, 64, 18 RGB)

Red Channel (Metallic): #FFFFFF / 100% / 255, 255, 255 RGB

Green Channel (Roughness): #404040 / 25% / 64, 64, 64 RGB

Blue Channel (Clearcoat): #121212 / 7% / 18, 18, 18 RGB

Happy painting — and keep the shiny side up!

Follow Trading Paints on Instagram for more iRacing spec map starters like this!