Player Guide

This guide covers everything a driver needs to know to use ARS CarPlay. The dashboard opens with F6 (default) while you’re in the driver seat of a supported vehicle.

Getting Started

Opening CarPlay

Default keybind: F6 (remappable in GTA Settings → Key Bindings → FiveM → carplay)
Command: /carplay
Requirements:
- You must be in a vehicle
- You must be in the driver seat (Config.CarPlay.requireDriverSeat = true)
- Vehicle class must not be disabled (bikes, cycles, boats, aircraft are disabled by default)

Tip: If nothing happens when you press F6, check the notification — it tells you why (not in vehicle, not driver, vehicle class unsupported).

The Tablet UI

The dashboard appears as a tablet docked at the bottom-right by default. You can change the dock position in Settings → Screen Position (six positions: corners, bottom-center, center).

The UI has three zones:

Status Bar (top) — time, signal, battery
App Area (main) — the active app
Dock (bottom) — pinned apps, tap to switch

Apps Overview

App	Icon	Purpose
Home	🏠	Quick status: speed, fuel, engine, nearby POIs, quick actions
Music	🎵	Play direct audio URLs & YouTube links, playlist, positional audio
Vehicle	🚗	Engine, doors, windows, lights, fuel, health gauges
Navigation	🧭	Live street/speed/heading, nearby search, GPS waypoint
Radio	📻	FM presets + Internet radio (Radio Browser API)
Phone	📞	Placeholder (recents, dialer)
Messages	💬	Placeholder (compose, inbox)
Settings	⚙️	Layout, speed unit, tablet position, last app persistence

Music App

Adding Tracks

Open Music from the dock.
Paste a direct audio URL (.mp3, .ogg, .m3u8, etc.) or a YouTube link (watch/share/shorts) into the input.
Optional: add a custom title.
Tap Add → track appears in the playlist.

YouTube links are resolved by xsound’s built-in IFrame API. Direct audio URLs play natively.

Playback Controls

Control	Action
▶️/⏸️	Play / Pause
⏮️ / ⏭️	Previous / Next (playlist order)
🔊 Slider	Volume (0–100%)
🔁	Auto-advance on track end (config: `Config.Music.autoAdvance`)
⏹️	Stop & clear current track

Positional Audio

When Config.Music.positional = true (default), audio emits from the vehicle.
Passengers and nearby players hear it fade with distance (Config.Music.audibleDistance, default 5m). Internet Radio uses the same path with a larger falloff (Config.Radio.audibleDistance, default 12m).
Audio is anchored to the vehicle’s position: the poll thread keeps the 3D source moving with you while the tablet is open, so it is not tied to your own client’s speaker volume.

Playlist Persistence

Your playlist saves to browser localStorage automatically.
On owned vehicles (plate scope), it persists across server restarts.
On NPC/unowned vehicles, it lasts only for the session.

Vehicle App

Engine

Toggle Engine — Turns engine on/off. Uses SetVehicleEngineOn with disableAutoStart = true so it stays off after re-entry.

Doors

Tap a door button (FL, FR, RL, RR, Hood, Trunk) to toggle open/close.
Buttons are disabled for doors that don’t exist on the current vehicle model.
Locked vehicles (lock status ≥ 2) reject door toggles — unlock first.

Windows

Tap a window button (FL, FR, RL, RR) to roll down/up.
State tracked locally (no native “is window down” read).

Lights

Cycle Headlights button cycles: Off → Low → High → Off.
High beam indicator shows in the status area.

Gauges

Gauge	Source	Notes
Fuel	Auto-detects fuel system (ox_fuel, cdn-fuel, ps-fuel, LegacyFuel, qb-fuel, qb-sna-fuel, lj-fuel, lc_fuel, LNS_Fuel, okokGasStation, frfuel) → falls back to native	0–100%
Engine Health	`GetVehicleEngineHealth`	0–100% (disabled via `Config.Vehicle.engineHealthEnabled`)
Body Health	`GetVehicleBodyHealth`	0–100% (disabled via `Config.Vehicle.bodyHealthEnabled`)

Fuel not reading correctly? Set Config.Vehicle.fuelSource = 'native' to force the GTA native, or pin a specific system (e.g., 'ox_fuel'). Custom export supported via Config.Vehicle.fuelExport.

Live Readout (always visible at top)

Street — Primary road name
Crossing — Intersecting road (if any)
Speed — mph or km/h (matches your speed unit setting)
Heading — 8-point compass (N, NE, E, SE, S, SW, W, NW)

Nearby Search

Tap a category: Fuel, Hospital, Ammu-Nation, Police, Mechanic.
Results show nearest first (max 12, within 4000m).
Tap a result → Set Waypoint places a GTA GPS marker.
Tap Clear Waypoint to remove it.

How it works: Scans map blips by sprite ID (gas=361, hospital=153, ammo=110, police=60/137, mechanic=446/72). ATMs have no persistent blip — not included by default.

Waypoint

Set Waypoint on a search result → yellow GPS route appears on your HUD/minimap.
Clear Waypoint removes it.

Radio App

FM Presets (GTA Native)

Tap a preset button → tunes the vehicle’s radio to that station.
Uses SetRadioToStationName — only works for the driver.
Station list: Los Santos Rock Radio, Non-Stop-Pop FM, Radio Los Santos, Channel X, West Coast Talk Radio, Rebel Radio, Soulwax FM, East Los FM, West Coast Classics, Blaine County Radio, The Blue Ark, FlyLo FM, Los Santos Underground Radio, The Lowdown 91.1, Radio Mirror Park, Space 103.2, Vinewood Boulevard Radio, Self Radio, The Lab, Blonded Los Santos 97.8, Cayo Perico Radio, The Music Locker.

Internet Radio

Featured — Curated stations from Config.Radio.stations (SomaFM channels by default).
Browse — Tap a genre tag (Rock, Pop, Jazz, Electronic, Classical, News) to load live stations from Radio Browser API (cached 5 min on server).
Search — Free-text search across the directory.
Favorites — Tap ★ on any station to save to your Favorites tab (persists in localStorage).

Playback

Internet streams use xsound positional audio (same as Music) — passengers/nearby players hear it.
FM and Internet are mutually exclusive — starting one stops the other.
Volume slider (0–100%) controls the internet stream only.

No audio? Ensure xsound is started on the server. Without it, the UI works but streams are silent.

Settings App

Setting	Description	Persists
Interface Style	`Cluster` (car-style cluster: left dock, right info column) / `Desktop` (macOS-style floating glass panels with a media bar) / `Mobile` (full-screen app with an iOS-style bottom dock)	✅
Speed Unit	`mph` or `km/h` — overrides server default	✅
Screen Position	Bottom-Right, Bottom-Left, Top-Right, Top-Left, Bottom-Center, Center	✅

All preferences save per vehicle (plate scope) or per character (player scope) depending on server config.

Persistence & Ownership

Plate Scope (Default)

Each owned vehicle gets its own settings, playlist, favorites.
Saved to localStorage (browser) → survives server restarts.
NPC/unowned vehicles → settings kept in server memory only (lost on restart).

Player Scope (Optional)

One settings profile follows your character across all vehicles.
Always persists (localStorage + server KV).

Check ownership: The server queries player_vehicles (QB/QBX) or owned_vehicles (ESX) via oxmysql. If oxmysql isn’t running, Config.CarPlay.ownership.fallbackOwned decides (default true = treat as owned).

Troubleshooting (Player-Side)

Issue	Fix
F6 does nothing	Are you in the driver seat of a car/truck? Check notification.
Music plays but no sound	Ask admin if `xsound` is running.
Fuel shows 0% or wrong	Server may need `Config.Vehicle.fuelSource` tuned for its fuel script.
Nearby search empty	You’re too far from any POI blips (max 4000m).
Settings don’t save	Vehicle not owned? Check plate scope + ownership fallback.
UI too big/small	Uses CSS `transform: scale()` — should auto-fit. Report resolution if broken.

Keybind Remapping

Open GTA Settings → Key Bindings → FiveM.
Find carplay (description: “Open CarPlay”).
Bind to any key.

Note: This guide is written by a third party. If you find any incorrect or outdated information, please contact us on Discord so we can update it for you.