Fox3 Livery Shareby Fox3 Servers

Help

Everything on this page is written for someone who has never done this before. Follow the steps in order the first time. After that, the sync page does the work and you just fly.

What this is

Fox3 Livery Share keeps your squad's custom paint schemes (liveries) in sync. Someone in the squad shares a livery once. Every other member's PC downloads it automatically, so everyone sees the same skins in DCS. When the painter improves it, only the changed files are sent again.

It all happens on this website:

  • My pools and the pool pages. You sign in with Discord, join your squad's pool, and see what is shared and who has it.
  • Sync in browser. A page you open on your DCS PC in Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. You show it your Saved Games\DCS folder once; it downloads what the squad shares into that folder and lets you pick liveries of your own to share. Nothing is installed on your PC.
  • The background agent (optional). A small program for people who would rather have syncing happen in the system tray without a browser window open. See The background agent.

A pool is one squad's collection of shared liveries. It belongs to your squad's Discord server. If you are in that Discord server, you can join the pool.

Getting started

You need: a Discord account that is a member of your squad's Discord server, and a Windows PC with DCS installed. Your squad's Fox3 server owner must have turned Livery Share on for the squad.

Step 1. Sign in

  1. Click Sign in with Discord at the top of this site.
  2. Discord asks whether Fox3ServerBot may see your username and which servers you are in. Click Authorize. That is all it can see; it cannot read or send messages.
  3. You land on My pools.

Step 2. Join your squad's pool

  1. On My pools, find your squad and click Join pool.
  2. If the page says "No pools yet", your squad's pool has not been switched on, or your Discord account is not in that server. Ask your squad admin.
  3. If it says you need a certain role, the admin has limited the pool to one Discord role. Ask them for it.

Step 3. Open Sync in browser on your DCS PC

This step needs Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge on Windows. Edge is already on every Windows PC. Firefox and Safari cannot write files into your DCS folder, so the page will tell you to switch browsers.

  1. On the PC that runs DCS, sign in to this site in Chrome or Edge and click Sync in browser at the top.
  2. Click Choose your DCS folder. A folder picker opens. Go to C:\Users\<you>\Saved Games and pick the DCS folder (or DCS.openbeta, whichever your DCS uses; it is the one that contains Liveries). Click Select Folder.
  3. The browser asks whether this site may view and then edit files in that folder. Click Edit files. If it offers to remember your choice, say yes.
  4. The page starts syncing right away: step 2 fills with what your squad shares and each livery goes to on this PC as it lands.

Do this on the PC that runs DCS, not on a laptop you only use for Discord. Pick the DCS folder itself, not Saved Games and not Liveries.

Want a Start-menu icon? In Chrome or Edge, open the browser menu and choose Install (or Apps, Install this site as an app). The page then opens in its own window and keeps the folder permission between visits.

That is the whole setup. You do it once per PC. Prefer syncing to happen in the background with no browser window? See The background agent instead of this step.

Getting the squad's liveries

Nothing to do. With the sync page open and a pool joined, it checks for new or changed liveries when you open it and every ten minutes after that, and downloads them into the right place:

C:\Users\<you>\Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\<aircraft>\<livery name>

If you have more than one DCS folder (for example DCS and DCS.openbeta), add both in step 1 of the sync page and it fills both. Untick a folder there and it is left alone: nothing is added to it and nothing is removed from it.

  • Syncing happens only while the sync page (or the installed app window) is open. Open it before you fly, give it a minute, then start DCS. If you want syncing with no window at all, use the background agent.
  • Want it now instead of in ten minutes? Click Sync now at the top of the sync page.
  • Close DCS before syncing and restart it afterwards. DCS holds livery files open while it runs, and it reads the livery list only when it starts.
  • Step 2 of the sync page, What your squad shares, lists every pool you are in and each livery's state on this PC: on this PC, waiting, skipped or needs attention. The pool page on this site shows the same from the squad's side.

Sharing your own livery

Your livery must already work in DCS on your PC, in Saved Games\DCS\Liveries\<aircraft>\<livery name>, with its description.lua file. If it works for you, it will work for the squad.

No livery of your own yet? Fox3 builds custom liveries for squads: fox3servers.com/liveries. Once it is in your DCS folder, share it like any other.

  1. Open Sync in browser and scroll to step 3, Share your own liveries. Every livery in your DCS folder is listed; use the search box if there are many.
  2. If you are in more than one pool, pick which pool to share into next to the livery.
  3. Click Share. The page reads the files (a progress bar shows how far it is), uploads them, and the row shows shared v1.
  4. Everyone in the pool receives it on their next sync.

Things to know:

  • A livery name can only be used once per aircraft in a pool. If someone else already shared "Squad Blue" for the F-16, rename your folder first.
  • Only the person who shared a livery can update it. Others get it; they cannot change it.
  • Liveries that came from the pool are marked from the pool. You cannot share those back; they already belong to the pool.
  • Keep it reasonable: up to 400 files and 4 GB per livery, and the whole pool has a storage limit the admin can see on the pool page. Reading a 2 GB livery in the browser takes a minute or two; leave the page open until the row says shared.

Choosing what to download

By default you get everything in the pool. To skip something, open the pool on this site and untick the livery. Untick an aircraft's heading to skip every livery for that aircraft, for example if you do not own the module. Skipped liveries show as skipped. Tick again any time to get them.

Updating or removing a livery

  • Updating one you shared: edit the files in your Saved Games folder as usual. On the sync page the livery shows Upload new version; click it and members get only the files that changed. (The background agent does this on its own.)
  • Stop sharing one of yours: on the pool page click Stop sharing next to it. Members keep the copy they already have; it just stops updating.
  • Leaving a pool: Leave on My pools. Everything already on your PC stays where it is.
  • Unlinking a PC: Unlink on My pools. Browsers and agents appear there alike. An unlinked browser page registers itself again the next time you open it; an unlinked agent waits for a new link code.
  • Forgetting a folder: Remove next to the folder in step 1 of the sync page. Nothing in the folder is deleted; it just stops syncing.

For squad admins

If you own the Fox3 server, you are the pool admin. Open the pool and click Pool settings.

  • Pool name: what members see.
  • Who may join: anyone in the Discord server, or only people with one role you pick (for example "Pilot"). The role list comes from the Fox3 bot, so the bot must be in your server.
  • Who has what: a grid of members against liveries. Green means they have the current version, amber an older one, grey not installed or skipped, red a conflict on their PC.
  • Members: remove someone from the pool. Their shared liveries stop syncing for everyone; files already on PCs stay.
  • Remove a livery: on the pool page, Remove next to any livery. Use this for broken or inappropriate skins.
  • Storage: each pool has 50 GB. The meter on the pool page shows how much is used.

Something is not working

I do not see the livery in DCS.
Restart DCS first; it only reads liveries at launch. Then check the pool page shows on my PC for that livery. Remember a livery only shows on another pilot's aircraft if they have it too; if they do not, you see a default skin.
"No pools yet" on My pools.
Either the squad's pool has not been switched on, or your Discord account is not in that Discord server. Ask your squad admin which it is.
The sync page says it needs Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
Only those two browsers can write files into your DCS folder from a web page. Open the same address in Edge (it is on every Windows PC) or Chrome. Firefox and Safari will not work for this page, although the rest of the site is fine in them.
I use Brave.
Brave is built on Chrome but turns the folder feature off by default. Open brave://flags/#file-system-access-api, set it to Enabled, relaunch Brave and open the sync page again. The page tells you this too when it notices Brave.
The folder picker will not let me choose a folder, or says the folder does not look like DCS.
Pick the DCS folder (or DCS.openbeta) inside Saved Games, not Saved Games itself and not Liveries. Start DCS once on this PC if the folder does not exist yet. Chrome and Edge refuse a few protected folders such as your whole user folder; Saved Games\DCS is fine.
The sync page shows "needs your OK" next to my folder.
The browser has forgotten that this page may edit the folder. Click Reconnect and choose Edit files. If this happens every visit, install the page as an app (browser menu, Install); the installed app keeps the permission.
I see no liveries in step 3, or the page says "No liveries found".
The page lists folders under Liveries\<aircraft>\<livery> that contain a description.lua. Check the folder you picked is the right DCS folder, then click Rescan folder.
A livery shows "needs attention" or "conflict".
You already have a folder with that aircraft and livery name in one of your DCS folders, and it is not the same as the pool's copy, so nothing is touched. This is common if you keep liveries in both DCS and DCS.openbeta. If your folder is identical to the pool's, it is adopted on its own. Otherwise rename or delete your copy in the folder the message names, then Sync now, and the pool version is installed there. If the same name is shared in two of your pools, untick it in one of them.
A livery sits at "waiting" or "downloading" for a long time.
Open the Log at the bottom of the sync page; it says what went wrong for each file. The usual cause is DCS running and holding files open: close DCS and click Sync now. Large liveries take a while on slow connections; leave the page open.
Sharing failed.
The reason is in the message and in the Log. Common ones: the name is already taken in that pool, the folder has no description.lua, a single file is over 1 GB, or the pool is full.
I changed a livery I did not share and it was put back.
Liveries that came from the pool are managed for you and get restored to the pool version. If you want your own variant, copy the folder under a new name; the copy is yours and is left alone.
I lost a file.
Nothing is deleted outright. A file the sync page replaced or removed is kept for 14 days in Saved Games\DCS\.flss-trash\<date>\ next to your Liveries folder (the background agent uses %LOCALAPPDATA%\Fox3\FLSS\trash instead). Copy it back from there.
I have two PCs.
Open the sync page on each one and pick its DCS folder. Each PC gets the full pool and shows up on My pools under My PCs.

The background agent

The sync page only works while it is open. If you would rather have syncing happen in the system tray with no browser window, install the Fox3 Livery Agent instead. It does the same job and follows the same rules.

  1. On your DCS PC, download the agent: flss-agent.exe.
  2. Double-click the downloaded file. It copies itself into your user folder, sets itself to start when you log in, and opens its own page in your browser with four numbered steps.
  3. Windows may show a blue box saying "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway. This appears because the agent is a new program without a paid signing certificate, not because anything is wrong with it. If your antivirus quarantines the file, restore it and add %LOCALAPPDATA%\Fox3\FLSS to its exceptions.
  4. In the agent page, click Get a link code, then enter the 8-character code on the Link a PC page of this site. Codes last ten minutes and work once.
  • Right-click the fox icon in the tray (click the small up arrow next to the clock if it is hidden) for Sync now, Open Fox3 Livery Agent and Quit. Sharing and folder switches are on the agent's own page.
  • Replaced files are kept 14 days in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Fox3\FLSS\trash.
  • To remove it: Quit from the tray menu, then delete %LOCALAPPDATA%\Fox3\FLSS. Your liveries are not in that folder and are not touched.
  • Newer download, old version still showing or two fox icons: since 0.1.10 the new file stops the old copy on its own; just run the download again.

What we will never do

These rules hold for the sync page and the agent alike.

  • Delete your files. Replaced files go to the trash folder named above for 14 days.
  • Touch a livery folder we did not create. Your hand-made liveries are only read when you click Share.
  • Upload anything you did not choose to share.
  • Write anywhere outside the DCS folder you picked.
  • Read your Discord messages. Sign-in only shares your username, avatar and server list.

Still stuck?

Ask in your squad's Discord first; the admin can see who has what on the pool page. For anything else, open a ticket with Fox3 Servers and tell us your Discord name, the pool, and what the Log on the sync page says.