Converting Legacy assets to Enhanced on FiveM with Alchemist

When people migrate a server from FiveM Legacy to Enhanced, they worry about scripts first. That’s rarely where it breaks. The real work is the 3D assets: add-on vehicles, MLOs, clothing, props — everything built for GTA V’s Gen8 generation that Gen9 won’t read as-is.

Cfx.re ships an official tool for exactly this: Alchemist. Here’s how it works, what it covers, and what it doesn’t.

The problem, in one line

GTA V Legacy (Gen8) and GTA V Enhanced (Gen9) don’t store 3D resources in the same format. A model that’s run flawlessly on your Legacy server for three years simply isn’t readable by the Enhanced client. Multiply that by the hundreds of files in a mature server and hand-converting is off the table.

If you’re still deciding which version to target, start with our Legacy or Enhanced comparison.

What is Alchemist?

Alchemist is Cfx.re’s official conversion utility, aimed at players, server owners and asset creators. You download it from the Cfx Portal, and it runs on Windows 11 only — its dumbest constraint, and the one that stops the most people.

It offers two modes:

• Asset Conversion — converts a folder and all its contents, making your existing Legacy 3D assets compatible with FiveM Enhanced. This is the migration mode.
• Asset Refinement — fixes Legacy assets that are staying on Legacy, typically ones produced by older tools that carry formatting problems. This is the repair mode, useful even if you’re not migrating.

Supported formats

Alchemist handles five extensions:

Extension	Contents
.ydr	Model (drawable)
.ydd	Drawable dictionary
.yft	Fragment model (vehicles, breakable objects)
.ytd	Texture dictionary
.ypt	Particle effects

That’s the bulk of a server’s weight: vehicles, clothing, props, textures. But note the flip side — anything not on that list doesn’t go through Alchemist. .ymap, .ytyp, .ybn (collisions) and .ycd (animations) are out of scope. On a complex MLO, the tool will handle models and textures, not the whole package. Budget time for testing.

Method 1: the GUI

Simplest for a first pass.

1. Launch Alchemist.exe (double-click).
2. Accept or decline telemetry.
3. Pick the mode: Asset Conversion or Asset Refinement.
4. Browse → select your input folder.
5. Browse → select your output folder.
6. Hit the button and let it run.

Results land in your output folder. Worth knowing: if you feed it your server’s resources folder as input, what comes out is a drop-in replacement folder for FiveM Enhanced.

Method 2: the command line

Faster, scriptable, and — as we’ll see — more robust.

1. Open a Command Prompt.
2. Drag AlchemistCli.exe into the window, then hit Enter.
3. Accept the Terms of Service (y).
4. Answer the telemetry prompt (y or n).

Basic syntax is just input then output:

C:\AlchemistCli.exe C:\input C:\output

Available parameters:

Parameter	Effect
--refine	Refine assets instead of converting them
--relaxed	Permissive mode: lighter validation + automatic fixes
-f	Overwrite existing files without prompting
-jN	Thread count (default 10) — e.g. -j8
--fail-on-error	Stop on the first error

A full example:

C:\AlchemistCli.exe C:\input C:\output -j5 -f --fail-on-error

--fail-on-error is your friend for a first diagnostic pass: you want to know which asset is the problem, not end up with 400 converted files and a hole in the middle. Once the awkward cases are identified and set aside, run again without the flag to process the batch.

The pitfall: escrowed assets

This is the limitation to know before you burn an evening. The GUI fails on escrow-protected assets — the process simply breaks.

Two ways out:

• remove escrowed assets from the folder before running the GUI;
• use the CLI, which skips them automatically.

That difference alone is reason enough to do your conversions on the command line for a real server.

And there’s a strategic consequence to follow through on: Asset Escrow isn’t available on Enhanced yet during early access. So your paid protected resources aren’t merely “hard to convert” — right now they have nowhere to go. If your server depends on them, migration isn’t a tooling problem, it’s a scheduling one: you wait.

Relaxed mode, in moderation

--relaxed (and its GUI equivalent) imports assets that don’t strictly comply with validation rules: some checks are skipped to maximise compatibility. In exchange, the tool applies automatic fixes — meaning your asset may be slightly modified.

Good practice: normal pass first, --relaxed only on the files that refused to go through, and a visual check in game afterwards. It’s not a flag to leave on by default “just in case”.

The method that avoids regrets

1. Work on a copy. Input and output are separate folders anyway, but keep your Legacy originals untouched regardless — that’s your only way back.
2. Convert in batches, not the whole server at once. Vehicles first, then clothing, then MLOs: when something breaks, you know where to look.
3. Test in game, not just for the absence of console errors. A converted .ytd can load without complaint and render a black texture.
4. Check collisions and placement on MLOs and props — those are precisely the formats Alchemist doesn’t touch.
5. Write down what you pushed through in relaxed mode — those are your first suspects on any rendering bug.

Convert, or start clean?

There’s one case where none of this applies: the standalone server, written for Enhanced from day one, with no Gen8 asset debt. No conversion, no escrow, no format surprises.

That’s the call we made for Chased: a single standalone resource built for Enhanced, running 1v1 hunter-versus-hunted duels in a randomly drawn shared car. Nothing to migrate, because there’s nothing being dragged along.

For what’s next, see our FiveM Enhanced page and, if you’re starting from scratch, installing FiveM for GTA 5 Enhanced.