Custom Frames (Paintings) - Open Source Art Display System for FiveM

Transform any FiveM property, business, or public space into an art gallery with this powerful open-source custom painting and photo frame system. Whether you're decorating luxury penthouses with curated artwork, creating museum exhibits with historical pieces, running an art gallery business, or simply letting players personalize their homes with family photos and personal art collections, this script delivers complete creative freedom. The fully open-source nature means you own the code completely—modify it, extend it, integrate it with other systems, and adapt it to your exact vision without limitations.

What This System Delivers

At its core, this is a comprehensive image display solution that lets you place custom paintings, photographs, posters, and artwork anywhere in your FiveM world. Upload any image—classical paintings, modern art, personal photographs, server logos, propaganda posters, wanted notices, business advertisements, or memes—and display them in elegant frames with realistic proportions and lighting. The system handles image processing, optimization, and rendering to ensure images look sharp and professional without crushing server performance.

Unlike basic texture replacement mods that require server restarts and affect all clients, this script uses dynamic loading and client-side caching. Update your art collection on the fly, different players can see different artwork based on permissions or preferences, and new images appear without forcing everyone to reconnect.

Core Features & Capabilities

• Unlimited Image Support - Display any image you can upload. The system accepts JPG, PNG, and WebP formats, automatically optimizes file sizes for network transfer, converts images to appropriate resolutions for in-game display, and maintains aspect ratios to prevent distortion. No hardcoded limits on how many images your server can support.
• Multiple Frame Styles - Choose from diverse frame designs including modern minimalist frames for contemporary spaces, ornate classical frames for traditional settings, rustic wooden frames for cabins and rural properties, industrial metal frames for urban lofts, and no-frame canvas options for gallery-style mounting.
• Flexible Size Options - Place artwork in various sizes from small photo frames (portrait size) to medium gallery pieces (standard painting dimensions) to large statement pieces (oversized wall art) to massive murals (full wall coverage). Each size category supports aspect ratio variants for square, portrait, landscape, and panoramic formats.
• Dynamic Placement System - Position frames with precision using in-game coordinate tools, rotate to any angle for unique display arrangements, adjust height for proper viewing perspective, and snap to walls automatically or place freestanding. Perfect placement every time without editing configuration files.
• Permission-Based Visibility - Control who can see which artwork using flexible permission systems. Create private art collections visible only to property owners, public galleries everyone can view, faction-specific propaganda visible only to gang members, or VIP exclusive artwork for premium subscribers. Great for roleplay scenarios and exclusive content.
• Performance Optimization - Smart loading only renders visible frames within player draw distance, unloads artwork when players leave areas, uses texture streaming to manage memory efficiently, and includes LOD (Level of Detail) systems so distant frames don't render full resolution. Supports hundreds of frames across your map without performance impact.
• In-Game Management Interface - Admins and authorized users manage artwork through intuitive UI including image upload from URL, browse and select from existing image library, preview before placement, edit existing frames (change image, resize, reposition), and delete or archive old artwork.
• Client-Side Caching - Once a player views an image, it's cached locally for instant loading on future visits. Reduces network bandwidth usage, eliminates loading delays on repeat viewings, and improves overall experience.

Perfect For These Use Cases

• Property Decoration & Personalization - Let players customize their homes, apartments, and businesses with personal artwork. Upload family photos, hang favorite art pieces, display achievement screenshots, or create themed interior designs. Enhances property ownership satisfaction and emotional investment.
• Art Gallery Businesses - Operate functioning art galleries where players browse and purchase artwork. Rotate exhibits weekly or monthly, host opening events for new collections, auction rare pieces to collectors, and create a legitimate business economy around art dealing. Include artist credits and piece descriptions for immersive experiences.
• Museum & Cultural Exhibits - Build educational museums featuring historical photographs, cultural artifacts, local server history, or themed exhibitions. Create interactive learning experiences where players explore curated collections while learning server lore or real-world history.
• Gang & Faction Propaganda - Display faction symbols, territory markers, wanted posters, propaganda messages, and intimidation imagery in controlled areas. Visual storytelling that reinforces factional identity and territorial claims.
• Business Advertisement - Run advertising campaigns with promotional posters in strategic locations. Businesses pay for ad space in high-traffic areas, creating advertising economy gameplay and authentic urban environments filled with commercial imagery.
• Government & Public Notices - Post official government announcements, wanted posters for criminals, public safety notices, event advertisements, and city planning documents on official bulletin boards and government buildings.
• Nightclub & Entertainment Venues - Create dynamic venue atmospheres with rotating artwork, concert posters for upcoming events, DJ promotional images, and branded venue identity graphics. Update artwork to match event themes.
• Roleplay Enhancement - Support character backstories with family photos in homes, display military service records in veteran's offices, show crime scene photos in detective offices, or hang degree certificates in professional offices. Deep immersion through environmental storytelling.

Open Source Advantages

Being fully open source transforms this from a simple prop script into a development platform. Server developers gain complete access to source code for customization, can integrate with property systems to save frame placements in databases, connect to economy systems for art purchasing mechanics, add authentication systems for artist attribution and royalties, implement voting or rating systems for community art, and create custom admin tools for content moderation.

The code is clean, well-commented, and structured for extension. Even developers new to FiveM scripting can understand the logic and make modifications. Advanced developers can leverage it as a foundation for complex systems like NFT-style digital art ownership, art investment and speculation gameplay, or forgery detection minigames.

Technical Implementation Details

• Image Hosting - Supports multiple hosting methods including direct server hosting in resource folder (fastest, no external dependencies), external hosting via Imgur, Discord CDN, or custom image hosts, and hybrid approaches with server-side caching of external images.
• Image Processing - Automatic optimization pipeline that resizes oversized images to efficient display resolutions (reduces bandwidth), compresses without visible quality loss, converts unsupported formats, and validates images before display to prevent corrupted files from breaking client rendering.
• Database Integration - Optional database support stores frame positions, image URLs, owner information, placement timestamps, view counts and popularity tracking, and permission settings. Makes management easier at scale.
• Coordinate Export/Import - Save entire art collections as configuration files for backup purposes, migrate art between servers easily, share community-created museum layouts, and quickly restore after server resets.

Installation & Setup Process

1. Download & Extract - Place the custom frames resource folder into your server's resources directory. The script is lightweight and self-contained.
2. Configure Basic Settings - Edit config.lua to set default frame styles, configure maximum image dimensions and file sizes, set permission requirements for who can place frames, and optionally enable database storage for persistence.
3. Optional Database Setup - If using persistent storage, import the included SQL schema to create necessary tables for frame storage.
4. Prepare Image Library - Upload your initial artwork collection to your chosen hosting method. Organize images by category (classical art, photos, posters, etc.) for easier management.
5. Set Permissions - Configure who can place, edit, and remove frames. Typically restrict to admins initially, then expand to property owners or VIP members based on your server model.
6. Test Placement - Use in-game commands to place test frames, verify images load correctly, check performance impact, and confirm permissions work as intended.
7. Integrate With Property Systems - If your server uses housing scripts, configure integration so property owners can manage frames within their properties. Most property scripts support prop placement callbacks.
8. Launch & Educate Users - Roll out to players with tutorial documentation explaining how to upload and place artwork, what image formats/sizes work best, and any content guidelines or restrictions.

Content Moderation & Guidelines

With great creative freedom comes moderation responsibility. The system includes optional content filtering features like image approval queues before display, automated scanning for inappropriate content using third-party APIs, size limits to prevent abusive ultra-high-resolution uploads, rate limits on how many frames users can place, and administrative review tools to quickly remove rule-violating content.

Establish clear content policies covering prohibited content types (explicit material, hate symbols, copyright violations), image quality standards (minimum resolution, no extremely low-quality images), placement guidelines (don't block pathways, respect property boundaries), and consequences for violations.

Advanced Customization Examples

Because it's open source, community developers have created impressive extensions:

• Art Market Economy - Players buy/sell artwork with prices fluctuating based on demand. Famous artists command premium prices while new creators build reputation.
• Gallery Heist System - Criminals can steal valuable artwork from galleries, triggering police response and creating black market for stolen art.
• Dynamic Billboard Advertising - Businesses bid for billboard space, system automatically rotates ads, and tracks impression metrics.
• Photo Booth Integration - Players take in-game photos that automatically convert to framed paintings they can place in homes.
• Achievement Displays - Server accomplishments automatically generate commemorative plaques and trophies players can display.

Performance Specifications

• Resource Usage: ~0.02-0.05ms with 50+ frames loaded in area (very efficient)
• Memory Footprint: ~50-100MB typical with client-side caching (depends on image count and sizes)
• Network Impact: Images cached after first view, minimal ongoing bandwidth
• Maximum Recommended: 500+ frames per server without issues (tested in production)
• Draw Distance: Configurable (default ~50m for performance, up to 150m for important pieces)

Framework Compatibility

✅ Framework Independent - Works standalone without requiring ESX, QBCore, or any specific framework. Pure FiveM native implementation.

✅ Easy Integration - Simple API makes it easy to integrate with any property system, business script, or custom framework. Detailed integration examples included.

✅ No Dependencies - Zero external dependencies required. Works immediately after installation with no additional downloads.

What Makes This Stand Out

Most decoration scripts force you into rigid, pre-defined prop sets. This system gives true creative freedom—display anything imaginable from Renaissance masterpieces to funny memes to personal screenshots. The open-source nature means you're not locked into a developer's vision or limited by encrypted code.

The performance optimization is exceptional. Servers running 200+ custom frames report negligible performance impact because the streaming and LOD systems are properly implemented. Players on potato PCs still get smooth performance because the client only processes visible, nearby frames.

Being open source also means security transparency. Review the code yourself to ensure there's no malicious functionality, backdoors, or data collection. Modify anything that doesn't fit your security model.

Community & Support

As an open-source project, support comes from community forums, GitHub discussions, and wiki documentation. While there's no dedicated support channel, the active community typically answers questions quickly. The codebase includes extensive comments explaining how everything works, making self-support feasible for most issues.

Requirements

• FiveM Server (any recent artifact version)
• Basic Lua scripting knowledge for customization (optional)
• Image hosting solution (server folder, Imgur, Discord, etc.)
• MySQL Database (optional, for persistence features)
• No framework dependencies

Bring visual storytelling and personalization to your FiveM server with unlimited creative possibilities—Custom Frames open source system.

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