IMG DL
This page explains what IMG DL is and what it offers. IMG DL is all about IMG archives (or cdimages, if you're a hipster like us who wants to use R* terminology everywhere), and offering content through them. All of our guides involving models so far involve models which are loaded straight from your hard drive. All of these use cases could just as easily be done through IMG archives. With some clever organization, and by compressing the IMG archives you can keep your files organized while making sure that one change does not result in a 100MB download for your players. Furthermore, you can drastically cut back on memory usage by using IMG archives. The game comes with a built-in streamer - the one GTA:SA also uses to make sure models are only loaded when needed. There are however limitations to what can be stored within them, as you'll soon find out.
Using IMG archives
Click here to find out how to use IMG archives for your content.
Recommended tools
Lots of tools exist which allow you to work with IMG archives. We personally recommend IMG Factory. We use it all the time and is something every modder should have in its toolbox.
It supports IMG archives of all formats and allows you to compress IMG archives as well - something the original game is incapable of.
When using IMG archives, you'll also need to start using collision archives. These are specific files which may contain one or multiple collision models.
The best tool for this is Steve M's collision editor. It has served modders well for over 15 years, and even has basic editing features.
There are plenty of tutorials available online which teach you how to work with them, should you be new to this topic.