Why Farming Simulator 22 mods do not work in FS25, what a conversion involves, and how to spot a bad one

24 Oct 2026 · 3 min read · ModsDrop

Pictured: John Deere 8000 – 1995-1999 Large Tractor up to 270 hp, from the ModsDrop library.

Farming Simulator 25 shipped in November 2024 with a new generation of GIANTS’ engine, and every mod made for Farming Simulator 22 stopped at the door. A year on, the question still arrives weekly: why does my FS22 mod not load, and can it be converted? The short answers are “because the game checks” and “yes, by its author, with work”. Here is the longer version.

The version check

Every mod carries a description file, modDesc.xml, with a descVersion number that states which generation of the game it was written for. FS25 requires a descVersion range of its own; an FS22 mod declares an older one and the game refuses to load it, with a line in log.txt saying the mod is not compatible with the current version. That refusal is deliberate. Changing the number by hand gets the mod past the check and into a wall of errors, because the check exists for the reasons below.

What actually changed

The engine. FS25 runs on a newer GIANTS Engine with new rendering, new terrain and new vegetation systems. Models (.i3d) and their materials must be re-exported with the new GIANTS Editor; FS22 materials come out black, missing or without shaders.
The scripting API. Many Lua functions were renamed, moved or removed, and the way specialisations (the building blocks of vehicle behaviour) are declared changed. A script that worked in FS22 refers to functions that no longer exist.
Game systems. Animals, productions, construction, weather and ground types were reworked; mods that touch them reference data structures that look different.
Later patches kept moving. 1.24 disabled Lua loadstring; 1.25 added the requiresPower option for moving tools. A conversion done in early 2025 may need another look.

What a conversion involves

For a simple vehicle without scripts: open the FS22 model in the FS25 GIANTS Editor, fix the materials, re-export, update modDesc.xml and the vehicle XML to FS25’s schema, test the configurations, fix the store icon. An afternoon for an experienced modder, a week for a first attempt. For a map: re-import the terrain and every placeable, rebuild the ground types and foliage, redo the sell points and productions to the new systems; weeks to months. For a script mod: a rewrite, in proportion to how much it touched.

This is why FS25’s mod library grew the way it did: vehicles came quickly, maps came slowly, and some popular FS22 scripts never came at all because their authors had moved on.

Who may convert

The author, or someone with the author’s permission. A conversion is a derivative work of the original mod, and “I converted it, so it is mine now” is the single most common way a stolen mod enters circulation. When a conversion appears under a different name than the original author’s, the original author can and does ask for its removal; on ModsDrop such reports are checked against the author fields inside the files and acted on. If you want a favourite FS22 mod in FS25, ask its author, or look for the conversion they have already made.

Spotting a bad conversion

Textures that look flat or plastic in FS25 light: materials not redone.
Missing wheels, missing attachers, a vehicle that cannot be filled: the vehicle XML was not updated to the new schema.
Warnings in the log about shaders, materials or deprecated functions on every load.
A store price in FS22 money and a description that still says FS22.
No author name, or a name different from the one inside the model files.

What still works across versions

Almost nothing as a file. Textures and sounds can be reused by an author in a conversion; nothing can be dropped into FS25’s mods folder from FS22 and work. The habit to keep from FS22 is the folder discipline: zip files only, plain names, one source per mod, and a copy of anything you would miss.

Looking ahead

The Beans & Alpacas expansion arrives on 27 October 2026 with its own patch, and expansion patches have historically touched more systems than point releases. Mods converted in the first months of FS25 are the ones most likely to need a second pass. When a conversion breaks on expansion day, that is not a sign it was bad; it is a sign the game is still moving.