General Information | Tutorials | Parts
General Information ^
Car modding
Tools you need
- NFS Wizard [NFSAddons] [portable] (to open up and edit .viv container, .qfs and .fsh files, editing performance and fedata files; install it in Windows 98 compatibility mode and run it in XP compatibility mode)
- ZModeler 1.07b [download] [portable] (modelling program)
- An image editing program able to open and save TGA files (like GIMP [portable version]) -version 2.8 [portable] recommended since 2.10 does not work 100% the same-
- FCE Centerer [NFSAddons] (to center the FCE so it doesn't "sink" or "float" on the road)
- FCE Finish 2 [NFSAddons] [portable] (multipurpose FCE editing tool; useful for colors, dummies, smoothing, etc.)
Optional tools
- NFSHS CARP Generator [download] (spreadsheet tool for generating a CARP.txt from scratch)
- FSHTool [download] [JimD's updated version] (QFS/FSH file unpacker/packer, for vidwalls)
- Vidwall Tookit [download] (GIMP script and batch file toolset to generate vidwalls quick and easy)
- FCE Colors [NFSAddons] (tool to import/export colors of FCE files to TGA files for easier color edition/backup.)
- VIV Edit [NFSAddons] (another tool to open and edit .viv containers, can create .viv files from scratch.)
- unvivtool [GitHub (release)] (command line tool to unpack/pack .viv files)
How do NFSHS cars work?
NFSHS cars at minimum have a car.viv file, which is a container file that contains all the data pertaining to the car. Said files are placed in the data\cars\<car id> folder of NFSHS, where <car id> stands for the car's 4-char ID defined in the fedata files.VIV files contents are the following:
Cars also might have <car id>.qfs, <car id>1.qfs, <car id>2.qfs files located in the data\feart\vidwall\ folder of NFSHS: these are the vidwall files you see in the car select and in the case of the latter two, the showroom.
The showroom feature is enabled by placing a sh<car id folder>.qfs file in the data\showcase\art\ folder of NFSHS, that file can be a renamed empty text file since the game only uses the filename as a check to enable the feature.
Photo album slides are the sl<car id folder>##.qfs files in the data\showcase\art\ folder of NFSHS (## is the number of slide starting from 01). The manufacturer bar that is shown below the slides is the <1st 4 digits of the manufacturer name>.qfs file in that same folder.
Interior lookaround views in showroom are the in_<car id folder>.qfs files in the data\showcase\art\ folder of NFSHS.
FCE part names
FCE Dummies
Dummies are basically the car's lights, but they also can be license plates, smoke and water emitters. Light dummies have the following nomenclature, for example for a headlight:
HWYN500
In which:
- the first character determines the type of light (Headlight, Taillight, Brakelight, Reverse light, Position [or "directional"] and Siren)
- the second determines color (White, Red, Blue, Orange, Yellow)
- third is unknown
- fourth determines if it flashes (No flashing, Odd ["Moment 1"], "Even ["Moment 2"])
- fifth determines the light intensity (0-9)
- sixth determines for how long the light stays on (0 for always on, 1-9 variable)
- seventh determines the delay (how long it takes to turn on) for that light (0 for no delay, 1-9 variable)
Limitations
- It's recommended to not get over 9-10k polies on car's main LODs, since the vanilla game crashes when you go over ~40k polies on all loaded vehicles (meaning you can't run a full grid, or even play Hot Pursuit in some cases). Even with the Modern Patch the game will experience a dramatic frame drop if you run a full grid of cars since the game's engine appears to rely too much on the CPU. To optimize performance you might want to use lower-poly :LB and :TB parts.
- Texture size is limited to 256x256 pixels. Technically you can use bigger textures but the game crunches it down to 256x256, making that moot. So you better make the best of every single pixel.
- You can use up to 16 dummies
Performance per car class
| Class | Fastest 0-60 mph (100 km/h) (sec) | Fastest 0-100 mph (160 km/h) (sec) | Fastest ¼ mile (400m) (sec) | Fastest 1000m (sec) | Highest top speed (km/h [mph]) | Highest Test Runway avg. skidpad speed (km/h [mph]) | Shortest 100 km/h (60 mph)-0 time (sec) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B | 6,1 | 15,3 | 14,2 | 26,5 | 235 [146] | 150 [93] | 3,25 |
| A | 4,1 | 9,5 | 12,4 | 22,6 | 290 [180] | 175 [109] | 2,55 |
| AA | 3,3 | 6,7 | 11 | 19,6 | 335 [208] | 190 [118] | 2,4 |
| AAA | 2,15 | 3,9 | 9 | 17 | 340 [211] | 218 [135] | 2,35 |
Serial numbers
Track Modding
Tools you need
- T3ed [NFSAddons] [MagentaCloud] - Program used to modify the track mesh
- FSHTool [download] [JimD's updated version] QFS/FSH file unpacker/packer, for track textures
Tutorials ^
Car modding
Written
- Creating a car from scratch in ZModeler (Zmodeler2.com) [offline version]
- Normals and shading tutorial (by Freak-DS at NFSAddons)
- Driver animation tutorial (by Freak-DS at NFSAddons)
- Creating alpha channels for the car textures with GIMP
- Creating a vidwall in GIMP
- How to make NFSHS photo album banner and slides
- CARP.txt reference
- CARP Tuning Tutorial (by RDP, part of the tutorial pack)
- NFS3/NFSHS Car Sound Tutorial (new!)
- Sound editing tutorial (by Zpectre at NFSAddons) [older version here]
Video
- NFSHS Car Conversion Tutorial
Car modding tips
- Look for real life pictures of the car you're making as reference for materials, textures, shading and whatnot
- Test Runway and Autumn Valley '17 are ideal for perfomance testing, they have long straightaways for acceleration and top speed testing
- To allow AI drivers to use their own hair and skin colors, set the driver's hair color to hue 30, saturation 190, brightness 70, transparency 127 in FCE Converter. Also the skin color in the texture has to be exactly RGB 190, 150, 100 (HEX #BE9664).
Track modding
- Track Design Tutorial by Fangio - machine-translation of Fangio's track design tutorial, which is quite complete.
- Various tutorials by Nappe1, Sergi1983 and Zacabeb (NFSHS Tutorial Pack by FerrariMan) [NFSAddons] - various tutorials covering track edition.
- How to make NFSHS-styled track slides and vidwalls
- PomFrit's AI Lines tutorial [NFSAddons]
Parts ^
Driver Model Pack
Model is in ZModeler 1 format, textures are in .bmp; GIMP .xcf file included in case you want to edit the texture.
Please credit me if you distribute or use these models.
Download
Textures for 2D brakes
3D Brakes
Brakes based on NFSU2 models
Model is in ZModeler 1 format, textures are in .tga
Please credit me if you distribute or use these models.
Download
NFSPS Racing Seat
Extracted and modified from NFSPS, 94 tris.
Model in Zmodeler 1 format, with BMP textures and a GIMP XCF template
Please credit me if you use or distribute these models
Please credit me if you use or distribute these models
More textures available at the Parts page
For some reason, the "Click to Show/Hide" buttons don't show anything on this page. They work on other pages, though.
ReplyDeleteShould be fixed now.
DeleteThank you!
Delete