General Information | Tutorials | Parts
VIV files contents are the following:
In which:
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.)
- FCE Converter [NFSAddons] (to convert between FCE formats, also edits part names, dummy names and colors)
Optional tools
- CARP Generator [download] - (spreadsheet tool for generating a CARP.txt from scratch)
- Velocity To RPM Calculator [NFSAddons] (as the name says, it calculates VTR values for gear speeds)
- NFS3/HS TGA Converter Script for GIMP [download] (GIMP script that automatically converts between NFS3 and NFSHS spec TGA files)
- FSHTool [download] [JimD's updated version] (QFS/FSH file unpacker/packer)
- 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 NFS3 cars work?
NFS3 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 gamedata\carmodel\<car id> folder of NFS3, 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 ##_00.qfs files located in the fedata\art\slides folder of NFS3: these are the car slides you see while a race is loading.
Car compare pics are stored in the compare.qfs file of the fedata\art folder of NFS3; each one is named after the car's ID
The showroom feature is enabled by via the sh<car id folder>.qfs file in the fedata\art\showroom folder of NFS3. Said files contain the pics you'll see when you cycle through the general/specs/performance tabs.
The h<car id folder>.qfs file in the fedata\art\showroom folder of NFS3 contains the pics you see in the History section of the car's showroom.
Photo album slides are the sl<car id folder>##.qfs files in the fedata\art\showroom folder of NFS3 (## is the number of slide starting from 01).
Interior lookaround views in showroom are the in_<car id folder>.fsh files in the fedata\art\showroom folder of NFS3
FCE part names
FCE Dummies
Dummies are basically the car's lights. Light dummies have the following nomenclature, for example for a headlight:
HFRE
In which:
- the first character determines the type of light (Headlight, Taillight, Siren)
- the second determines position (Front, Mid, Rear)
- third determines side (Left, Right)
- fourth determines if it flashes (No flashing, Odd ["Moment 1"], Even ["Moment 2"])
Limitations
- It's recommended to not get over 9-10k polies on cars, 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.
- Texture size is limited to 256x256 pixels in vanilla game. Technically you can use bigger textures but the game crunches it down to 256x256, making that moot. However, VEG's patch has an option to allow larger textures.
- 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | 5 | 11,1 | 14,1 | 25,1 | 282 [175] | 158 [98] | 3,16 |
| B | 4,5 | 9,8 | 13,5 | 23,7 | 305 [189] | 173 [108] | 3,11 |
| A | 3,2 | 6 | 11,1 | 18,8 | 367 [228] | 210 [131] | 2,7 |
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)
- Normals and shading tutorial (by Freak-DS at NFSAddons)
- Creating alpha channels for the car textures with GIMP
- How to make NFS3-styled manufacturer logos and loading slides
- How to make NFS3 showcase and history files
- How to make NFS3 photo album slides
- NFS3/NFSHS Car Sound Tutorial (new!)
- The Complete Guide To Make NFS3 Cars (by Theycallmebk4) - a fairly complete guide (as the name states) on NFS3 car modding
- CARP.txt reference
Video
- NFSHS Car Conversion Tutorial (process is rather similar between NFSHS and NFS3)
Car modding tips
- Look for real life pictures of the car you're making as reference for materials, textures, shading and whatnot
- Test Runway is designed for acceleration, top speed and handling tests. Use it to gauge your car's performance.
Track modding
Note: there's no NFS3-specific track editing tutorials as of now, so the HS ones will have to do. There are key differences between NFS3 and HS track formats as well:
- Track files are located in gamedata\tracks\trk###
- .hrz files store the sky/weather/lighting data, can be edited with Notepad
- There are 4 track texture files for each track
-
- tr0#0.qfs: normal textures, 24/32-bit (for DX/Glide renderer)
- tr0#0_8.qfs: same as above, but 8-bit (for software renderer)
- tr0#1.qfs: mirrored textures, 24/32-bit (for DX/Glide renderer)
- tr0#1_8.qfs: same as above, but 8-bit (for software renderer)
- Unlike HS tracks, textures cannot be mirrored or tiled, hence the need to pack duplicate textures in the qfs file.
- No replay cameras in some tracks
- There are fewer polygon flags available
- 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.
- PomFrit's AI Lines tutorial [NFSAddons]
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