Editing NFSHS Car Performance Tutorial

- By Justin Martin aka IH8COPS

 The purpose of this tutorial is to teach people how to edit the performance file of NFSHS cars. Please do not email me with questions regarding this tutorial, I will not respond to questions about car performance editing. If this tutorial does not answer your questions, try posting a message on the Total NFS Message Board

Part 1: General General Serial Number - The car's serial number. NFSHS seems to only read serial numbers out of the fedata files, however, set this to the same as the serial number in the fedata files anyway. Spoiler Function Type - Enables the popup spoiler part, 0 = off, 1 = on. The pop up spoiler part is not used by any of EA's cars, however, it does exsist and was discovered by CPD. Simply create a spoiler shaped part named :OS and if the Spoiler Function is set to 1, the spoiler will rotate approx 30' around it's center, which is denoted as the light grey crosshairs in CarCad. Spoiler Activation Speed - One would presume this is the speed at which the movable spoiler pops up, but it isn't, this has no effect on the speed at which the spoiler pops up.

Top Speed - Top Speed, measured in meters per second. Here's how to calculate meters per second. (m/s)

From kilometers - kmh x 0.2777 = m/s

From miles per hour - mph x 0.4498 = m/s

Maximum Velocity - Set this to the same as the Top Speed. (read above)

Subdivide Level - Unknown function, all of EA's cars are set to 3. I don't recomend changing this.

Anti-Lock Brakes - Activates ABS for the car. It doesn't seem to make a difference, but turn it on anyway if the real car has ABS.

Car Classifacation - Seems to work like the Car Class in the fedata files, but a little bit differently. EA's cars really don't seem to follow any set pattern, however, when I was working on the Detroit Muscle mod, the classifacations had to be coordinated to prevent computer opponents from racing Cobras against class B cars like the '57 Oldsmobile.

In general, find a EA car with similar performance, and give your car the same classifacation number.

Mass - This is the car's weight in kilograms. EA's cars seem to use curb weight plus about 50kg to 100kg, so that is what i'd recomend using.

Road Bumpiness Factor - This sets how much bumps affect the car, Higher numbers give smoother rides. Here's a approximate guide to go by:

Race Cars - 0.5 to 0.6
Sports Cars - 0.6 to 0.95
Trucks - 0.7 to 0.8
Family Sedans - 0.85 to 1.1
Luxury Cars - 1.0 to 1.25

Camera Arm - The Camera Arm controls the angle of the Heli Cam view. In general, keep this to 0.25, but if you want to play around with it, keep it this number below 10.0. For cars that you are going to release, please, for the sake of humanity, keep this below 1.0.

Pitch Roll Factor - How much the car rolls in turns, higher numbers give more roll.

Race Cars - 0.55 to 0.70
Sports Cars - 0.70 to 1.00
Trucks - 1.25 to 1.50
Family Sedans - 1.00 to 1.25

Power Steering - Turns the power steering on and off.


Opponents

The Opponent Acceleration data tables are a set of acceleration curves that tell the game how fast the opponent cars accelerate at any given speed. The is contained within eight text fields in the carp.txt, as seen in the pic at right. Clicking on the graph icon beside any of the text fields will open a graph showing the acceleration curve.

The horizontal axis of the graph is in meters per second. Meters per second is a metric measure of speed, and is abbreviated as ms. One ms equals 3.6kph or 2.24mph

The vertical axis of the graph is in meters per second per second. Meters per second per second, which is abbreviated as ms², is basically a measure of how hard the car is accelerating. In simple terms, if a car is accelerating at 10 ms², every second it will increase it's speed by 10 ms.

Each point determines how fast a car accelerates in ms² at the speed represented by the point. Each point on the table represents 1ms, or 3.6 kph. So the first point would be how hard the car is accelerating at 1ms, (3.6kph) the second point is how hard the car is accelerating at 2ms, (7.2kph) the third is how hard the car is accerating at 3ms, (10.8kph) and so on. Each table has 14 points on it, for a range of 14ms or 51kph.

Acceleration Table Speeds (in kph)

Acceleration Table #1 - 000-051
Acceleration Table #2 - 052-101
Acceleration Table #3 - 102-151
Acceleration Table #4 - 152-201
Acceleration Table #5 - 202-251
Acceleration Table #6 - 252-301
Acceleration Table #7 - 302-351
Acceleration Table #8 - 352-401

To calculate top speed, divide top speed (kph) by 3.6. So, if you have a car with a top speed of 130 kph, 130 / 3.6 = 36. This means the 36th point will be top speed. Thus you need to make the 37th point a 0. Since there are 14 points in each table, it would be in the third table. The difference between 28 (the number of points in the first and second tables combined) and 36 is 8, so the 36th point would be the 8th point on the third table.

Once you calculate what point is the top speed, then you kinda guess the rest of it. Drive the car in game on a long, straight track against a computer opponent. If the car stays alongside you up to 75kph, then suddenly bursts ahead with speed, go find where 75kph is on the opponent tables and lower the 75kph point and a few after that. Keep repeating this process until you and the opponent stay neck and neck all the way to the top speed.

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