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 3: Gearing/Engine Gearing The Gearing page is in two columns, both are identical except for Shift Delay. The left column is for the manual transmission, the right column is for the automatic transmission. If a car doesn't have a automatic (in real life) set the automatic variables the same as the manual is set to. And vise versa if the car is only available with a automatic. Number of Gears - Total number of foward, reverse and neutral gears. A BMW M5 has 6 foward gears, 1 neutral and 1 reverse, so the number of gears is set to 8. The maximum number of gears is 8, anything higher will not work properly. Note: It is possible to add more than 8 gears, however, when I tried adding a 7th gear, the game loaded the car okay, and everything worked until I shifted into 7th. When I did, the engine hit redline, no matter what speed I was at. So basically, the game doesn't like 7th gears, and 7th is not useable. Unless you just think it's cool to see 7 gears displayed in the HUD, a 7th gear would serve no purpose.

Final Gear - Seems to have no effect on acceleration or at what speed a car hits redline in each gear. I hit 33mph in 1st gear and ran a 5.3 sec 0-60 in the Camaro with the Final Gear set to both 3.42 and 5.42. In real life, with a 5.42 rear end, I should have hit redline in 1st at something like 20mph and ran a 0-60 in the 4 sec range. However, I set this value to the rear axle ratio that the car has from the factory, just in case it does have a effect. I've been told it may have a effect on slopes, though i've not been able to confirm that.

Velocity to RPM - VTR sets the maximum speed at which the car can travel in each gear. It is done in meters per second, (m/s) and it is very important that this is set correctly if you want a accurate carp.

The easiest way to set this would be to download the NFSHS Velocity to RPM Calculator from the Editing Tools page. It is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that takes your car's gear ratios, tire size and engine redline and tells you what the VTR should be set to. If you don't have Excel, you can use the manual way described below.

From kilometers - rpm / (kmh x 0.2777) = VTR

From miles per hour - rpm / (mph x 0.4498) = VTR

For example, my Chevy truck hits it's 5500 rpm redline in 2nd gear at 65mph. To figure VTR for second gear, I would first multiply 65mph by 0.4498, which gives me 29.237. Then, I would divide 5500 by 29.237, which would give me a VTR of 188.177795. Here's how it would look writen out....

5500 / (65 x 0.4498) = 188.177795

Additionally, negative numbers produce a reverse gear, and settings of 0 produce a neutral gear. The first number in the VTR is always reverse, second is neutral, third is 1st foward, fourth is 2nd foward gear, and so on.

Gear Ratios - Like the Final Gear, seems to have no effect on the performance. I've also noticed that on EA's cars, the gear ratios are rarely set to the correct factory ratios. Set them to the correct gear ratios for the tranny anyway, but if you can't find out the correct ratios, don't worry about it.

Gear Efficiency - Basically, this sets how efficient each gear ratio is at converting horsepower into rolling acceleration. If you set everything else on this page to the correct factory specs, and the car's acceleration matches factory specs, then don't mess with this. The Gear efficiency can be useful though, sometimes cars with low traction tires will accelerate faster in NFS than a real car would because the real car would be bogged down in wheel spin due to the low traction. Simply lower the 1st gear efficiency until the 0-60 times match factory times.

 Similarly, if you set everything else on the page correctly, and the car's acceleration is too slow, you can make raise the efficiency, which will make the car accelerate faster. Think of the gear efficiency as the fine tuning for car acceleration.

Shift Delay - The Shift Delay sets how long it takes for the car to shift. Even though this is only in the manual column, it affects both manuals and automatics. Generally, for most cars, set it to between 4 to 10. Trucks would be about 8 to 15. Cars with electronic shifts, like the Ferrari 360F1 and the Aston Martin Vanquish should be set to about 0 to 2.

Engine Minimum RPM - This is the engine's idle speed, or how fast the engine turns at idle. Generally, this will range between 600 and 1200 rpm, with most cars in the 800 to 1000 range. Some highly modified and racing engines may idle much higher. Usually, the best way to find out a car's idle speed is by letting a car idle in park/neutral and reading how fast the engine is turning on the tachometer. If you don't have access to the car you are modeling, a service manual for that car/engine is just as good. Idle speed is usually found in the service manual's tune up section. Redline RPM - This is the maximum speed at which the engine can safely turn. The best place to find out a engine's redline would be in a magazine road test of the car or on the manufacturer's webpage. If you have access to the car you are modeling, you might find the redline by reading either the tachometer (if the car has one) or the owners manual. (which most likely won't tell)

Front Drive Ratio - Presumably the final drive ratio for the front axle, in my experiance, this is usually more trouble that it is worth. It won't cause the front wheels to spin in the game, and it doesn't seem to affect off road or wet traction either. I do wonder why it is in the Engine section, rather than the Gearing section....

Interestingly, negative numbers cause straight line acceleration to be much faster, positive numbers also slightly increase acceleration, but mostly produce mega torqe steer. Probably the only use this has would be for cars with alot of torque steer, (like the SAAB 9-3 Viggen) a good setting for realistic torque steer would be 0.5 to 1.1. Otherwise, leave it set to 0.

Shift Blip in RPM - Not complete

Brake Blip in RPM - Not complete

Torque Curve - The torque curve is obvious, except for one thing. It is done in Metric torque, called Newton-Meters, or NM for short. 1 nm = 0.7374 lbft - Using this formula, if you have a torque figure in lbft, you would divide that number by 0.7374, which would give you torque in nm.

If you click on the graph icon beside the torque curve text field, it will open a nice graph showing the torque curve. Each dot represents how much torque the engine is producing at that RPM. The dot on the far left is 0 rpm, the second is 500rpm, third is 1000 rpm and so on. Click and hold on a dot, and you can move it up and down to increase or decrease torque at that rpm. For the best accuracy, find a real torque curve, and make a list of how much torque the engine is putting out at 500 rpm interevals, starting at 500 RPM and ending at redline.

If you can't find a graph of a torque curve, but you have the maximum torque at RPM and maximum horsepower at RPM, enter those numbers into CarTest, which will give you a approximent torque curve.

As a last resort, if all you have is a approximent torque figure, make a educated guess as to what the torque curve will look like. I have had to do that with several cars, most notably my Lotus 49.

Click for information on how to make a estimated torque curve

Final note: Make sure the torque readings are in Newton Meters!

Now, delete all the numbers in the torque curve box, type a 0 (obviously you don't have any torque at 0 rpm, where the graph starts) then a comma, then the torque reading for 500 rpm, then a comma, then the torque reading for 1000 rpm, then a comma, and so on. When you have entered all of the readings into the torque curve, add a 0 at the end.

Now, click on the graph icon, and if the graph pops up normally, your torque curve is good. If it gives a exception caught error, then there is a problem, most likely you forgot to seperate two readings with a comma.

Previous Page    Next Page