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 4: Gas/Braking/Realism Gas/Braking Gas Increasing Curve - No effect at all on car performance. There always seems to be eight numbers in this field, which - along with the name - suggests that this might have something to do with gears. However, replacing all the numbers with a single zero had no effect, so i'd say this is a unimplemented feature of some kind. I'd recommend leaving this set to what EA set it to. Gas Decreasing Curve - No effect on game, see Gas Increaseing Curve for more information. Brake Increasing Curve - No effect on game, see Gas Increaseing Curve for more information.

Brake Decreasing Curve - No effect on game, see Gas Increaseing Curve for more information.

G Transfer Factor - This is presumably a cars's lateral grip, also called roadholding. The EA cars seem to always be set to exactly one-half of the car's real roadholding. Roadholding can be found in almost any magazine road test and is expressed in G. Simply divide that number in half, and put it in the G Transfer Factor. I've played around with this, and major variations do not seem to have any effect, so I wouldn't consider this to be very important to realism. Still, as with all such things, set it to the real setting, just in case.

Here's a estimated chart for G Transfer Factors

Trucks, SUV, old family sedans - 0.25 to 0.35
Old sports cars & muscle cars - 0.30 to 0.40
Family sedans, economy cars - 0.30 to 0.42
New sports cars & muscle cars - 0.43 to 0.46
Supercars - 0.45 to 0.50
Racecars - 0.50 to 0.60


Front Brake Bias Ratio - This is the percentage of braking that the front brakes provide. In most modern cars with four wheel disc brakes, the front/rear bias ratio will be close to 50%, meaning both front and rear brakes are contributing a equal amount of braking power. In cars with rear drums, or with alot of weight over the front wheels, the ratio may be around 60% foward. In trucks, which have little weight on the back end when unloaded, the front brakes provide most of the braking, probably 75%.

The number in the text field is a decimal, 0.5 would be a 50% foward bias, 0.65 would be a 65% foward bias.

Gas Off Factor - This is how quickly the car decelerates when you lift off the gas. A higher number means the car decelerates faster, setting this to 0 would produce no deceleration when you lift. How much a car decelerates is a combination of many factors, weight and drag coefficient mainly, EA may have used a formula to get a accurate number, but in my opinion, it's inconsequential enough that just guessing is realistic enough.

Here's a basic chart of approximate Gas off factors using weight and drag coefficient (aka cd)

0.10 - Ultra aerodynamic speed record cars
0.20 - Very light and aerodynamic cars, like the Lotus Eleven, Lotus Elite and GM EV1
0.30 - Most less than 0.30cd medium weight cars (ie Lexus LS430) and 0.30cd to 0.45cd lightweight cars (ie BMW Z3, Mazda Miata)
0.35 - 0.30cd to 0.40cd medium weight cars (ie Honda Accord, Pontiac Firebird)
0.40 - 0.30cd to 0.40cd heavy weight cars (ie Lincoln Town Car)
0.50 - 0.40cd to 0.50cd medium weight cars
0.55 - 0.40cd to 0.50cd heavy weight cars


Maximum Braking Deceleration - This is how fast the car decelerates under braking, measured in m/s. This is affected by weight, so there is no easy way to realistically figure this. I usually use EA's cars as a guide, for example, I set my Aston Martin Vanquish to the same as the Ferrari 550.

If you happen to have a deceleration time, like 60 to 0, you could use that to accurately figure the MBD. Most magazines print deceleration in distance covered, though for a few special tests, like 0-100-0, they may give time.


Realism

All of the text fields in this area have absolutly no effect on car performance. They are most likely uninplemented features. Don't bother messing with them.

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