Need For Speed: Porsche Unleashed - Savegame Editing
- By Justin Martin aka IH8COPS
The purpose of this tutorial is to teach people how to edit the savegames so their cars can be addon cars. This tutorial will not teach you how to hex edit, it only shows which ANSI Text strings need to be changed to make a car addon. (more on that later) I think it is simple enough that someone with no hex editing experiance, but who is experianced with computers can make the correct changes without too much pain. Please do not email me with questions regarding this tutorial, i'm not going to run a tech support service when you screw up your savegame.
As always, when making mods to any portion of your game, make a backup of the original files. Done correctly, none of this should have any undesirable effects on the game, however, you do run the risk of screwing up the savegame, which is why you should keep backups. You use the information in this tutorial at your own risk.
Part 1. An Overview
Why would you want to edit the savegames in NFSPU? Simple, that is the easiest way to make your re-skinned NFSPU car a addon car, rather than a car that replaces the car it is based upon.
The easiest way to describe it is this, part of savegame in NFSPU takes the place of the fedata files that were used in NFSHS. This is interesting, because it allows you to give a car one name in one savegame, and a different name in different savegame.
Savegames are edited with a hex editor. For beginners, i'd recomened the free Advanced Hex, which is downloadable here: hexed.zip
When you open a file in Advanced Hex, the file will be divided into three vertical sections. The left section is labeled "Offset" at the top, the middle section is labeled "Bytes" (which is the raw hex) and the right section is labeled "ANSI Text". All you need to worry about is the ANSI text, when you change a ANSI text string, the hex is automatically changed.
Part 2. Editing the savegame
Open the savegame in the hex editor, then click on "Edit", then "Find". Type in "Player" in the "Search For" box, then select "ANSI String" in the box below that. Click "Okay", and it should find the ANSI text sting "PlayerInfo" Below that is the cars that are owned in that particular Savegame. It should be pretty obvious which cars are which.
Picture 1 is a screen capture of the Search box. Picture 2 shows the PlayerInfo ANSI string, and the first owned car in the savegame, in this case, the '50 356.
Find the car in the savegame that you want your edited car to replace (preferably the car your edited car is based on, ie, my 916 replaces the 914 in it's savegame) then start editing. I'll use the 1970 914 as a example.
Please click on Picture 3 to view a example of a car in the savegame. I added the writing on the far right side to describe the ANSI Text, and the numbers by the descriptions refer to the more detailed descriptions in this tutorial.
1. '70 914/4 1.7 - This is the name that will be displayed when the menu is in the "dropped down" position. There must be a space between the year and car name.
2. 914/4 - This is the name that will be displayed when the menu is not dropped down.
3. 197091417 - The name of the car's showcase data file, which is located in the directory x:\NFSPU\FEDATA\Locale The showcase data files contain the mechanical and performance specs of the car that is shown in the showcase.
4. 914 - The name of the mesh and texture files in the x:\NFSPU\GameData\CarModel directory, which would be 914.clr, 914.crp, 914.tpg, 914D.fsh and 914L.fsh. All the files must have the same name as the text string in the savegame, and the .fsh files must have the D and L at the end of the name.
5. 914coupe17 - This is the name of the performance file, which is located in the directory x:\NFSPU\GameData\Simulation\CarData. If you accidentally name this file wrong, NFSPU will use the default.sim file instead.
6. 914-1 - Showcase art file, which is located in the directory x:\NFSPU\FEDATA\Showcase This file contains the pictures of the car used in the showcase.
7. 914 - Name of the AI opponent performance file, located in the directory x:\NFSPU\GameData\Simulation\AICarData
8. finallogos2 - This is the name of the file that contains the logos used for this car in the menu.
9. sd1c This is the name of the car's sounds, located in the directory x:\NFSPU\GameData\Sounds
Part 3. Summary
That's pretty much all you need to know. The minimum necessary to have a true add-on car is simply to rename the files located in the CarModel dir, and rename the appropriate text strings in the savegame to match.
For example, for my 916, I renamed the 914.clr, 914.crp, 914.tpg, 914D.fsh and 914L.fsh files to 916.clr, 916.crp, 916.tpg, 916D.fsh and 916L.fsh, and changed the savegame to match. I also did a new performance file, but that is not necessary for a addon car, unless you want new performance.
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Click to enlarge images
Picture 1. The Search box
Picture 2. PlayerInfo
Picture 3. Porsche 914
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