Replace any vehicle in GTA 5 | Lvl1 ∙ Part 3 ► Handling setups
Replace any vehicle in GTA 5 | Lvl1 ∙ Part 3 ► Handling setups
Learn how to replace any vehicle in GTA 5 by any mod.
I am glad you are back here and you didn’t satisfied with vehicles.meta only. This means you care to replace your vehicles properly and avoid any problems before they appear. What can be problems with no replacing handling data ? As I hinted in previous parts, while you are replacing similar shape models of vehicles without any special abilities you are good to go, but once you use for example Donk mods to replace any regular car you may experience problems like flipping over in the corners.
Explaining of handling.meta
We will start again by explaining most of the lines inside of this file. Every vehicle inside of the handling.meta is starting with the following lines:
<Item type=”CHandlingData”>
<handlingName>NAME_OF_MODEL</handlingName>In this starting line are defined which model are handling data for. Text can have maximum of 14 characters and vanilla data are mostly in uppercase.
fMass
Defines the weight of the vehicle and this matter when vehicle collides.
fInitialDragCoeff
This data simulate aerodynamics drag what means the lower value = less resistance = higher maximum speed.
fDownForceModifier
Define the downforce applied on the vehicle what means the higher value = better grip at high speed.
fPercentSubmerged
Decimal representation of percentage how much of the vehicle have to be under the water to stop sinking and start floating on the water as broken.
vecCentreOfMassOffset
Moving the center of gravity in meters while zero is in the middle. Positive values for x axis move the centre to right, for y axis move the centre forward and for the z axis move the centre to up.
vecInertialMultiplier
Here we have again 3 values. X axis value affect how quickly vehicle accelerate and brake, y axis affect how quick is vehicle cornering and z axis affect how quick car rotates around it’s middle. Values are moving from 0 to 4.
fDriveBiasFront
Define if vehicle is front wheels drive, rear wheels drive or all wheels drive while 0.0 means RWD, 1.0 means FWD, 0.01–0.99 means 4WD. For excellent 4WD use value 0.5 which keep same force to front and rear axles.
nInitialDriveGears
Define the number of gears. Possible values are 1 to 16 but people with values over 9 report problems with downshifting.
fInitialDriveForce
This value simulate some kind of horse power of the vehicle while basic value is less than 0.5 but can be modified between 0.1 and 2.0 where the higher value means more drive force.
fDriveInertia
This value simulate the engine revs. Values can be set from 0.01 to 2.0 while default is 1.0 and the bigger value means your revs reach red line faster, so if you want simulate bigger torque use lower value.
fClutchChangeRateScaleUpShift
Define how fast vehicle upshift while bigger number means faster shifting.
fClutchChangeRateScaleDownShift
Define how fast vehicle downshift while bigger number means faster shifting.
fInitialDriveMaxFlatVel
Define maximum vehicle speed, but doesn’t guarantee that vehicle will be able to reach that speed. Multiply the value by 0.82 to get the speed in mph. Multiply the value by 1.32 to get the speed in the kph.
fBrakeForce
Define how fast is vehicle able to decelerate or in other words how strong brakes vehicle have. Values can be from 0.01 to 2.0 while 1.0 is default and bigger number means faster decelerate or stronger brakes.
fBrakeBiasFront
This value define how much of braking power is forced into which axle. 0.0 means vehicle is braking only at the rear axle, 0.5 means vehicle is braking with the same power on both axles and 1.0 means vehicle is braking only at the front axle. Any value between make vehicle brake with both axles, but give bigger value on one axle than on other.
fHandBrakeForce
Define braking power of the handbrake while bigger number means more power or harder braking.
fSteeringLock
Define angle of the steering wheel during full turn what means setting up oversteering or understeering of the vehicle. 0.1–0.2 simulate a long wheelbase vehicle and bigger value means faster steering.
fTractionCurveMax
Simulate the tire surface friction meaning the setting up of cornering grip.
fTractionCurveMin
Simulate as well the tire surface friction but during the accelerating and braking. Means the grip in straight line without stable speed.
fTractionCurveLateral
Simulate the lateral traction (LFV) which means how easily caused it’s weight moving to one side during cornering can vehicle slide to the side. In amateur word can call it as side grip.
fTractionSpringDeltaMax
Define at what distance above the ground the car will lose traction. This act and change of distance is again caused by moving the vehicles weight during cornering.
fLowSpeedTractionLossMult
As it’s telling this define loss of traction in low speed so at the starts while zero is default and higher value means bigger traction loss = more burnout.
fCamberstiffnesss
Define the grip during drifting. Default value is zero and lower value make vehicle oversteering what means bigger value will cause sliding more to the drifting angle.
fTractionBiasFront
Define the distribution of traction from front axle to rear axle. 0.01 means only rear axle has traction, 0.5 means both axles have same traction, 0.99 means only front axle has traction and values out of range causes the vehicle to have no traction at all.
fTractionLossMult
Define the adaptability of grip on different material while the higher value means less adaptability = vehicle is loosing more grip on materials like mud.
fSuspensionForce
Define how strong is suspension of the vehicle. Value is calculated as 1 / ( Force * NumOfWheels). This can help if car easily flip over as I mentioned at the beginning.
fSuspensionCompDamp
Define damping during strut compression while bigger value means stiffer suspension.
fSuspensionReboundDamp
Define damping during strut rebound while bigger value means stiffer suspension.
fSuspensionUpperLimit
Define how far up way can wheels visually move from default position.
fSuspensionLowerLimit
Define how far down way can wheels visually move from default position.
fSuspensionRaise
Define the amount that suspension raises the body off the wheels. Use second decimal values only or the wheels will go thru the vehicle body if it’s too lowered and in other hand if too high will look like the wheels are not connected to the body at some moment.
fSuspensionBiasFront
Define if front or rear suspension is stronger while 0.5 means front is stiffer and lower value means the rear is stiffer. Take care if editing this for the trucks with more than 1 axle at the back, in this case front suspension have to be stronger with no doubt.
fAntiRollBarForce
Define the spring constant that is transmitted to the opposite wheel when under compression. Larger numbers are a larger force. In other words, bigger value means less body roll.
fAntiRollBarBiasFront
Define the bias between front and rear of the vehicle for the antiroll bar while zero means front and one means rear.
fRollCentreHeightFront
Define the weight transmission during acceleration between left and right side of the vehicle while bigger value means lower chance for rollover. Recommended values are from -0.15 to 0.15 only, so play with this value very carefully.
fRollCentreHeightRear
Define the weight transmission during acceleration between front and rear of the vehicle while bigger value means lower change for rollover, but higher ability to do a wheelies. Recommended values are from -0.15 to 0.15 only, so play with this value very carefully.
fCollisionDamageMult
Multiplies amount of damage to the vehicle through collision while zero means no damage and ten means ten times of default damage.
fWeaponDamageMult
Same as the previous but for weapons damage.
fDeformationDamageMult
Multiplies amount of damage causing vehicle deformation while zero means no damage and ten means ten times of default damage.
fEngineDamageMult
Multiplies amount of damage to the engine which is causing engine failure or even explosion while zero means no damage to the engine and ten means ten times of default damage to the engine.
fPetrolTankVolume
As it’s telling this define the amount of petrol tank which without mods affect only how much of the petrol will leak after shooting the vehicle’s petrol tank. This value have bigger sense of editing while using refueling scripts.
fOilVolume
Same as previous but with the amount of oil in the vehicle which again without mods affect only the the amount and time of engine smoke before engine totally dies. This value have again bigger sense of editing while using refueling scripts which have oil change options.
fSeatOffsetDistX
The distance from the door to the car seat on X axle. Means this value is kind of moving driver between passenger side and doors of the vehicle.
fSeatOffsetDistY
The distance from the dashboard of the car to the seat on Y axle. Means value is kind of moving driver between trunk and hood positions.
fSeatOffsetDistZ
The distance from the roof of the car to the seat on Z axle. Means value is kind of moving driver between chassis and roof of the car.
nMonetaryValue
Should define just the price that is vehicle worth of. This is probably again useful only while using scripts.
strModelFlags
Similar as in the vehicles.meta these are just labels to choose from with info about the model as abs type, axles info etc. But here is the value in HEX and can have maximum of 8 digits what means maximum of 8 flags.
strHandlingFlags
Same as line before but these flags are about handling like no reverse, all wheel steering, heavy armor etc.
strDamageFlags
These flags define just which doors are unbreakable. Value is again written in HEX with just 2 digits.
AIHandling
Define which driving profile is used for peds. AVERAGE, SPORTS_CAR, TRUCK or CRAP, while you should use always AVERAGE for boats, bikes, aircraft and other specific vehicles.
SubHandlingData
You can use up to 3 different subhandling data together, but there is a lot to choose from so I will explain this in different parts of this tutorial series. This is used for example for bikes, aircraft, boats, vehicles with special abilities like flying or floating or even the handling changes during mission where Michael was drugged.
Editing handling.meta
Now you know which line is affecting what aspect of the handling, so let’s get ready to change these data for our Lambo. This will be much, much easier and faster then vehicles.meta I promise. Get ready by opening our handling.meta using the notepad and opening handling.meta inside of OpenIV. This time we have only one location with this file to change data in — mpexecutive.
Open our new handling.meta for Lamborghini and mark it all from the start of vehicle data to the end of vehicle data. That means we start marking from line <Item type=”CHandlingData”> and last line that we will mark is </Item> but take care as there is same line twice. We need both of them so our last line to mark is </Item> after </SubHandlingData> line. You can remember it easily by keeping in mind that first have to be closed the SubHandlingData section and then is end of whole vehicle data.
Copy all these lines and move to the our location in OpenIV. Again as with the vehicles.meta, right click and click ‘Edit’ or use shortcut Ctrl+Enter. In the top left corner click on ‘Search’ or use again shortcut which is Ctrl+F and search for reaper. Mark the exactly same area as we was marking in our new Lambo data.
That means from line <Item type=”CHandlingData”> which is one line over our search result and all the way down until </Item> line which is one line after nearest </SubHandlingData> line and paste the lines that you have copied.
Don’t forgot click to Save please ! Perfect, you are good to drive your new Lamborghini around the Los Santos ( or Los Angeles with our mods :). Before I finish this part I will learn you one more thing which is adding new handling data. For what is this useful ? Sometimes more models are using the same handling data, for example burrito, burrito2, burrito3, burrito4 and burrito5 are all using one handling data.
How to add new data
But what if you replace every of these five models with different van ? Every of them may need different handling data to don’t flip over or do any other weird things while driving. For this purpose we go first back in the vehicles.meta files of exact vehicle. We find vehicle by search tool and then the third line of vehicles data is <handlingId>. In example of burrito it’s BURRITO in all 5 models. So go into any of that models data, for example data of burrito2 and edit BURRITO inside of handlingID to BURRITO2, so you will have <handlingId>BURRITO2</handlingId> instead of original <handlingId>BURRITO</handlingId>.
As always don’t forgot click the save button and move to the handling.meta of burrito vehicles. There find BURRITO using the search tool and scroll at the end of this vehicles data which as we know end first by subhandling closing line and then </Item> line. After this line there start lines of another vehicle which should be the BUS to be exact in our example.
Copy all the handling data of your new vehicle. If you don’t know which all lines you have to copy, move a bit sections up in this tutorial to re-read this step. Now in the handling.meta inside of OpenIV go at the end of the mentioned </Item> line, click Enter to create a new empty line and paste there your new handling data. If you didn’t prepared handling data properly before don’t forgot change the handling name to the BURRITO2 so it will look like this <handlingName>BURRITO2</handlingName>.
Click save, repeat in the second location and well done. You learned how to add new handling data. This part was even easier than vehicles.meta right ? While you will be enjoying your new Lambo, I will prepare next part where I’ll learn you how to make tuning parts work properly.