Identifying Transfender Parts in the .dff

[Yelmust]

Okay, I got inspiration to continue my Sadler low-rider project last night when I stumbled across a new idea. What if I can make it moddable at transfender using the parts already in the game. So I went to a couple cars that I new had parts from in the game (these were some I had downloaded off the internet) and I opened their .dff file and started to look around. I found what looked to be right and I unliked them (all using ZModeler) and slapped them onto my Sadler. Then I went into carmods.dat and put in the neccessary parts and bam....here's what I got:

 

http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/590/gallery1437yp.jpg

 

 

Now this is really my first time modding anything so I'm pretty happy with my results. Notice in the first picture how the roof scoop and the side skirts actually work, and that in the second picture I have moddable exhaust. This also reminds me....the exhaust that is initially in the game is attached to the chasis. Is there any way to delete that so when I do add the exhaust its not there?? I'd like to do it without having to remodel the whole car, since that would be out of my knowledge.

 

Now a couple questions regarding making this look better and have even more mods. First off, and I'm not really sure how to ask this or if I'm going to say it right, but I feel I got lucky with finding the transfender mod parts in the .dff. I want to put the hood scoop and hood vents in, also the fog lamps and any other mods that would be cool for this puppy. How do I know where to look to find them?? I opened some cars that I thought had that option when you mod them, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for or where to find them. I would guess they are dummies within the file, but they don't exactly show up on the car in ZModeler....or do they??

 

My second question is, in the carmods.dat file, what do all the different notations for parts mean. I can see that some are exhaust, others spoilers, but did someone ever make like a definitions table of what all the things mean? Example being:

 

This is the line for the Phoenix:

 

bntl_b_sq, bntl_b_ov, exh_b_ts, lgt_b_sspt, nto_b_tw, rf_b_sc_r, spl_b_bab_m, spl_b_bbb_m, wg_l_b_ssk, spl_a_s_b, spl_c_s_b, spl_a_l_b, spl_c_l_b, spl_a_j_b, spl_c_j_b

 

 

I know there is more in there and I'll probably have some more questions. I"ve tried looking about but nothing directly answers what I'm asking...so hopefully someone can answer this and this can also help other people out who are thinking of doing the same thing. Thanks a lot guys, I know you won't fail me

 

Also, if anyone would like the files to toy around with, just let me know.

[Yelmust]

Well...after some toying around I think I may have figured something out. So I think I'll go ahead and wrtie up what I did so anyone else who wants to can follow and/or critique what I've done to make things easier (as I've said, this was my first time).

 

Note: I'm working on the sadler, but when working in ZModeler, make sure you have the .dff's file you're working on in the same folder as the .txd's along with all of the files in the .txd's exported into that folder. This way you don't lose any of the textures when you go to export the .dff (Also in this folder, export the vehicle.txd files so it has all the generic files to pull from too).

 

So, working in ZModeler with my sadler.dff, I pulled up the Phoenix's .dff and found that under

 

phoenix.dff, chassis_dummy, bump_front dummy

 

there is something called ug_lights. These are the fog lamps that go on the front bumper. So I simply unlinked them and dragged them into my sadler.dff and placed them in the same spot (only this time for the sadler). Then you just re-align the green dot on the bumper of the new car to about the same spot it was on the old one to make sure everything is where it is supposed to be. I did this with everything else that I wanted on the car...just searched different cars to see what they had and unlinked and added to my sadler.dff.

 

After all that, I had this:

 

 

Hopefully you can follow the lines and don't get mixed up. As it seems, everything that is a transfender, arch angels or low-rider mod begins with ug_xxxxx. So as I said, you simply take what you want, add it to your .dff you're working on in the same location as you found it in the other .dff and align it as needed.

 

Next, and this is the part I'm still a little sketchy on, you have to put the mods with the car you're modding in the carmods.dat file. For my sadler, it looks like this:

 

 

sadler, wg_l_a_j, wg_l_c_j, exh_b_ts, nto_b_tw, exh_b_t, rf_a_st, rf_c_st, bnt_b_sc_p_l, bntl_b_sq, lgt_b_sspt, nto_b_s, rf_b_sc_r

 

 

I'm hoping I'm correct on this.

 

wg_l_a_j , wg_l_c_j

came from the Jester and they are the side skirts (more on this later).

 

exh_b_ts, exh_b_t

are exhausts

 

nto_b_tw, nto_b_s

I'm not sure about

 

rf_a_st, rf_c_st

I'm not sure about, I think something with the roof because

rf_b_sc_r

seems to be the roof scoop.

 

bnt_b_sc_p_l, bntl_b_sq

These are the hood scoop and vents, respectively.

 

lgt_b_sspt

This is the fog lamps.

 

I think I covered everything and hopefully I'm correct on most of it. Now...as for the Jester parts. Since the Jester is moddable at the Arch Angel place, you have to edit the shopping.dat to make these parts available at transfender. So open up your shopping.dat file (located in the data folder in your San Andreas directory).

 

For this case, I found wg_l_a_j, wg_l_c_j under "Section carmod3 # Street Racer" and copied it to "Section carmod1 # Normal Cars"

 

 

section carmod1 # Normal Carstype CarMods item bnt_b_sc_l   item bnt_b_sc_m   item bnt_b_sc_p_l   item bnt_b_sc_p_m   item bntl_b_ov   item bntl_b_sq   item exh_b_l  	 item exh_b_m    	 item exh_b_s    	 item exh_b_t   item exh_b_ts     item lgt_b_rspt        item lgt_b_sspt item nto_b_s     item nto_b_l             item nto_b_tw       item rf_b_sc_r       item spl_b_bab_m  	 item spl_b_bar_l  	 item spl_b_bar_m     item spl_b_bbb_m  	 item spl_b_bbr_l     item spl_b_bbr_m    	 item spl_b_mab_m     item spl_b_mar_m item wg_l_b_ssk item wg_r_b_ssk [color=red]item wg_l_a_j item wg_l_c_j[/color] item wheel_sr1 item wheel_sr2 item wheel_sr3 item wheel_sr4 item wheel_sr5 item wheel_sr6 item wheel_lr1 item wheel_lr2 item wheel_lr3 item wheel_lr4 item wheel_lr5 item wheel_gn1 item wheel_gn2 item wheel_gn3 item wheel_gn4 item wheel_gn5 item wheel_or1 item stereo item hydralics

 

 

Finally, I replaced my .dff and fired up the game. This is what I got....

 

 

Hope this helps anyone. Not sure if there is a tut out there on this yet, but if anyone wants me to, I can try to improve this and have them sticky it....

 

AND REMEMBER, I do not know everything about this so comments from those who do are WELCOME!!!!

[BenMillard]

This is a neat commentary on your tinkering. If you want to produce a tutorial, you should avoid all the "...and then I tried..." parts and stick to the "You get that and put it here" stuff. Step by step instructions are what good tutorials are made of.

 

Anyway, glad to see new people are getting bitten by the modding bug!

[Picolini]

I think anyone could really figure this out. You can just import a car w/ the mods already and look where the dummys are. And over at ascendence.net, Alexe has made a great list with what parts are for what in every mod shop (TF, WAA, and Loco) along with the wheels. You just need to add the name of the part you want it to be moddable for in the carmods.dat. I don't know if you can change what can be bought at what shop, but my guess is you can but just changing the lines up for that.

[92F]

I think anyone could really figure this out. You can just import a car w/ the mods already and look where the dummys are. And over at ascendence.net, Alexe has made a great list with what parts are for what in every mod shop (TF, WAA, and Loco) along with the wheels. You just need to add the name of the part you want it to be moddable for in the carmods.dat. I don't know if you can change what can be bought at what shop, but my guess is you can but just changing the lines up for that.

Waay to shoot him down.

 

Also im pretty sure that you've been told before about advertising as its agains forum rules.

[SeaNorris.]

I think anyone could really figure this out. You can just import a car w/ the mods already and look where the dummys are. And over at ascendence.net, Alexe has made a great list with what parts are for what in every mod shop (TF, WAA, and Loco) along with the wheels. You just need to add the name of the part you want it to be moddable for in the carmods.dat. I don't know if you can change what can be bought at what shop, but my guess is you can but just changing the lines up for that.

StickyFinga already did that at The_Borgs.

 

But a guide to the model dummys would be a ton better