vehicles.ide problem

[yo5pev]

Hi there! Im new here and i know that there are a few topics with this problem but i hope it wont be a problem posting one more.

I was recently modding the vehicles of GTA San Andreas and i reached to a problem which goes like this:

 

i've downloaded a car mod for the EMPEROR car but its wheels were too small so i thought i will change their size from the vehicles.ide file (i also know how to change the wheels width from the handling flags by the way). Their original size were like this : -1, 0.74, 0.74, 0 (this is taken from the backup of the original vehicles.ide) and the values from the installation.txt which came with the mod were like this: -1, 0.80, 0.80, 0 but i want to make them bigger. I can only change those values to 0.86 which still isnt big enough but anything above 0.86, for example 0.9, will leave a space between the cars tires and the ground making the car hovering above the ground and it will only modify the wheels width but not their diameter. At this point it doesnt matter how i will change the -1 value before the wheel size numbers because it will still hover above the ground. Putting a 0 value instead of -1 will shrink the wheels back to their original size with a larger space between the tires and the ground and leaving it to -1 will only let me use a maximum 0.86 value before making the car hovering again. I know that using a 0 value will scale the wheels after the following two sets of numbers and using a 0 value will leave the wheel at its original size and will only make an "invisible" wheel at the size of the following 2 sets of values but thats pretty weird because it is working for me exactly in the opposite manner. Can someone help me with this, please ?

[yo5pev]

Hi there! Im new here and i know that there are a few topics with this problem but i hope it wont be a problem posting one more.

I was recently modding the vehicles of GTA San Andreas and i reached to a problem which goes like this:

 

i've downloaded a car mod for the EMPEROR car but its wheels were too small so i thought i will change their size from the vehicles.ide file (i also know how to change the wheels width from the handling flags by the way). Their original size were like this : -1, 0.74, 0.74, 0 (this is taken from the backup of the original vehicles.ide) and the values from the installation.txt which came with the mod were like this: -1, 0.80, 0.80, 0 but i want to make them bigger. I can only change those values to 0.86 which still isnt big enough but anything above 0.86, for example 0.9, will leave a space between the cars tires and the ground making the car hovering above the ground and it will only modify the wheels width but not their diameter. At this point it doesnt matter how i will change the -1 value before the wheel size numbers because it will still hover above the ground. Putting a 0 value instead of -1 will shrink the wheels back to their original size with a larger space between the tires and the ground and leaving it to -1 will only let me use a maximum 0.86 value before making the car hovering again. I know that using a 0 value will scale the wheels after the following two sets of numbers and using a 0 value will leave the wheel at its original size and will only make an "invisible" wheel at the size of the following 2 sets of values but thats pretty weird because it is working for me exactly in the opposite manner. Can someone help me with this, please ?

Comeon people, no answer? Basically my problem is that i cant get the wheels bigger than 0.86 without making the car hover above the ground no matter how do i change that -1 to 0 or in reverse. There should be a solution for this.

[yo5pev]

Hey guys! I found this on gtamodding.com: ""If the "WheelID" is -1, the game will scale the wheel collision, but NOT the wheel model. If "WheelID" is 0, the game will scale the collision AND the wheel model, however this only works properly if the wheel model is set up properly before exporting."". My question is what does it mean by "set up properly before exporting" ? what exporting ?

[fireguy109]

 

I probably should have posted it before. Here is how to do it. Open up vehicles.ide in Notepad and find the line for you car, at the end of the line there will be a -1 and then two numbers that are the same. Those two numbers are the wheel size, if you're converting a car, look in the readme

 

 

Wheel Sizes:

 

 

1. To change wheel sizes, open the vehicles.ide, and find the vehicle you will be replacing. That data will look like this:

 

400, landstal,  landstal,  car,   LANDSTAL,  LANDSTK,  null, normal,  10, 0, 0,  -1, 1.0, 1.0,  -1

 

2. If your using a custom car that was converted from vice, or the wheels look drastically too big in general, change the number in red, from -1, to 0. when this value is set to 0, it tells the game to scale the wheel model, with the next set of values. when this value is -1, it derives the size of the wheel model, directly from the mesh, and the wheel scale values will only affect the wheel collision.

 

3. the blue values control the actual size of the wheels, front and rear, adjust them as necessary to get the desired size ingame.

 

thanks to offroader23 for helping with this info.

[yo5pev]

I already read that article but the maximum value i can use for those blue numbers is 0.86. If i try to use higher values the car will be floating above the ground no matter what value i use for that red number, -1 or 0. How do i solve this ?

[fireguy109]

I already read that article but the maximum value i can use for those blue numbers is 0.86. If i try to use higher values the car will be floating above the ground no matter what value i use for that red number, -1 or 0. How do i solve this ?

Post a picture. It may just be your handling file.

[yo5pev]

Here are four pictures i,ve taken in-game with four different vehicles.ide settings. The handling.cfg was unchanged at all time and here are the flags :

 

Model Flages: 40220000

 

Handling Flags: 10402208

 

First picture is taken with the following wheel sizes in vehicles.ide : -1, 0.80, 0.80 (which are the values from the installation.txt i got when downloading the car)

 

Next picture settings: -1, 0.86, 0.86

Next picture settings: 0, 0.97, 0.97

And the last one: -1, 0.97, 0.97

 

It seems that by using higher values the wheels will only increase in with (width) but not in diameter. How do i solve this ?

Edited June 23, 2011 by yo5pev

[fireguy109]

I believe its an issue with the car wheels themselves. When the guy modeled it that was his max size. The collision model is increasing past 0.86, but that is the "1.0" value defined in the model's own code. Therefore the wheel doesn't get bigger visually.

 

In short- it's the car's fault. Open up the dff in a modelling program and make the wheels HUGE- I mean sticking out of the fenders. Then you can experiment with different wheel settings in vehicles.ide until you're happy.

[CK-1999]

could you name the car or a link to it?.. so I can see for myself

 

I am trying to figure out what car this is but I can't

[fireguy109]

could you name the car or a link to it?.. so I can see for myself

 

I am trying to figure out what car this is but I can't

Looks like an old Monte Carlo or Impala, 64-65.

[yo5pev]

The car is the Emperor from GTA IV by Automan, here is the link: Automan.

 

@ fireguy109:

 

I already have Zmodeler 2.08 but i dont know how to use it. Do you know some links to some good tutorials on modeling vehicles with this program? I realy should start to learn using it cuz im aware that this isnt the only vehicle with limited wheel size.

[fireguy109]

Just import it, using the menu action. Then click the wheels and use the scaling tool to enlarge them. Finally export, again via menu, to dff.

[yo5pev]

not working. I scaled it to 1.4 instead of 1.0 so the wheels were really large inside the dff file but in the game the car still floats above the groud. I think there are some limitations inside the game. Seems that while you can get huge wheels for some cars you cant get such big wheels for other cars.

[yo5pev]

I found on this forum a reply from Automan about how to change the vehicles diameter both in Zmodeler and inside vehicles.ide but i dont understand what he wanted to say, his english is pretty bad. Can someone explain to me what he wanted to say?

[fireguy109]

Move the wheel dummies down a bit.

[yo5pev]

What are the wheel dummies? and what you mean about moving them down a bit? I told you im a total noob when it comes to zmodeler. Please explain that to me, in the mean time im going to experiment some more with the dff file.

[fireguy109]

They say wheel_rf_dummy or wheel_lf_dummy or similar. Just move them with the move tool, making sure they are all moved an equal amount. You can try up or down, but down will probably work best.

[yo5pev]

there is an option to the right of the Zmodeler editor, called "Select", then there is an option called "By name", i enter it and select the "wheel_rf_dummy" (there are 3 more by the way called exactly as you said) but nothing gets selected, or are those dummyes so small that i need to zoom in to see them? If i select "wheel" it gets selected (gets the color brown in Zmodeler so i can see it is selected) but none of the wheel dummyes get selected when i try to. Is it possible that this car doesnt even have dummyes ?

[fireguy109]

It has them, but they are just super small coordinate points, sometimes not even objects.

 

Hide everything other than the dummies using the menu.

[aStiffSausage]

Just click everything else invisible than the dummies and some part of the car so you can somehow measure how much you move those. They are small dots, but it shouldn't be too hard to move.

[yo5pev]

Sorry for the late reply but i had some household trouble which is off topic. One more question before i can start: how do i check everything invisible ?

[aStiffSausage]

Sorry for the late reply but i had some household trouble which is off topic. One more question before i can start: how do i check everything invisible ?

You see those "wheel_rf_dummy" and so on? There should be little box in side of them, just click parts for example "door_**_dummy" and so on, and try which part is best leave there.

 

GL

[yo5pev]

I already mentioned that i dont know how to use this zmodeler, you should realy tell me how to make everything invisible before leaving anything still visible. In the meantime i managed to zoom in just to be able to see the wheel_rf_dummy and modifyed its Y position from -0.230 to -0.830 but it lowered the wheel too much. Now i realy need to know how to make everything invisible in order to be able to do this properly because it is very hard to get that dummy to be "click-able" like this. Can someone tell me how to make every part of the car invisible (except the wheel dummyes) ?

[CK-1999]

I think I'm kinda missing the point somewhere..... but you said the wheels were to small.

 

Just checked this car ingame on the merit spot and the wheels are fitting great

without any change made.

 

What I did saw was that transfender wheels are getting bigger then the cars wheels normally they get smaller/stay the same on most cars.

 

btw. I could not import the car because the .dff and zmodler does not want me too.

 

The wheels are not too small and not really floating for me ..anyway thnx for giving me the link, this is one of the many cars in my downloadfolder and still not tested.

I think it stays ingame even its been missing rear taillight red glass

[yo5pev]

But as i can see those dummyes are like some joints which make a connection between the wheel and the vehicle itself. Lowering those dummyes will only get my wheels lower but how will this resolve the floating car problem? At the beginning of this topic i stated that i have problems with the diameter of the wheels not with their position. How will will this solve my "invisible" wheels which my car is floating on ?

[yo5pev]

@CK-1999:

 

You replaced it on the Merit? I replaced it on the Emperor. Anyway, i might want to change its wheel size but i cant and i need to solve this, i mean what kind of a mod is that which you cant mod ? I can change every other car's wheel size but i cant do it for this car (and probably for some others which i didnt even tried yet)

I dont think it is normal not to be able to do it. And yes i think it is missing 2 rear lights which should be somewhere on the rear bumper.

[CK-1999]

 

@CK-1999:

 

You replaced it on the Merit? I replaced it on the Emperor. Anyway, i might want to change its wheel size but i cant and i need to solve this, i mean what kind of a mod is that which you cant mod ? I can change every other car's wheel size but i cant do it for this car (and probably for some others which i didnt even tried yet)

I dont think it is normal not to be able to do it. And yes i think it is missing 2 rear lights which should be somewhere on the rear bumper.

I can check on the emperor but I use a Chrysler on that spot....the merit was available still and I also did not made a new handling for it yet

[yo5pev]

lowering the wheel dummyes doesnt change anything guys. It only makes the suspension higher but the floating car effect is still present. I just lowered the wheel dummyes Y position to -0.400 but nothing is changed except the suspension height.

[yo5pev]

One more thing. I noticed that right clicking on the wheels and then selecting "Properties" then "Boundary" and then "Axis-aligned box" will show me the dimension of the wheels which currently are set to

X : 0.289454

Y : 0.765234

Z : 0.765234

 

I guess those Y and Z values are the wheels diameter. Am i right ? If im right then how do i change those values to lets say 0.9 ? Because when i try to Modify -> Exact transformation i will not see those values but i will only see some percentage or something which are currently set to 1.000 to all X, Y and Z and if i set both Y and Z to 1.300 the wheel diameter will visually increase but in the "Properties" it will still have the same "Boundaries" which i mentioned above. How do i change those "Boundaries" ?

[yo5pev]

Hey guys! I solved the problem. I've read a Zmodeler tutorial for the last 2 days and i managed to get some knowledge about how to use this piece of software. The only thing i had to do was to scale the wheels but not using the "Exact transform" tool as i tried before. This time i used the "Scale" tool with the "Base to Pivot" option unchecked so the wheel wont move aside while scaling. Thanks again, especially to you fireguy109, you were right when you said that the problem lays inside the dff file.