
                    NFS3 Car Customization Tips
                         by Mike Latimer
                           10/11/98
                              v1.0


DISCLAIMER: Use this information at your own risk!  No guarantees whatsoever!


Contents:
     1. Resolving the "Duplicate Cars" issue.
     2. Customizing the text in the Showcase.
     3. Adding or customizing slides in the Showcase.
     4. Adding a front end slide (visible while loading the track).
     5. File definitions.
     6. Table of in-use unique car numbers.
(At this point, actually creating a new car is not described in this document.  Nor are
any customizations to the car which will make to car drive differently.  For that info, 
just play around with the CARP.TXT file found after extracting the CAR.VIV.  More info
may be added at a later date regarding that type of information.)

Introduction:
     The FEDATA.ENG (or BRI, SPA, ITA, etc. - one for each language) file is where
most of the information is kept regarding what the system believes this car to be - from a 
"Front-End" perspective. By this I mean that modifiying this file will change the way the
game behaves and displays the car, but not change the way the car performs in the actual
race. Through modifiying this file, the car name, showcase, slides and other values can be 
changed.  This document talks about some of the major functions of this file in regards to 
the showcase and opening slides.


1. Resolving the "Duplicate Cars" issue.
     When creating additional cars, each car must have a unique number designating it as
a unique car to the system.  This number is found in the FEDATA.ENG file at offset 24 0x18.
It's important to note that this is a decimal number displayed in Hex.  (More on this later
in regards to the opening slide issue.)


2. Customizing the text in the Showcase.
     The text values in the Showcase (car price, weight, stats, etc.) are all stored in 
the FEDATA.ENG file and can be modified using any hex editor. The slides used by the car 
can easily be replaced or added to using the QFS2BMP utility (more on this in the 
customizing slides section).  But the pictures in the History and Showcase areas (which 
are displayed at the bottom of the screen) can't be easily modified or replaced.


3. Adding or customizing slides in the Showcase.
     Slides can be converted from BMP format to QFS format using the QFS2BMP utility.  
After the slides are in the correct format, the system will only recognize them if they 
follow a specific naming format.  This naming format is explained in the Files Definition 
section, but the main four character designation used for each car is stored as the first 
four bytes in the FEDATA.ENG file.  The name of the directory used to store the car is not 
important, but the first four bytes of the FEDATA.ENG file must be the same as the name 
used in the naming convention of the slides or they will not be recongized.
     Also, in the FEDATA.ENG file, Hex Address 14 0xE must be a 1 for the program to 
look for the slide show.  (As an example, the Indy 500 Vette has this value set to 0 so it
will never look for the showcase.  Changing this to 1 and then adding the appropriately 
named showcase files will cause the Showcase menu item to be available.)
     After the files have been created and named appropriately (the naming convention 
is described in the File Definitions area) and the FEDATA file has been modified to look
for the slides, the files must be placed in the same directory as the car in order to see
them from the program.  If additional slides are being added to system cars, the slides 
must be placed in the FEDATA\ART\SHOWCASE directory.
     Also, the slides cannot be accessed unless the showcase option is available.  The
showcase will be unavailable until a main showcase file is in place.  This is the SHxxxx.QFS
file (where xxxx is the four digit name of the car).  If you want to view slides, you must
drop a dummy file with this naming format into the car directory.


4. Adding a front end slide (visible while loading the track).
     The unique number used for each car (see Issue 1) also links the car to the opening 
slide found in the FEDATA\ART\SLIDES directory.  As an example, the F355's internal number 
at the 24 0x18 address is 02.  In the slides directory, the corresponding slide is 
02_00.QFS.  For the Countach, the internal number is 0F.  Translate the 0F into Decimal 
(from Hex) and the value becomes 15.  The Countach's slide is therefore 15_00.QFS.  This 
information is useful, because it allows us to build a table of values which the game 
already has assigned (see Issue 6) .  All new cars will have to have unique values which 
are not already assigned by the game.  Therefore, when creating new cars, an opening slide
can be created and dropped into the FEDATA\ART\SLIDES directory and that slide will show 
when beginning a race.  Just make sure the numbers match the naming scheme of the slide.  
(One final note on this, if an FEDATA.ENG file exists in the directory of the car, that 
file gets read in by the game - not the one in the CAR.VIV file.  Generally speaking, the 
FEDATA.ENG file should be kept as part of the CAR.VIV file.)


5. File definitions.
     These definitions are for the files which are found in the same directory as the 
car itself.  It does not include definitions for files which are extracted from the CAR.VIV
file. Also, In the FEDATA.ENG file (contained in the car.viv), the first four characters 
must be used in the naming scheme of showcase files. (The actual name of the directory is 
irrelevant.) If the showcase files do not follow the correct format, the showcase will not
be available.  Also, for custom cars, all of these files must be in the same directory as
the car (unless otherwise noted).


    xxxx = Same as four character name of car in the beginning of FEDATA.ENG.

SHxxxx.QFS     Main Showcase File (If this file does not exist, you can't see the 
          showcase.)

Hxxxx.QFS      History File (If this file does not exist, the History menu item will be 
          greyed out from within the car Showcase.)

IN_xxxx.FSH    Quicktime VR of the Car interior.  (If this file does not exist, the 
          Interior menu item will be greyed out from within the car Showcase.)

SLxxxxyy.QFS   Slide Files in QFS format.  The last two number in the name of this file
          should be incremented with each additional slide.  The game will 
          automatically look for additional slides.
          Note:    yy = Incrementing number for each slide in the slide show. (Add 
          more slides, just increment the number and the game will recognize them.)

nn_00.QFS Introduction slide found in the FEDATA\ART\SLIDES directory.  In this 
          example, the "nn" corresponds to the decimal equivilent of the car unique
          ID described in section 1.  Concerning the "00" at the end, it may be 
          possible to have multiple slides which alternate in the loading of games
          if the "00" is incremented for each slide.  This is only a theory and has 
          not been tested.

CarDesE.bnk    Audio of the car's description used in the main Showcase page.  (If this 
          file is not found, no sound will be heard.)

ManDesE.bnk    Audio of the car's history used in the History page of the Showcase. (If 
          this file is not found, no sound will be heard.)

IPspchE.viv    Audio heard in Hot Pursuit Mode (If this does not exist, "In pursuit of a 
          sports car" is heard instead of "In pusuit of a Diablo".)


6. Table of in-use unique car numbers.  (This table is in decimal to correspond with the 
slide naming scheme.  In the FEDATA file, the number is written in Hex.)

     02   Ferrari 355 F1
      |
     15   Lamborghini Countach
     16   Lamborghini Diablo SV
     17   Jaguar XJR-15
     18   Mercedes CLK-GTR
     19   Corvette
      |
     21   Mercedes SL600
      |
     23   Aston Martin DB7
     24   Jaguar XK8
     25   Ferrari 456M GT
     26   Lister Storm
     27   Spectre R42
      |
     30   ItalDesign Scighera
     31   Ferrari 550 Maranello
     32   Pursuit Corvette
     33   Army Truck
     34   Ferrari 550 Maranello (Dup)
     35   Jaguar XKR
     36   Pursuit Diablo SV
     37   Ford Falcon GT
     38   HSV VT GTS
     39   El Nino
      |
     41   98 Indy 500 Pace Car Vette
      |
     49   Pursuit El Nino

     By the way, the traffic hack which allows you to drive traffic cars easily, used the
     hex values 50-60.  The Cop hack uses values hex values 40-43.

