handling.cfg
The handling.cfg
file is a text data file format which sets many performance and behaviour values for each vehicle in GTA3, GTAVC and GTASA. The file can be opened and edited with any text editor.
Contents
GTA3
Standard Data
This section contains all the performance settings for land vehicles and provides the base settings for boats, bikes and flying vehicles. The special behaviour of boats, bikes and flying vehicles are hardcoded in GTA3 and are not included in the handling.cfg
file.
The below table provides the column letter, column name and a brief description for each setting available in this section.
Column Letter | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
a | vehicle identifier | relates this data with default.ide and other files. |
b | fMass | Mass of the vehicle in kilograms. |
c | Dimensions.x | Width of the vehicle in metres, used for aerodynamic and motion effects. |
d | Dimensions.y | Length of the vehicle in metres, used for aerodynamic and motion effects. |
e | Dimensions.z | Height of the vehicle in metres, used for aerodynamic and motion effects. |
f | CentreOfMass.x | Distance from the centre of the car in metres to the right for the centre of mass. |
g | CentreOfMass.y | Distance from the centre of the car in metres forward for the centre of mass. |
h | CentreOfMass.z | Distance from the centre of the car in metres upward for the centre of mass. |
i | nPercentSubmerged | Percentage of the vehicle height required to be submerged for the car to float. |
j | fTractionMultiplier | Cornering grip of the vehicle as a multiplier of the tyre surface friction. |
k | fTractionLoss | Accelerating/braking grip of the vehicle as a multiplier of the tyre surface friction. |
l | fTractionBias | Ratio of front axle grip to rear axle grip; higher value shifts grip forwards. |
m | TransmissionData.nNumberOfGears | Number of gearchange animations and sound effects to use. |
n | TransmissionData.fMaxVelocity | Explained in other tutorials. |
o | TransmissionData.fEngineAcceleration | Explained in other tutorials. |
p | TransmissionData.nDriveType | Assigns Front, Rear or 4 wheel drive. |
q | TransmissionData.nEngineType | Assigns Petrol, Diesel or Electric engine characteristics. |
r | fBrakeDeceleration | Overall decelerative force, set so keyboard controls do not quite lock up the wheels. |
s | fBrakeBias | Ratio of braking force of front compared to rear; higher values move bias forward. |
t | bABS | Seems to have no effect. |
u | fSteeringLock | Maximum rotation of steering arc in degrees; use negatives for rear wheel steered vehicles. |
v | fSuspensionForceLevel | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
w | fSuspensionDampingLevel | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
x | fSeatOffsetDistance | Distance from door position to seat postion. |
y | fCollisionDamageMultiplier | How much damage vehicle engine gets from collisions. Higher value means more damage. |
z | nMonetaryValue | Seems to have no effect. |
aa | suspension upper limit | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
ab | suspension lower limit | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
ac | suspension bias | Ratio of suspension force to apply at the rear compared to the front. |
ad | Flags Name | Special features which can be enabled or disabled. |
ae | front lights | Defines the size of the head lights of the vehicle. Using numbers out of range has unusual effects. |
af | rear lights | Same as above but for the tail lights. |
Flag Data
Column "ad", called "Flags", is a sixteen-bit integer value stored as a hexadecimal value in four bytes (characters). The number is written with the smallest value on the right, which is bit number one, with the higher value bits to the left. The below table describes what each of the sixteen bits in this setting do:
Bit Position | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
1 | 1G_BOOST | Makes tyres spin more readily from standing starts. |
2 | 2G_BOOST | Makes tyres spin more readily at low speeds. |
3 | REV_BONNET | Reverses the direction boot and bonnet axis operate. |
4 | HANGING_BOOT | Manipulates operation of boot object. |
5 | NO_DOORS | Removes all testing for doors; used with BF Injection. |
6 | IS_VAN | Allows double boot object. |
7 | IS_BUS | Unsure of precise application. |
8 | IS_LOW | Makes driver recline into seat. |
9 | DBL_EXHAUST | Allows second exhaust particle animation. |
10 | TAILGATE_BOOT | Manipulates operation of boot object. |
11 | NOSWING_BOOT | Manipulates operation of boot object. |
12 | NONPLAYER_STABILISER | Seems to have no effect. |
13 | NEUTRALHANDLING | Seems to have no effect. |
14 | HAS_NO_ROOF | Various slight effects. |
15 | IS_BIG | Changes the way that the AI drives around corners. |
16 | HALOGEN_LIGHTS | Slightly manipulates appearence of vehicle lights. |
GTA Vice City
Standard Data
This section contains all the performance settings for land vehicles and provides the base settings for boats, bikes and flying vehicles. The below table provides the column letter, column name and a brief description for each setting available in this section.
Column Letter | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
a | vehicle identifier | Relates this data with default.ide and other files. |
b | fMass | Mass of the vehicle in kilograms. |
c | Dimensions.x | Width of the vehicle in metres, used for aerodynamic and motion effects. |
d | Dimensions.y | Length of the vehicle in metres, used for aerodynamic and motion effects. |
e | Dimensions.z | Height of the vehicle in metres, used for aerodynamic and motion effects. |
f | CentreOfMass.x | Distance from the centre of the car in metres to the right for the centre of mass. |
g | CentreOfMass.y | Distance from the centre of the car in metres forward for the centre of mass. |
h | CentreOfMass.z | Distance from the centre of the car in metres upward for the centre of mass. |
i | nPercentSubmerged | Percentage of the vehicle height required to be submerged for the car to float. |
j | fTractionMultiplier | Cornering grip of the vehicle as a multiplier of the tyre surface friction. |
k | fTractionLoss | Accelerating/braking grip of the vehicle as a multiplier of the tyre surface friction. |
l | fTractionBias | Ratio of front axle grip to rear axle grip; higher value shifts grip forwards. |
m | TransmissionData.nNumberOfGears | Number of gearchange animations and sound effects to use. |
n | TransmissionData.fMaxVelocity | Explained in other tutorials. |
o | TransmissionData.fEngineAcceleration | Explained in other tutorials. |
p | TransmissionData.nDriveType | Assigns Front, Rear or 4 wheel drive. |
q | TransmissionData.nEngineType | Assigns Petrol, Diesel or Electric engine characteristics. |
r | fBrakeDeceleration | Overall decelerative force, set so keyboard controls do not quite lock up the wheels. |
s | fBrakeBias | Ratio of braking force of front compared to rear; higher values move bias forward. |
t | bABS | Seems to have no effect. |
u | fSteeringLock | Maximum rotation of steering arc in degrees; use negatives for rear wheel steered vehicles. |
v | fSuspensionForceLevel | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
w | fSuspensionDampingLevel | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
x | fSeatOffsetDistance | Distance from door position to seat postion. |
y | fCollisionDamageMultiplier | How much damage vehicle engine gets from collisions. Higher value means more damage. |
z | nMonetaryValue | Seems to have no effect. |
aa | suspension upper limit | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
ab | suspension lower limit | Explained in my suspension tutorial. |
ac | suspension bias | Ratio of suspension force to apply at the rear compared to the front. |
ad | suspension anti-dive multiplier | Changes the amount of body pitching under braking and acceleration. |
ad | Flags | Special features which can be enabled or disabled. |
ae | front lights | Defines the size of the head lights of the vehicle. Using numbers out of range has unusual effects. |
af | rear lights | Same as above but for the tail lights. |
Flag Data
Column "ae", called "Flags", is a sixteen-bit integer value stored as a hexadecimal value in four bytes (characters). The number is written with the smallest value on the right, which is bit number one, with the higher value bits to the left. The below table describes what each of the sixteen bits in this setting do:
Bit Position | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
1 | 1G_BOOST | Makes tyres spin more readily from standing starts. |
2 | 2G_BOOST | Makes tyres spin more readily at low speeds. |
3 | REV_BONNET | Reverses the direction boot and bonnet axis operate. |
4 | HANGING_BOOT | Manipulates operation of boot object. |
5 | NO_DOORS | Removes all testing for doors; used with BF Injection. |
6 | IS_VAN | Allows double boot object. |
7 | IS_BUS | Unsure of precise application, possibly used in conjunction with special bus animation that instructs that no actor model is displayed for actor inside bus. |
8 | IS_LOW | Makes driver recline into seat. |
9 | DBL_EXHAUST | Allows second exhaust particle animation. |
10 | TAILGATE_BOOT | Manipulates operation of boot object. |
11 | NOSWING_BOOT | Manipulates operation of boot object. |
12 | NONPLAYER_STABILISER | Seems to have no effect, could be related to how the AI operates the vehicle |
13 | NEUTRALHANDLING | Seems to have no effect, could be related to how the AI operates the vehicle |
14 | HAS_NO_ROOF | Various slight effects. |
15 | IS_BIG | Changes the way that the AI drives around corners. |
16 | HALOGEN_LIGHTS | Slightly manipulates appearence of vehicle lights. |
17 | IS_BIKE | Makes the game engine treat this vehicle as a motorbike when used with default.ide attributes. |
18 | IS_HELI | Makes the game engine treat this vehicle as a helicopter when used with default.ide attributes. |
19 | IS_PLANE | Makes the game engine treat this vehicle as a plane when used with default.ide attributes. |
20 | IS_BOAT | Makes the game engine treat this vehicle as a boat when used with default.ide attributes. |
21 | NO_EXHAUST | Removes the exhaust animation particle for this vehicle. |
22 | REARWHEEL_1ST | Seems to have no effect. |
23 | HANDBRAKE_TYRE | Seems to have no effect. |
24 | SIT_IN_BOAT | Makes the player sit in this boat. |
25 | FAT_REARW | Doubles the width of the rear wheels. |
26 | NARROW_FRONTW | Halves the width of the front wheels. |
27 | GOOD_INSAND | Prevents vehicle from bogging down on sand surface. |
28 | SPECIAL_FLIGHT | Is not mentioned in the handling.cfg comments. This is applied to some flying vehicles. |
Boat Data
This section contains all the performance settings from the section for floating vehicles, such as boats and flying vehicles which can land on water. The below table provides the column letter, column name and a brief description for each setting available in this section.
Column Letter | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
- | - | - |
This section is incomplete.
Repurposed Standard Data
Some of the Standard Data settings have a different effect for floating vehicles than they would for land vehicles.
Column Letter | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
- | - | - |
This section is incomplete.
Bike Data
This section contains the performance settings from the section for motorbikes. The below table provides the column letter, column name and a brief description for each setting available in this section.
Column Letter | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
- | - | - |
This section is incomplete.
Flying Data
This section contains the performance settings from the section for flying vehicles, such as planes and helicopters. The below table provides the column letter, column name and a brief description for each setting available in this section.
Column Letter | Column Name | Description |
---|---|---|
- | - | - |
This section is incomplete.
GTA San Andreas
This section is incomplete.
External Links
- CFG Studio - a comprehensive handling editor for GTA3, GTAVC and GTASA by Cerbera.