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.

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.