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About this mod
A new take on the handling of various vehicles in GTA4.
- Permissions and credits
- Changelogs
Diverse Vehicle Handling
Having tried a few different handling mods so far, I've decided to make my own, and emphasise the difference between different types of cars in GTA IV. Vanilla handling is wibbly-wobbly all the way, from the rusted-out jalopy to a high-end luxury sedan. Even sports cars aren't spared the wobble. They all feel like the engineers forgot to add swaybars on them.
So... Not Good.
Also, certain cars were downright hammered into oblivion, handling-wise. Manana, Perennial, Voodoo, to name the three most egregious offenders. That needed to be addressed too.
Enter my mod. Now, each rough 'class' of car, has it's own unique handling characteristics. The classes are (subjectively), as follows:
1) Old American Boats (AkA, the Wobble-Barges). Most of what you see during early stages of the game, like muscle cars, 70's sedans like Roman's Taxi and Emperor, Jacob's weed-wagon, various lowrider-esque cars like Buccaneer and Manana, etc, etc. They still have a lot of lean (not as much as in Vanilla), soft suspension, and absolutely terrible traction. They will slide, wheelspin, and throttle-control is essential, especially in the rain, unless you like doing donuts. That said, they brake pretty well, since I've improved rebound and bump damping, so all that softly sprung mass gets to 'sink in' during braking. Also, they are tied with SUVs, for the toughest cars in the game. They can take more damage of all kinds; crashing, engine damage, bullets, everything. They handle like tanks, but they ARE tanks. Very, very hard to kill. Some can reach a good top speed, and they generally launch and accelerate well, due to powerful engines (mind the wheelspin though).
2) SUVs. Self-explanatory. Everything big, chunky and heavy, from older to newer ones. Most are now AWD, so they have good launch, but suffer in top speed (slowest class of cars). Most will understeer in fast corners, but are very planted otherwise. Very tough, can take a lot of damage, and easy to drive. Just don't expect to be fast. Most SUVs have received a sizable mass bump, feeling more heavy to drive, but have received slightly stiffened suspension to match. Lots of increase to bump and rebound, to limit leaning.
3) Japanese-styled small hatchbacks. Futo, Ingot, Hakumai, Chavos, and Blista Compact (yes I know the last one is patterned after some 80's American hatchback, but it's close enough in feel that I decided to put it in this category). Stiff-ish suspension, good handling, average acceleration and top speed. Very little lean and slide, they are mostly on-rails. A mix of FWD and RWD, but they generally handle very similary to one-another. A good all-around class of cars. Average durablity. Very light in mass, so don't expect to win any bumping contests. Below-average brakes (since they are so stiff).
4) Run-of-the-mill semi-modern to modern sedans, coupes and touring cars. This is the broadest category, and includes basically everything else that doesn't fit into the above three categories, or the Sports Cars one. Good, predictable handling, minimal leaning and wheelspin, decent traction for the most part. On the higher end in top speed, but average acceleration. Decent brakes, but not exceptional. Average durability (minus some exceptions, like very high-end luxury sedans such as Cognoscenti and Washington, they can take quite a beating).
5) Sports cars. Everything sleek, fast, and cool. Best handling cars in the game (obviously). Great suspension (obviously). Superior launch, acceleration AND top speed (increased for all sports cars), great cornering, planted (even in the rain) basically everything is head-and-shoulders above every other class above. BUT! They are very, very, very fragile. They take increased deformation damage, increased engine damage, and increased bullet damage. One or two hard crashes, and you can kiss your cool ride goodbye. If you know how to drive well, you'll get the most out of them. But they don't tolerate mistakes.
6) Bikes... are bikes. Not really a bike-guy, so I have no idea how different bikes should handle, but I was fairly sure that they shouldn't slide around as much as in vanilla. So I made all bikes have more grip, and a lower centre of mass to keep them from flipping over due to more grip. This combined means that bikes handle a lot tighter now, and are more planted on the road. Maybe a little too planted at times, since I can't get them to slide even in rainy conditions, so maybe a touch on the arcade-y side? Let me know.
INSTALLATION: Extract the handling.dat file into your data/common folder, and let it overwrite the vanilla one. That's it! You might want to make a backup of the vanilla one, if you want to revert.
Having tried a few different handling mods so far, I've decided to make my own, and emphasise the difference between different types of cars in GTA IV. Vanilla handling is wibbly-wobbly all the way, from the rusted-out jalopy to a high-end luxury sedan. Even sports cars aren't spared the wobble. They all feel like the engineers forgot to add swaybars on them.
So... Not Good.
Also, certain cars were downright hammered into oblivion, handling-wise. Manana, Perennial, Voodoo, to name the three most egregious offenders. That needed to be addressed too.
Enter my mod. Now, each rough 'class' of car, has it's own unique handling characteristics. The classes are (subjectively), as follows:
1) Old American Boats (AkA, the Wobble-Barges). Most of what you see during early stages of the game, like muscle cars, 70's sedans like Roman's Taxi and Emperor, Jacob's weed-wagon, various lowrider-esque cars like Buccaneer and Manana, etc, etc. They still have a lot of lean (not as much as in Vanilla), soft suspension, and absolutely terrible traction. They will slide, wheelspin, and throttle-control is essential, especially in the rain, unless you like doing donuts. That said, they brake pretty well, since I've improved rebound and bump damping, so all that softly sprung mass gets to 'sink in' during braking. Also, they are tied with SUVs, for the toughest cars in the game. They can take more damage of all kinds; crashing, engine damage, bullets, everything. They handle like tanks, but they ARE tanks. Very, very hard to kill. Some can reach a good top speed, and they generally launch and accelerate well, due to powerful engines (mind the wheelspin though).
2) SUVs. Self-explanatory. Everything big, chunky and heavy, from older to newer ones. Most are now AWD, so they have good launch, but suffer in top speed (slowest class of cars). Most will understeer in fast corners, but are very planted otherwise. Very tough, can take a lot of damage, and easy to drive. Just don't expect to be fast. Most SUVs have received a sizable mass bump, feeling more heavy to drive, but have received slightly stiffened suspension to match. Lots of increase to bump and rebound, to limit leaning.
3) Japanese-styled small hatchbacks. Futo, Ingot, Hakumai, Chavos, and Blista Compact (yes I know the last one is patterned after some 80's American hatchback, but it's close enough in feel that I decided to put it in this category). Stiff-ish suspension, good handling, average acceleration and top speed. Very little lean and slide, they are mostly on-rails. A mix of FWD and RWD, but they generally handle very similary to one-another. A good all-around class of cars. Average durablity. Very light in mass, so don't expect to win any bumping contests. Below-average brakes (since they are so stiff).
4) Run-of-the-mill semi-modern to modern sedans, coupes and touring cars. This is the broadest category, and includes basically everything else that doesn't fit into the above three categories, or the Sports Cars one. Good, predictable handling, minimal leaning and wheelspin, decent traction for the most part. On the higher end in top speed, but average acceleration. Decent brakes, but not exceptional. Average durability (minus some exceptions, like very high-end luxury sedans such as Cognoscenti and Washington, they can take quite a beating).
5) Sports cars. Everything sleek, fast, and cool. Best handling cars in the game (obviously). Great suspension (obviously). Superior launch, acceleration AND top speed (increased for all sports cars), great cornering, planted (even in the rain) basically everything is head-and-shoulders above every other class above. BUT! They are very, very, very fragile. They take increased deformation damage, increased engine damage, and increased bullet damage. One or two hard crashes, and you can kiss your cool ride goodbye. If you know how to drive well, you'll get the most out of them. But they don't tolerate mistakes.
6) Bikes... are bikes. Not really a bike-guy, so I have no idea how different bikes should handle, but I was fairly sure that they shouldn't slide around as much as in vanilla. So I made all bikes have more grip, and a lower centre of mass to keep them from flipping over due to more grip. This combined means that bikes handle a lot tighter now, and are more planted on the road. Maybe a little too planted at times, since I can't get them to slide even in rainy conditions, so maybe a touch on the arcade-y side? Let me know.
INSTALLATION: Extract the handling.dat file into your data/common folder, and let it overwrite the vanilla one. That's it! You might want to make a backup of the vanilla one, if you want to revert.