NFSAddons Forums

Need For Speed Forums => General NFS => Topic started by: gamekar001 on Dec 31, 2016, 2:40 PM

Title: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Dec 31, 2016, 2:40 PM
Hey guys,

First of all, I want to thank everyone who watched and supported my first video on NFS3 HP.
(In case you missed it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j42AiRpuB5I (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j42AiRpuB5I)

I never expect the video nor the series to be a huge hit or anything. I just want to do something I have planned to do for a very long time. Im glad I made my first step and you guys support means everything. It's niche topic as it goes super in-depth and specific. I dont expect everyone to like it. Besides, there's my poor English and annoying voice lol.

Anyway, the prepration for 2nd episode has begun after I successfully intalled and ran NFS4 High Stakes. Special thanks to HungryManticore_88 who suggested JimDiabolo's NFS HS Stock/Expansion pack which made the game running perfectly on win8.1. I will put everything you need to run NFS4 HS in comment section.

Although I call myself NFS veteran player, it's obvious I have very limited knowledge to the series and to each game especially when considering I was playing games like NFS4 when I was about 12 years old. I was stupid back then and didnt understand >60% of the english of the game. It's also obvious that I missed to mention some details and features in my first video about NFS3 HP. To aviod that, make my future videos better, and improve my production efficiency, I realized asking your guys help is indispensable.

So please feel free to comment if you have any:

    1. features/mechanics
    2. quirks/interesting aspects/ester eggs
    3. suggestion to my video(production point of view)
    4. etc
    5. my horrible english/voice

Be sure to address them as detailed as possible. I will let you know if I decided to include your suggestion and will surely mention your name in the video!

Super execited for the upcoming video. Happy New Year!
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Dec 31, 2016, 2:43 PM
In case you dont know how to get NFS4 HS running on your computer (which is almost impossible here in our forum but u never know so,)

NFS4 HS download:

Full game: http://www.oldpcgaming.net/need-for-speed-high-stakes-review/ (note: you will need Daemon Tools to run the CD image in order to install the game)

To get the game running on newer Windows:
 
JimDiabolo's Stock\Expansion pack: http://www.freak-ds.de/dl-tools.php (http://www.freak-ds.de/dl-tools.php) (choose latest version, if link expired, go to the 2nd latested version)

Intalling guide by JimD:
http://www.hsscoring.com/HSGuide/#_Toc161670424 (http://www.hsscoring.com/HSGuide/#_Toc161670424)
His original thread: http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1577.0 (http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1577.0)

Let me know if you have any questions
Title: .
Post by: WiLL on Dec 31, 2016, 3:55 PM
We already Know... how Great NFS'3 Was an is & NFS`4 HS Is.. many years now. So I never said I Watched your Video...
But I liked, it but not all the Talking,  like your Starting..? .. Hype about What..?
Just make a HS Track dude.. not a Video.  ^-^
Title: Re: .
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 01, 2017, 11:29 AM
We already Know... how Great NFS'3 Was an is & NFS`4 HS Is.. many years now. So I never said I Watched your Video...
But I liked, it but not all the Talking,  like your Starting..? .. Hype about What..?
Just make a HS Track dude.. not a Video.  ^-^

Thanks Will.

Make a track? Hmmm, i doubt i have the ability to do track moddling tho.  :o :-[
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: MADMAN_nfs on Jan 01, 2017, 5:03 PM
In case you dont know how to get NFS4 HS running on your computer (which is almost impossible here in our forum but u never know so,)

NFS4 HS download:

Full game: http://www.oldpcgaming.net/need-for-speed-high-stakes-review/ (note: you will need Daemon Tools to run the CD image in order to install the game)

To get the game running on newer Windows:
 
JimDiabolo's Stock\Expansion pack: http://www.freak-ds.de/dl-tools.php (http://www.freak-ds.de/dl-tools.php) (choose latest version, if link expired, go to the 2nd latested version)

Intalling guide by JimD:
http://www.hsscoring.com/HSGuide/#_Toc161670424 (http://www.hsscoring.com/HSGuide/#_Toc161670424)
His original thread: http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1577.0 (http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1577.0)

Let me know if you have any questions

Hello,
using JimD's stock pack is probably the easiest and most comfortable way of installing NFS4, since you don't need to fiddle with settings in text/ini-files.
Nice idea making those videos. Maybe it will attract attention of a few pep's that find your channel :)
Though, for the gameplay videos you should really check that you have your graphics set up correctly. Because your NFS3 video shows really poor visuals since your game is running in some kind of software mode.
At the time these NFS titles were released they had pretty advanced graphics, given that you had the bucks for a high-end rig (NFS4 was one of the first (maybe even the first) racing game featuring car interiors with driver movements from exterior view). Today ofc you can easily showcase these games with highest graphic settings.
You should do so. Run the 3D setup and choose Glide (should be available with Jim's pack)
Important to mention that NFS 2-5 were designed for using 3dfx Glide API, DirectX was only supported subsidiary by default. Especially NFS2 and NFS3 had some effects (like fog) that only showed up when using a 3dfx Voodoo card.

For interesting aspects/ester eggs:
- High Stakes introduced damage and a career mode to the series, as well as 3D cockpit views
- unlike the PSX version there is no local police chatter on the PC version, but in the english PC version of NFS4 the police has different accents depending on the location
- some localisations have unique cars (e.g. japanese Over Drivin IV has a Nissan Skyline on top of the default cars)
- the PC version is missing 3 music titles compared to playstation version (namely Bring That Beat Back & Electro Optik by ROM and Globular Cluster by Saki Kaskas)
- High Stakes has all NFS3 tracks by default, because of that rumors said it was intended to be NFS3 SE
- on all tracks there are various interesting spots with actions taking place or special sounds played; i wouldnt consider all of them easter eggs, but mentioning these that might be interesting
   - Snowy Ridge track: frozen person in the Snowplow at the sand-depot
   - Landstrasse track: right at the start, park your car infront of one of the building entrances; at one of them a door bell will start ringing
   - Just set the windows date to 31/12 and play at night. Happy New year, every track will have fireworks now.
- using the function keys you can enable/disable music, sound effects, engine or show/hide the HUD and even the pause menu; pressing Alt+P puts screenshot to your desktop in .tga format (not working with new OS)
- If you enter the credits-menu change the display from "text" to "pictures" and click the appearing photos. A mini game called "CLICK THE PHOTO" will start

There is probably more stuff, also you already know some of the mentioned things most likely.
Of course not everything can be used in a video like you plan, but im sure some members here can add some more things that i haven't mentioned.

Greetings
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: WiLL on Jan 01, 2017, 6:50 PM
 Hi there GameKar01 um, I wants to tell, you I didn't mean be, So Grumpy, last night.. but I was. Nice topic you Created, cause like Madman an other more Knowledgeable, guys,here have more Experience, like I just Learned from, MadMans, post.  Well , I have to tell you, it took me a very like, long time.., to Understand, the Whole picture, Concept, Polygons,  of Editing, T3ED, Tracks, (I hate admitting, I always was a slow learning) So, it's not as hard, as you think? What bothers, me most, to is things, that I haven't Learned, making Tracks,so far,I wished the more Experienced, guys, that are still around, here would Unleash there Skills,to me, but they Haven't yet : ( maybe there isn't any? So there GameKar01 : )  I made a Video before, I did more those kinds, of things few years back, but it takes much pc, power I think to make them, an HDD space,.I don't have now days. Or even isp-' on my Pc. Sure do miss it tho, i wanted tell MadMan his post was real Cool an Wow, I never knew, about this photo click, Mini Game :D an such wonder how you play that, maybe takes me few weeks too learn it? ;))

Nope, oh i Remember, back in say 2000 I was hitting this Alt-P, on my Windows 98 an man, I sure had a bad, Mess of TGA-' Files, on my Desktop! Was Insane) ) man took a week to get all off there!! OMG... :))) I'm sure glad them, days are long Over, saying that huh, But I have Found a great Tool Called 'FRAPS, came out in 2007, it makes Screen shots, of the game from inside,sends the Jpg, files to the folder I choose, or other formats, to. I'm just really glad I have this,now it makes Videos, to an also tells me, my FPS. In game,  with Yellow #'s, it's great, cause I just got, installed my used, Good ,Video card, just got it,so saved $$)


Great tiny program, so glad Nooo more Alt-P ;)  I know I'm Forgetting something, but I will call it a Good day here, an really would like finding out more, about all this too.
But,again I wanted tell you, I'm pretty happy with Vegs" Nfs4HS Modern Patch,  lets have a 8 Car Full Grid, but I don't use that many always,  cause they Run me off the Road, them meany) Cars... geez)  so yes it's a Great patch, Re~Worked the Game. He's a Very smart guy he is? Did you install that yet? GameKar01 ttul--  ^-^  8)
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: FranknFurter on Jan 02, 2017, 9:18 AM
I have to admit that in first place I didn't really understand what these threads should be all about :-\ ... was a bit excited at first since I thought someone might have re-released HS on a new game engine like on the FAR CRY engine (cryforspeed) project that once been started ...

Also the presentation videos aren't really revealing something completely new to me since there are so many game reviews about HP/HS that I quitted counting once ...

What does 'depth analysis' mean .. to you? I think Evgeny (who made the VEG NFS modern patches) for example plunged into the games' code like no-one did ever before except for perhaps EA's game engineers themselves? Or Zalcus20 and Dr.Speed were discovering things concerning of how to use Ghost files that no-one ever had thought about ...

Paul for example is also making Police cars from German Democratic Republic or Soviet Union, former States that most of the younger gamers only know from history lessons or books .. so ...

 ...what's it all about then?

@MADMAN: thx for pointing out things I haven't also noticed or known yet .. like for example that door bell .. =D
You never stop learning .. even the oldest cow learns how to better mow (in variation of a German saying .. ;))

Cheers 2all
Frank
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 03, 2017, 12:19 AM
In case you dont know how to get NFS4 HS running on your computer (which is almost impossible here in our forum but u never know so,)

NFS4 HS download:

Full game: http://www.oldpcgaming.net/need-for-speed-high-stakes-review/ (note: you will need Daemon Tools to run the CD image in order to install the game)

To get the game running on newer Windows:
 
JimDiabolo's Stock\Expansion pack: http://www.freak-ds.de/dl-tools.php (http://www.freak-ds.de/dl-tools.php) (choose latest version, if link expired, go to the 2nd latested version)

Intalling guide by JimD:
http://www.hsscoring.com/HSGuide/#_Toc161670424 (http://www.hsscoring.com/HSGuide/#_Toc161670424)
His original thread: http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1577.0 (http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1577.0)

Let me know if you have any questions

Hello,
using JimD's stock pack is probably the easiest and most comfortable way of installing NFS4, since you don't need to fiddle with settings in text/ini-files.
Nice idea making those videos. Maybe it will attract attention of a few pep's that find your channel :)
Though, for the gameplay videos you should really check that you have your graphics set up correctly. Because your NFS3 video shows really poor visuals since your game is running in some kind of software mode.
At the time these NFS titles were released they had pretty advanced graphics, given that you had the bucks for a high-end rig (NFS4 was one of the first (maybe even the first) racing game featuring car interiors with driver movements from exterior view). Today ofc you can easily showcase these games with highest graphic settings.
You should do so. Run the 3D setup and choose Glide (should be available with Jim's pack)
Important to mention that NFS 2-5 were designed for using 3dfx Glide API, DirectX was only supported subsidiary by default. Especially NFS2 and NFS3 had some effects (like fog) that only showed up when using a 3dfx Voodoo card.

For interesting aspects/ester eggs:
- High Stakes introduced damage and a career mode to the series, as well as 3D cockpit views
- unlike the PSX version there is no local police chatter on the PC version, but in the english PC version of NFS4 the police has different accents depending on the location
- some localisations have unique cars (e.g. japanese Over Drivin IV has a Nissan Skyline on top of the default cars)
- the PC version is missing 3 music titles compared to playstation version (namely Bring That Beat Back & Electro Optik by ROM and Globular Cluster by Saki Kaskas)
- High Stakes has all NFS3 tracks by default, because of that rumors said it was intended to be NFS3 SE
- on all tracks there are various interesting spots with actions taking place or special sounds played; i wouldnt consider all of them easter eggs, but mentioning these that might be interesting
   - Snowy Ridge track: frozen person in the Snowplow at the sand-depot
   - Landstrasse track: right at the start, park your car infront of one of the building entrances; at one of them a door bell will start ringing
   - Just set the windows date to 31/12 and play at night. Happy New year, every track will have fireworks now.
- using the function keys you can enable/disable music, sound effects, engine or show/hide the HUD and even the pause menu; pressing Alt+P puts screenshot to your desktop in .tga format (not working with new OS)
- If you enter the credits-menu change the display from "text" to "pictures" and click the appearing photos. A mini game called "CLICK THE PHOTO" will start

There is probably more stuff, also you already know some of the mentioned things most likely.
Of course not everything can be used in a video like you plan, but im sure some members here can add some more things that i haven't mentioned.

Greetings

Your response is absolutely prescious. I will try ur suggestion on NFS3 and see how it goes. I think I was running on a Voodoo add-on just to get the game running. And ur very right on the graphics, it looks really off. I noticed that when i compared mine with other YT videos.

As your ester eggs for HS, i knew one or two but that fireworks one really blew me away haha. will try that for sure!

Thanks again. I will try my best on the next vid! cheers!
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 03, 2017, 12:32 AM
I have to admit that in first place I didn't really understand what these threads should be all about :-\ ... was a bit excited at first since I thought someone might have re-released HS on a new game engine like on the FAR CRY engine (cryforspeed) project that once been started ...

Also the presentation videos aren't really revealing something completely new to me since there are so many game reviews about HP/HS that I quitted counting once ...

What does 'depth analysis' mean .. to you? I think Evgeny (who made the VEG NFS modern patches) for example plunged into the games' code like no-one did ever before except for perhaps EA's game engineers themselves? Or Zalcus20 and Dr.Speed were discovering things concerning of how to use Ghost files that no-one ever had thought about ...

Paul for example is also making Police cars from German Democratic Republic or Soviet Union, former States that most of the younger gamers only know from history lessons or books .. so ...

 ...what's it all about then?

@MADMAN: thx for pointing out things I haven't also noticed or known yet .. like for example that door bell .. =D
You never stop learning .. even the oldest cow learns how to better mow (in variation of a German saying .. ;))

Cheers 2all
Frank

Hey Frank, thanks for your input.

with do respect, and Im not self justifying here, i think my understanding of in-depth can come from different aspects. As i mentioned couple times in the video, my intention is to find WHAT IS GOOD back in these old games. It's a comparison point of view, like u grab a 2001 BMW E39 M5 and you go super indepth, and there's different ways doing it. You can do something like the NFS veterans u mentioned, by taking the car apart like a car engineer, learn it, analyze it. That's one way we call it indepth. But I can also go indepth by going wat's good about this classic M5 and why we love it and what is missing from the new current gen 2016 F10 M5.

There's barely any videos on Youtube doing similar stuff like mine on NFS HP or HS. and my intention is not staying with neither HP nor HS but going from HP all the way to NFS Carbon. And then I will conclude what's missing from current gen 2016 NFS. that's a general goal and that's my overall intention.

You also have to understand the limit of my personal ability espeically the time I was playing NFS3HP, i was 10 year old.

So I come to NFS addons here to listen to ppl like u, like Madman who knows things I dont know so I can put into my video to educate younger audience.

There's always new ways to introduce/show old stuff by going through a new aspect, especially something good and classic.

Cheers & happy 2017
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: dandresden on Jan 03, 2017, 5:18 AM

with do respect, and Im not self justifying here, i think my understanding of in-depth can come from different aspects. As i mentioned couple times in the video, my intention is to find WHAT IS GOOD back in these old games. It's a comparison point of view, like u grab a 2001 BMW E39 M5 and you go super indepth, and there's different ways doing it. You can do something like the NFS veterans u mentioned, by taking the car apart like a car engineer, learn it, analyze it. That's one way we call it indepth. But I can also go indepth by going wat's good about this classic M5 and why we love it and what is missing from the new current gen 2016 F10 M5.

There's barely any videos on Youtube doing similar stuff like mine on NFS HP or HS. and my intention is not staying with neither HP nor HS but going from HP all the way to NFS Carbon. And then I will conclude what's missing from current gen 2016 NFS. that's a general goal and that's my overall intention.
My mind said for that, NFSHS 2017 be like......someone can make/convert new or modern car such Mercedes AMG-GT 2016, Audi R8 V10 Plus 2016, Aston Martin CC-100 2013, SRT Viper GTS 2013, And BMW F10 M5/M4 2014.
All of that cars its my wishlist for RACE in Need For Speed High Stakes (im so hopeful XD )
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: WiLL on Jan 03, 2017, 8:13 AM
Well, said there GsmeKar01 it be nice of you to do, these types of things, to keep Nfs4'HS alive more an other ones, Good day,  I miss kinda making Videos, but getting the Sound to match a 100% wasn't so easy when I did them cya bud :)
An yes,Dandreden, I like to Search out more, those Super Cars you spoke about)
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: MADMAN_nfs on Jan 03, 2017, 10:46 AM
Your response is absolutely prescious. I will try ur suggestion on NFS3 and see how it goes. I think I was running on a Voodoo add-on just to get the game running. And ur very right on the graphics, it looks really off. I noticed that when i compared mine with other YT videos.

As your ester eggs for HS, i knew one or two but that fireworks one really blew me away haha. will try that for sure!

Thanks again. I will try my best on the next vid! cheers!

Another important aspect i did not mention so far: i think what really made NFS2,NFS3 and NFS4 (which were based on the same game-engine by the way) so big and so successful, was the ability to modify the game.
Back then EA followed some different politics, so they put editing tools for their game on the NFS3 CD...

Quote from: NFSCheats.com (nfscheats.com/nfs3.php)
One very interesting thing about the retail Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit for PC was that EA actually included it's own car editor in a zip file on the CD. Need For Speed II was already a big editing game, but now EA included downloadable cars. And all those downloadable cars did was create their own folder. So people tried and created their own cars then proceeded to create their own folders. Well what do you know, it worked! You can add-on cars now!! NFSII/SE could only have you replace over your cars, but since EA has done the downloadable car thing, now you can create your own. This made the car editing craze huge. Plus EA's own Cartool was a very good editor. This is where the whole car editing thing really took off.

Of course Hot Pursuit and High Stakes were great games, but with that it was possible for everybody to customize these games to their needs. Since NFS1-NFS4 are based on the same game-engine, the file formats were similar; resulting to an insane number of cars, tracks and tools for editing. High Stakes probably profited even more than Hot Pursuit from that development.
I think modding is what makes up the largest part of the long-term fascination. Steadily new content was produced by so many people.
In fact, this is very much comparable to the GTA series that always had a big modding community as well.

For your problems with NFS3 i would recommend to use Veg's Modern Patch:
http://veg.by/en/projects/nfs3/
It also is available for NFS4 and a good option if you want to use mods.
http://veg.by/en/projects/nfs4/
The patch has no installer, but the installation is not too complicated.

Additionally, you might take a look at the NFS3 Expansion Pack as well.
http://nfs3expansionpack.webs.com/

Greetings
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 03, 2017, 10:56 AM
Hi there GameKar01 um, I wants to tell, you I didn't mean be, So Grumpy, last night.. but I was. Nice topic you Created, cause like Madman an other more Knowledgeable, guys,here have more Experience, like I just Learned from, MadMans, post.  Well , I have to tell you, it took me a very like, long time.., to Understand, the Whole picture, Concept, Polygons,  of Editing, T3ED, Tracks, (I hate admitting, I always was a slow learning) So, it's not as hard, as you think? What bothers, me most, to is things, that I haven't Learned, making Tracks,so far,I wished the more Experienced, guys, that are still around, here would Unleash there Skills,to me, but they Haven't yet : ( maybe there isn't any? So there GameKar01 : )  I made a Video before, I did more those kinds, of things few years back, but it takes much pc, power I think to make them, an HDD space,.I don't have now days. Or even isp-' on my Pc. Sure do miss it tho, i wanted tell MadMan his post was real Cool an Wow, I never knew, about this photo click, Mini Game :D an such wonder how you play that, maybe takes me few weeks too learn it? ;))

Nope, oh i Remember, back in say 2000 I was hitting this Alt-P, on my Windows 98 an man, I sure had a bad, Mess of TGA-' Files, on my Desktop! Was Insane) ) man took a week to get all off there!! OMG... :))) I'm sure glad them, days are long Over, saying that huh, But I have Found a great Tool Called 'FRAPS, came out in 2007, it makes Screen shots, of the game from inside,sends the Jpg, files to the folder I choose, or other formats, to. I'm just really glad I have this,now it makes Videos, to an also tells me, my FPS. In game,  with Yellow #'s, it's great, cause I just got, installed my used, Good ,Video card, just got it,so saved $$)


Great tiny program, so glad Nooo more Alt-P ;)  I know I'm Forgetting something, but I will call it a Good day here, an really would like finding out more, about all this too.
But,again I wanted tell you, I'm pretty happy with Vegs" Nfs4HS Modern Patch,  lets have a 8 Car Full Grid, but I don't use that many always,  cause they Run me off the Road, them meany) Cars... geez)  so yes it's a Great patch, Re~Worked the Game. He's a Very smart guy he is? Did you install that yet? GameKar01 ttul--  ^-^  8)

Morning Will. Love your comments! Although it took me a while to read everything you wrote haha.

Anyway, about track making, i hope some day i could contribute somehow to this but currently I just be honest with you that I have never tried custom making tracks on HS nor HP. SO very new topic for me as well haha. But, that being said, still worth trying! I will dig this up when i got time.

And yes, u always learning isnt it. MADMAN posted some great easter eggs which is something i want to go "in-depth" about, talking about why games 18 years ago is legendary and why ppl still playing it today. It's all about how much developers had devoted themselves into the game and I strongly believe today's developers got too many distractions that they could not just focusing on making good games, PURE GOOD GAMES.

Last but not least, to be honest, i dont even know Alt+P back when i was using old windows hahaha. I do used Fraps for awhile but it's a bit frustrating that the video it recorded only last 10 min each. Im currently using NVIDIA's GeForce Experience to record video(it comes with graphic card driver, very easy to use)

Cheers!
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 03, 2017, 11:38 AM
Your response is absolutely prescious. I will try ur suggestion on NFS3 and see how it goes. I think I was running on a Voodoo add-on just to get the game running. And ur very right on the graphics, it looks really off. I noticed that when i compared mine with other YT videos.

As your ester eggs for HS, i knew one or two but that fireworks one really blew me away haha. will try that for sure!

Thanks again. I will try my best on the next vid! cheers!

Another important aspect i did not mention so far: i think what really made NFS2,NFS3 and NFS4 (which were based on the same game-engine by the way) so big and so successful, was the ability to modify the game.
Back then EA followed some different politics, so they put editing tools for their game on the NFS3 CD...

Quote from: NFSCheats.com (nfscheats.com/nfs3.php)
One very interesting thing about the retail Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit for PC was that EA actually included it's own car editor in a zip file on the CD. Need For Speed II was already a big editing game, but now EA included downloadable cars. And all those downloadable cars did was create their own folder. So people tried and created their own cars then proceeded to create their own folders. Well what do you know, it worked! You can add-on cars now!! NFSII/SE could only have you replace over your cars, but since EA has done the downloadable car thing, now you can create your own. This made the car editing craze huge. Plus EA's own Cartool was a very good editor. This is where the whole car editing thing really took off.

Of course Hot Pursuit and High Stakes were great games, but with that it was possible for everybody to customize these games to their needs. I think this is what makes up the largest part of the long-term fascination. Steadily new content was produced by so many people.
In fact, this is very much comparable to the GTA series that always had a big modding community as well.

For your problems with NFS3 i would recommend to use Veg's Modern Patch:
http://veg.by/en/projects/nfs3/
It also is available for NFS4 and a good option if you want to use mods.
http://veg.by/en/projects/nfs4/
The patch has no installer, but the installation is not too complicated.

Additionally, you might take a look at the NFS3 Expansion Pack as well.
http://nfs3expansionpack.webs.com/

Greetings

Ur just keep coming arent you! Absolutely great information MADMAN, much love <333

I will definitely put more efforts to talk about modding and open source this time on NFS4HS and touch base on wat really made NFSHP great. You see, one main reason of PC master race is becuz community modling and that explains why games like GTA and Skyrim or Fallout is so popluar and appreciated. I remember spending hours on GTA IV just to get handling data right to wat I wanted on certain mod cars.

But I do think that one possible improvement on modding as a whole could be the fact that it needs to be better presented. the whole package of "mod" is a bit on techinical side to mose of casual gamers. U may ask why bother on gamers who are casual but it's like wat Bill Gates & Mark Zarkerburg said on Coding. Making Coding friendly & accessible to everyone will benefit the whole, the same topic for PC modding. If somehow we made it super firendly and easy to use, then it's a game changer i think.

anyway, ur comments are all super super helpful. Hope you can stick with my following works and throw me suggestions if you can.

BTW, your profile picture, Carmageddon 2, I do have this game on my local. I hope I could do videos about this game one day.

I also have a game called Power Slide,which I played many many years ago. very unique game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy8y_F8AWGo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fy8y_F8AWGo))
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: Remko on Jan 03, 2017, 3:33 PM
Modding definitely was a big feature in NFS3 and 4. At its high point (the early 2000's), there were literally hundreds of NFS-related websites, big and small, offering add-on cars and tracks. It may have been one of the most popular games to create mods for of its era (okay, maybe not like Quake or Unreal, but still). For a while, a German PC gaming magazine would devote a page each month to the best NFS3/4 mods.

One of the things that made it popular, I think, was it's open structure. This meant that you could add cars (up to a maximum of 50) thus expanding your car roster considerably. Many later NFS games that were made moddable thanks to the efforts of the fan community such as Underground 1-2 and Most Wanted, always made you overwrite a specific original car.

The relatively simple graphics also made it easier to get into for beginning modders. If you want to make mods for modern racing games now, you'd already have to be a professional 3d designer because everything is super detailed and photo-realistic.
Many modders quickly surpassed the quality of the in-game cars, and a few (Eric Arroyo, Martin Leps, Endo for example) actually went on to become professional vehicle designers for games.

Eric Arroyo was actually hired by EA themselves, to work on Motorcity Online.  :)
Are you going to cover that game too, by the way? Although it lost the 'NFS' from its name (it originally was supposed to be a regular Need for Speed chapter) it's still very closely related to NFS3/4. One the other hand, it being online-only, pay-to-play, and only available in the USA, it may not have reached the wide audience that the normal NFS games have.
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: Remko on Jan 03, 2017, 4:40 PM
Now you've obviously played the games yourself and probably also checked Wikipedia of the NFS Wikia, but I'm still going to list some things that set High Stakes apart from its predecessor, feel free to take inspiration from or ignore completely. ;)

High Stakes was the first NFS to include damage, and it would actually affect the race, from driving in the dark with broken headlights, to making your car slower and harder to control, the worse the damage got. Although you couldn't actually 'total' your car enough to end the race, at its worst you car would slow down to crawling speed, and you would hear explosions from your damaged engine backfiring.  :P
This was carried over in Porsche Unleashed, but in later games damage would be absent or only visual, until the Shift games, I think.

High Stakes was the first game where you could actually visually customize your cars (albeit limited) in the form of career upgrades: http://nfs.wikia.com/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_High_Stakes/Upgrades

High Stakes definitely had a more European flavour to it. In NFS3 HP, all the tracks were more or less North American (US/Canada) with countryside, desert, forest, and Miami-style city (Atlantica) style tracks.
In HS, some tracks were visibly located in Germany, France and the UK, complete with police forces in the correct liveries and sounds (two-tone sirens) - in the two British tracks (Celtic and Durham), the traffic even drives on the 'other' side of the road. ;)
This trend would continue even more in Porsche Unleashed, which took place entirely in European locations (Normandy, Corsica, Autobahn, etc.)

NFS3 had an option that let you race online via IP connection, but NFS:HS was the first where you could race online via EA's own servers, the EA racing network (this also continued with NFS PU, possibly also HP2, I'm not sure). This boosted the popularity for online racing for NFS games considerably, with communities that focused on online competition as a result. Needforbetterspeed.net was one such a community. When EA racing was discontinued in 2003, devoted fans created their own online matchmaking tool with the IPlounge. THis was also the source for the Stock Pack and Expansion Pack for NFS HS.

A subtle difference between NFS3 and 4: NFS4 would punish you more for cutting corners than NFS3, it seemed. In tracks like Snowy Ridge there are 'curbs' in several corners, that will slow you down slightly if you drive over them. NFS3 is a lot more forgiving in this area.
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 03, 2017, 7:46 PM
Modding definitely was a big feature in NFS3 and 4. At its high point (the early 2000's), there were literally hundreds of NFS-related websites, big and small, offering add-on cars and tracks. It may have been one of the most popular games to create mods for of its era (okay, maybe not like Quake or Unreal, but still). For a while, a German PC gaming magazine would devote a page each month to the best NFS3/4 mods.

One of the things that made it popular, I think, was it's open structure. This meant that you could add cars (up to a maximum of 50) thus expanding your car roster considerably. Many later NFS games that were made moddable thanks to the efforts of the fan community such as Underground 1-2 and Most Wanted, always made you overwrite a specific original car.


The relatively simple graphics also made it easier to get into for beginning modders. If you want to make mods for modern racing games now, you'd already have to be a professional 3d designer because everything is super detailed and photo-realistic.
Many modders quickly surpassed the quality of the in-game cars, and a few (Eric Arroyo, Martin Leps, Endo for example) actually went on to become professional vehicle designers for games.

Eric Arroyo was actually hired by EA themselves, to work on Motorcity Online.  :)
Are you going to cover that game too, by the way? Although it lost the 'NFS' from its name (it originally was supposed to be a regular Need for Speed chapter) it's still very closely related to NFS3/4. One the other hand, it being online-only, pay-to-play, and only available in the USA, it may not have reached the wide audience that the normal NFS games have.


Thanks for your info Remko. Very very helpful indeed.

It's a shame that I could not be able to be part of the high point of NFS HP or HS 16 years ago. I was a stupid 10 year-old kid back then. And, to make matters worse, internet was still a novel thing to most of the ppl in China. It's fortunate enough that I got access to games like NFS that early.

Now Im able to make videos about my fav game franchise in USA while coming to places like NFSADDONS and meet veteran players like u guys, which is really fascinating if you think about it.

So please, if possible, you and other good guys are always welcome to give me suggestions or lessions on NFS. My analysis series is going to cover from HP all the way to Carbon which means Im gonna keep bothering u guys for a very long time lol.

Anyway, I do have some questions regarding your feedback:

1. it seems like NFSHP & HS had become a huge thing for German gamers. What factors caused this? I found this rather interesting.

2. So does the polularity of NFS for German gamers only stay between HP and HS or ppl love NFS as a whole? I really cant find enough data that tells a world-wide-level demographics of where NFS fans come from.

3. Where exactly is NFS HS based in? I can tell from the police car and siren that the game is based in Europe but not sure where specific tho.

4. where I can find analysis on NFS HS's car physics? I noticed that they added some sort of suspension travel to cars in HS which is new to the series. But most cars, especially super cars like Mc F1 GTR, sit a bit too high. They look like SUV sometimes in the game.  I want to know wat causes that and if car's body frame and chassis are separately made/modeled.

@MADMAN @FranknFurter @_WiLL_ feel free to answer these questions :P

Thanks again.
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: FranknFurter on Jan 04, 2017, 5:14 AM
First of all .. please accept my apologies for my initial ungracious reaction onto your thread, I didn't know about your history .. must have been hard growing up in China with all those restrictions in those days .. sorry for that!

Your questions are in so far eligible then and other than myself you might have gotten already appropriate information from other members ;)

Not to excuse my reaction but to make it somewhat more comprehensible there were times being so many so-called freaks and experts concerning NFS around that sometimes you thought they had written the 'book of wisdom' about it.

That always was also the reason why I have registered rather late to a community ... although I have made cars (reworks to be precise) and other stuff just for myself already for a long time, but now it seems that NFS fan community -like myself- has now grown older and become a bit more 'wise' what makes it much more pleasurable to talk to people and exchange knowledge, experiences as well as files and also even work together instead of noticing a certain feeling of permanently having to compete or even living out foolish rivalry.

To your question(s): Well, as MADMAN already stated, the popularity of HP/HS can be explained by its customizability and versatility, if you know how to you can even create new tracks what isn't possible with later versions which also is a very attractive aspect of the game, not only to edit cars.

If you made some more experiences you will see then WHAT people already have edited (and still finding out what else more can be), from the policemen being around when you are being ticketed or the Police helicopter swirling around to even game sounds that can be altered with for example custom siren sounds as only a few to mention, let alone menu pictures and text as well as music and and .. what probably makes it -as to speak just for myself ::)- very attractive for Germans since we like to profoundly examine (the so-called 'German thoroughness' -LOL) and alter things, tinker at and optimize .. but I'm sure that other people in other parts of the world also like to do such ... ;) ^-^

Greetings and Welcome!
Frank
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: WiLL on Jan 04, 2017, 6:40 AM
Very well Written @  Frank, make a Long story shorter, this is what my email wad about, much yo a German friend last nite.. :) 
My phone is' Junk,, so I can't type no more,.were having Cold wind Storm,, today, Great day to Finish my Sweet new Road, Click,,Click,, Click: :D No-One else wants to Here..? they, doSo  Peace Out brothers..!)
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: Remko on Jan 04, 2017, 5:13 PM
Quote
1. it seems like NFSHP & HS had become a huge thing for German gamers. What factors caused this? I found this rather interesting.

I don't really have an explanation for this, but yeah, it seems these games were particularly popular in Germany. At least as far as the modding scene was concerned. Being Dutch myself, I mostly hung around in the English speaking communities, and although there were also sites in other languages such as French or Spanish, the German scene seemed at least as big as the English one. Even today, of the few people left, a significant part are German.

Quote
3. Where exactly is NFS HS based in? I can tell from the police car and siren that the game is based in Europe but not sure where specific tho.
Actually, High Stakes isn't set in one specific location. If you go to the track menu (Location) page and scroll through the tracks, you'll notice it mentions the country in the top left corner every time: Scotland (Celtic Ruins) Germany (Landstrasse) USA (Dolphin Cove) and so on.
Dolphin Cove, Kindiak and Snowy Ridge still have black-and-white pursuit cars with "weeoo-weeoo" sirens. :)
Even the Raceways are set in different countries (Italy/USA/Spain) although this isn't really noticeable. As said before, all the original NFS3 tracks still take place in USA or Canada.

Quote
4. where I can find analysis on NFS HS's car physics? I noticed that they added some sort of suspension travel to cars in HS which is new to the series. But most cars, especially super cars like Mc F1 GTR, sit a bit too high. They look like SUV sometimes in the game.  I want to know wat causes that and if car's body frame and chassis are separately made/modeled.
It's true that all the cars look to narrow and tall in NFS4 compared to NFS3 - I believe this was one of the thing people were disappointed in when the game came out.

There have been several performance tuning guides made for NFS3 and NFS4 editors, but of the top of my head I can't really say if the performance data was very different. In fact, I just used NFSwizard to compare the performance files of the Diablo from NFS3 to the one in NFS4, and they are 99% similar. I think it's just a visual effect which has been enhanced for NFS4.
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 04, 2017, 8:47 PM
First of all .. please accept my apologies for my initial ungracious reaction onto your thread, I didn't know about your history .. must have been hard growing up in China with all those restrictions in those days .. sorry for that!

Your questions are in so far eligible then and other than myself you might have gotten already appropriate information from other members ;)

Not to excuse my reaction but to make it somewhat more comprehensible there were times being so many so-called freaks and experts concerning NFS around that sometimes you thought they had written the 'book of wisdom' about it.

That always was also the reason why I have registered rather late to a community ... although I have made cars (reworks to be precise) and other stuff just for myself already for a long time, but now it seems that NFS fan community -like myself- has now grown older and become a bit more 'wise' what makes it much more pleasurable to talk to people and exchange knowledge, experiences as well as files and also even work together instead of noticing a certain feeling of permanently having to compete or even living out foolish rivalry.

To your question(s): Well, as MADMAN already stated, the popularity of HP/HS can be explained by its customizability and versatility, if you know how to you can even create new tracks what isn't possible with later versions which also is a very attractive aspect of the game, not only to edit cars.

If you made some more experiences you will see then WHAT people already have edited (and still finding out what else more can be), from the policemen being around when you are being ticketed or the Police helicopter swirling around to even game sounds that can be altered with for example custom siren sounds as only a few to mention, let alone menu pictures and text as well as music and and .. what probably makes it -as to speak just for myself ::)- very attractive for Germans since we like to profoundly examine (the so-called 'German thoroughness' -LOL) and alter things, tinker at and optimize .. but I'm sure that other people in other parts of the world also like to do such ... ;) ^-^

Greetings and Welcome!
Frank

Hey Frank, dont be sorry or anything. There may be some culture difference here and there giving us different background, but that's about it. It is the game that brings us together disregard nationality or race or childhood story right? truly amazing.

Anyway, I do remember once when i was around 11 or 12 which is 16 years ago at least, I played split screen with a older kid, he was like 17 years old already. He got so many (at least 10) modded cars added to the NFS3 HP. And I was stunned back then. There're helis, rally cars even UFO. I had so much fun that day playing with him.

What you and other ppl's feedback reminded me to think about current racing game genre as a whole crictically. I can not help but notice the lack of friendly, easy-to-learn modding feature that's available to all gamers like NFS HP, coming with the game itself(which is 99% impossible to happend today). I know, similation racing games on PC are mainly based on community moddling but that's a different league. NFS never intended to be simluation racing game and so do many other rac games. We simply cannot say that moddling is only a thing to simluation rac games right? It's a shame that console platform hugely impacted today's game developing process. A lot games, like 2016 NFS, is bascially made for console then tranffered to PC platform.

I feel like I have to make a sperate video just to discuss and talk about moddling as a whole for NFS and even to racing games. I was playing a community mod for Counter Strike:GO which is called CS:Classic Offensive that visually brough old 1.6 stlye into CSGO. Very interesting. Imagine if today's NFS is open source and open for community moddling, it wont be impossible for us to recreate NFSHP or HS on its frosbite engine (but back to realty, i dont even think frosbite is suitable for racing games at all. it looks amazing and thats about it)

But we still should have our hope, just like the hope on Half Life 3 lol
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 04, 2017, 8:52 PM
Quote
1. it seems like NFSHP & HS had become a huge thing for German gamers. What factors caused this? I found this rather interesting.

I don't really have an explanation for this, but yeah, it seems these games were particularly popular in Germany. At least as far as the modding scene was concerned. Being Dutch myself, I mostly hung around in the English speaking communities, and although there were also sites in other languages such as French or Spanish, the German scene seemed at least as big as the English one. Even today, of the few people left, a significant part are German.

Quote
3. Where exactly is NFS HS based in? I can tell from the police car and siren that the game is based in Europe but not sure where specific tho.
Actually, High Stakes isn't set in one specific location. If you go to the track menu (Location) page and scroll through the tracks, you'll notice it mentions the country in the top left corner every time: Scotland (Celtic Ruins) Germany (Landstrasse) USA (Dolphin Cove) and so on.
Dolphin Cove, Kindiak and Snowy Ridge still have black-and-white pursuit cars with "weeoo-weeoo" sirens. :)
Even the Raceways are set in different countries (Italy/USA/Spain) although this isn't really noticeable. As said before, all the original NFS3 tracks still take place in USA or Canada.

Quote
4. where I can find analysis on NFS HS's car physics? I noticed that they added some sort of suspension travel to cars in HS which is new to the series. But most cars, especially super cars like Mc F1 GTR, sit a bit too high. They look like SUV sometimes in the game.  I want to know wat causes that and if car's body frame and chassis are separately made/modeled.
It's true that all the cars look to narrow and tall in NFS4 compared to NFS3 - I believe this was one of the thing people were disappointed in when the game came out.

There have been several performance tuning guides made for NFS3 and NFS4 editors, but of the top of my head I can't really say if the performance data was very different. In fact, I just used NFSwizard to compare the performance files of the Diablo from NFS3 to the one in NFS4, and they are 99% similar. I think it's just a visual effect which has been enhanced for NFS4.

U rock Remko!

Ur answers really helped a huge.

So for question 4, I think they just somewat modified a little bit on car dynamics for the 4HS compared to 3HP. [Lifting off gas and u will be able to turn in] is still a thing in 4HS so yeah, that's wat they did.
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: FranknFurter on Jan 05, 2017, 1:02 AM
If you're further interested in car performance and drive behaviour and such ...

here's a nice tutorial by Justin Martin, a standard reference if you want to plunge into car performance editing ..

http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1712.0

since the file is no longer available it seems I attached it here as a Word document ...

.. and then there's still that nice little tool called 'RealTuner' by erkberk .. helps calculating performances and driving values on real datasheets if you have them ... I usually get them from 'http://www.automobile-catalog.com' that's where you can find actual datasheets of most available cars either if modern or historic ..

Just a small contribution of mine ::) but I also wrote a little tutorial of how to use RealTuner to recalculate certain drivetrain data in Carp.txt based on actual datasheets and how to 'backwards' calculate specific values to make it as realistic as possible ..
May sound a bit complicated when you read it first but once you tried and did that yourself it becomes much easier and makes somehow clear how NFS works or 'ticks' concerning performance data ..

http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1844.0
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: MADMAN_nfs on Jan 05, 2017, 12:37 PM
[...]
Anyway, I do have some questions regarding your feedback:

1. it seems like NFSHP & HS had become a huge thing for German gamers. What factors caused this? I found this rather interesting.

2. So does the polularity of NFS for German gamers only stay between HP and HS or ppl love NFS as a whole? I really cant find enough data that tells a world-wide-level demographics of where NFS fans come from.

3. Where exactly is NFS HS based in? I can tell from the police car and siren that the game is based in Europe but not sure where specific tho.

4. where I can find analysis on NFS HS's car physics? I noticed that they added some sort of suspension travel to cars in HS which is new to the series. But most cars, especially super cars like Mc F1 GTR, sit a bit too high. They look like SUV sometimes in the game.  I want to know wat causes that and if car's body frame and chassis are separately made/modeled.

For 1. & 2.
Interesting observation, what exactly gave you this impression? Well, im from germany as well. Its true there where many german sites back in the days, also there are many german authors.
But i can't come up with an explaination for that.
From my point of view it was generally a very popular game in the western hemisphere (USA, Canada, Europe). But as you can see in the thread Online-Resources of classic NFS titles (http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1710.0), where we collect links to sites that still keep going until this very day, there is a big mixture of people from many different countries. Even in russia NFS3 and it's successor were/are pretty popular; im not even sure there was a russian retail version of NFS available...
Counterquestion: Do you know if there is a modding scene for NFS present in china? Do chinese people generally prefer PC or consoles more? (i know many game cracks are made by chinese hackers *cough*)  :D

I can just tell you that i often played that game with my buddies in split screen mode. Since we had just limited internet bandwith in 1999, the split screen mode was much appreciated. My family, and most of the people here, just had a dial-up modem - no way for online-gaming. So that was the only way to play together. I don't want to praise this feature too much, because playing with 2 players on 1 keyboard was horrible, but we had fun anyways  :)
Since Split-Screen was very rare in PC-games that might also be a factor why the old NFS-titles were favoured a longer time until everyone had proper web-access. Just a wild guess tho  ;)

Point 3. was explained by Remko - nothing to add there.

Well, regarding point 4. for the pc-version, the game-engine seems to take a lot of data into account but that doesn't mean the outcome is realistic.
The wheels are not modeled seperately, you immediately loose control of the car once a side of the car looses contact to the surface. Either you have full road contact or the car will start "grinding". So i think there is no real suspension modeled, its more or less a "visual effect", making the car body shake.
But maybe the handling specialists or car makers can enlighten us with more details here.

Greetings
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: FranknFurter on Jan 05, 2017, 9:02 PM
.. who exactly do you mean MADMAN -LOL ..

.. also a speculation of mine ... what you described is so far true some isn't .. I had tried to study and become wise of Justin Martin's tutorial ??? .. well first of all there is one great difference between HP/HS and later versions concerning car physics. While in later versions (like already with NFS Porsche, too for example) each wheel's state (position, turning, grip etc.) was being calculated separately HP/HS still only 'sees' the car 'as a whole' except for roll and nick of the body what gives you the impression of 'losing control' when entering e.g. a side stripe defined as 'grass' or 'gravel' surface etc. so there only 'is' or 'isn't' traction like you stated correctly other than in HP2 (I never had Porsche but it uses the same physical model or 'engine' I believe) where then at least two wheels had full traction to the road still.

What I also consider very strange is the fact that in a jump = 'big air' you instantly loose speed what is physically wrong since the sheer mass of the car should propell you forwards .. (called 'Conservation of Energy' physical law)

Anyway.. what I stated at the beginning is the following: Justin Martin discovered several relations between different values in Carp.txt, and as long as you stay on a road much different values or entries for the car handling are valid than on surfaces with less grip (or 'no surface' at all like in a jump) just the transition from one state into the other appears or feels much more drastically than in later versions it seems.
That is also the reason why AWD works properly (but using then negative values in 'front drive ratio' entry in the gearing/engine tab though like he is recommending in his tutorial) on other than dry solid and plain road surfaces)

The overall physics of HP/HS isn't quite as bad as always being considered but car performance tabs weren't made such exact or realistic at that time like with later versions .. :(

I remember when editing HP2 cars where for example the engine's torque curve was being almost as exact as the real one .. :o

You notice a certain change when you start correcting those sometimes very well meaning HS car data by actual values from datasheets to something more realistic, like when of cars that you think you know well you sometimes even become a little disappointed if your most beloved racing car suddenly feels more like a 'poS' ('pudding on squabble' .. what else did you think?) -LOL
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: gamekar001 on Jan 06, 2017, 3:55 PM
[...]
Anyway, I do have some questions regarding your feedback:

1. it seems like NFSHP & HS had become a huge thing for German gamers. What factors caused this? I found this rather interesting.

2. So does the polularity of NFS for German gamers only stay between HP and HS or ppl love NFS as a whole? I really cant find enough data that tells a world-wide-level demographics of where NFS fans come from.

3. Where exactly is NFS HS based in? I can tell from the police car and siren that the game is based in Europe but not sure where specific tho.

4. where I can find analysis on NFS HS's car physics? I noticed that they added some sort of suspension travel to cars in HS which is new to the series. But most cars, especially super cars like Mc F1 GTR, sit a bit too high. They look like SUV sometimes in the game.  I want to know wat causes that and if car's body frame and chassis are separately made/modeled.

For 1. & 2.
Interesting observation, what exactly gave you this impression? Well, im from germany as well. Its true there where many german sites back in the days, also there are many german authors.
But i can't come up with an explaination for that.
From my point of view it was generally a very popular game in the western hemisphere (USA, Canada, Europe). But as you can see in the thread Online-Resources of classic NFS titles (http://www.nfsaddons.com/forums//index.php?topic=1710.0), where we collect links to sites that still keep going until this very day, there is a big mixture of people from many different countries. Even in russia NFS3 and it's successor were/are pretty popular; im not even sure there was a russian retail version of NFS available...
Counterquestion: Do you know if there is a modding scene for NFS present in china? Do chinese people generally prefer PC or consoles more? (i know many game cracks are made by chinese hackers *cough*)  :D

I can just tell you that i often played that game with my buddies in split screen mode. Since we had just limited internet bandwith in 1999, the split screen mode was much appreciated. My family, and most of the people here, just had a dial-up modem - no way for online-gaming. So that was the only way to play together. I don't want to praise this feature too much, because playing with 2 players on 1 keyboard was horrible, but we had fun anyways  :)
Since Split-Screen was very rare in PC-games that might also be a factor why the old NFS-titles were favoured a longer time until everyone had proper web-access. Just a wild guess tho  ;)

Point 3. was explained by Remko - nothing to add there.

Well, regarding point 4. for the pc-version, the game-engine seems to take a lot of data into account but that doesn't mean the outcome is realistic.
The wheels are not modeled seperately, you immediately loose control of the car once a side of the car looses contact to the surface. Either you have full road contact or the car will start "grinding". So i think there is no real suspension modeled, its more or less a "visual effect", making the car body shake.
But maybe the handling specialists or car makers can enlighten us with more details here.

Greetings

haha. Where should i start. It's a relatively large topic if you wanna get to know Chinese gaming community. In general, I will say gaming community is better than chinese professional racing scene. The similarity between these two is that they both started relatively late. It started around very late 80s or preferably early 90s. But gaming back then is mainly Nitendo's FC (& its copied versions) + PC games (which were mainly pirate games). I dont wanna touch base too much on pirate games so lets just say it's mainly due to ppl's economy status. They just wanna play affordable games. There're barely any offical imported games with proper translation, so ppl just went ahead with the *cough pirate ones.

Things are a lot different today. We have offical consoles in the market, both PS4 and XBox1, all official with translation and everything. But i will say the majority of the players remain on PC. PC DIY is very huge in China and believe or not, most PC hardware in China is not expensive at all. In fact, they are sometimes cheaper than wat I get here in United States (amazon, newegg etc) which surprised me a lot! And steams, yeah, tons of ppl started to purchase games from steam. They even have special sales only for Chinese steam market. way to go Gaben. 

Meanwhile in terms of actual gaming. Competitive gaming wins the majority. LOL, Overwatch, CSGO, SC2 etc are wat most ppl have been playing currently. Still, close to Japanese gamers, there're still a good number of gamers tend to focus on less mass-fan-favorite games. And we do have gamers who devote a lot into game analysis and stuff. Maybe not as detailed or thorough as Germans but good amount of effort i will say.

As for the car physcis, very interesting. Im still trying to read through Frank's last response tho haha, so much info!!!
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: FranknFurter on Jan 08, 2017, 1:15 AM
sorry for that me gal .. haven't found another way to explain complicated physics stuff like that .. ;)
Title: Re: [RD2CARBON EP2]NFS4 HS Discussion\Suggestion
Post by: Zpectre on Jan 24, 2017, 11:37 PM
I only got into all this because a friend at school told me there were unofficial addons for NFS... The rest is history. :D

The first website I DLed a mod from was NFSCheats I think back in 2001. But the most fun I had was at NFSCars... I was a lurker until 2006 but I was there since the FilePlanet era. Comment sections of addon cars were quite heated... :D And most mods from the era were inspired by FnF using Ryuji Kainoh cars without permission. There must've been 4 or 5 versions of the FnF Supra, the worst being from Kremit who couldn't write a CARP worth a damn. Not sure if he was the person who made the Audi TT Quasar but that car looked worse than a load of horse dung and still had problems with menu view. Good times...

Soon after came the scratch made cars with ZModeler development so those edited cars became obsolete, the ricers were forced out of the website (some like Fivespeed and BubbaChubs embraced the scratch 3D scene and evolved as modders). The HOF in NFSCars was introduced in 2002, I believe, with the celebration of Jake's first Lamborghini Murciélago. Up until around 2006 there have been many modders who came and went, after that the Germans took over as the forefront of NFS modding, with Team RSR achieving the highest level possible. Nowadays it's mostly conversions with the odd scratch made car here and there, but that's to be expected because the old tools are archaic and the readily available models save a lot of time. Still, conversions have always existed, Viper did tons of them, Krystoff did a bunch...

The physics of NFSHS are simple but due to some crazy experiments I did a long time ago I fully believe it's possible to create fairly realistic cars in the game... It would require people to tone the AI down a bit, though.