Messages

Hello,
i've ran a test with the new version (unvivtool10+dev201206-win32.zip) on Win10 64bit.
I noticed you restricted the output to a subdirectory of the input path, so output command can only be a folder name
(message "must only contain the following characters 0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz").

The application path now working fine with single quotes (') or double quotes (") and spaces.

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C:\un viv>unvivtool d -o "C:\un viv\car.viv" "car extracted"
=================================================================================
unvivtool 1.0+dev201206 - Copyright (C) 2020 Benjamin Futasz (GPLv3) - 2020-12-06

Archive: C:\un viv\car.viv
Extracting to: car extracted
Archive Size (parsed) = 10530811
Directory Entries (header) = 24
Decoder successful.
Extraction works fast and flawless so far, tested different archives from NFS2 (cardata.viv), NFS3, NFS4 and NFS6.

Just have to point out the issue with special characters and vowel mutation again, used in many regions, thus appearing in filepaths probably.

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C:\ün viv>unvivtool d -o "C:\├╝n viv\car.viv" "car extracted"     #filepath with "ü" instead of "u" results in error
=================================================================================
unvivtool 1.0+dev201206 - Copyright (C) 2020 Benjamin Futasz (GPLv3) - 2020-12-06

Archive: C:\++n viv\car.viv
Extracting to: car extracted
File 'C:\++n viv\car.viv' not found
Decoder failed.
Maybe you can define/implement a different character set (Unicode, ANSI etc.) with the application (not to mention russian, arabic or chinese)?
Dunno how much of a hassle it is, to make the program "multilanguage"? 

Furthermore, the encoding side still seems a little cumbersome, again requiring to place unvivtool.exe inside execution-path... if i understand correctly.
Wouldn't it be more convenient to give a folder or path, packing all files inside into the viv-file?

Greetings

Uh, yeah running Windows! Tested the tool on Win7 64bit.
So i cannot verify your Linux-scripts (.sh files).

Executing the tool inside the directory works perfectly fine.

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unvivtool d car.viv
or
unvivtool d car.viv car

But that means you need to copy files from a to b everytime... or maybe my train of thoughts is wrong here?
Also paths without spaces work:

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C:\unviv>unvivtool d -o C:\unviv\car.viv C:\unviv\car\
=======================================================================
unvivtool 1.0 - Copyright (C) 2020 Benjamin Futasz (GPLv3) - 2020-11-24

Archive: C:\unviv\car.viv
Extracting to: C:\unviv\car\
Decoder successful.

Using full paths (via .bat-file or cmd.exe) with single quotes (') or double quotes (") gives me an error, tho.

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C:\unviv>unvivtool d -o C:\unviv\car.viv "C:\unviv\car\" #Just an example, these quotes aren't neccessary here
=======================================================================
unvivtool 1.0 - Copyright (C) 2020 Benjamin Futasz (GPLv3) - 2020-11-24

Archive: C:\unviv\car.viv
Extracting to: C:\unviv\car"
Not enough memory
Decoder failed.

Greetings

Hey bfut,

welcome to the forum 
Nice utility that does what it says. Meant to be executed right at file location.
Do you intend further improving the utility?
I noticed, using full file-paths with spaces, special characters or vowel mutation in the command string, will result in error.
Functionality for execution by filetype (using "*.viv" for example) would be neat too, at the moment you always have to give the exact file name.

Greetings

I would always go for desktop tower. 
Because you always get more value, especially when you build the system yourself. Plus you always have the option to upgrade parts later on.
In the end its always a question of budget, my dream PC would be also high-end stuff with an unreasonable price. 
With a budget of 800 bucks i would set up a machine with Ryzen 5 3600, GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER and 16 GB of RAM (so far).

For me, Laptops are less flexible overall.

Greetings

Update.

- www.dippold.org, all downloads are disabled
- www.nfs.gen.tr, is down
- www.drivingpassion.net, is down & removed from listing
- Ortwin1st's Homepage, is down
- unBtable's NFS:HS Site, is down
- nfstoolbox.suckosaurus.dk, the homepage of NFS-Wizard dev Jesper Juul-Mortensen seemingly down too
- www.team-ger.net, also down unfortunately 

Due to the inevitable end of flash player support, some flash-reliant websites are simply doomed in near future. Files are still hosted, but site navigation is unusable. I will provide direct links if possible - especially STD-Design relies so heavily on Flash, its practically down without flash-player access.
This also applies to NFS Experience and www.halfmoon2.com sites.

[all]

Hello pete9516,

the EA audio format never was fully decrypted and some bnk-files cannot be opened at all. Thus tools for audio editing are prone for glitching out, i.e. crashing or corrupting the file. This also means EAX mode (sound options) should be avoided when using modded audio; stereo mode is reliable from my experience. This annoying click noise it is a bug in the audio importer/editor of NFS Wizard obviously, as mentioned before:

Reimporting works, but of course you can't reimport the samples as-is. You have to manually delete the click in your favorite sound editor, which is a 30-second job, but annoying nonetheless.

This is a bug with NFS Wizard, no way around it other than manually fixing the samples and importing them again. NFS Wizard is quite limited in what it can do with the banks, and doesn't even work for most NFS3 sound editing. It cannot open the sound banks containing police speech either.

yes noticed that, and it even crashes when trying to open 'gen.bnk' what is pity since that contains all the environmental sounds but seems too large for NFSWizard or that one uses different audio codecs that NFSWizard cannot decrypt ..

.. you mean reimporting all samples again? I only reimported the first sample again after I cut off the click noise in sound editor ..
You are well aware that 'siren.bnk' contains more than fourty samples?

Summing up the mentioned work-around:
- First you need to export all samples from your EA source bnk-file to a seperate folder.
- A click is added, to all audio samples inside, everytime a bnk-file is opened. Cut any clicks in the exported wav-files with mastering-software (e.g. Audacity).
- Newly imported samples are not effected. So you have to reimport ALL wav-files before saving, everytime you make a change to the bnk-file (including loop editing).
This might sound tedious, but works for me - since the data is processed/compressed to bnk, using "Hex-Magic" to fix the file seems no option here, unfortunately.
Last desperate measure i can think of, not to loop the 1st sec of the sample (so the click stays well outside the loop area).
Hope this solves your issue.

Greetings

BTW: Since this topic was meant as tutorial, i suggest to make a seperate project thread, if you have further questions.

edit PS: just found another NFS3/4 audio editing thread in the Help/F.A.Q section.
NFSAddons Forums »Need For Speed Forums »Help/F.A.Q »NFS III/IV Engine "Click" noise
Seems Theycallmebk14  gone through a "Click-Noise"-odyssee. He draw pretty similar conclusions regarding bnk files, might be helpful.

[Regarding the forums]

Regarding the forums
March 8th 2019

As some of you may have noticed our forums are unavailable. [...] In the meanwhile you can still use the Shoutbox to discuss topics and thoughts you have and the showroom to share things (keep it ingame please) with the rest of the community and use the comments to interact. Apologies for the inconvenience and have a great day!

NFSCars staff

Sad indeed, to see this backbone of the NFS modding community break apart. According to the citation above, the forums are shut off for almost 2 years now.
Guess Mike Geise has no interest/motivation in continuing the site...
However, someone is still paying the bills for hosting so far.
Out of curiosity - do you have insight how many files (or overall data size) NFSCars accommodates?

Greetings

Oh man, this virus and the lockdowns really bite me
Lockdown is still ongoing here, officially extended into 2021 -.-

Hey Noise.
Your findings are interesting. I did some research on the mnu files as well, but never dig that deep...
From what i understand the game has 3 sources of menu text to display:
1) Hardcoded Links in the game.exe (e.g. Nav Buttons), linking to the text files
2) Text from within the mnu files
3) Text from the fedata files of individual car.viv

Variant 3) is used for showcase data (Mechanical/Engine etc).
My guess: the history section must work similar to that. Looking at nfs3 is good idea since the game engine is basically the same. The fact you get a history-carlist by creating hxxxx.qfs files indicates the history part is still around in the game.

The project has a designated website now.

www.driver-syndicate.com

The download link is still pointing to the same google-drive location, but i guess this is more convenient than the forum page at drivermadness.net

Time to take a spin and test the game   

The site drivermadness.net is up and running. The site has unencrypted http, so there might be a warning depending on the browser you use.
In the linked PROJECT THREAD you will find download links at the end of the first post. The link there is updated with the latest build frequently.

Hey, yeah 2019 was pretty busy year for me. Hope I'll find some more time henceforth.

Indeed this Remake is impressive and SOAP, the guy working on that project, really is hardcore - he created the physics engine from scratch with C++. Originally he intended to use the engine for making a First person shooter. The development has gone a long way, it's all in the project thread - pretty interesting stuff actually!
Really recommend downloading this, take a ride for yourself.
On Win10 the game runs right away, no need for additional software. Required is Visual C++ 2017 and DirectX9, so theoretically it should be possible to run this on WinXP as well. Performance is great on my machine, too (so definitely no high end hardware required). 

Maybe the video gives a little showcase of the implemented missions... there also is mod support, so people can contribute and customise stuff.

Just a little heads up for an awesome fan project - the development already is quite advanced.
Not related to the Need For Speed franchise, but still a milestone in the history of racing games: Driver
Released in 1999 by GT Interactive for the Play Station and later ported to PC.

Now a HD Remake of the first Driver game is available. Author of the project is SOAP.

I'm really impressed by this project. The development started around 2013 and is still going. The current build is pretty advanced and offers a complete menu and different missions. It's playable. And it feels great. The physics, the sound and the city - all caried over to a modern game engine.
It's completely free. The download is around 75 MB.
Absolute must-download.
The download link can be found at drivermadness.net in the PROJECT THREAD.

edit: @Mike/Remko: video embedding still doesnt work it seems 

[a mix of "Ridge Racer" and "Outrun"]

Glad you still working on 4Lower and i hope to see more releases in the future!
Version 5 offers a great compilation of reworked handlings for many cars and lot of car-types (super cars, drifters, muscle cars...).
Really interesting and diversified car list you put together. Every car feels and drives unique, the work and tweaking put into the mod really shows.
I also find the menu styling really cool, well put together - and there is a lot of designs to choose from.

Unfortunately you need to organize the mod files better or give installation instructions at least - a novice player that do not know the file structure of NFS4 will have a hard time to install the modification. The readme is not really helpful in that regard, so I hope you will improve this in later releases.

Regarding the handling itself, you know my oppinion about the listed "Known issues". That the cars stop turning on coasting or revving is such a huge issue in my mind, im still stunned you decided to ignore this.
With the 4Lower handling, you press full throttle all the time and perform over-the-top drifting.
Just to avoid confusion I think you should not describe the mod as a "simulation" or "realistic"...
more as a mix of "Ridge Racer" and "Outrun".
That said, my expectations and feedback would've been vastly different.

I must say... a general handling overhaul with more realism, maybe even bringing a sim-feel to High Stakes, really is something i longing for - but this is not that!
And that is totally fine!

Still, this is a awesome mod everyone should test out - if one is willing to adapt the new driving style, overall it really is a different and fresh driving experience for High Stakes! Analog control devices strongly recommended 

BTW: you should link some gameplay videos and showcase your handling this way

Greetings

Hey there and welcome to the forum.

Funny you asking for the australian cop cars. I recently found out it is a registry switch that does enable the aussie liveries.
It is the mysterious "Variant" switch.
Veg, in his wisdom, also ported this variable to his modern patch (without knowing what it actually does).
So if you using the modern patch you only need to set "Variant=4" in the nfs4.ini - seems this works with every game version too.
But prepare for disappointment - this will trigger the AUS.TGA to be used on some USA tracks only; it will only work ingame, not in the main menu. Cars without AUS.TGA will keep their default CAR00.TGA livery.
This actually is how the aussie version of High Stakes works...

On a full game installation the registry switch is at this path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Electronic Arts\Need For Speed High Stakes\1.0
Change DWORD-key "Variant" to value "4".
So thats the way for a regular game installation or when using the Stock-/Expansionpack.

Greetings