[Fabio206]

Original Tutorial here on GTA-Expert.com
It's forbidden to copy informations without permission via e-mail.
This tutorial is for beginners, with images and detailed information.

Introduction

Vehicles files are stored in vehicles.img located in ..\Grand Theft Auto IV\pc\models\cdimages.



With this tutorial, you could import new vehicles in GTA 4.
In vehicles.img archive you will find:

• 142 .wft files: 3D vehicles' models.
• 142 .wtd files: vehicles' textures.

Open vehicles.img

Tools:

• SparkIV, a viewer/editor for GTA IV.

If you haven't already done it, download SparkIV.
Extract files and put them where do you want, e.g. "SparkIV" folder on your Desktop. Then click on "SparkIV.exe".



Click on "Browse" button and SparkIV will search your gta installation folder and will load all files.
Go in ..\pc\models\cdimages, as in the image.



Double left-click on vehicles.img to load vehicles files.




Do a backup

It's important create backups of your original files.

New files are in .wft and .wtd format. In our example, we suppose that new files will replace infernus.wft and infernus.wtd.
So scroll down until you find these names, select them (with left click) and click on "Export" button to backup them.



Choose a folder and save them.

Import the new vehicle

Finally, we could import our new vehicle. In our example, we'll import new infernus.wft and infernus.wtd files.

IMPORTANT: If there isn't a .wtd don't worry.

If there isn't a .wft, your download mod is only a texture mod for that vehicle.



As we said before, go in \pc\models\cdimages. Now you have to import new files: click on "Import" button.



Once you have imported them, you must click on "Rebuild" button



Now you have installed your new vehicle. If there are information on handling.dat (or carcols.dat or similar files) follow next steps.

Insert other informations

If in the readme there are information on handling.dat, vehicles.ide, carcols.dat or others, you must follow next steps. All these files are located in ..\Grand Theft Auto IV\common\data.

IMPORTANT:
Backup your original (or already modified) files, as we said in the GTA 4 modding introduction.

To modify these files, you could use Notepad already installed on your PC.

Handling.dat

Handling.dat contains informations about vehicles. File is located \Grand Theft Auto IV\common\data folder. Be sure that file isn't "read only" (in properties).

In this example, we suppose that in the readme there is also these informations:

CODE

INFERNUS 1700.0 0.25 85 0.0 -0.08 -0.18 0.16 6 0.320 1.0 290.0 0.27 0.570 0.37 30.0 1.50 1.26 15.0 0.12 0.4864 2.6 1.8 2.0 0.10 -0.10 0.0 0.5 1.0 0.6 0.8 1.5 0.0 100000 440010 1 1

So, open handling.dat and find "Infernus". You could use also Ctrl + F function.



Type "Infernus" to find rows.



Once you have found it:



replace with the new one. It's a simple copy-and-paste:



Save and close file.

Vehicles.ide
Vehicles.ide contains other informations about vehicles. File is located \Grand Theft Auto IV\common\data folder. Be sure that file isn't "read only" (in properties).
It's the same process. Suppose that new lines are:

QUOTE

infernus, infernus, car, INFERNUS, INFERNUS, VEH@LOW, VEH@LOW_INFERNUS, 1, 999, 0.2500, 0.2500, 0, 5, 1.0 ,0, sports

Now you have to open vehicles.ide, find "Infernus" and replace original one:



with the new one:



Save and close.


Conclusion
If you have followed the tutorial, you have installed your new vehicle with success. You could use a Car Spawner to verify your new vechile.

[vntrx]

I have changed the handling in handling.dat but it won't change ingame also tried changing with handling editors but doesn't work either!, anyone know what i'm doing wrong ?

[Fabio206]

QUOTE (vntrx @ Aug 6 2009, 20:47)

I have changed the handling in handling.dat but it won't change ingame also tried changing with handling editors but doesn't work either!, anyone know what i'm doing wrong ?

Have you removed the only read check in properties?

[mike831505]

When I try to click on vehicles.img it tells me that access to this path is denied. Any idea what I should do?

[Fabio206]

QUOTE (mike831505 @ Aug 10 2009, 07:21)

When I try to click on vehicles.img it tells me that access to this path is denied. Any idea what I should do?

Have you got Vista? Try to run Spark as Administrator

Or check if GTA IV folder has "only read" prop.

[xilix]

I'm having an issue. I'm getting 98% taxis after I throw in a few new cars. It seems if I replace any more than 3-4 vehicles, I get the taxi issue. I've searched all over the net and I can't find anything but this useless thread at thegtaplace: http://www.thegtaplace.com/forums/topic/23...iiiiig-problem/

Anyone have any advice?

[ronnie3]

I could use some assistance as well. I use notebook to open handling.dat and begin to edit the data for a vehicle but when i go to save, it wont let me and says that "access is denied". I already made sure that it was not in read-only. Can anyone please help me.

[JianHua]

Can I replace vehicles in 1.0.0.0 version?

[JianHua]

Replaced a vehicles using the tutorials here and now my game cannot start!!!

[xraylizard]

i did all this...now i have no cars at all?

[jpm1]

that tutorial is great but it's 3 years old . use automatic installers instead , like GTA vehicle mod installer . there are safe and make cars installing a beeze . concerning the taxi bug it does that systematically after each important modification inside the game , just play a bit and everything should go back to normal progressively


xraylizard : maybe be several things . you may have traffic density on a very low value , can be a messy popcycle or cargrp too

[lach97]

QUOTE (ronnie3 @ Friday, Jan 22 2010, 05:12)

I could use some assistance as well. I use notebook to open handling.dat and begin to edit the data for a vehicle but when i go to save, it wont let me and says that "access is denied". I already made sure that it was not in read-only. Can anyone please help me.

i get the same thing ! or i have to save it somewhere else but it still doesnt work.