[Tutorial] Basic Editing of Weapons.meta.
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Introduction
This is going to be a very basic guide on what most of the lines in weapons.meta do. I don't know what every single line does or what they mean but those are usually not important. Also, if you have any questions, corrections, etc please let me know. So let's start!
What is weapons.meta?
Weapons.meta is the file that controls the game's "base" weapons. It is located in update/update.rpf/common/data/ai. Base weapons are GTA V's non-dlc weapons, these include:
WEAPON_UNARMED WEAPON_KNIFE WEAPON_KNIGHTSTICK WEAPON_HAMMER WEAPON_BAT WEAPON_GOLFCLUB WEAPON_CROWBAR WEAPON_PISTOL WEAPON_COMBATPISTOL WEAPON_APPISTOL WEAPON_PISTOL50 WEAPON_MICROSMG WEAPON_SMG WEAPON_ASSAULTSMG WEAPON_ASSAULTRIFLE WEAPON_CARBINERIFLE WEAPON_ADVANCEDRIFLE WEAPON_MG WEAPOM_COMBATMG WEAPON_PUMPSHOTGUN WEAPON_SAWEDOFFSHOTGUN WEAPON_BULLPUPSHOTGUN WEAPON_STUNGUN WEAPON_SNIPERRIFLE WEAPON_HEAVYSNIPER WEAPON_GRENADELAUNCHER WEAPON_RPG WEAPON_MINIGUN
Whether you are using "Notepad++" (recommended) or "OpenIV" you will search these names up to edit them. Let's start by editing a weapon.
WEAPON Editing
First you are going to want to press "CTRL+F" and type in WEAPON_(NAME). Note that it is not case sensitive. Once you have searched up WEAPON_(NAME) , you are going to be greeted by a huge wall of text. Now at first it may seem intimidating or confusing, but you will begin to see how self explanatory everything is.
Damage
We are going to start off with a very basic edit of the damage line. The damage line determines how many points the weapon will take away from NPCs. So, if you have searched up WEAPON_(NAME) you will see something like this:
<Damage value="26.000000" /> <DamageTime value="0.000000" /> <DamageTimeInVehicle value="0.000000" /> <DamageTimeInVehicleHeadShot value="0.000000" /> <HitLimbsDamageModifier value="0.500000" /> <NetworkHitLimbsDamageModifier value="0.800000" /> <LightlyArmouredDamageModifier value="0.750000" />
As you can see there are multiple damage types. The following table will explain what each one does.
Name Description Damage When shooting NPC how much health to take away DamageTime How long, in seconds, will the damage be taken away DamageTimeInVehicle How long, in seconds, will the damage be taken away inside of a vehicle DamageTimeInVehicleHeadShot How long, in seconds, will the damage be taken away inside of a vehicle (HeadShot) HitLimbsDamageModifier Damage modifier for arms and legs. (0 to disable these) NetworkHitLimbsDamageModifier Damage modifier for the player's arms and legs. LightlyArmouredDamageModifier Damage modifier for armored peds. (POLICE, SWAT, MERRYWEATHER, and ARMY) Now that you know what these damage lines do, feel free to edit them to your liking. The minimum value you can put is 0, and the maximum you can put is 999999. You will need to save the file, CTRL+S, for the changes to take effect. If you are using Notepad++ make sure you drag the file back into the location.
Bullet Force
The bullet force is how much force is behind the bullet of the weapon you are editing. These lines are located directly under the damage lines. They will look like this:
<Force value="50.000000" /> <ForceHitPed value="125.000000" /> <ForceHitVehicle value="750.000000" /> <ForceHitFlyingHeli value="750.000000" />
The following table will explain what each of these lines do:
Name Description Force This is the amount of "push" that will be applied to objects. (Benches, Lights, Glass, etc.) ForceHitPed This is the amount of "push" that will be applied to NPCs. ForceHitVehicle This is the amount of "push" applied to cars and boats ForceHitFlyingHeli This is the amount of "push" applied to helicopters and planes You will also notice a block of text that is called "<OverrideForces>" this is used to edit the amount of force applied to the specific parts of NPCs. If you don't want to deal with this, you will need to delete it. To do so, start highlighting at <OverrideForces> and finish highlighting at </OverrideForces>. Then you will want to press "Backspace". Delete any extra space between the above and below lines.
Extra Bullet Edits
Now that you understand how bullet force works, let's edit some more bullet values!
1. Penetration
Bullet penetration is how far and how much a bullet will go through an NPC or object. The line will look like this:
<Penetration value="0.010000" />
Be aware that this particular line is very sensitive. Edit this in very small increments or you will notice that bullets will go through 4-5 NPCs at a time!
2. Speed
Bullet speed is how fast a bullet will travel. The line will look like this:
<Speed value="2000.000000" />
I am not exactly sure what system it uses (metric or imperial) to calculate distance. When editing this I would not recommend to go under "500".
3. Batch Amount and Spread
Batch Amount is how many bullets are contained in a single shot. The line will look like this:
<BulletsInBatch value="1" />
You will mostly use this value when editing shotguns, but if you want a pistol to fire 5 bullets at a time, no one is stopping you.
Batch Spread is how far the bullets are spread out. The line will look like this:
<BatchSpread value="0.000000" />
For weapons that fire multiple bullets at a time, you will want to edit this very carefully as it sensitive. However, if you are editing a weapon that fires one bullet at a time, you will need to increase the value in big chunks.
Reload Time
The reload time is how fast or long a gun will take to reload. There are 4 lines that control this and they look like this:
<ReloadTimeMP value="-1.000000" /> <ReloadTimeSP value="-1.000000" /> <VehicleReloadTime value="1.000000" /> <AnimReloadRate value="1.000000" />
The following table will explain what each line does:
Name Description ReloadTimeMP The amount of time, in seconds, it takes to reload in multiplayer sessions (ignore) ReloadTimeSP The amount of time, in seconds, it takes to reload in singleplayer (-1.000000 is default and is super fast) VehicleReloadTime The amount of time, in seconds, it takes to reload inside all vehicles AnimReloadRate How fast the reload animation will play. So here is how these work. ReloadTime is what you will edit when you want to slightly decrease the reloading time. But, if you want to see significant changes, AnimReloadRate is what you want to edit.
Weapon Effects
The "<Fx>" section is full of fun and cool stuff edit. These range from muzzle flashes, tracers, environment flash, and barrel smoke. We are going to start off with simply editing tracers and muzzle flash.
1. Muzzle Flash
In order to change muzzle flash you are going to need to know the name of each effect there is. Luckily, I am kind enough to put them all here for you.
muz_pistol_silencer muz_assault_rifle muz_stungun muz_hunter muz_buzzard muz_alternate_star muz_alternate_star_fp muz_pistol muz_pistol_fp muz_rpg muz_assault_rifle muz_assault_rifle_fp muz_tank muz_minigun muz_minigun_alt muz_shotgun muz_laser muz_smg muz_smg_fp muz_railgun muz_xm_thruster_mg muz_clown muz_xm_akula_mg_turret muz_xm_barrage_minigun_turret muz_xm_barrage_mg_turret muz_xm_cherno muz_xm_khanjali_mg muz_xm_khanjali_railgun muz_mounted_turret muz_valkyrie muz_valkyrie_turret muz_xm_revolver muz_musket_ng
In order to use these, you will need to edit these lines:
<FlashFx></FlashFx> <FlashFxAlt></FlashFxAlt> <FlashFxFP></FlashFxFP> <FlashFxAltFP></FlashFxAltFP>
The following table will explain what each of these lines do:
Name Description FlashFx Primary muzzle effect to use. (Third Person) FlashFxAlt Alternative or Secondary muzzle effect to use. (Third Person) FlashFxFP Primary muzzle effect to use. (First Person) FlashFxAltFP Alternative or Secondary muzzle effect to use. (First Person) When using a muzzle effect such as, "muz_assault_rifle", you will want to paste the full name inside of the tags (><). Like this:
<FlashFx>muz_assault_rifle</FlashFx> <FlashFxAlt>muz_smg_fp</FlashFxAlt> <FlashFxFP>muz_assault_rifle</FlashFxFP> <FlashFxAltFP>muz_smg_fp</FlashFxAltFP>
Notice how I added a different muzzle effect for the alternative (FlashFxAlt) lines. Doing this can result in some really cool looking muzzle flash combos. But how can you edit the size and frequency of these muzzle effects? You can do these by editing these lines:
<FlashFxChanceSP value="1.000000" />
FlashFxChanceSP determines the frequency or how much the "<FlashFx(FP)>" muzzle effect will show.
<FlashFxAltChance value="0.200000" />
FlashFxAltChance determines the frequency or how much the "<FlashFxAlt(FP)>" muzzle effect will show.
<FlashFxScale value="1.000000" />
FlashFxScale determines the size of the muzzle effect.
2. Tracer Effects
Tracers are the lines that follow the bullets when you shoot. Basically, the orange or white glow that follows where you shoot. You can either remove or change these tracer effects. Here is the list of different tracer effects you can use:
bullet_tracer (default) bullet_tracer_jet bullet_tracer_turret bullet_tracer_railgun bullet_tracer_mg bullet_tracer_valkyrie
These work the same as the muzzle effects only you will be editing a line that look like this:
<TracerFx></TracerFx>
Just like before you will input the tracer effect name in between the tags (><). It should like this:
<TracerFx>bullet_tracer_mg</TracerFx>
If you would like to completely remove tracers, you will want to make the line look like this:
<TracerFx />
Weapon Range
Weapon range is the distance or how far a bullet will travel. The line you want to edit will look like this:
<WeaponRange value="120.000000" />
Again, I am not sure what system is used to calculate the distance so edit this file as much or as little as you want. There is no maximum number you can put, but if you want infinite range just put, "999999.000000".
Weapon Field of View
The field of view when using a weapon is the part of the world that is visible through the camera. Basically it is how much you can see around you. The 2 lines that controls this look like this:
<CameraFov value="45.000000" /> <FirstPersonScopeFov value="30.00000"/> <FirstPersonScopeAttachmentFov value="30.00000"/>
The following table will explain what each of these lines do:
Name Description CameraFov Camera's field of view when aiming in third person. FirstPersonScopeFov Camera's field of view when aiming in first person (Iron Sights) FirstPersonScopeAttachmentFov Camera's field of view when aiming in first person (Iron Sights + Attachment/Scope) Conclusion
That sums up the basics of editing weapons. As you could probably tell, I did not go over every single line inside of weapons.meta. This is because I don't know what everything does and others change very minute or unimportant things. I just wanted to covered the main features you will notice in game. I also did not include recoil editing as I am going to be saving this for the more advanced tutorial. I will also be explaining DLC weapons in another tutorial as they are located in different areas. If you have any specific questions or concerns feel free to ask me. I respond faster on discord: ¢няιѕρу#2374 .
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very cool tutorial you should make more of these
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@CustomNate Yes next tutorial I'll go through more advanced editing of weapons.meta, such as recoil, ammo limits, and firerate. Will also explain how dlc weapons work.
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Very useful, looking forward to seeing your tutorial for the more advanced parts, recoil and spread is probably one of the more sought after guides people look for.
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@Poorsoul44
Do you know how to make ped not scared of melee weapon such as knife, hatchet, etc.
Peds will flee every time I equipped those weapons while fighting them.
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Where can I find the weapons.meta for the heavy pistol and the sns pistol? Thanks in advanced
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This post is deleted!
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I want to increse fire rate in the AK47 for example, which i manage to do in weaponanimations.meta, but the thing is, even though the gun shots faster the sound is slow as always. I mean, the 30 round mag in full auto lasts 2.5 seconds but you just hear 5 shots.
Any way no increse the speed of the gun sounds?
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how to remove the muzzle flash and only leave the tracers
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So if I want to have a rifle which only have burst mode, which section should I edit?
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Broooo Im still waiting for the advanced tutorial.
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@StOqNtS I forgot I made this lmao. I'll make one by next week. Shouldn't take long.