[Realistic handling users] Fix for Add-On vehicles (and their arcade handling)

Eddlm

So, I use a realistic handling mod. I also have recently started installing addon cars into my game.

Problem

Most of you know that this implies: add-on cars seem to usually come a handling which matches the vanilla, arcadey vehicle handling, and no option for realistic handling.

This causes a big handling (top speed, braking, grip) mismatch with your average car and the add-on car you installed.

I have come up with a solution for that, cheap as hell, but hey! It works. It involves standing in the shoulders of giants, AKA the original modder from where you got your realistic handling for the vanilla cars.

For this tutorial we will use the Nissan GT-R 35 Nismo and Realistic Driving mods as examples. This should work with any Realistic Handling mod and any Add-On vehicle.

Solution

Replace the Add-On car's handling with one from the Realistic Driving.

We all know vanilla vehicles usually resemble one real car or another, sometimes multiple at the same time, so getting Realistic Driving's handling and and smashing it into the GT-R Nismo should get the job done.

First things first.

Step 0 - Have the Realistic handling mod AND Add-On vehicle already installed
Be sure to have your GT-R Nismo downloaded and installed into the game, as well as Realistic Driving.
Right now the GT-R Nismo would behave like a vanilla car, as expected. Realistic Driving doesn't seem to affect it, although the vanilla cars are affected by Realistic Driving and behave more realistically.
Step 1 - Decide which handling you want the Add-On vehicle to have.
You need to decide how you want the GT-R Nismo to behave, using vanilla cars as a comparison.
Would it behave like a Prairie? a Panto?
What about an Infernus?

Ah... but there is a GTA V vehicle which is ~~modelled~~ inspired after a GT-R car. The Elegy RH8. That means your game's Elegy RH8, which currently behaves realistically (thanks to Realistic Driving), would be a perfect match for the GT-R Nismo. Right?

Sou you want to make the GT-R Nismo drive like the Elegy RH8. More or less.

Here the tutorial diverges. There are two ways of getting the GT-R Nismo to handle like the Elegy RH8.

First way

We remove the original handling file, then make GT-R Nismo load from an existing handling id, like SULTAN or FUTO.
This way replaces the entire handling file, including weight, model offsets, ingame price, damage multiplier, everything related to the handling. None of the ways break the tuning.

Step 2 - Open the Add-On car's vehicles.meta:

Run OpenIV. Yeah, you need it.
Inside OpenIV, go to the folder you installed the car in. Usually its in mods/update/x64/dlcpacks/[mod name]/dlc.rpf/data/vehicles.meta. If it's not there, it should be under mods/update/x64/dlcpacks/[mod name]/dlc.rpf/data/levels/gta5/vehicles.meta.
Extract it somewhere, then open it with the notepad/notepad++/sublime, any text editor should do. Make a backup of this file, just in case.

Step 4 - Make the Add-On car behave like the vanilla car:

Open the vehicles.meta file you extracted.
Look for the <handlingId>(...)</handlingId> item.
Replace its inner text with ELEGY2.

Save the file you have edited, then drop it into the OpenIV folder, same folder where it came from.

Step 3 - Remove handling.meta
Now we remove the original handling file so it doesn't interfiere.

Go to the data folder of the GT-R Nismo (r35/dlc.rpf/data/)
Delete handling.meta.
Look for content.xml, this file should be is in r35/dlc.rpf
Extract it somewhere.
Open it with notepad++ or any decent text editor.
Delete the item whose <filename> contains handling.meta.
Save the file and drop it into the OpenIV folder it came from ( r35/dlc.rpf ).

You're done. Close everything, run the game, check out the GT-R Nismo handling, compare it with the Elegy RH8 handling. They should be the same, or at least feel similar.

Second way

This way only affects how the vehicle handles, but doesn't change its offsets , weight, etc. I prefer this one, so the vehicle retains some uniqueness.

Step 2 - Get the realistic handling config.
Just go to your Realistic Handling downloaded file and open the handling.meta file inside it. In Realistic Driving's specific case, you have to:
1.- Open the downloaded file
2.- Go to the .oiv file inside it
3.- Open it, 7zip (and any other manager) should be able to open it.
4.- Once inside, go to content\handling.meta
5.- Open Handling.meta

Leave that file open. You now have in your screen the realistic handling configuration.

Step 3 - Get theGT-R Nismo handling config.

Run OpenIV. Yeah, you need it.
Inside OpenIV, go to the folder you installed the car in. Usually its in mods/update/x64/dlcpacks/[mod name]/dlc.rpf/data/handling.meta
Extract it somewhere, then open it with the notepad/notepad++/sublime, any text editor should do. Make a backup of this file, just in case.

You now have in your screen two handling.meta files. One from the realistic handling, and one from the add-on vehicle.

Step 4 - Make the Add-On car behave like the vanilla car:
1.- Go to the Realistic Driving's handling.meta you opened first.
2.- Look for the ELEGY2 handling item.
3.- Select everything from<fMass value="(...)"/> to <fOilVolume value="(...)"/> , like this. Copy that.
4.- Select the same rows from the second handling.meta (from the GT-R Nismo) and paste there. Make sure no lines are missing, and no lines are duplicated. The files should look like this.

Save the file you have edited (the GT-R Nismo extracted file), then drop it into the OpenIV folder, where it came from.

You're done. Close everything, run the game, check out the GT-R Nismo handling, compare it with the Elegy RH8 handling. They should be the same, or at least feel similar.

Issues you can experience

Game crashes on loading screen: You have edited the file(s) incorrectly. Try again.
If the issue persists, you have a backup if you made one. Replace the GT-R Nismo handling file with that one.

The Add-On car doesn't change its behavior: You didn't replace the original Add-On handling.meta file. Make sure you're in Open IV's edit mode and replace it again with the one you edited.

Extras

If you don't like having both cars with the exact same handling, you can:

Use the Replace version of the car you downloaded (and not copy the handling it comes with, so your realistic handling mod prevails)
If you used the second way, you can finetune the Add-On car handling by editing the file you extracted yourself, after pasting the realistic handling there. You can also use ikt's Real Time Handling Editor to test it ingame, and modify it in real time.

Here's some info related to the file, if you want to edit it.

Disclaimer

I have tried this method in two vehicle add-ons so far, with no issues. Some specific add-ons may present problems if they have weapons and special stuff, I don't know. For the tutorial I've made sure to only copy the info regarding the vehicle handling to avoid compatiblity issues, but I'm far from an expert regarding handling.meta.

I plan on having a video about this, to make the process clearer.
Thanks @LeeC2202 for posting a new way of getting the handling swap done.

@Eddlm Could you not do this by changing the <handlingId>??????</handlingId> section in vehicles.meta to the vehicle's handlingId you want to use?

So for your example, if you changed that to <handlingId>ELEGY2</handlingId> in the Nismo, wouldn't that give it the ELEGY2 handling?

I don't know for certain, just wondered if it would or not.

Edit: I presume you'd have to remove the handling.meta line(s) from content.xml as well perhaps.

Eddlm

@LeeC2202 No wonder my game crashed when I tried that. I didn't remove the file from content.xml!

I'll try and update (and simplify) the tutorial if I get it working.

GreenAid

That's the same way I do it, except it would be better to keep the center of mass of the given handling so that the car behaves better, since it might have different coordinates from the similar model you take the handling line from.

EDIT: Oh, and also, there's no need to delete the unused handling.dat and go thru all the trouble of deleting if from the other files. Just leave it there, it'll be unused.