Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2/Car Modding

Tools

Car model files
Name	Description	Download link	Required?	Recommended?
ZModeler v1.07b	3D modeling software that can import/export HP2 models with plugins		Yes	Yes
- OIF Plugin for Zmodeler	Import/export models between ZModeler 1 (.z3d) and OIFTool (.oif)		Yes	Yes
- O Skeleton plugin for Zmodeler	Import/export skeleton.o files for positions of wheels, lights, etc.		Yes	Yes
ZModeler 2	3D modeling software, can import/export models between ZModeler 1 (.z3d) and .obj format		No	Yes
OEdit	Old tool for directly editing .o model files. Doesn't work well (if at all) on modern systems. Not recommended.		No	No
NFS Model Viewer	Can view (but not edit) HP2 models. Useful for verifying models are exported correctly, etc.		No	Yes
Textures
Name	Description	Download link	Required?	Recommended?
fshEd	Graphical tool for packing and un-packing .fsh texture files		Either FSHTool, fshEd, or EAGE	Yes
FSHTool	Command-line tool for packing and un-packing .fsh texture files			Yes
EA Graphics Editor	Old graphical tool for editing .fsh texture files			No
File packing/unpacking
Name	Description	Download link	Required?	Recommended?
VIVEdit			Either VIVEdit, VIVMagic, or BigGUI
VIVMagic
BigGUI
Misc tools
Name	Description	Download link	Required?	Recommended?
INICarEditor
CarConfigurator
A Sac v2091 Hot Pursuit 2 Stats recorder

Car conversion tutorial

Adapted from the NFS HP2 Car Editing guide edited by UCN Conversions in 2012 and posted by Kolya Sych in 2016.

Files

The files for each car are found in the "Cars" directory in your HP2 installation directory. All the car directories that start with the letter "t" are traffic cars (except ts50), and the rest are normal drivable cars.

The model data for each car is stored in car.viv, which can be extracted by VIVEdit, VIVMagic, or BigGUI.

The skin.viv file contains all the skins for the car as fsh images. 16 main skins can be stored (skin00 to skin15), plus skincop (police version skin) and skinhp (NFS edition skin). An issue occurs with more than 16 main skins, where skin16 and skin17 become selectable as skincop and skinhp. This video example shows the issue happening on a car with 21 skins.

There are also several configuration ini files for various parameters.

Diagram of files and structure

• car.viv
  • car.fsh - contains textures for the wheels/brakes
  • car.o - main .o model file, used in main menu showcase and in-game on regular tracks
  • carM.o - used when driving on a mirrored track, model itself must be mirrored to look normal
  • carRigid.o - appears to be the same as car.o (?)
  • carRigidM.o - appears to be the same as carM.o (?)
  • damage.fsh - contains textures for damage
  • shadow.o - the shadow model (a lowpoly model)
  • skeleton.o - contains position data for lights, wheels/rotors, brake calipers, and driver
• skin.viv
  • skin__.fsh - skin00.fsh through skin15.fsh
  • skincop.fsh
  • skinhp.fsh
• animbank.o - contains data on how the damage model is calculated (use an animbank.o file from a traffic car to prevent damage)
• bounds.ini - car position data for collision detection (apparently)
• car.ini - performance data/stats
• car_cop.ini - performance data/stats (for the cop version of the car)
• car_hp.in - performance data/stats (for the nfs version of the car)
• carracer.ini - performance data/stats (for the AI version of the car)
• damage.ini - apparently unused
• geomdata.ini - geometry data including damage and LOD data, corresponds to part names
• lod.ini - apparently unused
• vehicle.ini - configuration for skins and lights, also some damage and other misc effects