Experimental Vehicle Global Strength, Weight, Size and Other Values Edit (WORKS FOR MODS!) 7.4

This is probably the biggest update in the history of this mod. In fact, combined with the previous one it could be a whole separate mod! Just look how many files it has now (these are not even all but just the folders with the most files), and remember that the original first version of the mod was just 1 4KB file (it might have been one of the smallest working mods in the game's history actually):



The 2 biggest additions in the mod are connected to each other (quite literally too): transmission swaps and custom drivetrains!

WARNING: READ HOW TO USE THEM CAREFULLY OR ELSE YOUR GAME MIGHT CRASH OR WORSE! YOU NEED TO READ EVERYTHING BELOW:

Transmission swaps are equippable in a sub-slot of engine swaps, this is kinda obvious:



As stated in the slot name, BEFORE USING TRANSMISSION SWAPS YOU MUST REMOVE EVERY DRIVETRAIN PART THE CAR ALREADY HAS. OTHERWISE THE DRIVETRAIN SWAP WILL NOT WORK PROPERLY OR AT ALL. These parts could all be in completely different slots around the parts menu. Here's a list of things you have to remove:

• PREVIOUS TRANSMISSION - YOUR GAME WILL CRASH IF YOU DON'T REMOVE IT!
• ALL DRIVESHAFTS / INTERSHAFTS - Look for them in the sub-slots of the vehicle's frame, front and rear suspension, and in all engine sub-slots too
• ALL TRANSFERCASES - Most cars don't have them as separate parts, others have it as transmission sub-slots, but cars with more than 4 wheels could have them somewhere else, most likely in suspension sub-slots.
• ALL DIFFERENTIALS / SPOOLS / SPLITSHAFTS - They are usually in suspension sub-slots but could be in some engine sub-slots as well. Usually they are next to the driveshafts.
• ALL HALFSHAFTS - They are luckly always differential sub-slots so remove the differentials to get rid of them. Some cars don't even have them at all.

Using the transmission swap slot is required to access the custom powertrain system, but there are also other cool things in this update that are new engine swap sub-slots:

• Sound Editor - I finally managed to fix it! It works the same way as before, it's also still accessible from the engine editor as well. All settings are the same as before:

• Radiator swaps - In case your car's radiator is too weak, you can remove it and put a new one from here! There are 6 types: Classic (basically only used on the bluebuck) Classic Alluminum (better Classic), Mechanical (old cars), Mechanical Alluminum (better Mechanical), Electric (modern cars) and Emotor (doesn't work yet, but emotors don't overheat anyway). For each type you have several versions for different engine types (any radiator works on any engine but they are the most effcient on their dedicated types), as well as Heavy Duty, High Performance Race, High Performance Drag, and Ultra High Performance versions for some of them. Obviously you can instantly tell which radiator you will need. Here's a list of all of them just in case:

• Oil coolers - there are 3 types: Internal (normal size, low effectiveness, low extra oil volume), External (normal size, medium effectiveness, high extra oil volume) and Radiator (big size, high effectiveness, but no extra oil). Generally Internal is the worst, External is good for race cars and Radiator (Is it inside the radiator? No idea) is good for big heavy vehicles.

Now we can finally get to the transmission swaps... I think the smartest way to learn how to use them is to go through all the different transmission types.

First let's focus on automatic transmissions. Selecting one of them will give you these slots:


Gears amount is well, the amount of gears the transmission will have. You can choose between 1 and 12 gears. All of them will be fully customizable in the Tuning menu. Let's take a look, for the sake of simplicity I'll show 2 gears as an example:



For each gear, you can edit the gear ratios, like on the in-game race transmissions. You can also edit the high/low shift up/down RPM for the gears that it makes sense for (so not for neutral and not for the highest/lowest gears that would get you out of range).

Automatic transmissions also have torque converters. There are different kinds of them for different use:

• Bus - these ones are supposed to be used on buses, or other heavy vehicles with a low amount of gears. You can select a low torque ratio converter or a high torque ratio one.
• Drag - converters for drag racing. You can select a low, medium or high stall one.
• Normal - converters that you would find on a normal car. You can select either normal or high stall one.
• Locking - converters mostly for heavy duty and off-road use, but can be found on some normal cars too. You can select a medium or high stall version, as well as a heavy duty version.
• Semi truck converter - a specific converter for a semi truck, so a heavy vehicle with lots of gears.

Before we talk about transfer cases, let's focus on all the transmission typess first. The automatic transmission has several types:

• Normal - for all normal cars
• Advanced - for the most modern cars with ESC support and all
  
• Drag - for drag cars
• Race - for race cars
• Semi Truck - well, for semi trucks, what did you expect?

Now let's move on to manual transmissions. They have the gears amount as well, but instead of torque converters they have flywheels:


Basically, to put it very simple a lighter flywheel means that the car will be faster but the clutch will have more problem. Generally heavier cars will need heavier flywheels. These are all the options for them, self-explanatory:

(The heaviest one is only for ultra heavy vehicles with thousands of horsepower so you probably only have to use it on a few mods.)

These are the several types of the manual transmission you can select:

• Normal - for normal cars
• Sport - for sports cars, good for light vehicles
  
• Semi Truck - for semi trucks obviously, good for many gears and heavy weight
• Race - for race cars
• High Efficiency - good for fuel economy but terrible for speed, so the opposite of Sport
• ETK ttSport - special version of the Sport transmission used on ETK cars that is between the sport and race and doesn't need low weight to work well

Another type of transmission is the Continuously Variable one. It has no settings because it has no gears, it's just like one long gear. Obviously this means low top speed and overall this is a terrible transmission for people who are too lazy to shift lol.

There's also a Dual-Clutch transmission, not sure how it works but it has a dual clutch and the only setting is the amount of gears. Comes with a normal and race version.

And there's also a Sequential Race transmission, it's like manual but meant for the fastest race cars, no idea how it works.

The last option is something that I'm pretty sure is unique to this mod and you can't find it anywhere else: NO TRANSMISSION AT ALL! Basically the RPM goes from the engine through a custom zero-traction torque converter straight to the transfer case! How do you drive a car with such a weird setup? Here's the answer:

• You have to use the ARCADE GEARBOX BEHAVIOR because the realistic won't let you shift as there are no gears.
• Turn off the parking brake and tap the gas slightly.
• The engine starter motor will actvate, and it will take a while to start - basically until it reaches the idle RPM.
• Once the engine starts, YOUR TRANSFERCASE RPM WILL BE THE SAME AS THE ENGINE RPM. If it's a 1:1 ratio, then the wheels will spin at the same speed as the engine RPM!
• The car will drive at constant speed with no input needed at all. You speed up by using the gas pedal and slow down by using the brakes. To stop completely use the parking brake, which will shut down the engine and you will have to turn it back on to drive again.

So yeah... That's one weird way to drive a car. There are 4 types of no transmission: with RWD, FWD and AWD transfercases as well as a straight front wheel shaft. But how does that work in this mod? You will now find out as I'm about to cover the transfer cases now.

The FWD transfercase will put power to the front differential, and the RWD one to the rear differential. The rest are more complex, they work different in this mod than in the base game. Let's take a look at the AWD one for example:


To better see what each part of the transfer case is for, I recommend using the Powertrain Debug app, it makes using this mod A LOT easier. I'll show you what part is where and we'll cover all of them:


If this seems really complex to you, I'm not surprised because it is. I'll try to cover everything as well as I can.

Generally all powertrain parts I used for this system can be divided into 2 categories: shafts and differentials. (There are more in the game but I didn't use all types for the sake of universality.) Shafts are used to transfer the drive between various parts and differentials are used to split the power into 2 different parts with a given gear ratio. Now which of the selectable parts in the menu is what:

• The AWD transfer case itself is just a "father slot" for all the other slots and does nothing in itself.
• Front and rear output shafts are what they are in the powertrain debug app, they transfer the drive from the cnter differential to the driveshafts. You can select disconnectable versions of them, a disconnected shaft will stop working which is useful when you are stuck in a difficult spot when offroading.
• The center differential is what appears as the whole transfer case on the powertrain debug app. it's a differential that recieves drive from the gearbox and transfers it to both halfshafts. You can set its drive ratio either as 1:1 (like in a normal transfer case in game) or adjustable ratio (like in a race transfer case in game). I'll say more about differential types and settings later.
• Front and rear differentials are pretty self-explanatory at this point. They recieve drive from the driveshafts and transfer it to... Where? It depends, more about it later. They can also have either 1:1 or adjustable drive ratio (which in this case is called the final drive like on the in-game differentials).
  
• Driveshafts are obvious, they are links between the halfshafts and differentials.
• Now halfshafts... They are a mess. Before they got added into the game, everything was easier. The thing is, there are 2 kinds of halfshafts that depend on which part of the suspension will transfer the drive to the wheels. If it's the axle (like in most cases), then you will have to use the axle halfshafts, which also have an option for locking wheel hubs for off-road use. (Locking wheel hubs are like disconnectable output shafts but for wheels.) If the halfshaft itself is connected directly to the wheel hub which is connected to the wheel then you want to use the shaft halfshafts (which have a disconnectable option too). These kinds of halfshafts are usually found on vehicles that have locking wheel hubs as an option, so offroad cars, but not always and not on all of them. There's also another possible option, the wheels being directly connected to the differential, which was the defult before halfshafts were added. In this case you should better remove your halfshafts entirely or else you will mess up the whole powertrain. The worst thing is, you never now what kind of halfshafts you need, you just have to guess and get the powertrain debug app to check if everything is connected properly.

Well that took long to write, but now another long thing. You need to know all the different types of differentials in this mod if you want to choose the proper one, so read this carefully:

• Open differentials work like this: if one of the wheels has less traction than the other, it will recieve more drive than the other, because the differential will kind of find it harder to put the drive to the other wheel. If it's stuck in the air and has no traction, it will recieve all the drive, so a stuck car with an open differential can never get un-stuck. If used as a center differential in an AWD car, it can block 2 wheels from recieving drive when either the front or the rear of the car gets stuck. This is obviously the worst differential possible, but also the most common one for both the front and the rear of the car, it's cheaper than the other types and good enough for normal everyday driving.
• Locked differentials are the opposite of open ones: Both wheels will always recieve the same amount of drive no matter what. Well, not really, with enough torque it can kinda give up, but that doesn't usually happen. Using it as a center differential in AWD transfercase greatly improves the handling so it's a common thing to be used there. Standard locked differntials are a rare thing to be seen on the front or the rear of the car though, especially on the rear, because when the car slips and starts sliding uncontrollably, the symmetrical drive distribution makes it even worse and harder to stop.
  
• On some old race cars, race locked differentials were used in the rear. (with this mod you can use them on the front as well.) They could survive larger amounts of torque than standard locked ones. It was easy to spin out with them though so I guess that's the reason why they stopped being used.
• A welded differential is basically like a tuned locked differential. On some FWD cars they were used on the front, and are still commonly used on the rear of drift cars because it's easy to slide with them. They can survive more torque than locked ones but not as much as race locked ones. They are not used in the center because a standard locked one is cheaper and more usable for it.
• A locking differential is one where you can switch it between a locked and unlocked state. This comes in really handy for offroad cars, both in the front and the rear, as well as in the center.
• A limited slip differential (LSD) is a special differential that limits the slip, giving better handling characteristics than both the open and the locked differential. It does that by having much lower lock torque (preload torque) than a locked differential, but getting extra high locking torque proportional to engine torque (power lock rate) and extra low locking torque proportional to engine braking/loss of torque (coast lock rate). It's used on higher trim cars and sports cars both in the front and in the rear, it's practically useless in the center because it would always be locked anyway.
• The PlusTrak LSD is the LSD with a higher preload torque than a standard LSD, which makes it better suited for track use while also keeping normal road handling decently good. (No idea if it exists in real life or not)
  
• A heavy duty LSD is an LSD with the same power lock rate as the coast lock rate. Used on cars that often have to use engine braking, it's the second best option for an offroad car after a locking differential.
• A race LSD is basically the LSD with all of the mentioned parameters being adjustable. It's used on almost all race cars.
• An electronically locking differential is a locking differential controlled by the car's electronics. It's the modern fancy equivalent of an open differential. It's not used in the center.
  
• A sport active limited slip differential is basically the same thing except by default it's an LSD rather than an open differential. The locking criteria are also different. It's used on modern sports cars instead of the standard LSD.
• A torquevectoring differential is the ultimate differential that can put any power to any side at any time using some weird electronics and calculations. It's used on expensive modern sports cars. You can do some sick drifts with it.
• A race spool is like a race locked differential but with less inertia, also used on old race cars.
• A viscous differential is a fancy center differential that I have no idea what it does, it's used on modern low trim sports cars so I guess it's like a low budget locked one lol
• A viscous splitshaft is like a combination of a shaft and a viscous differential.
• The electronicallty clutched clutchex splitshaft is a more modern fancy version of the above controlled by the vehicle electronics.
  
• The rally clutched splitshaft is a rally-oriented version of the above.
• The single wheel shaft is an equivalent of the splitshaft for cars with a single front wheel like the Pigeon.

Also, for all differentials you can choose either a 1:1 or Adjustable gear ratio.

Well that was long... Now for the other transfer cases! Fortunately, they are very similar to the AWD one.

The 4WD transfer case is basically the AWD one with the addition of a rangebox. The rangebox lets you select a 2 times lower gear range / 2 tmes higher drive ratio than normal, really useful for offroad use. They also usually have disconnectable front output shafts by default.

The 4WD Crawler transfer case is the same thing as above except the drive ratio is 4 times higher instead of 2 times. It's extremely useful for rock crawling. It also has special clutch / torque converter stabilization so they can survive driwing in the low range.

The other transfer cases are the versions of the above for semi trucks. The RWD/AWD/4WD Short are for the 4-wheeled version, RWD Long is RWD for the 6-wheeled one, RWD dual will transfer the drive to all 4 rear wheels, and 6WD is like 4WD but for all of the 6 wheels, it will turn your truck into an offroad monster if adjusted properly!

The no transmission transfer cases are exactly the same as these, no difference.

Finally, that's all for the powertrain system, this took me hours to write... Now some more changes in the new update:

• Fire values settings are now separately selectable:

• New electronics slot for ESC and ABS. The ESC is from the Sunburst, but it has been modified to be compatible with all the fancy Vivace and ETK stuff:

• Added legacy 4.5L engine for the Roamer, D- and H-Series, it has an old sound and all the fancy drivetrain settings by default:

• Sound editor now supports up to 32 cylinders
• Added OP indestructible long block to engine swaps
• Added 1000RPM 16HP engine to swaps

Ok, so now... time for all the new configs! Yay!

• Twincharged bus engine swap config for the Piccolina (inspired by Forgotten Mustard). It makes over 500 horsepower and is completely uncontrollable outside of the drag strip, but will destroy everyone on a drag race!

• Barstow Hotrod Gone Wrong: The reason why nobody makes FWD hotrods, check that out yourself! (includes simple custom parts)

• Bluebuck with no transmission
• Burnside test config with Vivace powertrain
• Bus with Pigeon engine
• ETK 800 with torquevectoring diffs

• Fast and Furious style K-Series: 12-speed manual, slammed race suspension, big wing, nearly indestructible and over 1000 horsepower:

• AWD Covet
• FWD Hopper
• V8 RWD LeGran

• 4x4 Lifted LeGran: Ridiculous amount of locking and disconnectable powertrain parts and huge wheels!

• Pe-E-ssima: electric Pessima that handles terrible

• Legacy D-Series: Recreated from old CryEngine trailers and has the old V8 sounds!

• Indian Pigeon: Probably my favorite config so far, no transmission FWD, 16HP, 1000RPM, many parts missing and weaker than cardboard!

• Burnout Monster Pigeon: Also no transmission but so much power that it does burnouts in neutral, slight tap of gas and the front wheel explodes!

• 3x3 Pigeon: Goes where no pigeon ever could!

• Twin turbo eSBR
• No transmission Sunburst

• 6x6 offroad T-Series: it's really hard to learn to drive this thing properly, but once you do it's unstoppable!

• And a completely broken failed Vivace config that drives hilariously bad, you'll see why:

This is a huge update, so there are probably some bugs that I missed, remember to report them and have fun!