LFS Editor/Guides

Vehicle Mods
LFS Editor Vehicle Mod Features Vehicle Mod Submission Vehicle Mod Licenses
Vehicle Mods at LFS.net

This page contains guides for the LFS Editor.

Video tutorials

Official tutorials

by Scawen

LFS Vehicle Editor Tutorials

1. LFS Mods Introduction (11:49)
2. LFS Modeller Overview (3:30)
3. View Controls Overview (3:40)
4. Updating a mod with a new version (4:06)
5. Building the Brickmobile: Part 1 - Model (11:58)
6. Exporting from Blender to LFS Editor (3:01)
7. Building the Brickmobile: Part 2 - Texturing (9:24)
8. Building the Brickmobile: Part 3 - First Drive (5:07)
9. LFS Steering Animation Editor (12:09)
10. Building the Brickmobile: Part 4 - Level of detail (LOD) meshes (5:43)
11. Building the Brickmobile: Part 5 - Masses and object positions (5:22)
12. Bike Steering & Suspension (13:19)
13. Wheel rims in the LFS Editor (10:00)

Community-made tutorials

by Jake_Blasted

LFS Tutorial Playlist

1. LFS Editor HOW-TO guide 1 (47:26)
   • 0:00 - Editor basics
   • 0:21 - Editor controls
   • 1:07 - Screen options
   • 6:11 - Sub-objects
   • 15:02 - Triangles
   • 28:21 - Triangle groups
   • 31:06 - Texturing groups and alphas
   • 36:00 - Points
   • 43:29 - Build
   • 44:55 - Auto-mirroring and deleting points
2. Texturing & Clock Mapping (6:19)
3. Custom Configurations (3:27)
4. Suspension Types & Suspension Tuning (19:41)
5. Aerodynamics (12:47)
6. Driver & Dash Adjustment (3:55)

General editor guides

Setting up suspension for bikes

Rear suspension

The "trailing arm" suspension type is recommended for the rear suspension. You create a "trailing arm" object with its object centre at the pivot point for the rear suspension. That must correspond with a "lower pivot" point in the vehicle editor.

Front suspension

In the modeller:

1) Adjust the "steering wheel" (handlebar) object so that the rotation point is aligned with the top bolt - the centre of the top bolt should have x=0 and y=0.

After the "steering wheel" is in the right place, then back in the vehicle editor:

2) Increase the "Trail Reduction" in the Steering / Driver section to match the offset between the stanchions and the steering axis. As you do that, the wheel moves forward. So then you reduce the "Forward" value in "Suspension" section by the same amount to compensate. By trial and error you can end up with the steering axis line going straight through the centre of the bolt, then the steering should work correctly.

Vehicle editor guides

This section contains guides for the LFS Vehicle Editor features.

Adjusting masses

Press S for 'special draw' in the vehicle editor. You can see the positions of various masses (e.g. engine / fuel tank). You can adjust their positions in the Object Positions section. Also you can edit the 'frame' which is only for mass distribution. Frame elements should be placed around the vehicle, as an approximation of where mass would be. You can get the desired mass and weight distribution by adjusting positions of the cuboid masses and the frame elements.

To create a frame element, you first add points then add a frame element between those points. Click new point then use the drag handles to move the point where you want it to be. With a point selected you can click dup pt to duplicate that point. The new point is in the same place as the point you duplicated, so make sure you move it away. To connect two points with a frame element, clicking to select one point, then hold down ⇧ Shift and click the second point. A frame element should appear and you can change its mass by adjusting the TUBE mass per metre slider bar.

After constructing a frame you may with to increase or decrease the mass of the frame, without adjusting each element individually. In the Mass section, you can see the frame's mass at the top of the list of masses. See plus and minus buttons beside Scale Frame Mass.

• LMB - big steps
• RMB - smaller steps
• Ctrl + RMB - even smaller steps

Setting suspension types

To set double wishbone suspension you will need a thrust bearing, and upper and lower pivot. These are points on the car body, created in the vehicle editor in the same way as 'frame' points then set to the appropriate type.

1. Press S for 'Special Draw'
2. Click new point (near the top right)
3. Position this point somewhere inboard of the lower part of the front suspension
4. Adjust POINT type to 'lower pivot'
5. Deselect that point by clicking on it
6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 to create an 'upper pivot' somewhere above the lower pivot
7. Repeat steps 2 to 5 to create a 'thrust bearing' somewhere above the pivot points
8. Now you can set the type to Double Wishbone (in the Suspension tab at top left)

For single seaters you will probably want to add additional points and tubes so you form a 'wishbone' shape instead of a single rod connecting the suspension to the car.

For examples you can have a look at the existing Formula cars.

After setting up the suspension, press ⇧ Shift + L to see a diagram of the suspension geometry and press space to see how it reacts when the car is dropped. You can also switch on the Zero Springs Test in Suspension tab (at the top left) to see how the car falls down to the bump stops. This can help you to observe the way the camber changes according to the suspension geometry.

Adjusting aerodynamics

In the Aerodynamics section, the sliders set the downforce values for a theoretical speed of 1 m/s, for a wing at the maximum angle of attack 30 degrees. These values are related to the square of speed, so at 10 m/s the downforce and drag values will be far higher than the theoretical values. You can see a representation of the downforce and drag at various speeds in the Downforce tab at the bottom right of the screen.

1. Hide the bottom right editor buttons by clicking the − button in bottom right corner
2. Select the Downforce tab of the default setup
3. Adjust the Test speed to see how much force you will get with the default wing settings

NOTE: The downforce and drag forces are applied at the locations of the aerodynamic subobjects of the model. In the modeller, in 'subob' mode, these subobjects are shown in blue and have a letter code indicating their subobject type:

• R - rear wing
• F - front wing
• U - undertray
• C - aero centre

Simple optimisations

Concealed Wheels (in Wheel Object section) - Please use this option if the inside of your wheels is fully concealed (e.g. most road cars). The most obvious difference is that the tyre manufacturer logo will not be drawn on the inside of the wheel. Also the spokes may not be drawn when the wheel is seen from the hidden side. A case where you would not use this option: single seater racing car.

Concealed Driver (in Wheel Object section) - Please use this option if the driver's body is not usually visible. This is the case for most cars (e.g. road cars and single seaters) and can help the frame rate when there are a few cars around. The helmet will be drawn in any case but the driver's body will not be drawn if the viewer is firther away. Some cases where you would not use this option: karts or motorbikes.

Driver animations

In the animation editor you can edit the sit and steer animations. Press A in the vehicle editor to enter the animation editor. Buttons to save and load animations are at the top left. Driver animations are named str_xxx and passenger animations (which have a single frame) are named sit_xxx. The 'xxx' part of the name is up to 7 characters and can be set in the Driver section in the vehicle editor.

To edit a steering animation: (LMB = left mouse button)

1. Enter animation editor by pressing A in the vehicle editor
2. Note the buttons show skeleton and show object at bottom right
3. Select an individual frame on the timeline at bottom left
4. Select any bone you want to move or rotate (switch show skeleton on and show object off to make this clearer)
5. Hold Q/W/E for x/y/z rotation - rotate by dragging left or right with LMB
6. Hold A/S/D for x/y/z movement - drag with LMB in relevant direction
7. Check for smooth movement by moving the timeline slider
8. Click SAVE as STR to save the file (in your data\move folder)

The steering animation should contain very little head movement and rotation. The game automatically applies head rotation and lean in real time for steering and lateral force.

Editing dashboard

In the dashboard editor you can edit the positions of various parts of the dashboard, or switch some gauges or lights on or off. In the vehicle editor open the Textures tab. Beside the word CLOCKS you can click to select the dashboard type. This strange looking name, e.g. "s_clock_formula" is actually a specially named live texture that you can enter in 'page' mode in the modeller, as a texture page either for the main object or a subobject. To edit the selected dashboard, click the EDIT button. It is a good idea to switch off any lights or gauges you don't need.

Collaboration - More than one person working on a mod

There is a feature to help with sharing a complete mod with its development files. Unlike exporting for upload, this function copies png files rather than creating dds textures. It doesn't automatically create a zip. It simply gathers all the files and saves them in a structured share folder ready for copying.

After creating the initial vehicle and working on it a bit, you can click export to share vehicle for development at the top right.

That exports veh, engine sound, animations, png in a directory structure in a 'share' folder. So you can zip up those folders inside 'share', send it to your collaborator who will unzip it to 'data' on their computer. Now the exact same mod exists on both computers.

From that point on, if only the collaborator works on it they could do the same to return the updated mod back to you. But if you both continue to work on the project at the same time you will probably manually share updated files.

Two people should usually not work on the actual vehicle editor settings at the same time, as you would need to manually merge the changes. It may be that one person works on the vehicle settings, while another works on the 3D model. The 3D model can be saved out from the modeller and sent to be loaded in on the remote computer. A complete wheel style file can also be saved or loaded - LOAD WHL / SAVE WHL in the wheel object section. Engine can also be saved separately.

There is also a function export for DV in the Textures section. This copies all png textures to data\png_export. For example the person working on the 3d model might save the 3D model into data\3dob and do a png export then send those files to the person working on the veh. The veh person would then save the png files into data\png load the model (in the modeller, accessed from the vehicle editor).