GTA Helper

A Blender addon that brings together everything you need to mod GTA San Andreas vehicles in one clean sidebar panel. No more hunting through menus — VehIK dummies, ModelExtras effects, VehFuncs animations, and vertex color tools are all in one place.

Blender 5.0 and above

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Installation

1. Download gta_helper.py
2. In Blender, go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install
3. Select the downloaded file and click Install Add-on
4. Enable it by checking the box next to GTA Helper
5. Open the sidebar in the 3D Viewport with N and go to the GTA Helper tab

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Panel Layout

GTA Helper (sidebar tab)
└── GTA San Andreas
    ├── Vehicle Tools
    │   ├── VehIK (Inverse Kinematics)
    │   │   ├── Car Features
    │   │   ├── Bike Features
    │   │   └── VehIK Utilities
    │   ├── ModelExtras (Effects & Gauges)
    │   └── VehFuncs (Advanced Features)
    │       ├── Spinning Parts
    │       ├── Conditional Animations
    │       ├── Lights & Effects
    │       ├── Functional Parts
    │       ├── Recursive Extras (Variations)
    │       ├── LOD (Level of Detail)
    │       └── Characteristics
    └── Object Tools
        └── Wind Shader

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Features

🚗 Vehicle Tools

All vehicle-related tools live here. Select a mesh part first, then pick the feature you want to add — the addon places a dummy at the bounding box center of the selected object automatically.

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VehIK

Adds dummies that tell VehIK where driver hands and feet should reach. Works for both cars and bikes.

Car features

Button	Dummy Created	Effect
Steering Wheel	ik_steer	Hands reach for the wheel
Gear Stick	ik_gear_stick	Hand follows shift pattern
Handbrake	ik_hand_brake	Hand grabs and rotates the handbrake
Gas Pedal	ik_gas	Right foot reaches the gas
Brake Pedal	ik_brake	Right foot reaches the brake
Clutch Pedal	ik_clutch	Left foot synced with gear stick

Bike features

Button	Dummy Created	Effect
Handlebars	handlebars	Hands reach and rotate bars
Bike Gas Handle	ik_gas	Hand rotates the throttle
Bike Clutch	ik_clutch	Hand holds clutch while shifting
Bike Front Brake	ik_brake	Hand releases gas, holds front brake
Bike Rear Brake	ik_bike_rbrake	Foot pushes rear brake
Bike Pegs	ik_bike_peg	Leg reach with knee bend control
Bike Shifter	ik_bike_shift	Foot pushes shifter up/down by gear

Utilities — removes all VehIK dummies from the scene in one click.

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ModelExtras — Effects & Gauges

Exhaust FX — adds numbered x_exhaust1, x_exhaust2, ... dummies at the selected object's location. A counter tracks the next number automatically; reset it with the Reset Counter button.

Gauges — renames the selected mesh to the correct ModelExtras name:

Button	Mesh Renamed To
Fixed Gauge	x_gauge_fixed1, x_gauge_fixed2, ...
Speed Gauge	x_sm
RPM Gauge	x_rpm
Petrol Gauge	petrolok
Turbo Gauge	x_tm

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VehFuncs — Advanced Features

Spinning Parts — adds a dummy that rotates while the engine is running.

Feature	Base Name	Notes
Gear (Engine Speed)	f_gear	Faster with throttle
Fan (Constant)	f_fan	Constant speed when engine on
Spin (Plane/Heli)	f_spin	For aircraft propellers

Supports optional parameters: _mu (speed multiplier), _x / _z (rotation axis).

Conditional Animations — attaches animations triggered by game events:

Feature	Base Name	Trigger
Ping-Pong	f_an0	Loops continuously
Engine On	f_an1a	Engine start
Engine Off	f_an1b	Engine stop
Speed Reached	f_an3a	Speed threshold crossed
Speed Below	f_an3b	Speed drops below threshold
Brake Press	f_an4a	Brake input
Brake Release	f_an4b	Brake released
Brake Toggle	f_an4c	Toggles on each brake press

Lights & Effects

Feature	Base Name	Effect
Police Lights	f_sirens	Rotating beacon lights
Taxi Light	f_taxi	Roof indicator light
Pop-up Headlights	f_popup	Retractable headlights

Functional Parts

Feature	Base Name
Windshield Wiper Left	f_wiper_l
Windshield Wiper Right	f_wiper_r
Functional Hitch	f_hitch
Tuning Spoiler Fix	f_spoiler
Engine Vibration	f_vibrate
Bike Footpegs	f_footpeg

Recursive Extras (Variations) — creates f_extras or f_class parent dummies. Add child objects as variations; the game randomly selects one at spawn.

LOD (Level of Detail) — adds f_lod markers to hide detail at distance. General guide: levels 1–2 for tiny details, 3–4 for small props, 5–6 for interior, 7–8 for body-only, 9 to follow the game's _vlo system.

Characteristics — appends VehFuncs characteristic tags directly to the mesh name (not a dummy). Supports: _oc, _drv, _pj, _drt, _dexh, _swc, _cl, _busrender, _mdpmnpc, _se, _sz, _backfire.

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🍃 Object Tools

Wind Shader

Writes a value into the alpha channel of the Col vertex color attribute — the same attribute you paint in Blender's Vertex Paint mode. GTA SA wind/sway shaders read this channel to control how much a surface moves.

0.0 = Black = full wind sway · 1.0 = White = no wind sway

Two modes are available, each opened via a popup slider (supports full float precision):

Set Wind — Whole Mesh Applies the alpha value to every vertex/loop on the mesh regardless of material.

Set Wind — Active Material Applies the alpha value only to vertices/loops whose polygon is assigned to the currently active material slot. The panel shows a live material list so you can switch slots without leaving the sidebar.

The Col color attribute must exist on the mesh before using these tools. Add it under Mesh Properties → Color Attributes and name it exactly Col. Both CORNER (loop) and POINT (vertex) domains are supported.

Both operations are fully undoable with Ctrl+Z.

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Requirements

• Blender 5.00 or newer (Older versions have not been tested)
• The following plugins installed in your GTA SA:
  • VehIK by Parik27
  • ModelExtras by ThirteenAG
  • VehFuncs by Wesser

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Notes

• All dummy placement uses the bounding box center of the selected object in world space.
• This addon is just a helper made to make creating mods easier use at your own risk.

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