Any way to turn of ai headlights

I get a massive performance drop when ai headlights are switched on. I can race many tracks in the dark fine with them switched off, and I guess the ai only have them for aesthetic reasons, so is there any way I can stop the ai turning them on?

You could get some help if you say which is your game.

Ah, sorry, I should have mentioned it is GTR2. I sometimes run it on my netbook and it can get a good framerate with nearly full graphics (except shadows which I turn off) but usually not enough for night races even with headlights on low.

Well, it's a strange request. I cannot imagine a workaround to delete AI lights. You can try to comment in cas file all the entries like this
Projector=SOMETHING_AI
{
Moveable=True .......
}

in this way

Projector=SOMETHING_AI
{
//Moveable=True .......
}

I think it will end in two possible ways: what you want or your game will crash.

Try and good luck....

I think he means mods that have the headlights perma on. The SGT Mod for example.

This question came up recently.............is it in the .Cas file?

What's surely consuming for a PC with car lights are not the car lights themselves ( it's only a different texture when lights are on ) but the real problem is surely more the projected lights on the track.
Those ones are well in the .cas file .... but not allowing them for AI won't allow one's own lights either.

So the question is: is it what's the OP wishes ? ... drive in his own dark in the night ?

In this case, just open the .cas files for the cars you're driving and all other models if there are different car models in race and put // before the  lines concerning those lights as here in this example:

//------------------------------------Headlights and Tail Lights------------------------------------------------//

//Projector=HL_2_PLR
//{
//Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(0.0, 0.10, -77.2) Dir=(0.0, -0.5, -1.0) Radius=(28.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_2_PLR.DDS
//}

//Projector=HL_1_PLR
//{
//Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(-0.482, 0.10, -77.2) Dir=(0.0, -0.5, -1.0) Radius=(28.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_1_PLR.DDS
//}

//Projector=HL_2_AI
//{
//Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(0.0, 0.10, -14.0) Dir=(0.0, -1.0, 0.0) Radius=(10.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_2_AI.DDS
//}

//Projector=HL_1_AI
//{
//Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(-0.482, 0.10, -14.0) Dir=(0.0, -1.0, 0.0) Radius=(10.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_1_AI.DDS
//}

AI without lights seen on track and same for your own car ... only the light texture is present on the cars but no beams on the track.

NB before .... save the original cas files .... so it will be easier later to get them back in their original state.

EDIT: it was tested and it's working without any game crash

And the final perfect way is as this previous example but corrected that way:

------------------------------------Headlights and Tail Lights------------------------------------------------//

Projector=HL_2_PLR
{
Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(0.0, 0.10, -77.2) Dir=(0.0, -0.5, -1.0) Radius=(28.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_2_PLR.DDS
}

Projector=HL_1_PLR
{
Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(-0.482, 0.10, -77.2) Dir=(0.0, -0.5, -1.0) Radius=(28.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_1_PLR.DDS
}

//Projector=HL_2_AI
//{
//Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(0.0, 0.10, -14.0) Dir=(0.0, -1.0, 0.0) Radius=(10.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_2_AI.DDS
//}

//Projector=HL_1_AI
//{
//Moveable=True Active=False Pos=(-0.482, 0.10, -14.0) Dir=(0.0, -1.0, 0.0) Radius=(10.0) LODOut=(400.0) Blend=(InvDstColor, One) Dyn=True Texmap=HL_1_AI.DDS
//}

Else said: only all lines concerning the _AI .... need to begin with //.

Doing this with all car models in the race ( or even in your whole install ) will allow not to show any AI beam on track while yours will work.
Tested and working ......  [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] solution was correct if using the // for each lines for AI .... else the game crashed.

Thanks for the help, the Jempy solution worked great. With the ai not turning on their headlights at night I now get sufficient fps to make night races playable on my netbook. It also helps increase fps in very heavy rain (since ai used to turn on headlight at about 50% rainfall but no longer do after modifying the cas file.). Thanks once again, it is appreciated.