For the prequel, see Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. For the 2010 game, see Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.
Warnings
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).
- GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).
Availability
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
Demo
- A demo is available.
- Limited to 2 available cars (Ferrari 360 Spider and Porsche 911 Turbo) and 1 track (Calypso Coast).
Essential improvements
Patches
- Patch 242 is the final patch for the game. Adds multiplayer encryption and improves Force Feedback behavior and compatibility.
Skip intro videos
Instructions[4]
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- Go to
<path-to-game>\movies\
- Delete or rename
hp2E.mad , logoE.mad , and logoS.mad to anything else.
- Create three empty files with the above filenames in the folder.
Notes
- This tweak will only work if a No-CD patch is used, as otherwise the game will simply load the movies directly from the game CD.
- Alternatively, simply starting the game with the "-nofrustration" argument will skip the title screen and intro videos.
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Increase distance in which particles fade out
- Increases the distance in which particles are rendered. It will be most noticeable in the water effect not fading from waterfalls as their distance increases.
Instructions[citation needed]
|
- Go to the "EAGL" folder in the game directory.
- Open the "LOD" file with notepad.
- In the "[max]" section, increase the values for "worldParticle.farFadeIn" and "worldParticle.farFadeOut". It can go to values as high as 999, but keep "worldParticle.farFadeIn" slightly lower than "worldParticle.farFadeOut".
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Crash/lock-up on launch or Low/Choppy frame-rate
- Game may crash immediately after entering full-screen/after it creates its application window, or frame-rate may be around 20-30 FPS and lack V-sync.
(Alternative) Unplug or disable incompatible HID devices[6]
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If the above doesn't work:
- Unplug any USB HID devices that are not needed to play the game (Xbox controllers, media remotes, desktop case fan speed controllers etc). For laptops unplug all external USB HID devices such as external mice and keyboards.
- Go to Device Manager and, under the "Human Interface Devices" section, disable any remaining "HID-compliant vendor-defined device" and "HID-compliant consumer control devices" (they can be reenabled later)
- Game should now launch and work properly. By reenabling and replugging devices and testing the game after each change the cuplrit HID device could be found. Alienware AlienFX controller seems to be one of them.
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- See also Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 (exception error)
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System |
Location |
Windows |
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\ |
Save game data location
System |
Location |
Windows |
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\EA Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\ |
Video
Input
- To enable Force Feedback on XInput controller, see Force feedback driver.
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
Menu Music, Race Music, Player Engine, Sound Effects, Voice |
Surround sound |
|
|
Subtitles |
|
|
Closed captions |
|
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Mute on focus lost |
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EAX support |
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May need re-toggling after every launch to actually apply[12] |
Royalty free audio |
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The game contains licensed music that were listed under the EA trax in-game. |
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
|
|
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Choice between metric and imperial measurements |
French |
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|
|
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Italian |
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|
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Slovak |
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|
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Fan translation, download. |
Network
Multiplayer types
Connection types
Issues fixed
- By default, the resolution options are limited. Any resolution supported by the graphics driver can be added by making the following change to
rendercaps.ini
.
- Go to
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My files\EA Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\rendercaps.ini
- Set
LimitResolution=1
to LimitResolution=0
Game not rendering fog on modern systems
- Even after setting "World Detail" at maximum, the game won't render fog on modern systems.[citation needed]
Patch Direct3D8 calls
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- Note: This fix contradicts any other render wrapper-based fix (HP2WSFix[13], dgVooDoo, etc.)
Go here and download the d3d8.dll and place it in Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 folder and the d3d8.dll will load d3d8to9 and convert DX8 API calls to Direct3D 9 ones.
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Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2 (exception error)
- Error is "The thread attempted to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access."
Screenshot of the exception dialog.
Patch game renderer with dgVooDoo[14]
|
- Download the latest version of DgVoodoo 2
- Follow the installation instructions for D3D8.
- Configure dgVooDoo using the included configuration applet.
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Copy the following directories from the CD to <path-to-game>\ [citation needed]
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- actors
- AI
- Audio
- Cars
- Movies
- Particle
- Tracks
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Game crashing with more than 1 hi-poly car
This issue can be fixed by installing HP2WSFix as the fix is integrated along with the widescreen fix.[13]
White screen after installing HP2WSFix
Remove the global.ini file from the main game directory.[citation needed]
DualShock 4 support
- To use a DualShock 4 with the gas and brake axis, the .ini needs to be tweaked.
Tweak[citation needed]
|
Replace definitions.ini and defaults.ini with the ones from here.
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Poor performance on high resolutions
May be fixed copying the game directory outside "Program Files" folder, so it can be run without administrator rights.[citation needed]
Settings not saved on exit
Profile must be saved manually from the Options menu after configuring settings, else they won't be saved on game exit.[citation needed]
XInput controller not working
Use devreorder to force intended device (needs dinputto8)[10]
|
- Download briankendall's devreorder and elishacloud's dinputto8.
- For devreorder, extract
devreorder.ini and x86 's dinput8.dll into main game directory.
- For dinputto8, extract
dinput.dll into main game directory as well.
- Edit
devreorder.ini - [order] and [visible] should be set to your controller's name; i.e. "Controller (XBOX 360 For Windows)".
- Should work even across restarts as it's forcing enumeration order and hiding other enumerable devices from the process.
- If the game shows an error message about the controller not being specifically recognized, ignore this message and proceed to manually configure the controller settings in the options menu.
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Other information
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
8.1 |
|
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
|
|
|
Middleware
|
Middleware |
Notes |
Multiplayer |
GameSpy |
|
Modifications
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
98, ME, 2000, XP | |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium III 450 MHz AMD Athlon 500 MHz |
Intel Pentium III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon |
System memory (RAM) |
128 MB | |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
1.2 GB | |
Video card (GPU) |
Direct3D compatible 16 MB of VRAM DirectX 8.1 compatible
| 32 MB of VRAM |
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[2] or Windows 11 and is disabled by default on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 when the KB3086255 update is installed.[3]
References