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Warnings
- For Games for Windows - LIVE on Windows 8 or later, install the latest Games for Windows - LIVE software.
- The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.
Colin McRae: DiRT 2, also known as DiRT 2 in North America, is a singleplayer and multiplayer racing game developed and published by Codemasters. It is part of the Colin McRae Rally series and the first entry in the series to use the EGO engine. The game include a benchmark mode.
The game was released on December 4, 2009 in European countries, followed by the releases in North American countries and Australasia countries on December 8 and December 10 respectively. The MacOS version of the game, ported and published by Feral Interactive, was released on September 9, 2011.
it was delisted from all storefronts on November 25, 2013 due to licensing-related reason.[1]
General information
- Steam Community Discussions
Availability
- All Windows versions require Games for Windows - LIVE DRM.[Note 1]
Demo/free trial
- Demo is available. The demo will install GFWL which can be uninstalled afterwards and replaced by dropping a replacement xlive.dll in the installation folder. The demo does not require an internet connection or Steam.
Essential improvements
Patches
- The latest version is Patch 1.1 (March 2010, ~350 MB).
Skip intro videos
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
- The files in
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\XLive\
contain your unique offline profile ID.
System |
Native |
Notes |
OneDrive |
|
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers. |
Steam Cloud |
|
|
Video
Graphical settings (continued)
Default chase (close) camera and FOV.
Chase (far) camera with a vertical FOV of 60. A background texture is temporarily missing at this FOV.
- Higher FOVs can expose occasional texture pop-in glitches.
Use Dirt3FovChange[3]
|
- Perform a search in the installation folder for the
cameras.xml files.
- Select them all (fifty in total) and open their properties.
- Uncheck the read-only box and click OK.
- Download Dirt3FovChange.
- Extract the files from the archive into any folder.
- Run
Dirt3FovChange.exe as administrator.
- Manually point Dirt3FovChange to your DiRT 2 installation folder.
- See the Notes section below for what the settings do, adjust their values to your liking and click Start.
- If it asks if you're sure you want to run
binXml.exe , uncheck the box for Always ask before opening this file and click Run.
- Launch the game and test your settings in a race. If you want to further adjust the settings:
- Exit the race and Alt+Tab ↹ to Dirt3FovChange.
- Click Restore to restore the default settings. Tweak the values you previously entered and click Start.
- In DiRT 2, start a new race to test your settings. Repeat until you're happy with the result.
Notes
- Vertical FOV: a larger number will translate into a wider field of view.
- Adjust FOV for: selects the in-game camera or cameras you want to edit.
- Head Offset: affects the position of the head-cam (cockpit view). A modification of 0.1 will yield a noticeable change. It is to be noted that the point of view can be placed outside of the car.
- X: affects the lateral position. A positive value will move the point of view to the left.
- Y: affects the vertical position. A positive value will move the point of view upward.
- Z: affects the front/back position. A positive value will move the point of view closer to the dashboard.
- Head Tilt Change: affects the vertical angle of the camera. Compared to the position values, the tilt value works on a different scale: a modification of 1 will yield a barely noticeable change.
- A positive value will tilt the camera up.
|
Disable bloom
Modify persistentdatarender.xml[citation needed]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\frontend\ and open persistentdatarender.xml in any text editor.
- Search for
<Param name="bloomAmount">*.*</Param> and change *.* to 0.0.
- Save
persistentdatarender.xml file and play the game.
|
Input
- The game can send telemetry data to supported software like SimHub and devices like motion platforms, bass shakers and telemetry displays through the UDP protocol. Also support D-Box haptic/motion platforms through a proprietary protocol.[4] Requires editing the
hardware_settings_config.xml
file to enable them. (See Enable telemetry)
- Supported devices are based on what was found in the devicesetup.xml file and the xml files located in
<path-to-game>\actionmap\
folder.
Controls (Xbox controller) 1/2
Controls (Xbox controller) 2/2
Enable telemetry
Enable telemetry[5]
|
- Open the
hardware_settings_config.xml file located in <user>\Documents\My Games\Dirt2\hardwaresettings\ with a text editior.
- Search for a line of text with the word "motion enabled".
- Set the "motion enabled" parameter to "true" and change the "ip" and "port" fields to match that of what was set on the supported telemetry software. For example,
<motion enabled="true" ip="127.0.0.1" port="20777" delay="1" extradata="3" />
- Save the file.
|
Audio
Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
Separate volume controls |
|
Speech, Music, Effects and Engine |
Surround sound |
|
|
Subtitles |
|
|
Closed captions |
|
|
Mute on focus lost |
|
See Mute on focus lost. |
EAX support |
|
[6] |
Royalty free audio |
|
In the game menus and when transitioning between different race courses, copyrighted music is played, such as "Wannabe in L.A", "This Is the One", etc. |
Localizations
Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
English |
|
|
|
|
French |
|
|
|
|
German |
|
|
|
|
Hungarian |
|
|
|
Fan translation, download. |
Italian |
|
|
|
|
Polish |
|
|
|
Polish retail release only. For digital versions download this. |
Russian |
|
|
|
Russian retail release only. For digital versions download this. |
Spanish |
|
|
|
|
Brazilian Portuguese |
|
|
|
Fan translation, Tribo Gamer |
Mute on focus lost
Set mute in background[citation needed]
|
- Install Special K by following the Special K Unofficial Guide.
- Start the game and press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+← Backspace to toggle Special K's Control Panel.
- Expand "Window Management" and "Input/Output Behavior"
- Enable "Mute Game" under "Background Behavior" and close the Control Panel.
- Press Ctrl+⇧ Shift+O to toggle Special K's On-Screen Display.
|
Network
- Online features require a Microsoft account (optional for offline play).
Multiplayer types
Type |
Native |
Players |
Notes |
Local play |
|
|
LAN play |
| 8 |
|
Online play |
| 8 |
DirtNET service has been discontinued, making Ghosts in Time Trials and Tournaments unavailable, discontinuing the achievements attached to these. |
VR support
Devices |
|
|
TrackIR |
|
Supports: Yaw, Pitch, Roll, X, Y, Z. |
Issues fixed
Run the game at screen refresh rate
- Fullscreen mode only runs at 60 Hz, even if the in-game option is set higher than that.
Set screen refresh rate[citation needed]
|
- The flashback uses frames to calculate time. With a shorter amount of time available as the framerate goes higher, the feature becomes less useful. Around 120 FPS this makes it impossible to rewind out of a terminal damage crash.
- Install Special K by following the Special K Unofficial Guide.
- Start the game once and close it to allow the configuration file of Special K to be created.
- Open
<path-to-game>\dxgi.ini or %USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Mods\SpecialK\Profiles\dirt2_game.exe\SpecialK.ini depending on the installation method you used.
- Change
RefreshRate=-1 to RefreshRate=0 under [Render.FrameRate] .
|
Set screen refresh rate[citation needed]
|
For Nvidia owners with G-Sync display
- Turn on Vsync in game options and turn off Vsync in Nvidia driver
- Turn on G-Sync for DIRT 2
|
Other information
Play without Games for Windows - LIVE
Play without GFWL[citation needed]
|
- Download the replacement xlive.dll.
- Extract into
<path-to-game>
Notes
- This cuts most online content.
- This works for almost all GFWL games.
- Previous made saves can not be read and are treated by the game as corrupt saves (the prompted creation of a new save may overwrite the player's progress).
- This disables connection in LAN multiplayer.
|
API
Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
Direct3D |
9.0c, 11 |
|
Executable |
32-bit |
64-bit |
Notes |
Windows |
|
|
|
macOS (OS X) | |
|
This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later. |
Middleware
System requirements
Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
XP, Vista, 7 | |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium D 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 |
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz AMD Athlon X2 4200+ |
System memory (RAM) |
1 GB 2 GB (Vista) |
2 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
12.5 GB | |
Video card (GPU) |
Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon X1500 DirectX 9.0c compatible
| Nvidia GeForce 9800 ATI Radeon HD 4850 |
Sound (audio device) |
DirectX compatible | |
macOS (OS X) |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
10.6.7 | |
Processor (CPU) |
Intel 2.0 GHz
| Intel 2.4 GHz |
System memory (RAM) |
2 GB |
4 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) |
8 GB | |
Video card (GPU) |
128 MB of VRAM
| 256 MB of VRAM |
Notes
References