Warnings
- 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.
Need for Speed: Carbon is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person racing game in the Need for Speed series.
It was released in North America and Taiwan on October 31, 2006, in Europe on November 3, 2006, in Australia on November 16, 2006 and in Japan on December 21, 2006.
The PC port of this game is based on the Xbox 360 version, in which some post-processing effects such as the blur effect applied on the street lights as seen on the PS3 version is missing. The motion blur effect also resembles the Xbox 360 version, rather than the more subtle rendition seen on PS3. The quality of the live action/pre-rendered cutscenes are also worse than the 7th-gen console release counterparts.[citation needed].
Physical Collectors copies were used to activate on Origin, but now they no longer do.[1]
There is a DLC that was only released for the Xbox 360 can be accessed in the PC version by using save file editing (Virus Vinyl Pack can also be unlocked by Extra Options).[2]
This is the only "Need for Speed" title to be released for MacOS X.
Availability
| Source |
DRM |
Notes |
Keys |
OS |
| Retail |
|
SafeDisc v4 DRM[Note 1], Collectors Edition also available |
|
|
| Retail |
|
|
|
|
| Origin (unavailable) |
|
Collectors Edition Only |
|
|
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
Version differences
Collectors Edition content includes four exclusive vehicles, specially tuned cars, six exclusive races, three exclusive challenges (with three races per Checkpoint, Pursuits, Race Wars) and a bonus DVD.
Demo/free trial
- Progress/achievements does not carry over to the main game.
Monetization
| Type |
Notes |
| Sponsored
| Game is sponsored by multiple real life brands |
Essential improvements
Patches
- Patch 1.4 (EU version, Traditional Chinese) fixes Windows Vista compatibility issue.
Skip intro videos
|
Delete/rename video files[citation needed]
|
- Go to
<path-to-game>\Game\MOVIES\.
- Delete or rename
attract_english_ntsc.vp6, ea_bumper_english_ntsc.vp6, eahd_bumper_english_ntsc.vp6 and psa_nikki_english_ntsc.vp6.
Notes
- If the game is not in English, delete/rename the files corresponding to the language used instead, and in the PAL version, the file names will have PAL instead of NTSC at the end. For Japanese version,
psa_yumi_japanese_ntsc.vp6 also need to be deleted or renamed.
|
|
Skip intro videos[citation needed]
|
- Install ThirteenAG's fix.
- Open
NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
- Change
SkipIntro = 0 to SkipIntro = 1.
- Change
WindowedMode = 0 to WindowedMode = 1.
|
Utilities
- Bumps up quality of the UI and includes 60 fps barrier animations and Need for Speed 2015 styled map (optional), use HUD Resizer for resizing if needed.
- Scales the resolution of road, vehicle, and rear view mirror reflections.
- Fixes misaligned vehicles reflections and other problems.
- Controls the amount of blur used for road reflections and increases its resolution.
- Replaces the original SD quality live action/pre-rendered cutscenes with QHD 1440p resolution videos, upscaled from the Xbox 360 version of the game.
- Also looks great on FHD 1080p and UHD 4k displays.
- Video freezes can occur on modern systems due to the old nature of the game (this is also the case with the original SD quality videos).
- Make sure you installed ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix and set
FMVWidescreenMode = 2, otherwise all videos will be vertically stretched.
- Improves gamepad support by implementing native XInput support into the game.
- Reimplements console-like controls with replacing zoom in/out function to its Xbox 360 counterpart and fixing its behaviour in Photo Mode
- Xbox and PlayStation prompts are both supported.
- Rebinding can be made only through .ini file. It's disabled in game menu, as for now it crashes the game.
- Controls are reset to default.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
Save game data location
| System |
Native |
Notes |
| Origin |
|
|
| OneDrive |
|
Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers. |
Video
- ThirteenAG's fix may require the latest patch. See Patches.
Advanced graphics settings.
|
Set custom FOV[citation needed]
|
- Download NFS-VltEd.
- Extract the contents and open the application.
- Click on File → Open and select the installation folder.
- On the left side, expand camerainfo and default.
- Select the camera to modify (bumper, close, etc.)
- On the right side, expand FOV and change the value beside [0] to the desired FOV.
- For the hood camera, the value might have to be changed for each car individually.
- Click on File → Save to apply the changes.
|
Input
Audio
| Audio feature |
State |
Notes |
| Separate volume controls |
|
Sound Effects, Car, Speech, Menu Music and In-Game Music sliders available. |
| Surround sound |
|
Limited to a 'Surround' option. Up to 5.1 output.[5] |
| Subtitles |
|
See Subtitles. |
| Closed captions |
|
|
| Mute on focus lost |
|
|
- Though the game does not use EAX, Creative Alchemy still can be used to enhance sound quality. It will just emulate DirectSound and 3D positional audio with OpenAL. Difference can be easily noticeable when music is off. For non-Creative cards users see here or use dsoal. Run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode to avoid crashing career mode while using Alchemy/DSOAL (alternatively as admin, or use 13AG widescreen which will most likely fix the issue). Sometimes whole career need to be started from the beginning with compatibility mode and Alchemy enabled. The solutions are to avoid disappearing car in career menu and crash after attempt to race. Alternative fix for the issue can be found here. Compatibility mode can cause resetting of the game settings. Please note that attempt of changing details in the game (renderer reset after returning from video settings), and either alt tabbing, have an influence on audio quality, also giving diffreent results depending on g_AudioMode setting to 0, 1 (default) or 2 [6] in registry. Consider also setting 24 or 32 bit 192 kHz in Control Panel>Sound>[Default Device]>Advanced.
Subtitles
|
Enable English subtitles[citation needed]
|
- Install NFSC Extra Options.
- Open
NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini.
- Change
ShowSubs = 0 to ShowSubs = 1.
|
Localizations
| Language |
UI |
Audio |
Sub |
Notes |
| English |
|
|
|
See Subtitles. |
| Simplified Chinese |
|
|
|
|
| Traditional Chinese |
|
|
|
|
| Czech |
|
|
|
|
| Danish |
|
|
|
|
| Dutch |
|
|
|
|
| Finnish |
|
|
|
|
| French |
|
|
|
|
| German |
|
|
|
|
| Hungarian |
|
|
|
|
| Italian |
|
|
|
|
| Japanese |
|
|
|
|
| Korean |
|
|
|
|
| Polish |
|
|
|
|
| Russian |
|
|
|
Official localization by 1C-Softclub is here.
Version with added subtitles is here (requires setting ShowSubs=1 in Extra Options). Also contains faithful to original fonts. |
| Russian |
|
|
|
Fan translation by «ENPY Studio» |
| Slovak |
|
|
|
Fan translation, download. |
| Spanish |
|
|
|
|
| Latin American Spanish |
|
|
|
|
| Swedish |
|
|
|
|
| Thai |
|
|
|
|
Network
Multiplayer types
Issues fixed
Poor frame rate and crashes
|
Install DirectPlay
|
- Windows 8/8.1/10 removes important DirectX components, causing game to run poorly, and possibly lead to multiple crashes. These components can be brought back by installing DirectPlay. More about DirectPlay here.
- Go to Control Panel, and select 'Programs'.
- Select 'Turn Windows features on and off'
- Click on 'Legacy Components' and check the box 'DirectPlay'.
- Select OK, once the installation is done, restart the computer.
- It is recommended to reinstall the game after installing DirectPlay.
- DirectPlay is considered obsolete by Microsoft, and hereafter no longer supported.
|
Controller deadzone issues
|
Fix left stick deadzone[9]
|
- Install ThirteenAG's fix.
- Deadzone can be adjusted in
NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
|
Unable to load save game
|
Fix save game loading crash[citation needed]
|
- Install NFSC Extra Options.
- Make sure
CrashFix = 1 is set in NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini.
|
Stuttering in Windows 10
|
Fix stuttering once every second[citation needed]
|
- Install ThirteenAG's widescreen fix.
- Open
NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
- Set
WindowedMode = 1 to run the game borderless windowed.
- This will also fix 60 FPS cap if encountered.
|
Crashes in Challenge Series
|
Fix crashes during certain races[citation needed]
|
- Open
NFSC.exe compatibility settings.
- Enable Windows XP (SP3) compatibility mode.
|
Game does not save the graphics options
|
Enable the local settings file[citation needed]
|
- Install ThirteenAG's widescreen fix.
- Open
NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
- Set
WriteSettingsToFile = 1 to store the game settings in the Settings.ini file.
- Check the audio settings afterwards, they can be messed up.
|
Game can't be uninstalled
-
eauninstall.exe error: "The program can't start because EAInstall.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."
|
Fix uninstall error[10]
|
- Go to the installation folder.
- Copy
EAInstall.dll to %WINDIR%\.
- Uninstall the game normally.
|
Other information
API
| Technical specs |
Supported |
Notes |
| Direct3D |
9 |
|
| 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
- No middleware information; you can edit this page to add it.
Miscellaneous
Change physics frame rate
- This makes everything in the game smoother, such as the drift force being applied much smoother to the car.
Rainy weather modifications
|
Force rainy weather[citation needed]
|
- Install NFSC Extra Options.
- Open
NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini.
- Change
AlwaysRain = 0 to AlwaysRain = 1.
|
|
Change size of rain drops[12]
|
- Install ThirteenAG's fix.
- Open
NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
- Add
RainDropletsScale = 0.5 and change the value if needed.
|
- Adds various new settings and fixes vanilla game bugs.
- Script mod which fixes some issues and makes some improvements for add-on cars.
- Enables an unused graphics option and other tweaks.[13]
- High quality Vinyls.
- This mod ports Visual Treatment filters and Sky Shaders from World to Carbon.
- Graphics mod with rain puddles.
- This mod makes the game play licensed tracks instead of crew OST during races.
- This mod gives you full control over the CG fog settings.
- This mod brings you some new crew stuff.
System requirements
| Windows |
|
Minimum |
Recommended |
| Operating system (OS) |
2000 SP4, XP SP2 | |
| Processor (CPU) |
Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz
| Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz |
| System memory (RAM) |
512 MB |
1 GB |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) |
4.7 GB (Retail) |
11 GB (Download) |
| Video card (GPU) |
Nvidia GeForce3 Series/4 Ti Series
ATI Radeon 8500
64 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0 compatible
| Nvidia GeForce 6800
ATI Radeon 9800
128 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible |
| macOS (OS X) |
|
Minimum[14] |
| Operating system (OS) |
10.4.9 |
| Processor (CPU) |
Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz |
| System memory (RAM) |
1 GB |
| Hard disk drive (HDD) |
6 GB |
| Other |
8x DVD-ROM drive |
- Integrated Intel graphics cards are not supported.
Notes
- ↑ SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[3] 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.[4]
- ↑ Applications writing to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.
References
