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Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

For the prequel, see Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. For the 2010 game, see Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 cover
Developers
EA Seattle
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
EAGL
Release dates
Windows October 21, 2002
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 guide on StrategyWiki
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 on MobyGames
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 on Wikipedia

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).
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Subseries of Need for Speed
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit 1998
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 2002
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered 2020

Key points

Based on the GameCube/Xbox version of the game rather than the Black Box PlayStation 2 version.

General information

Need for Speed Wiki

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
SafeDisc v2 DRM[Note 1]
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 242 is the final patch for the game. Adds multiplayer encryption and improves Force Feedback behaviour and compatibility.

Skip intro videos

Instructions[3]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\movies\
  2. Delete or rename hp2E.mad, logoE.mad, and logoS.mad to anything else.
  3. Create three empty files with the above filenames in the folder.

Notes

This tweak will only work if you are using the No-CD patch, as otherwise the game will simply load the movies directly from the game CD.
Alternatively, you can start the game with the "-nofrustration" argument which will skip the title screen and intro videos.


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
  1. Go to the "EAGL" folder in the game directory.
  2. Open the "LOD" file with notepad.
  3. In the "[max]" section, increase the values for "worldParticle.farFadeIn" and "worldParticle.farFadeOut". It can go to high values as 999, but keep "worldParticle.farFadeIn" slightly lower than "worldParticle.farFadeOut".


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
Use DirectInput low frame rate fix[4]

Use the DirectInput FPS Fix.

(Alternative) Unplug or disable incompatible HID devices[5]

If the above doesn't work (it didn't on my Windows 8.1 x64):

  1. Unplug any USB HID devices that you don't need 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.
  2. 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" (you can re-enable them later)
  3. Game should now launch and work properly. You can start re-enabling and re-plugging devices by testing the game after each change until you find the cuplrit HID device. Mine was the Alienware AlienFX controller.

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 settings

Video settings.
Video settings.

Template:Video settings

Windowed

Enable windowed[6]
  1. Go to the configuration file(s) location.
  2. Edit rendercaps.ini.
  3. Change Fullscreen=1 to Fullscreen=0.

Input settings

Input settings
Input settings

Template:Input settings

To enable Force Feedback on XInput controller, see Force feedback driver.

Audio settings

Audio settings
Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play
GameSpy services have been shut down;[7] see GameSpy for workarounds.

Issues unresolved

Poor frame pacing

Hot Pursuit 2 suffers from frame pacing issues on modern systems, resulting in choppy gameplay even at high framerates.


Issues fixed

Add high resolutions to options menu

By default, the resolution options are limited to WWWW x HHHH and under. Any resolution supported by your graphics driver can be added by making the following change to rendercaps.ini.
  1. Go to C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My files\EA Games\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit 2\rendercaps.ini
  2. Set LimitResolution=1 to LimitResolution=0

Game not rendering fog on modern systems

Note: If you install HP2WSFix, this step is not necessary as d3d8to9 is integrated with it.[8]

Even after setting "World Detail" at maximum, the game won't render fog on modern systems.

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.

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."
Copy the following directories from the CD to <path-to-game>\[citation needed]
  1. actors
  2. AI
  3. Audio
  4. Cars
  5. Movies
  6. Particle
  7. Tracks

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.[8]

DualShock 4 support

To use a DualShock 4 with the gas and brake axis, the .ini needs to be tweaked.
Replace definitions.ini and defaults.ini with the ones from here.

Poor performance on high resolutions

May be fixed copying the game directory outside "Program Files" folder, so it can be run without administrator rights.

Settings not saved on exit

Profile must be saved manually from the Options menu after configuring settings, won't be saved on game exit.

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) 450 MHz Pentium III
500 MHz AMD Athlon
System memory (RAM) 128 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1.2 GB
Video card (GPU) Direct3D compatible Video Card
16 MB of VRAM

Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[1] 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.[2]

References