Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
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 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).
The Need for Speed 1994
Need for Speed II 1997
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (series)
Need for Speed: High Stakes 1999
Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed 2000
Need for Speed: Underground (series)
Need for Speed: Most Wanted (series)
Need for Speed: Carbon 2006
Need for Speed: ProStreet 2007
Need for Speed: Undercover 2008
Need for Speed: Shift (series)
Need for Speed: World 2010
Need for Speed: The Run 2011
Need for Speed Rivals 2013
Need for Speed (2016) 2016
Need for Speed Payback 2017
Need for Speed: Edge 2017
Need for Speed Heat 2019
Need for Speed Unbound 2022

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

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.

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[4]
  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;[5] see GameSpy for workarounds.

Issues unresolved

Game does not render fog on modern systems

Even after setting "World Detail" at maximum, the game won't render fog on modern systems. There is an alternative workaround by using 3DAnalyze and forcing TnL, but no fixes for the game itself. Another option is to 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

Poor frame pacing

Hot Pursuit 2 suffers from frame pacing issues on modern systems, resulting in choppy gameplay even at high framerates. There is no known fix for this.

Issues fixed

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

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.

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