Need for Speed Heat

Need for Speed Heat

Developers
	Ghost Games
DLC	Criterion Games
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	Frostbite 3
Release dates
Windows	November 8, 2019
Reception
Metacritic	72
OpenCritic	72
IGDB	70
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, DLC
Microtransactions	Boost
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Racing, Open world
Vehicles	Automobile, Street racing
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary, North America
Series	Need for Speed

General information

Official forums

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Origin		Deluxe Edition included with EA Play.
Steam		Deluxe Edition only. Included with EA Play (Steam).
(unavailable)
Green Man Gaming (unavailable)
Humble Store (unavailable)		Deluxe Edition also available.

All versions require Origin and Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Keys to the Map	Reveals all activities, collectibles and locations on the game map.
McLaren F1 Black Market Delivery	Adds the McLaren F1 and a side campaign revolving around it with unlockable visual parts and clothes.

Version differences

Digital Deluxe edition content includes the K.S Editions of the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X Starter Car, BMW i8 Coupe, Mercedes C63 AMG Coupe, Chevrolet Corvette Grand Sport; 4 Character Outfits, REP Boost, and BANK Boost. The latter three cars are unlocked as the player progresses

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Need for Speed Heat\settings
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1222680/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Need for Speed Heat\SaveGame\savegame
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/1222680/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin		The save games are encrypted / can't start a new game
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphics Settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			See Ultra-widescreen.
Ultra-widescreen			Hor+ gameplay and rendered cutscenes. FMVs are pillarboxed.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Under Texture Filtering, options to choose are Low, Medium, High & Ultra.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA and TAA. SSAA available via the Resolution Scale option (up to 200%, 5% increments).
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Spectator animations are capped at 30 FPS and will appear as if they're stuttering at higher frame rates.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See Issues unresolved for a related issue.
Color blind mode		Deuteranopia, Tritanopia & Protanopia.

Post-processing

Disable sharpening, film grain, and vignette permanently

Installation
Download the mod here. Extract Disable Sharpening_Film Grain_Vignette.fbmod to <path-to-game>\Mods\NeedForSpeedHeat\. Download compatible Frosty Mod Manager here. Install Frosty Mod Manager, select the game and use the encryption key included in Read Me.exe to let it build the necessary data and configure files, then apply the mod and always launch the game from there.

Disabling post-processing effects separately

Use Need for Speed Heat 3D Vision fix[citation needed]
Toggles for HUD, bloom on car headlights, lens flares/lens effects, and the rain droplets on the screen effect.

Input

Controls Settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Game uses Keyboard or Controller only.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers		Most of the buttons are available except Options button
PlayStation button prompts		Use the DualShock 4 Button Prompts for Need for Speed Heat.
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes

Generic/other controllers		Use x360ce to make them work Steering wheel controllers are also supported.
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Under Vibration, in Controls Settings.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Keyboard Key Bindings

• 

  Microsoft Xbox One Controller Key Bindings

Audio

Audio Settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Effects, Music, Speech, Cop Scanner & VOIP.
Surround sound		5.1 and 7.1 supported.
Subtitles		Speech-to-text available for VOIP.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Arabic
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
German
French
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Brazilian Portuguese
Polish
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		12	Versus Crossplay can be enabled with PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions
Asynchronous multiplayer

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated		developer-hosted
Self-hosting
Direct IP

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Need for Speed: Heat.

Issues unresolved

HDR does not work on Nvidia GPUs

Since Nvidia driver version 400.00, HDR does not engage in exclusive fullscreen resulting in black screen of death or broken/pink colors. This seems to be a problem over the custom implementation EA used for Dolby Vision. Borderless fullscreen will engage Windows HDR and the game will have proper colors, but it's not certain if it's running proper HDR.

Issues fixed

Black screen on launch and broken controller bindings

Turn off Logitech G HUB Software[citation needed]

Loading forever

Turn off any overlay software like MSI Afterburner, Origin overlay, Steam overlay etc. Article

High CPU load & temperatures

NFS Heat CPU Load Fix

or you can add this to user.cfg in the game installation folder: Thread.ProcessorCount 6 Thread.MaxProcessorCount 6 Thread.MinFreeProcessorCount 0 Thread.JobThreadPriority 0 GstRender.Thread.MaxProcessor.Count 12 replacing 6 and 12 with the appropiate number for your CPU

Decreases CPU load & temperatures noticeably.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Anti-cheat	Unknown	Uses inventory synchronization and anti-trainers (even cheating while online in solo mode can potentially result in a ban or a progress reset).

Mods

Relatively large modding community with wide variety of mods ranging from gameplay enhancements to car modifications, to even granting access to the promotional and console-exclusive Red Bull Nissan 370Z (should you not have it).

All mods are available from NexusMods and require Frosty Mod Manager (some mods require the Alpha version of Frosty).

Should the game not launch, use Extreme Injector and inject cryptbase.dll into the game executable (issue seems to have been fixed as of August 2022.)

There is a tutorial on how to add your custom decals.

Heat has multiple mods that improve or change the game experience.

UNITE Heat

Adds many improvements to the game, including stance, handling, visual and gameplay improvements.

Extended stance and handling overhaul are separated from the main mod.

If you're still progressing through the story, use the story mode-compatible version. This prevents compatibility issues with cutscenes

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-3570 AMD FX-6350	Intel Core i7-4790 AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	50 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 AMD Radeon HD 7970 AMD Radeon R9 280X DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 480
Other	320 kb/s internet connection	512 kb/s internet connection

A 64-bit operating system is required.