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Shift 2 Unleashed

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Shift 2 Unleashed
Shift 2 Unleashed cover
Developers
Slightly Mad Studios
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
Madness Engine
Release dates
Windows March 29, 2011
Shift 2 Unleashed guide on StrategyWiki
Shift 2 Unleashed on Wikipedia
The Need for Speed 1994
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Need for Speed: ProStreet 2007
Need for Speed: Undercover 2008
Need for Speed: Shift (series)
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Need for Speed: The Run 2011
Need for Speed Rivals 2013
Need for Speed (2016) 2016
Need for Speed Payback 2017
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Need for Speed Unbound 2022

General information

Need for Speed Wiki
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Origin
Requires online activation
Can only be used x times
Must be activated to play
Windows
Amazon.com
Origin
Can only be used x times
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Origin
Can only be used x times
Windows
Origin
Origin
Can only be used x times
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Can only be used x times
Includes free DLC pack. Redeemable on Origin as well.
Icon overlay.png
Windows
All versions require TAGES Solidshield DRM with 5 machine activation limit. Online activation through EA servers is required.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
PC DLC Pack Free download containing Legends Pack and Speedhunters Pack; Origin downloads available for all versions (DVD, Origin, Non-Origin).
Windows

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Movies\
  2. Replace the original BootFlow_in.bik and BootFlow_out.bik with the ones from this archive.

Game data

General settings.
General settings.

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED\graphicsconfig.xml
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47920/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED\profiles\default.sav
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47920/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Origin
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Graphics settings
Graphics settings

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Control settings
Control settings
Advanced Control settings
Advanced Control settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Audio settings
Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Polish
Russian

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play

Issues unresolved

Intermittent flickering in cockpit view on Nvidia Maxwell GPUs

Players have reported an issue with Nvidia's Maxwell video cards where a single black frame is rendered at random moments when using cockpit view.[1][2]

Issues fixed

A poster on NoGripRacing details numerous fixes for a number of problems here.

Should it be deleted, the text of the post is as follows:

Issues:

  • Low graphics quality
  • Low FPS and stutters
  • Input lag
  • Poor FFB
  • Cars feel like floating instead of driving on asphalt
  • AA not working
  • Settings (car set-up, graphics) do not stick

Solutions:

  • Force AF to 16x through the gfx card driver
  • http://www.overclock.net/ati/979202-shift-2-performance-fixes.html#post12952722 (new link: https://www.overclock.net/forum/67-amd-ati/979202-shift-2-performance-fixes.html)
  • Edit DampeningEnabled="1" string to "0" in vehicleset_pc_custom_pad.xml and reselect controller scheme in game (to custom pad of course). Should work with custom wheel file as well. Disbale 'Allow Game To Adjust Settings' in Logitech Profiler.
  • FFB is different for sure in Shift 2. The one thing really missing is tyre grip in the FFB.
  • This is mostly caused by the default set-ups being very loose. See this thread for how to tweak set-ups for more responsive handling.
  • Apparently AA in S2U is software-based that makes the 'classic' AA not work. With ATI cards, you can enable Morphological Filtering in the driver, this gives good AA but comes with a huge performance drop. For Nvidia cards, read this thread.
  • To save a set-up, use the Shift button. However, there seems to be a bug in the game that reverts changed values to their old values.

Steering input lag

Input lag where you steer but the car doesn't respond for a significant amount of time can be resolved by changing the DampeningEnabled="1" string to "0" in vehicleset_pc_custom_pad.xml and reselecting the "Custom" controller scheme in game.[3]

Other information

API

Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP3
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM) 2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 7 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 8 Series
ATI Radeon HD3000 Series
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 3.0 support

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/47920/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (47920) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References