Colin McRae: DiRT

Colin McRae: DiRT

Developers
	Codemasters
Engines
	Neon
Release dates
Windows	June 15, 2007
Reception
Metacritic	84
IGDB	81
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Racing, Simulation
Vehicles	Automobile, Off-roading
Art styles	Realistic
Themes	Contemporary
Series	Colin McRae Rally

Key points

The game features full keyboard support but an Xbox 360 Controller is recommended.

Multiplayer servers were shut down.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		StarForce 4.7 DRM. Removed in Patch 1.22.
Steam (unavailable)

No longer available due to licensing reasons.

Demo is available

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.22 requires the installation of patch 1.21 first.

• Patch 1.20
• Patch 1.21
• Patch 1.22

Mods

• Visual Overhaul Mod (Disable Bloom and Improve Draw Distance) [1]

Nvidia control panel settings

• add Dirt.exe

• Set Aniso 16x (Increasing the visual clarity of textures)

• Set Vsync to Fast
• Set Max framerate to your screen refresh rate (both settings works like Vsync enabled, but without affect to controls)

• Press Apply

Disable bloom

• Make backup copy of %game folder%\postprocess\effects.xml
• Open in any text editor effects.xml
• Search lines <Param name="bloomAmount">x.xxxxxx</Param> where x.xxxxxx - number. Notepad++ search pattern for example <Param name="bloomAmount">\d.\d{6}</Param>
• Replace all with <Param name="bloomAmount">0.000000</Param>.
• Save changed file and start game.
• This removes only bloom. Fake HDR and fake eye adaptation still works.

Disable fake HDR

• Make backup copy of %game folder%\system\hardware_settings_config.xml
• Open in any text editor hardware_settings_config.xml
• search string <postprocess blur"=
• Change in that string param hdr="true" to hdr="false"
• Save changed file and start game.
• This removes only fake HDR.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Codemasters\DiRT\hardware_settings_config.xml
Steam	<path-to-game>\system\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/11440/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Codemasters\DiRT\savegame\
Steam	<path-to-game>\savegame\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/11440/pfx/

Location can be changed in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Codemasters\DIRT\

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphical settings.

Graphical settings continued.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed		See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Possible to force in driver settings
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 4x MSAA
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Use FOV Changer[citation needed]

Search in the installation folder for cameras.xml. Select all files (47 in total), right-click and open properties. Untick the read-only option and click OK. Download and extract Dirt3FovChange. Run Dirt3FovChange.exe as administrator. Specify the base installation folder. Adjust the settings to your liking and click start. Vertical FOV: a larger number will translate into a wider field of view. Adjust FOV for: selects the in-game camera or cameras you want to edit. Head Offset: affects the position of the head-cam (cockpit view). A modification of 0.1 will yield a noticeable change. It is to be noted that the point of view can be placed outside of the car. X: affects the lateral position. A positive value will move the point of view to the left. Y: affects the vertical position. A positive value will move the point of view upward. Z: affects the front/back position. A positive value will move the point of view closer to the dashboard. Head Tilt Change: affects the vertical angle of the camera. Compared to the position values, the tilt value works on a different scale: a modification of 1 will yield a barely noticeable change. A positive value will tilt the camera up. Notes Modifying certain settings may not be supported and can cause errors. Modifications made during a race require quitting and restarting the race.

Windowed

Change config file setting[citation needed]
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open hardware_settings_config.xml. Change fullscreen from true to false. Save the changes.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
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

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound		7.1 supported
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		EAX 5
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
French
German
Hungarian				Hungarian retail release only.
Italian
Polish				Polish retail release only, UI translation available
Russian
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play		The official multiplayer service was shut down.

VR support

3D modes	State	GG3D	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision			See Helix Mod: Colin McRae's DiRT.
iZ3D
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see important tweaks to get the game running with vorpx here.

Devices
TrackIR		Supports: Yaw, Pitch, Roll, X, Y, Z.

Issues fixed

Game crashes after the race finishes loading

Edit file
Go to <path-to-game>\system\ Open hardware_settings_restrictions.xml in text editor Replace system/workerMap8Core.xml with system/workerMap4Core.xml Save the file

Fix Lag in Races in CPU 4 Cores + 8 threads (like i7 4790k)

Set affinity[citation needed]

Go in windows task manager, right-click on DiRT.exe process Define affinity for 7 CPUs threads (unmark one). Method may work on other CPUs Making changes permanent (setting affinity in task manager only lasts until you exit the game): Edit your preferred shortcut for launching the game (desktop and/or start menu) In the target field, set the following (just put the default contents in double quotes and prepend cmd.exe /C ...): For a 4/8 (core/thread) CPU cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity 7f "<path-to-game>\DiRT.exe" For a 6/12 (core/thread) CPU cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity 557 "<path-to-game>\DiRT.exe" For a 8/16 (core/thread) CPU and higher cmd.exe /C start "" /affinity 1555 "<path-to-game>\DiRT.exe" Verify correct affinity by launching the game and checking affinity in task manager (see beginning)

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c
Shader Model support	3.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Audio	OpenAL
Cutscenes	Bink Video
Multiplayer	DemonWare

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP	Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 3.0 GHz	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 GHz AMD Athlon X2 3800+
System memory (RAM)	1 GB	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	12.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon X1300 Shader model 3.0 support	Nvidia GeForce 8800 ATI Radeon X1950