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FlatOut

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

Not to be confused with Fallout.

FlatOut
FlatOut cover
Developers
Bugbear Entertainment
Publishers
Retail (Europe) Empire Interactive
Retail (Russia/CIS) Buka Entertainment
Retail (North America) Vivendi Universal Games
Retail (Italy/Spain) FX Interactive
Retail (Germany) Ak tronic Software & Services
Retail (Poland) Techland
Retail (Czech Republic) TopCD
Digital Strategy First
Engines
ROMU Engine
Release dates
Windows November 5, 2004
Linux (Wine) July 24, 2014[1]
Reception
Metacritic 72
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person, Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Racing, Tricks, Vehicle combat
Vehicles Automobile, Off-roading, Track racing
Art styles Realistic
Themes Contemporary
Series FlatOut
FlatOut on HowLongToBeat
FlatOut on IGDB
FlatOut on MobyGames
FlatOut on Wikipedia
FlatOut
FlatOut 2004
FlatOut 2 2006
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage 2008
FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction 2011
FlatOut 4: Total Insanity 2017

FlatOut is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person and third-person action, racing, tricks and vehicle combat game in the FlatOut series.

GameSpy multiplayer was planned for the PC version, but was not released. There are mentions of GameSpy for the PC version in patch 1.2.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
US: SecuROM 7 DRM (v1.2)
Europe/Russia/CIS: StarForce 4 DRM[Note 1] (v1.0/v1.1)
Windows
Retail
DRM-free
Polish and Czech release. (v1.1)
Windows
Publisher website
DRM-free
v1.0
Windows
Epic Games Store
DRM-free after installation through Epic Games Launcher (notes may include more details)
v1.0
Windows
GamersGate
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Gamesplanet logo.svg
Icon overlay.png
Windows
GOG.com
DRM-free
v1.1[4]
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
Icon overlay.png
v1.0
Windows
ZOOM Platform
DRM-free
Super Digital Deluxe Edition (v1.1)
Windows
Publisher website
Icon overlay.png
Russia, CIS. Bundled with FlatOut 2, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage, Flatout 3: Chaos & Destruction.
Windows
StarForce DRM for this game does not work on modern versions of Windows (see above for affected versions).

Version differences

GOG version has problems with textures and crashes in multiplayer.[5]
Super Digital Deluxe: ZOOM Platform version, has fixes that other versions don't have. It also has more supported languages.[6][7][8][9][10]

Demo

Essential improvements

Patches

Retail: Custom v1.1 Retail Patch
Steam: Custom v1.1 Steam Patch
Only the US release received version 1.2. The patch was released together with SecuROM, and there is no solution for playing without a disc. v1.2 contains fixes for multiplayer, chat in multiplayer and other fixes.
The patch [Custom v1.1 Steam Patch] fixes multiplayer for the GOG version.

Opening the launcher

After the first time launching the game, the launcher won't show up again rendering the player unable to reconfigure the settings.

Windows version[11]

Use the -setup command line argument.

Linux version[citation needed]

On GOG.com's Linux version, the start.sh located in the install directory has to be modified to access the launcher. In the script, there is an option to edit how the game is launched. Look for default() { and change the lower line run_game to run_settings. After that, the game launcher starts as default, but it can be changed back.

Skip intro videos

Use ZolikaPatch
Use ThirteenAG's widescreen fix[11]
Delete/rename video files[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\data\video
  2. Delete or rename bugbear.avi, empire.avi, intro.avi, and nvidia.avi.

ZolikaPatch

Removes forced V-sync and the 100 FPS cap.
Fixes the zoomed in FOV, stretched HUD elements in widescreen resolutions and widescreen scaling.
Option to skip intro videos and the 5 second wait on copyright screen.
Option for borderless windowed mode.
  • Doesn't work in Zoom Platform release.
  • Uncapping the framerate can cause minor issues with car engine sounds, very high framerate makes car deform more easily.
Applying ZolikaPatch
  1. Download the ZPatchFO1_v#.#.zip file.
  2. Extract the contents of the download to <path-to-game>; replace the file(s) when prompted.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Savegame\[Note 2]
Linux
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6220/pfx/[Note 3]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Savegame\[Note 2]
Linux
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/6220/pfx/[Note 3]

Save game cloud syncing

Video

Game's launcher.
Game's launcher.
Video settings.
Video settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Stretched 4:3. To correct the ratio use ThirteenAG's widescreen fix or ZolikaPatch (fixes stretched HUD).
Multi-monitor
Use ThirteenAG's widescreen fix or ZolikaPatch.
Ultra-widescreen
Stretched 4:3. To correct the ratio use ThirteenAG's widescreen fix or ZolikaPatch.
4K Ultra HD
Stretched 4:3. To correct the ratio use ThirteenAG's widescreen fix or ZolikaPatch.
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
Use ZolikaPatch to disable it.
60 FPS
Frame rate is cut in half when slow motion is used.
120+ FPS
Frame rate is capped at 100 FPS. Use ZolikaPatch to remove the cap outside menus.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Field of view (FOV)

Set FOVFactor[11]
  1. Install ThirteenAG's fix.
  2. Edit Flatout.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Set FOVFactor to the desired value.

Windowed

Use ZolikaPatch for borderless windowed mode
Force windowed mode[citation needed]
  1. Download d3d9hook.
  2. Extract d3d9.dll to <path-to-game>.

Note: d3d9hook lists an old forum link [archive] that is now invalid. Here is the valid link

Input

Input settings.
Input settings.
Controls mapping.
Controls mapping.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
No mouse support.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Button bound to Handbrake works as Select, Nitro works as Back.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
PlayStation controllers
Generic/other controllers
Button prompts
Additional information
Button prompts
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
For XInput controllers see XInput force feedback vibration in DirectInput games.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M
In menus, Controller and KB/M can be used at the same time. Controller used for races has to be set in the settings.

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Menu music, In-game music, Effects.
Surround sound
Up to 5.1. Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support
DirectSound3D.[12] Select Hardware 3D in launcher.
Royalty free audio
The game uses licensed songs with no option to change to other songs
The song, Whitmore - Nine Bar Blues, is missing from the US release.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Czech
Retail and ZOOM Platform only. GOG
French
German
Retail, steam and ZOOM Platform only; download for GOG.com release.
Hungarian
ZOOM Platform only.
Italian
Polish
ZOOM Platform only.
Polish
Fan translation, download.
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation, download.
Russian
Retail and Zoom Platform only; download for the Steam & GOG releases.
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
4 Hot seat
Bonus Rag-Doll Sports Mode, but missing split screen.
LAN play
8
Online play
8 US console version. After patch applied, GOG version supported on GameRanger.

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
Officially supported game, see official vorpx game list.

Issues fixed

"Access Denied - Please login with administrator privileges and try again" error on launch

Install the v1.1 patch

Missing car texture in some races (GOG)

Install this fix

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
Linux

Middleware

Middleware Notes
Physics Havok
Audio DirectSound3D, FMOD

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98, ME
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 1.5 GHz
AMD Athlon XP 1500+
System memory (RAM) 256 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1.1 GB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible


Notes

  1. This version of StarForce DRM does not work on Windows 8.1, Windows 10, or Windows 11.[2][3] For supported versions of Windows the StarForce driver may need to be updated manually using SFUPDATE.
  2. 2.0 2.1 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  3. 3.0 3.1 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>/6220/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (6220) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

  1. GOG.com Now Supports Linux! - July 24, 2014 - last accessed on May 2023
  2. Windows 8.1 support - StarForce Support
  3. Windows 10 support - StarForce Support
  4. Verified by User:AlexKVideos1 on 2024-03-11
    Although the files are unpacked, I verified it's the 1.1 version. The patch notes text file is in the game folder, ragdolls can be turned on / off, and destruction derby can be played in multiplayer.
  5. Verified by User:Mrtnptrs on 2023-04-06
    Source would be nice to inform others about its severity.
  6. Update 1.1 - ZOOM Platform Discord - last accessed on 2023-04-06
    "
    FlatOut:
    
    - Updated to Game Version 1.1.
    - Various bug fixes.
    - Added German and Russian localization.
    - All languages now in single installer.
    "
  7. Update 1.2 - ZOOM Platform Discord - last accessed on 2023-04-06
    "
    FlatOut:
    - Updated Installer to Version 1.2.
    - Added French, Italian and Spanish Manuals. Special Thanks to @SRDLINE | ZOOM!
    "
  8. Update 1.3 - ZOOM Platform Discord - last accessed on 2023-04-06
    "
    FlatOut:
    
    - Added Czech, Polish and Hungarian localizations, alongside some fixes.
    "
  9. Update 1.4 - ZOOM Platform Discord - last accessed on 2023-04-06
    "
    FlatOut:
    - Fixed Installer issues for some languages, added final localization fixes.
    "
  10. Update 1.5 - ZOOM Platform Discord - last accessed on 2023-04-06
    "
    FlatOut: Super Digital Deluxe Edition:
    
    - Updated to ZOOM Version 1.5.
    - All languages besides Russian are now selectable via the launcher. Russian uses its own executable.
    - Fixed a GPU load issue that was sometimes caused by opening the credits menu.
    "
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 Verified by User:Nessy on 2022-03-19
  12. FlatOut with 3D spatial sound 🎧 (OpenAL Soft HRTF audio) - last accessed on 9 June 2023