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Need for Speed: Carbon

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Need for Speed: Carbon
Need for Speed: Carbon cover
Developers
EA Black Box
macOS (OS X) TransGaming Inc.
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Simplified Chinese version CNEC
Engines
EAGL 3
Release dates
Windows November 1, 2006[1]
macOS (OS X) (Cider) August 17, 2007
Reception
Metacritic 78
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives First-person, Third-person
Controls Direct control
Genres Racing
Vehicles Automobile, Street racing
Art styles Realistic
Themes Contemporary
Series Need for Speed
Need for Speed: Carbon on HowLongToBeat
Need for Speed: Carbon on IGDB
Need for Speed: Carbon guide on StrategyWiki
Need for Speed: Carbon on MobyGames
Need for Speed: Carbon on Wikipedia
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

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) version of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Need for Speed: Carbon is a singleplayer and multiplayer racing game developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It is the tenth entry in the Need for Speed series.

Carbon features an open world and focus on the illegal street scene. The game's story takes place after the event of Most Wanted, where an unnamed racer, who had escaped the authority back at Rockport at the end of previous game, arrived at the fictional city of Palmont.

It was released in North America and Taiwan on November 1, 2006[1], in Europe on November 3, 2006, in Australia on November 16, 2006 and in Japan on December 21, 2006. The MacOS X version was ported by TransGaming Inc. and released on August 17, 2007 and, as of 2023, is the only Need for Speed title to be released for MacOS X.

Physical Collectors copies can be used to activate on Origin and later EA App, but now they no longer do.[2]

There is a DLC that was only released for the Xbox 360 that can be accessed in the PC version by using save file editing (Virus Vinyl Pack can also be unlocked by Extra Options).[3]

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
SafeDisc v4 DRM[Note 1].
Windows
Retail
DRM details are not known
macOS (OS X)
Origin (unavailable)
Origin
Collector's Edition only.
Windows
SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

Version differences

Collector's Edition content includes four exclusive vehicles, specially tuned cars, six exclusive races, three exclusive challenges (with three races per Checkpoint, Pursuits, Race Wars) and a bonus DVD.

Demo/free trial

A demo is available here. Progress and achievements does not carry over to the main game.

Monetization

Type Notes
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.4 (EU version, Traditional Chinese) fixes Windows Vista compatibility issue.

Skip intro videos

Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix[citation needed]
  1. Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Change SkipIntro = 0 to SkipIntro = 1.
  4. Change WindowedMode = 0 to WindowedMode = 1.
Delete/rename video files[citation needed]
  1. Go to <path-to-game>\Game\MOVIES\.
  2. Delete or rename attract_english_ntsc.vp6, ea_bumper_english_ntsc.vp6, eahd_bumper_english_ntsc.vp6 and psa_nikki_english_ntsc.vp6.

Notes

If the game is not in English, delete/rename the files corresponding to the language used instead, and in the PAL version, the file names will have PAL instead of NTSC at the end. For Japanese version, psa_yumi_japanese_ntsc.vp6 also need to be deleted or renamed.

NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix

Might require the 1.4 patch.
Fixes several issues and adds proper support for widescreen resolutions, gamepads, increased audio quality, increased shadow resolution and much more.[6]
Install ThirteenAG's Fix[7]
  1. Download NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Extract the contents to <path-to-game>
  3. See <path-to-game>\scripts\NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini file for all configurable options the mod has to offer.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed Carbon\[Note 2]
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\<Localized NFS Carbon>\<user-id>\
macOS (OS X)

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

Graphics settings.
Graphics settings.

Graphics feature State WSGF Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
Multi-monitor
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix and NFSC HUD Adapter.
Ultra-widescreen
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix and NFSC HUD Adapter.
4K Ultra HD
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
Field of view (FOV)
See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Limited to an 'Anisotropic' option.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Up to 4x FSAA.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
No frame rate cap. The facial captured animation seen on in-engine character models are capped at 30 FPS. Some elements are internally rendering at 60 FPS. See Change physics frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)

Field of view (FOV)

Set custom FOV[citation needed]
  1. Download NFS-VltEd.
  2. Extract the contents and open the application.
  3. Click on File → Open and select the installation folder.
  4. On the left side, expand camerainfo and default.
  5. Select the camera to modify (bumper, close, etc.)
  6. On the right side, expand FOV and change the value beside [0] to the desired FOV.
    • For the hood camera, the value might have to be changed for each car individually.
  7. Click on File → Save to apply the changes.

Motion blur

Change motion blur with ThirteenAG's Fix[7]
  1. Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Open <path-to-game>\scripts\NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini and set DisableMotionBlur to 1.

Input

Keyboard rebinding.
Keyboard rebinding.
Controller rebinding.
Controller rebinding.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
Menu buttons and look back (when racing, always L) cannot be rebound.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix to adjust deadzone.
Full controller support
Use NFS XtendedInput.
Controller remapping
Use NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix for proper menu navigation.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion
Controller types
XInput-compatible controllers
Use NFS XtendedInput.
Xbox button prompts
Use NFS XtendedInput.
Set ControllerIconMode = 0 in NFS_XtendedInput.ini
Impulse Trigger vibration
PlayStation controllers
Use NFS XtendedInput.
PlayStation button prompts
Use NFS XtendedInput.
Set ControllerIconMode = 1 in NFS_XtendedInput.ini
Light bar support
Adaptive trigger support
DualSense haptic feedback support
Connection modes

Generic/other controllers
Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Use NFS XtendedInput.
Haptic feedback
DirectInput controllers only. For XInput controllers, see here.
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

NFS XtendedInput

Improves gamepad support by implementing native XInput support into the game.
Reimplements console-like controls with replacing zoom in/out function to its Xbox 360 counterpart and fixing its behaviour in Photo Mode
Xbox and PlayStation prompts are both supported.
Rebinding can be made only through .ini file. It's disabled in game menu, as for now it crashes the game.
Controls are reset to default.

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Sound Effects, Car, Speech, Menu Music and In-Game Music sliders available.
Surround sound
Limited to a 'Surround' option. Up to 5.1 output.[8]
Subtitles
See Subtitles.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Free roam uses licensed music. Races use scored music.
Though the game does not use EAX, Creative Alchemy still can be used to enhance sound quality. It will just emulate DirectSound and 3D positional audio with OpenAL. Difference can be easily noticeable when music is off. For non-Creative cards users see here or use dsoal. Run in Windows XP SP3 compatibility mode to avoid crashing career mode while using Alchemy/DSOAL (alternatively as admin, or use 13AG widescreen which will most likely fix the issue). Sometimes whole career need to be started from the beginning with compatibility mode and Alchemy enabled. The solutions are to avoid disappearing car in career menu and crash after attempt to race. Alternative fix for the issue can be found here. Compatibility mode can cause resetting of the game settings. Please note that attempt of changing details in the game (renderer reset after returning from video settings), and either alt tabbing, have an influence on audio quality, also giving diffreent results depending on g_AudioMode setting to 0, 1 (default) or 2[9] in registry. Consider also setting 24 or 32 bit 192 kHz in Control Panel>Sound>[Default Device]>Advanced.

Subtitles

Enable subtitles[citation needed]
  1. Install NFSC Extra Options.
  2. Open NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini.
  3. Change ShowSubs = 0 to ShowSubs = 1.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
English subtitle only available natively in Asian releases by manually change the game's language. For others, see Subtitles.
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation, download.
Russian
Official localization by 1C-Softclub is here.
Version with added subtitles is here (requires setting ShowSubs=1 in Extra Options). Also contains faithful to original fonts.
Russian
Fan translation by «ENPY Studio»
Slovak
Fan translation, download.
Spanish
Latin American Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Ukrainian
Fan translation, download.

Manually change game's language

Registry edit to change game language
  1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Need For Speed Carbon\.
  2. Find the language key and double click it.
  3. Change the value to the following list below:
    • English UK
    • English US
    • Chinese (Simplified)
    • Chinese (Traditional)
    • Czech
    • Danish
    • Dutch
    • Finnish
    • French
    • German
    • Hungarian
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Polish
    • Russian
    • Spanish
    • Spanish (Mexican)
    • Swedish
    • Thai

Notes

Certain languages may not work for FMV and voices if the installed game doesn't come with it.

Network

Online settings.
Online settings.

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
2 Console versions only.[10]
LAN play
Online play
8 Online servers were shut down in August 31, 2021.[11]

Connection types

Issues fixed

Change physics frame rate

This makes everything in the game smoother, such as the drift force being applied much smoother to the car.
Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix
SimRate variable (controls refresh rate of the gameplay engine) set to a value of -1 (default value) in <path-to-game>\scripts\NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini enables this fix. Also allows the game to reach higher performance in the menus and during races.

Poor frame rate and crashes

Install DirectPlay[citation needed]

Controller deadzone issues

Fix left stick deadzone[12]
  1. Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Deadzone can be adjusted in NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.

Unable to load save game

Fix save game loading crash[citation needed]
  1. Install NFSC Extra Options.
  2. Make sure CrashFix = 1 is set in NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini.

Stuttering in Windows 10

Fix stuttering once every second[citation needed]
  1. Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Set WindowedMode = 1 to run the game borderless windowed.
This will also fix 60 FPS cap if encountered.

Crashes in Challenge Series

Fix crashes during certain races[citation needed]
  1. Open NFSC.exe compatibility settings.
  2. Enable Windows XP (SP3) compatibility mode.

Game does not save the graphics options

Enable the local settings file[citation needed]
  1. Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Set WriteSettingsToFile = 1 to store the game settings in the Settings.ini file.
  4. Check the audio settings afterwards, they can be messed up.

Game can't be uninstalled

eauninstall.exe error: "The program can't start because EAInstall.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem."
Fix uninstall error[13]
  1. Go to the installation folder.
  2. Copy EAInstall.dll to %WINDIR%\.
  3. Uninstall the game normally.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
This 32-bit-only macOS game does not work on macOS Catalina (10.15) or later.

Modifications

Remastered UI

Bumps up quality of the UI and includes 60 fps barrier animations and Need for Speed 2015 styled map (optional), use HUD Resizer for resizing if needed.

PS3 Visual Treatment

Makes the graphics look like the superior PlayStation 3 version.

Orbit Camera

This mod allows to rotate camera around the car while driving around.

HD Reflections

Scales the resolution of road, vehicle, and rear view mirror reflections.
Fixes misaligned vehicles reflections and other problems.
Controls the amount of blur used for road reflections and increases its resolution.

QHD Video Pack

Replaces the original SD quality live action/pre-rendered cutscenes with QHD 1440p resolution videos, upscaled from the Xbox 360 version of the game.
Also looks great on FHD 1080p and UHD 4k displays.
Video freezes can occur on modern systems due to the old nature of the game (this is also the case with the original SD quality videos).
Make sure you installed NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix and set FMVWidescreenMode = 2, otherwise all videos will be vertically stretched.

Extra Options

Adds various new settings and fixes vanilla game bugs.

Xbox Rain Droplets

Basic implementation of Xbox rain droplets from SkyGFX for other games.

Unlimiter

Script mod which fixes some issues and makes some improvements for add-on cars.

ZPatch

Fixes softlock when the player's car breaks down in a race.

Enhanced Visual Treatment

Enables an unused graphics option and other tweaks.[14]

HD Vinyls

High quality Vinyls.

World Filters & Sky for Carbon

This mod ports Visual Treatment filters and Sky Shaders from World to Carbon.

Apex Graphics

Graphics mod with rain puddles.

More EA TRAX in Races

This mod makes the game play licensed tracks instead of crew OST during races.

Fog Options

This mod provides full control over the CG fog settings.

Wingman

This mod provides some new crew stuff.

Rainy weather modifications

Force rainy weather[citation needed]
  1. Install NFSC Extra Options.
  2. Open NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini.
  3. Change AlwaysRain = 0 to AlwaysRain = 1.
Change size of rain drops[15]
  1. Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.
  3. Add RainDropletsScale = 0.5 and change the value if needed.
Xbox Rain Droplets[citation needed]
  1. Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix.
  2. Download Xbox Rain Droplets and put the asi file in scripts folder.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 2000 SP4, XP SP2
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 4.7 GB (Retail)
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce3 Series/4 Ti Series
ATI Radeon 8500
64 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum[16]
Operating system (OS) 10.4.9
Processor (CPU) Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 6 GB
Other 8x DVD-ROM drive
Integrated Intel graphics cards are not supported.


Notes

  1. SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows 10[4] 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.[5]
  2. Applications writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 EA Games Need for Speed : Carbon News Page - last accessed on 2024-01-15
    "Nov. 1, 2006
    The Chase is On! EA's Need for Speed Carbon Races Out To Retail Stores This Week
    Treacherous New Canyon Racing and Comprehensive Autosculpt to Redefine the Racing Genre
    "
  2. Solved: Is NFS Carbon Redeemable on Origin - Answer HQ - last accessed on 2020-12-03
  3. Need for Speed™ : Carbon - Save File Editor Tutorial - last accessed on 9 June 2023
  4. Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
  5. Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
  6. Need For Speed Carbon Widescreen Fix - GitHub - last accessed on 2022-12-05
  7. 7.0 7.1 Verified by User:Nessy on 2022-12-05
  8. PC Gaming Surround Sound Round-up - last accessed on May 2023
  9. xfi.blogspot.com - last accessed on May 2023
  10. NFS Carbon, PC splitscreen | GBAtemp.net - The Independent Video Game Community
  11. EA Online Services Shutdown: I-Q - last accessed on 2023-01-02
  12. Need for Speed - Analog sticks deadzone · Issue #165 · ThirteenAG/WidescreenFixesPack - last accessed on 2017-04-05
  13. (FIX) EAINSTALL.dll problem uninstalling NEED FOR SPEED CARBON - YouTube - last accessed on May 2023
  14. Fun Stuff! #2 - [NFSC] Enhanced Visual Treatment + Fog + Clear Sky - YouTube - last accessed on 9 June 2023
  15. 2. Configuration · Aero52/NFS-SH-WidescreenFixWiki Wiki - last accessed on 9 June 2023
  16. Need for Speed: Carbon for Macintosh (2007) Tech Info - MobyGames - last accessed on 2019-12-10