Need for Speed: Carbon

Need for Speed: Carbon

Developers
	EA Black Box
macOS (OS X)	TransGaming Inc.
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	EAGL 3
Release dates
Windows	November 1, 2006
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

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 first-person and third-person racing game in the Need for Speed series.

It was released in North America and Taiwan on November 1, 2006, in Europe on November 3, 2006, in Australia on November 16, 2006 and in Japan on December 21, 2006.

The PC port of this game is based on the Xbox 360 version, in which some post-processing effects such as the blur effect applied on the street lights as seen on the PS3 version is missing. The motion blur effect also resembles the Xbox 360 version, rather than the more subtle rendition seen on PS3. The quality of the live action/pre-rendered cutscenes are also worse than the 7th-gen console release counterparts.^{[citation needed]}.

Physical Collectors copies were used to activate on Origin, but now they no longer do.

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

This is the only "Need for Speed" title to be released for MacOS X.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v4 DRM, Collectors Edition also available
Retail
Origin (unavailable)		Collectors Edition Only

SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).

This game is no longer available digitally.

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

Version differences

Collectors 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.

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]
Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini. Change SkipIntro = 0 to SkipIntro = 1. Change WindowedMode = 0 to WindowedMode = 1.

Delete/rename video files[citation needed]

Go to <path-to-game>\Game\MOVIES\. 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.

Install ThirteenAG's Fix
Download NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix. Extract the contents to <path-to-game> 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\
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\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 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)

• 

  General settings.

• 

  HUD settings.

• 

  Advanced graphics settings.

Field of view (FOV)

Set custom FOV[citation needed]

Download NFS-VltEd. Extract the contents and open the application. Click on File → Open and select the installation folder. On the left side, expand camerainfo and default. Select the camera to modify (bumper, close, etc.) 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. Click on File → Save to apply the changes.

Motion blur

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

Input

Keyboard 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

DualShock 4 controllers		Use NFS XtendedInput.
DualShock button prompts		Use NFS XtendedInput. Set ControllerIconMode = 1 in NFS_XtendedInput.ini
Light bar support
Connection modes	unknown

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging		Use NFS XtendedInput.
Haptic feedback		DirectInput controllers only. For XInput controllers, see here.
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 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.
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 in registry. Consider also setting 24 or 32 bit 192 kHz in Control Panel>Sound>[Default Device]>Advanced.

Subtitles

Enable subtitles[citation needed]
Install NFSC Extra Options. Open NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini. 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

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Need For Speed Carbon\. Find the language key and double click it. 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 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.

Multiplayer types

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

Connection types

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

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
Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix. Deadzone can be adjusted in NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini.

Unable to load save game

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

Stuttering in Windows 10

Fix stuttering once every second[citation needed]
Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini. 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]
Open NFSC.exe compatibility settings. Enable Windows XP (SP3) compatibility mode.

Game does not save the graphics options

Enable the local settings file[citation needed]
Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini. Set WriteSettingsToFile = 1 to store the game settings in the Settings.ini file. 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
Go to the installation folder. Copy EAInstall.dll to %WINDIR%\. 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.

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.

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]
Install NFSC Extra Options. Open NFSCExtraOptionsSettings.ini. Change AlwaysRain = 0 to AlwaysRain = 1.

Change size of rain drops
Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix. Open NFSCarbon.WidescreenFix.ini. Add RainDropletsScale = 0.5 and change the value if needed.

Xbox Rain Droplets[citation needed]
Install NFS Carbon Widescreen Fix. Download Xbox Rain Droplets and put the asi file in scripts folder.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000 SP4, XP SP2
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 1.7 GHz	Intel Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
System memory (RAM)	512 MB	1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.7 GB (Retail)	11 GB (Download)
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce3 Series/4 Ti Series ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0 compatible	Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon 9800 128 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
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.