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Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

For the original game from 1998, see Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit. For the remaster, see Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit cover
Developers
Criterion Games
DICE
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Engines
Chameleon
Release dates
Windows November 16, 2010
Reception
Metacritic 86
IGDB 90
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase
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, North America
Series Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Need for Speed
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on HowLongToBeat
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on IGDB
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit guide on StrategyWiki
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on MobyGames
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit on Wikipedia
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit
Subseries of Need for Speed
Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit 1998
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 2002
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2010
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit Remastered 2020

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a singleplayer and multiplayer racing game developed by Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sixteenth entry in the Need for Speed series.

A throwback to the original Need for Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998) and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (2002), Criterion's Hot Pursuit returns to the roots of the NFS franchise by having players drive sportscars and exotics as a racer or a cop in beautiful environments, taking place in a region called Seacrest County, which is inspired by places found in the West Coast of the United States. The game is also noted for the introduction of NFS's asynchronous multiplayer system, Autolog, where players can compare their best times in events against their friends.

It was released for Windows on November 16, 2010.

Currently, the game was delisted from all online storefronts in 2020 in favor of its remastered release.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Requires online activation
Can only be used x times
TAGES Solidshield DRM, Limited Edition & EA Crew Edition also available.
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Windows
Amazon.co.uk
Origin
Windows
Amazon.com (unavailable)
Origin
Windows
Origin (unavailable)
Origin
Windows
Steam (unavailable)
Icon overlay.png
CD key
Origin account and key activation is required for multiplayer.
Icon overlay.png
Windows

Version differences

Limited Edition content includes the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione and Ford Shelby GT500, with early access to the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione, Ford Shelby GT500, Audi TT RS Coupé, Chevrolet Camaro SS, Porsche Cayman S and Dodge Challenger SRT8.
EA Crew Edition content includes the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722 Edition, Maserati Quattroporte Sport GT S, Chevrolet Corvette Z06, Lamborghini Reventon, Bugati Veyron 16.4, Aston Martin DBS, and Audi R8 5.2 FSI.

DLC and expansion packs

No DLC other than the Limited Edition and EA Crew Edition content was made available for the PC version of the game, with these also being available through retail copies only. However, the 2 exclusive vehicles and 6 early unlocks from the Limited Edition (also included in the EA Crew Edition), 7 exclusive vehicles from the SCPD Rebels Pack (available in the PC version through the EA Crew Edition only), and several additional events from the Lamborghini Untamed Pack, Porsche Unleashed Pack, and Super Sports Pack (none of which had a PC release) can be modded in on the base version of the game from digital storefronts with a mod.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.0.5.0 (NFSHP_1000_to_1050.exe; PCGW mirror) is the last patch for the game. It is only required for retail version of the game. Digital versions are already patched.
Changelog (and PCGW mirror of all patches).

DLC mod

Installation
  1. Download the mod from here.
  2. Extract the files to <path-to-game>.

Notes

Does not include the Armed and Dangerous Pack.
Does not include new cars related to the DLC events from the Lamborghini Untamed Pack, Porsche Unleashed Pack, and Super Sports Pack. Single cars or selections of cars from the base game are used instead.
The 8 DLC event icons are located to the right side of the map and have no icon but can be selected normally.
The DLC events won't have new videos at the start and will show videos from the base game instead.
When the event cursor is at the DLC event icons, going into freedrive will make the game crash immediately.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Criterion Games\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\config.NFS11Save
%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Criterion Games\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\Save\Default\controls.NFS11Save
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47870/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Criterion Games\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\Save\Default\
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/47870/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

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

Video

Video settings.
Video settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Menus remain scaled to 16:9 and the in-game HUD extends out of the primary screen, but the FOV scales well.
Ultra-widescreen
Menus remain scaled to 16:9. However, both the in-game HUD and FOV scale well.[1]
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Racer_S Camera Hack can tweak this; get nfs11camhack103 or nfs11camhack10a if former doesn't work.[2] Doesn't work with the last patch.
Windowed
See Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See Windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Frame rate is capped at 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Due to the game's deferred rendering implementation, Super-Sampling-AA seems to have better performance than MSAA, if using a utility such as Nvidia Inspector.[citation needed]
Forcing Vsync to off via GPU panel does not work on AMD cards.[citation needed]

Run the game at screen refresh rate

The game enforces a 60 Hz refresh rate. This results in huge tearing artifacts when V-Sync is disabled and huge input lag when V-Sync is enabled.
For monitors that support more than 60 Hz, the following might help[citation needed]
  1. Download Special K.
  2. Copy SpecialK32.dll into the game folder.
  3. Rename SpecialK32.dll to dxgi.dll.
  4. Start the game and exit.
  5. Open dxgi.ini in the game folder.
  6. Change RefreshRate=-1.0 to RefreshRate=0.0 under [Render.FrameRate].
It is recommended to also disable V-Sync otherwise, stuttering might occur.

Windowed

Force windowed[citation needed]
  1. Download and run DxWnd.
  2. Click on Edit, then Add.
  3. Set the name and executable path.
  4. Set the window position and size.
  5. Set Desktop for borderless fullscreen windowed.
  6. Click OK, then File and Save.

Post-processing and HUD

The following mods can be used simultaneously.

Lens flare disabler mod

Disables the lens flare effects that are applied over the sun, street lamps and headlights/lightbars without affecting the basic sun texture, volumetric light shafts and bloom effects.
Turn lens flares off
  1. Download this file.
  2. Extract the files to <path-to-game>.

No HUD and real lights mod

NFSHP_RealLights_v2.tpf only affects headlights, while NFSHP_NoHud_RealLights_v2.tpf also removes the HUD.
Better headlight textures and HUD disabled
  1. Download the file from here or here
  2. Extract the files to <path-to-game>.
  3. Run TexMod.exe and click the folder icon to specify either Launcher.exe or NFS11.exe.
  4. Click the folder button in the toolbar and select the desired texture file.
  5. Launch the game from TexMod.
TexMod can be automated and launched from within Steam (allowing the Steam Overlay and playtime to be counted) by using EasyTexMod.

Input

Controller and Keyboard bindings.
Controller and Keyboard bindings.

Audio

Audio settings.
Audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music, Speech, and Sound Effects sliders
Surround sound
5.1 and 7.1
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
The game's sound-mix is bad. The low audio-volume of the player-car-engine was fixed in v1.0.2.0 to only some extent. To improve sound-quality copy DSOAL + HRTF into the game dir to greater enhance car-engine-volume (also option of no HRTF attached). Make sure you have stereo set in audio options for 2.0 configurations (alternatively use IndirectSound (no HRTF) and .ini). In DSOAL the changes are even pushed forward in this aspect. Now you may like to lower SFX volume to hear the music louder. Alternatively you can test out 5.1 setting in game options for better results with IndirectSound if DSOAL doesn't work on your current Windows 10 build.[3]

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
UK and US variant available
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Dutch
French
German
Hungarian
Italian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Fan translation, download
Russian
Spanish
Turkish
Fan translation by Gökhan Kocaman or download Direct Link

Manually change game's language

Registry edit to change game language
  1. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Electronic Arts\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\.
  2. Find the language and locale key and double click it.
  3. Change the value in language and locale order to the following list below:
    • English UK - en_UK
    • English US - en_US
    • Chinese (Traditional) - zh_TW
    • Czech - cs
    • Dutch - nl
    • French - fr_FR
    • German - de
    • Hungarian - hu
    • Italian - it
    • Japanese - ja
    • Polish - pl
    • Russian - ru (Alternatively, download this registry file to change it to Russian.)
    • Spanish - es

Note: Certain languages may not work for voices.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
Local play
LAN play
Online play
8 Versus
Features three game modes: Hot Pursuit (team based, semi-co-op racers vs. cops race), Interceptor (racer vs. cop head-to-head battle), and Race (classic race).
Asynchronous multiplayer
Autolog.

Connection types

VR support

3D modes State Notes
vorpX
G3D
User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues fixed

Micro stuttering

By default, the game places most of its processing load on the first CPU core only, which may cause stuttering and occasional framerate dips on some systems while traversing through the map. To fix this, the affinity of the NFS11.exe process must be changed to exclude CPU 0; after doing so, the load should equally spread across the remaining cores.
Manual fix[4]
  1. Enter the Task Manager via Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
  2. Move to the 'Details' tab.
  3. Right-click on the 'NFS11.exe' process and click on 'set affinity'.
  4. All of the cores should be activated by default. Untick the 'CPU 0' entry by left-clicking it.
  5. This process has to be repeated upon every launch of the game.

Notes

For 1+2+3 cores/threads setting on launch, a .bat file can be created and placed in game directory with the Start /affinity E nfs11.exe command - "E" being a hex value. To set it manually, get the corresponding "Associated value(s) (n)" from here and convert it to a hex value (third option here), then replace the "E" with it.
Permanent solution[5]
  1. Download ImageCfg and put it where the NFS11.exe file is located.
  2. Backup the NFS11.exe file.
  3. Open a command line where the NFS11.exe file is located, then use the following command:
...\ImageCfg.exe -a 0xE NFS11.exe
  • Using this command it will force the game process to use CPU cores 1, 2, and 3, skipping CPU core 0. This is ideally for CPUs with 4 cores. 0x<hex-num> has to be adjusted based on the CPU core count, according to the following table:
0x01 = 1 = CPU0
0x02 = 2 = CPU1
0x04 = 4 = CPU2
0x08 = 8 = CPU3
0x10 = 16 = CPU4
0x20 = 32 = CPU5
0x40 = 64 = CPU6
0x80 = 128 = CPU7
  • E.g.
0xF = 15 (CPU0, CPU1, CPU2, and CPU3 - 1+2+4+8 = 15; All CPU cores on a CPU with 4 cores enabled)
0xE = 14 - (CPU1, CPU2, and CPU3 - 2+4+8 = 14; All CPU cores on a CPU with 4 cores minus CPU 0 enabled)

Notes

The executable will then be permanently patched.

Controls settings not being saved

Edit controls file[citation needed]

Open in notepad %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Criterion Games\Need for Speed(TM) Hot Pursuit\Save\Default\controls.NFS11Save and edit the word "KEYBOARD" or its translated meaning to its respective counterpart in the game language of the previous save. Alternatively, it can be deleted.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 9.0c
Shader Model support 3.0
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) XP SP3
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 8.3 GB
Video card (GPU) Nvidia GeForce 7800
ATI Radeon X1900
256 MB of VRAM
DirectX 9.0c compatible
Shader model 3.0 or Higher support
Sound (audio device) DirectX 9.0 compatible
Other 512Kb/s or Faster Broadband connection for Activation and Online Play


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>/47870/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (47870) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References