SpeedBreaker v0.2.1 Windows beta 3

SpeedBreaker v0.2.1 for Windows: beta 3

This is a beta. It's the same v0.2.1 as the Mac and SteamOS downloads, now for Windows: HDR output,
Shadow Resolution, Cooler Colors, and a likely fix for black roadside grass on AMD Radeon cards. So far the
Windows version has been tested on one laptop with Intel UHD Graphics. Please try it and
tell us how it runs, especially on the PCs we couldn't test.

Download

SpeedBreaker-0.2.1-windows-x64-beta.zip, below, with its .sha256 checksum file.

What's new since beta 2

• A fix for distant grass turning black on AMD Radeon cards (#67, #54). On Radeon RX 6000 cards
  under Windows, the grass on the roadside verges turned black in the distance. Shaders that look up
  their lighting per pixel now read it the way every driver handles; other GPUs show the same picture
  as before. If something looks wrong that didn't in beta 2, starting the game with the environment
  variable NFSMW_CONST_REL_RING=0 brings back the old way; please tell us if it helps.
• HDR Output (Settings > Display, off by default) on a PC whose Windows display is in HDR: the
  game's highlights (the sun, headlights, lit signs) reach the display's extended range. HDR
  Strength sets how far highlights go above white (2x by default, up to 4x); HDR Paper White sets
  how bright ordinary white is (Auto: 200 nits on Windows). A mostly white frame is dimmed toward
  standard range, so a full-screen logo doesn't become a flash. The settings overlay stays at
  standard brightness. If Windows isn't in HDR, the picture stays standard range. Implemented by
  @danielgpinheiro, from @DoubleDips's idea (#25).
• Shadow Resolution (Settings > Graphics): draws the sun's shadows at 1.5x or 2x for sharper
  edges, at some GPU time and memory. 1x, the default, is as on the Xbox 360. Thanks to krittinen
  (pull request #52).
• Cooler Colors (Settings > Display, off by default): a cooler picture with less of the game's
  yellow. Thanks to Namiidev (pull request #50).
• Anisotropic Filtering at 8x or 16x no longer draws a light outline round dirt-road decals in
  shadow (#70).

The other v0.2.1 changes are for other platforms (HDR Format on a Mac, the iPhone and iPad build
script).

Updating from beta 2

Extract the new zip into a new folder and run SpeedBreaker.exe from there: the installed game,
your saves and your settings in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SpeedBreaker carry over (no disc image needed),
and the game shows what's new once. Then delete the old folder. In portable mode, move your
portable.txt and the data and cache folders next to the new SpeedBreaker.exe.

What's been tested, and what hasn't

Tested on a laptop with Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Core i5-10210U, Windows 11 25H2) and a 60 Hz
screen: updating from beta 2 with saves and settings kept, a fresh install of the USA disc,
portable mode, racing, split screen with two controllers, FSR 1 upscaling, fullscreen, Quit
Game, the Controls page, Language: Spanish, Save Bug Report, and the new settings pages. On that
laptop a race runs at about 27 fps at 1x, the same as beta 2 (an integrated GPU of 2019 is below
what the game needs for 60). The grass fix (#67) was checked there for no change on Intel; it was
made for AMD from testers' reports, and hasn't been run on an AMD card by us.

Not tested yet:

• AMD graphics cards, including the grass fix itself: if you reported #67 or #54, please check
  the verges with this beta.
• NVIDIA graphics cards.
• HDR Output on Windows: the tested laptop has no HDR display.
• 120 Hz and 144 Hz monitors. At 120 Hz each frame should stay on screen for exactly two
  refreshes; at 144 Hz the game shows a one-time note about the uneven refresh. Both need the
  graphics driver to report when frames reach the screen, which the tested laptop's driver
  doesn't, so this has only been simulated.
• Recent Intel Arc graphics (including the Arc 130T/140T in Core Ultra laptops, see #42).
• The European (PAL) Spanish disc was tested in beta 2 and its code is unchanged since; this time it
  wasn't installed again.
• Desktop PCs in general, other Windows 10/11 versions, and real Xbox controllers on Windows.

Expect rough edges. If something's wrong on your PC, a bug report is the most useful thing you
can send.

What you need

• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.
• A CPU with AVX2: Intel Haswell (2013) or newer, or any AMD Ryzen. Without it the game says so
  and closes.
• A graphics card with Vulkan 1.2 and a current driver.
• Your own backup of your own Xbox 360 disc of Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005), the USA
  (NTSC-U) or the European (PAL) Spanish one: an .iso, or the extracted disc files. No
  game files come with SpeedBreaker.
• About 7.5 GB of free space. A controller is recommended; the keyboard works too.

Install

1. Download the zip, right-click it, choose Extract All, and open the extracted folder.
2. Double-click SpeedBreaker.exe.
3. SpeedBreaker isn't signed, so Windows may show "Windows protected your PC" (Microsoft
   Defender SmartScreen doesn't recognize the app yet). Click More info, then Run anyway.
   You can check the download first: put the .sha256 file next to the zip and run
   certutil -hashfile SpeedBreaker-0.2.1-windows-x64-beta.zip SHA256 in a Command Prompt; the
   hash must match the file's. If Windows blocks it with no "Run anyway" (Smart App Control does),
   it can't be started on that PC for now.
4. The installer looks for your .iso in your user folder, Downloads, Desktop, Documents and Games
   and on your other drives, or you browse for it (or for an extracted disc folder). It checks the
   game, says which disc it is, and shows where the game will go (Internal storage, another drive,
   or Choose a folder...). It copies and verifies every file (a few minutes). Then Start the
   game.

Saves, settings, logs and the installed game go in %LOCALAPPDATA%\SpeedBreaker. Check for
Updates isn't available on Windows yet; watch the Releases page. README.txt in the zip has
controls, portable mode and uninstalling.

Reporting a problem

1. In the game, open the settings (F1, or Back + Start on a controller), go to
   Advanced, and choose Save Bug Report. A zip appears on your Desktop.
2. Open an issue with
   "Windows beta" in the title: your graphics card and monitor (and its refresh rate), what you
   did and what happened, and attach that zip. Your Windows user name is left out of it.

If the game doesn't start at all, attach the newest files from %LOCALAPPDATA%\SpeedBreaker\logs
and a screenshot of any message.

Unofficial Windows builds made by others (for example from forks) aren't supported here:
we can't tell how they differ from this one. If you used one, please try this beta and report
with it.

Thanks

Thanks to the testers who reported the black grass on AMD cards (#67, #54), to
@danielgpinheiro and @DoubleDips for HDR, krittinen for Shadow Resolution, Namiidev for Cooler
Colors, and to rafidwayne, whose Windows port (pull request #39) fixed how the audio thread waits on
Windows (in since beta 1).

Source code

This build is commit 6cabdc7, the v0.2.1 source; the first line of the game's log, and Settings

Advanced, say SpeedBreaker v0.2.1 Windows beta 2026-10-31 (6cabdc7). The source of the LGPL
code by others in it (FFmpeg and libmspack, and how FFmpeg was configured for Windows) is
SpeedBreaker-0.2.1-windows-third-party-source.tar.xz, below.

Checksums

File	SHA-256
SpeedBreaker-0.2.1-windows-x64-beta.zip	da3d43be9ff8d1ff38b55439a187603a688de634666d82d9b4a951d059ee5017
SpeedBreaker-0.2.1-windows-third-party-source.tar.xz	a61e87af1b31302e17502f1a896418ce05b283fe33893d5328a41bc20288a74f