Need for Speed: Most Wanted

Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Developer(s)	EA Black Box
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Series	Need for Speed
Platform(s)	GameCube
Release date(s)	NA November 15, 2005 EU/AUS November 25, 2005 JP December 22, 2005
Genre(s)	Racing
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer (2)
Input methods	GameCube Controller
Compatibility	4 Playable
GameIDs	GOWE69, GOWD69, GOWP69, GOWJ69, GOWF69, GOWJ13
See also...	Dolphin Forum thread Open Issues Search Google Search Wikipedia Debug Symbol Files

Need for Speed: Most Wanted, the new speedster in EA's successful series, combines the tuner customization of Need for Speed Underground with an expanded take on the police chases of the Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit series. The game will feature a Rap Sheet option that works hand in hand with a player's street reputation as they move up from the "Black List" to the A-List. Users will also be able to go head-to-head with their opponents while simultaneously trying to avoid more than six different police cars at once through a dynamically changing open-ended world. Get your car peaked for outrunning the cops by customizing your muscle cars, supercars, tuners, and sports cars.

Emulation Information

16:9

Need for Speed: Most Wanted has a native 16:9 display option, but it requires enabling it in its internal options and setting Dolphin's Aspect Ratio graphics setting to "Force 16:9". Using the widescreen hack with this title is not recommended.

Problems

VP6 Videos

Need for Speed: Most Wanted uses the VP6 video codec, common in Electronic Arts' titles, causing its videos to have vertical line artifacts and other glitches on many graphics cards. The Software Render will display VP6 video correctly, but is typically too slow. VP6 rendering also reacts poorly to the Force Texture Filtering enhancements (and Anisotropic Filtering on NVIDIA), causing further scrambling. See issue 7193. In 5.0-15515 or newer, this can be fixed with "Manual Texture Sampling" in the Graphics Settings -> Advanced menu.

VP6 video

VP6 video with manual sampling

Sun Halo

The halo around the sun isn't rendered. This can be fixed by revising the game INI, Sys\GameSettings\GOW.ini, as seen below. Fixed by 5.0-13743.

[Video]
PerfQueriesEnable = True

Correct Sun rendering.

FPS

As of 4.0-5310, during gameplay FPS can be incorrectly throttled to over 60FPS which causes choppiness. Using Virtual XFB solves the issue. Fixed with Hybrid XFB in 5.0-5874.

Configuration

Only configuration options for the best compatibility where they deviate from defaults are listed.

Graphics

Config	Setting	Notes
Manual Texture Sampling	On	Render VP6 video

Version Compatibility

The graph below charts the compatibility with Need for Speed: Most Wanted since Dolphin's 2.0 release, listing revisions only where a compatibility change occurred.

r5558

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5.0-19077 (current)

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Δ

Δ

Δ

Δ

2.0 (r5384)

Compatibility can be assumed to align with the indicated revisions. However, compatibility may extend to prior revisions or compatibility gaps may exist within ranges indicated as compatible due to limited testing. Please update as appropriate.

Testing

This title has been tested on the environments listed below:

Test Entries
Revision	OS	CPU	GPU	Result	Tester
4.0-3502	Windows 7	Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.5 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti	1080p (auto window size) 60FPS AAx4 AFx16 D3D Game runs perfectly	Dudewittude
4.0-5310	Ubuntu 14.10	Intel Core i3-3220 @ 3.3 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650	Playable at 90% speed. VP6 cutscenes all have vertical line artifacting and stuttering problems, and without Virtual XFB the game will sometimes throttle to 75FPS causing it to look choppy, but Virtual XFB also slows down emulation speed to 80%. Gameplay and graphics are otherwise perfect, fully working car reflections and no other missing effects noticed.	Xerxes
4.0-5930	Windows 8.1	Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4 GHz	AMD Radeon R9 290X	1080p, 60FPS, AAx8, AFx1(any higher here causes the cutscenes to go weird), D3D. Game runs fine.	doom_of_anubis
4.0-8961	Windows 10	Intel Core i5-6600K @ 3.7 GHz	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970	Direct3D. 1920x1080, AAx4, forced AFx16. It turns constantly in 60 FPS (100% speed). Everything is okay, except video which is completely broken. (vertical bands)

Gameplay Videos

Dolphin Emulator 4.0.2 - Need for Speed: Most Wanted (1080p HD) - Nintendo GameCube

Need for Speed: Most Wanted - NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV - Dolphin Emulator 5.0-13694 - GameCube