Need For Speed: Carbon.

[Mario]

Here is the official Need For Speed: Carbon readme file.

EA GAMES(tm) presents
Need for Speed(tm) Carbon
README



WHAT THIS FILE IS
=================
This file contains information that supplements the Manual. If you are
experiencing problems not covered in this README, please contact EA
Customer Support.

NOTE: Content of Web Links within this document may not be under the
control of Electronic Arts.


************************************************** **********


TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1. INSTALLATION
2. BASIC KEYBOARD CONTROLS
3. MANUAL ADDENDUM
4. ONLINE PLAY
5. TROUBLESHOOTING
6. CONTROLLER INFORMATION

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1. INSTALLATION

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Thank you for purchasing Need for Speed Carbon.

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
===========================
Windows XP Service Pack 2 (32Bit Edition only), Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 operating system
Intel Pentium 4 (or equivalent) CPU running at 1.7GHz or higher
64MB DirectX 9.0c compatible video card (NVIDIA Geforce4 Ti/ATI Radeon 8500 or higher) using a
supported chipset (see below)
512MB RAM
DirectX compatible sound card
5.3 GB of HD space
8X or faster DVD Drive

To play online a network card is required for broadband connectivity

Installation Instructions:

Exit all applications. It is recommended that you do not run unnecessary
background applications when installing the game.

Insert DVD Disc into your computer's DVD drive. The Autorun menu will
appear as soon as your disk drive recognizes the disk. Select Install to
Install the game. A prompt will appear to enter your install code.
Enter the install code and click on the Next button.

You will then get a menu asking to choose either a default install or
the advanced install (which allows you to specify an install
directory). Select Next and you will be prompted to register the game through
Electronic Registration. Select Register Now to register the game, or select
Register Later to continue with the installation.

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2. BASIC KEYBOARD CONTROLS

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The basic keyboard controls required to play the game are:

In Game Controls:

Steering Left/Right Arrow
Throttle Up Arrow/A
Brake/Reverse Down Arrow/Z
E-brake Spacebar
Nitrous Boost Right Shift
Speedbreaker X/G
Look Back L
Shift Up Left Shift
Shift Down Left Ctrl
Camera Change C
Reset Car R
Pause Game Esc
Activate Crewmember Right Ctrl
Read SMS Tab
World Map M
Enter Race/Shop Return




Menu Controls

Highlight Menu Items Up, Down, Left and Right Arrows
Cycle Choices / Move sliders Up, Down, Left and Right Arrows
Select / Go to next Screen ENTER or left mouse click on selection
Return to previous screen ESC
Take Screenshot F12
(Screenshots are saved in the installation directory)

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3. MANUAL ADDENDUM

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VIDEO CARD SUPPORT
==================

Although Direct3D is supported, this support is only officially
extended to certain 3D accelerator devices. The following major D3D
chipsets are supported.

NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4200
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4400
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4600
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti-4800
NVIDIA GeForce FX Series
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
NVIDIA GeForce 6600
NVIDIA GeForce 6800
NVIDIA GeForce 7300
NVIDIA GeForce 7600
NVIDIA GeForce 7800
NVIDIA GeForce 7900
ATI Radeon 8500
ATI Radeon 9000
ATI Radeon 9100
ATI Radeon 9200
ATI Radeon 9500
ATI Radeon 9550
ATI Radeon 9600
ATI Radeon 9700
ATI Radeon 9800
ATI Radeon X300
ATI Radeon X550
ATI Radeon X600
ATI Radeon X700
ATI Radeon X800
ATI Radeon X850
ATI Radeon X1300
ATI Radeon X1600
ATI Radeon X1800
ATI Radeon X1900

***NOTE: Laptop versions of these chipsets may work, but are not officially supported. NVIDIA GeForce MX series not supported.



While Direct3D supports a wider variety of 3D accelerator devices, the
behavior of Need for Speed Carbon cannot be predicted in these
situations. In extreme cases, running Need for Speed Carbon with
a Direct3D device that is not officially supported can lead to an
unstable PC environment.

SOUND CARD SUPPORT
==================

Need for Speed Carbon supports DirectSound. If your sound card
driver does not support DirectSound you may experience choppy or
stuttering sound or sound that cuts in and out. If your sound card
driver does not support DirectSound, we recommend obtaining updated
drivers from your sound card manufacturer.


DVD DRIVES
====================================
Need for Speed Carbon requires at minimum an 8x DVD
drive. The game Disc must be in the DVD drive when you start the
game. If your system has more than one DVD drive, be sure the game
disc is in the same drive from which you installed the game.


DEFAULT GRAPHICS SETTINGS
==============================
The first time Need for Speed Carbon is run, a system check is
performed and default levels are set for the various graphics
settings. These default levels are set to provide the best game play
experience possible based on the hardware detected in your system.

These settings can be adjusted in the Video menu of the Options.

Resolution: Use the arrows to increase or decrease the game
resolution. Increasing the game’s resolution may slow down system
performance.

Level of Detail: Use the arrows beside the Level of Detail bar to
increase or decrease global graphics setting. Increasing the Detail
setting to high will improve the game’s graphics but may slow down system
performance.

Advanced Display Settings: Tweak individual graphics settings. (See
below.)

Default Settings: Reset your graphics settings to the default for your
hardware configuration.

Selecting Advanced Display Settings in the Video menu takes you to
the Advanced Display Settings menu. The following individual settings
are available to tweak to change the game’s graphics output and game
performance. Turning all the settings to on may slow down system
performance.

Full Screen Anti-Aliasing: Adjust this setting to increase/decrease pixel smoothing.

Motion Blur: Enable/disable motion blur effect on supported video cards.

Particle System: Enable/disable particle effects in the game.

Texture Filtering: Adjust this setting to increase/decrease the Quality of the textures.

Vsync: Updates the screen based on the refresh rate of your monitor.

World Detail: Increase the amount of detail visible in world geometry.
Decreasing world geometry detail may increase overall system performance.

Road Reflection Detail: Increase or decrease reflections visible in the road.

Car Detail: Setting this to High increases geometry details
on the car.

Car Reflection Update Rate: Increase or decrease how quickly reflections
are visible on the car update.

Rain Effect: Rain splatter effect on/off.

Visual Treatment: Increase or decrease the effect of the visual treatment in the game.

Not all graphic details are available for all video cards due to
hardware limitations.


ALIAS AND SAVE LOAD
============================

When you start a new Alias, you will not have any of the
progress (unlocked cars, parts, or progress through Career Mode)
that you had in your old Alias (You can always log back in under
your original Alias if you want to go back).

Manual Saves: Your game can be manually saved by accessing the Career
Menu and selecting Save.

NOTE:
Saving your Alias saves your game progress. When you make a save game,
you are saving your progress in Career Mode, the number of cars,
car upgrades, and tracks you have unlocked, and any modifications you
have made to your cars.

The final game save directory is located at:
\Documents and Settings\PC Login ID\My Documents\NFS Carbon

Substitute your actual Login ID for the PC Login ID mentioned above.


************************************************** **********


4. ONLINE PLAY

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To avoid poor performance during Internet play, be sure that you close
any file sharing, streaming audio, or chat programs prior to entering
gameplay. These applications can monopolize your connection’s bandwidth,
causing lag or other undesirable effects.

Need for Speed Carbon uses the following TCP and UDP port(s) for
Internet play:


TCP:

TCP 18210

TCP 18215

TCP 13505


UDP:

Outgoing: 18215, 20000 to 22000

Incoming: 3658, 1042


Please consult your router or personal firewall documentation for information
on how to allow game related traffic on these ports. If you are attempting to
play on a corporate Internet connection, contact your network administrator.

NOTE: Need for Speed Carbon supports only broadband connections
for online play. When logging in to play Online you are logging into
the EA servers. If you already have one, you may use your existing
EA Online account to play or you can create a new one.

Setting up an account: An EA online account is required for online play. At
the account log-in screen choose Create New EA online account. You will be
taken to menus where you enter account information and choose your
online user name. You can otherwise create an account at EA.com and use that to enter the game.


PLAYING ONLINE
=================
Starting up an online race is as simple as setting up any Quick Race mode. When creating a Quick Race set the Game Mode to Online and your race will include online competitors. You will be the leader of the Game Room and have say over the race settings.

Challenge Series includes several challenges that allow for co-operative play. When selecting these challenges select the "Online" option, you will then enter the Game Setup room where you can invite a friend or allow another player to join you.

Quick Match and Custom Match each allow you to jump into an online race quickly but in different ways. Quick Match will find you a race, any race, while Custom Match will allow you to choose the type of race and the game settings you like to play. When matchmaking begins we will find you a race as close to those parameters as possible.

Most race modes are online, even if you do not play against other players online. In Quick Race, Custom Match or Quick Match, set the Tracking Mode to Ranked. This will ensure that your race records are uploaded to the Leaderboards. View the Leaderboards in the Statistics menu, or view expanded Leaderboards and stats on NeedforSpeed.com.


The Game Room
=================

The Game Room is broken into two stages; the Game Setup screen and the Game Room. In Game Setup you are able to invite your friends to enter your race, and control the race settings before other players are added to your race in the Game Room. To prevent other online players from matchmaking into your race set your maximum racers to match the number of friends you have invited.

Game Room Countdown Timers:

Both Game Setup and Game Room have unstoppable timers. This is to assure all players that a race is immenent. The Game Setup Timer provides a considerable amount of time for the Race Leader to make adjustments and invite friends. After proceeding to the Game Room the timer resets to a much shorter time allowing for new players to drop in and choose a car before the race begins. Shortly before the race starts the timer turns red and the room is locked. At this point no further players may enter or leave the room. Disconnecting from a locked Game Room will increase your disconnect percentage.


Downloadable Content
======================

Need for Speed Carbon supports downloadable in-game content including new cars, performance parts, vinyls, and even the Collectors Edition upgrade. Many items are available in convenient bundles, and many are available individually. Visit NeedforSpeed.com to view whats available today. When you have purchased an item you may launch the game and the item should then be available in the Career Car Lot, in the Quick Race Car Select, or My Cars, depending on the item. See the item description for details.



In-Game Cheat Detection/Disqualifications
========================================

During Ranked Games the cheat detection will be operational and will monitor
race progress. Any attempts to tamper with car data, physics or Nitrous
will be detected by the server and those players will be flagged.

Players who are convicted of cheating or acting in a manner other than
racing will receive a disqualification at the end of the race, and or be removed
from the game during the race.

Need for Speed Carbon features an advanced Post Race Results screen
where all results are validated by the server before becoming official.

If any players received a disqualification or disconnection during the race the
finish order will be adjusted in this screen.

A DNF stands for “Did Not Finish” and is awarded any time a player does not complete a race for any reason whatsoever. Racers who quit will receive both a loss, and an increase in Disconnect Percentage.

EA Online will be monitoring players and server results on a regular basis.
Should any significant cheats be detected we will take action accordingly and ban
any person's accounts that are clearly trying to ruin the online experience for others.


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5. TROUBLESHOOTING

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DVD AUTOPLAY FEATURE
===================
Inserting the game DVD into your DVD drive and then immediately
running the game either from the Windows Start menu or by
double-clicking the game's Desktop icon may cause a conflict with the
DVD's AutoPlay feature. The easiest way to avoid this potential
conflict is to always wait a few moments after inserting the DVD to
allow the AutoPlay feature to run the game.


EJECTING THE GAME DVD
====================
Never eject the game DVD when the game is running. Failure to do so
can result in serious problems, including being unable to continue the
game.


FAST USER SWITCHING
===================
You will not be able to run two versions of the game using two different
windows accounts via the fast user switching (windows key + L).


DEVICE DRIVERS
==============
It is highly recommended that the latest versions of all device
drivers (i.e. video and sound card drivers) be obtained and installed.
Please consult your card manufacturer for their newest drivers. Also,
keep in mind that video chip manufacturers sometimes provide drivers
in addition to the card manufacturer.

If you are experiencing issues with an unstable PC environment please
make sure your Motherboard drivers (AGP, miniport) are up to date. For
further information please contact your Motherboard manufacturer.

VIDEO & GRAPHICS PROBLEMS
=========================
If you are experiencing performance problems on the default graphics
settings, try lowering some of the settings or the game resolution.

This game requires DirectX 9.0c
It is available for download by going to:

www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/

Graphic Cards: Graphical settings and features available in-game are
dependant on Graphics Card capabilities. Settings not supported by your
Graphics Card hardware are disabled in the Options Menu to prevent
adverse effects on the game and your computer.

NVIDIA Cards: All supported NVIDIA cards were tested using ForceWare
driver version 91.47 (Win2k/XP). It is highly
recommended this driver or a more recent version be used when running
Need for Speed Carbon.

Known Issues:

ATI Cards: All supported ATI cards were tested using Catalyst driver
version 6.8 (Win2k/XP). It is highly recommended
this driver or a more recent version be used when running
Need for Speed Carbon.




BACKGROUND PROGRAMS
===================
Avoid running other programs in the background.

Programs starting up automatically can cause Need for Speed
Carbon to lose control of the screen and keyboard, possibly
causing an unstable PC environment. We strongly recommend that you
shut down or suspend applications that start up automatically or
programs that automatically run other applications at specified times
before running Need for Speed Carbon. These include, but are not
limited to:
- Windows System Agent
- Windows Task Scheduler
- Windows "Disk Cleanup" utilities

Similarly, message boxes and dialog boxes from other programs or from
Windows itself can also cause Need for Speed Carbon to lose
control of the screen and keyboard, possibly causing an unstable PC
environment. We strongly recommend that you shut down all other
applications before running Need for Speed Carbon. These
include, but are not limited to:
- Email programs
- Calendar, appointment, or contact applications
- Network or Internet chat programs

Also, connections to/from non-dedicated servers can be disrupted when
background programs or screen-savers launch. We recommend that you shut
down other applications and run Need for Speed
Carbon by itself whenever possible.


POWER MANAGEMENT SUSPEND/SLEEP MODES
============================================
Systems (i.e. laptops or other portables) that automatically power
down into "sleep" or "suspended" modes can cause Need for Speed
Carbon to lose control of the screen and keyboard, possibly
causing an unstable PC environment. We strongly recommend that you
disable these features before running Need for Speed Carbon.


WINDOWS VIRTUAL MEMORY ISSUES WITH 512 MB RAM
==================================================
If you experience any Virtual Memory issues while running the game, try increasing
the page file size on your hard drive. Please consult the Microsoft Windows help
pages to determine how to tweak your virtual memory settings.

CHOPPY PLAYBACK DURING VIDEO SEQUENCES
==================================================
If you experience choppy playback during video sequences, try increasing
the page file size on your hard drive. Please consult the Microsoft Windows help
pages to determine how to tweak your virtual memory settings.

SAFE MODE
=========================
The safe mode option can be found under the game directory in the Start Menu. If this
option does not appear, go to www.microsoft.com/downloads and install the .NET Framework.
Then re-install the game.






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6. CONTROLLER INFORMATION

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CONTROLLER CONFIGURATIONS
================================
Need for Speed Carbon can be played with many popular gamepads
and controller devices. If your device is not recognized, or if you'd
like to modify the configuration the game has pre-assigned to your
controller, enter Controls under Options in the Main Menu.
The re-mapping tools in this menu are useful for tweaking your
controller for optimal play.

CONTROLLER PROBLEMS
=======================
To correct these problems, properly configure and calibrate the device
from the Windows Control Panel. If problems continue to persist,
disconnect the device from your computer before playing Need for Speed
Carbon. Ensure the latest manufacturer drivers are installed for
your device.

- The mouse pointer automatically scrolls through the buttons on menu
screens.
- Your car makes erratic movements that are not intended (i.e.
continually turning).
- Certain movements do not occur when the proper direction is pressed.
- Sluggish response on slower machines.


FORCE FEEDBACK SETTINGS
=============================
Force Feedback is not enabled on the Customize Controller screen of
the Options menu until proper, device-specific drivers are installed
for that controller. The default generic drivers provided by Windows
do not provide access to Force Feedback features.


KEYBOARD PROBLEMS
=======================
To adjust the feeling\sensitivity of the steering in gameplay when
using the keyboard, enter the Keyboard option in the Windows Control
Panel (Start - Settings - Control Panel). By adjusting the Repeat
Delay and Repeat Rate the user can adjust the controls to feel more
analog or digital depending on their preference.

Some newer keyboards do not allow certain combinations of more than
two keys to be depressed simultaneously. For example, if you were
pressing both the up arrow key to accelerate and the left arrow key to
turn, and you pressed the <C> key to change your view, the view may not
change. Unfortunately, this problem is due to a limitation of the
hardware.

While it is possible to bind game controls to the F12, Print Screen and
Windows keys, these keys will also retain their original function and can
interfere with gameplay.

The Windows key is not locked out during gameplay and it will bring
up the start menu during gameplay. This may interfere with gameplay.


(C) 2006 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved.

END OF Need for Speed Carbon README