SpeedBreaker

SpeedBreaker v0.2.1 for Windows: beta 4

This is a beta. It’s Windows beta 3 with one change: the sun’s shadows take less work for the graphics card. The picture is the same. Nothing else is different from beta 3. Please try it and tell us how it runs, especially if you have an NVIDIA or AMD graphics card.

Download

SpeedBreaker-0.2.1-windows-x64-beta.zip, below, with its .sha256 checksum file. (It has the same file name as beta 3’s zip; the checksum tells them apart.)

What’s new since beta 3

• Cheaper sun shadows. Every frame the game draws the sun’s shadow map and then copies it, twice, into a texture the scene reads. That copying was a big share of each frame’s work on the graphics card. Now the scene reads the shadow map directly and the copy is skipped when nothing else needs it. The Mac, iPhone and Android versions have worked this way since v0.2.0; now Windows does too.
• On our test laptop (Intel UHD Graphics 620, Core i5-10210U), in the same session as beta 3: the main menu went from about 31.4 to 36.8 fps, and a busy race from about 26.9 to 30.6 fps. The graphics chip spent about 4.5 ms less per frame on each (31 to 26 ms in the menu, 36 to 32 ms in the race). CPU use, power and temperature didn’t change. On a PC that already holds 60 fps you won’t see a higher frame rate, but the graphics card should be less busy (lower GPU usage).
• The picture is unchanged: the game checked every shadow map it drew this way against the old way, texel for texel, in the menu and in a race (no difference at all), and our screenshots of the same moments are identical to beta 3’s.
• NVIDIA and AMD cards aren’t measured yet. We expect a saving there too, but we don’t know how big. That’s what we’d like your help with (below).

That’s the only change. If your graphics driver can’t read the shadow map directly (the game checks once at start), it simply works as in beta 3.

If something looks or runs worse

You can turn the change off without going back to beta 3. Open a Command Prompt in the game’s folder and run

set NFSMW_SHADOW_DEFER=0
SpeedBreaker.exe

which draws the shadows exactly as beta 3 did. If that fixes it, please tell us (see the test below).

Help us measure: one test, two runs (about 5 minutes)

This beta draws the sun’s shadows with less work for the graphics card (the picture should be exactly the same). To see what it does on your PC, please run the same short test twice, once as it comes and once the old way, and send us both bug reports.

1. Start the game normally. Go to the main menu and leave it there, without touching anything, for 1 minute. Then start a Quick Race (any track, but use the same one both times) and drive for 2 minutes.
2. Still in the race, press F1 (Back + Start on a controller), go to Advanced, and choose Save Bug Report. Quit the game.
3. Open a Command Prompt in the game’s folder and run:

   set NFSMW_SHADOW_DEFER=0
   SpeedBreaker.exe
   

   Do exactly the same as in step 1 (the same menu minute, the same track, 2 minutes), then Save Bug Report again and quit.
4. Attach both zips to one issue titled “Windows beta: shadow test”, with your graphics card, CPU, monitor refresh rate, and whether either run felt different (smoother, choppier, hotter, louder). If you can, also note the GPU usage % (Task Manager > Performance > GPU) in the menu in each run.

Keep every setting the same in both runs (don’t change Internal Resolution, Frame Rate or Shadow Resolution between them). Each zip holds the game’s logs for its last five sessions, with the frame rate and the GPU time every few seconds; nothing else is measured.

If the shadows look wrong in the first run (missing, flickering, blocky, shadow “acne”, black or white patches, shadows in the wrong place) but right with NFSMW_SHADOW_DEFER=0: save a bug report while it’s on screen (it

…

What’s new

• HDR output (Settings > Display, off by default). On a Mac with an HDR display, on SteamOS and the Steam Deck OLED with HDR on, and on Linux and Windows PCs whose system is in HDR, the sun, headlights and lit signs go brighter than white while the rest of the picture stays as it was. HDR Strength sets how far (2x by default, up to 4x), and large bright areas such as tyre smoke are held back so they don’t glow as a flat blob. Implemented by @danielgpinheiro, from @DoubleDips’s idea (#25).
• Shadow Resolution (Settings > Graphics): 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).

Fixed

• Black grass on AMD Radeon cards (#67, #54): distant grass on the roadside verges turned black on Radeon RX 6000 cards under Windows. The fix was made from testers’ reports and captures and hasn’t been run on an AMD card by us yet: if you still see it with Windows beta 3, please say so in #67.
• Anisotropic Filtering at 8x or 16x drew a light outline round dirt-road decals in shadow (#70).
• Building for iPhone and iPad no longer stops silently when the Spanish disc’s code isn’t built. Thanks to logicsandbox (pull request #72).

How to update

• Mac: drag the new SpeedBreaker into Applications and choose Replace, then allow it once more with Open Anyway (System Settings > Privacy & Security).
• Steam Deck, Steam Machine, Steam Frame and Linux: unpack the new download over the old folder (~/Games/SpeedBreaker). Your Steam shortcut keeps working.
• Everywhere: your saves, settings and the installed game are kept, and no disc image is needed.

More about it

• HDR uses the display’s extended range on a Mac (or HDR10, chosen with HDR Format) and HDR10 everywhere else, where the system offers it. HDR Paper White sets how bright ordinary white is in HDR10; Auto matches the system (100 nits on a Mac, 200 on Windows and Linux, 400 on SteamOS and the Steam Deck). The settings menu itself stays at standard brightness. Not on iPhone and iPad.
• The Spanish (PAL) disc now installs on iPhone and iPad too.

The full list of changes is in CHANGELOG.md.

Which file is for my device?

The two SteamOS files are not interchangeable: the arm64 one is for the Steam Frame only, and the x86-64 one doesn’t run on the Frame. Each download has a .sha256 file next to it (see Checksums below).

All downloads are built from this release’s source, commit 6cabdc7. The first line of the game’s log, and Settings > Advanced, say SpeedBreaker v0.2.1 (6cabdc7).

The Source code archives that GitHub adds hold SpeedBreaker’s own source, with no game code or data. Building from them needs your own disc; see Building from source.

iPhone and iPad: the experimental IPA

SpeedBreaker-0.2.1-ios.ipa is signed by nobody: a sideloading tool such as AltStore signs it with your own Apple Account and installs it. The IPA itself hasn’t been installed on a device yet: the iPhones and iPad it was tested on ran the same app built and signed with Xcode. Please

…