Need for Speed Carbon QHD Video Pack by Project-FM

Category: Miscellaneous | Game: Need for Speed: Carbon


Need for Speed Carbon QHD Video Pack





Need for Speed Carbon QHD Video Pack
by Project-FM
v1.0

So, there it is! The QHD Video Pack for my favorite Need for Speed game in the series... Carbon!
Now you can finally get rid of those awful SD quality videos from the PC version of the game.

Upscaled from 720p to 1440p using the videos from the Xbox 360 version of the game.
The combination of live-action and computer graphics made it a tough one.
I went through the effort to cut every video in parts and use different AI upscale models and tuning within Topaz Video Enhance AI to get the best possible results for each video.

Why not in 4k? Well, the VP6 codec used in Carbon doesn’t support higher than 1440p (and the upscaled image looked more artificial in 4k, it’s 300% the size instead of 200%).

Remember: Need for Speed Carbon is an old game from 2006. Video freezes can happen on modern systems. It's the game, not this video pack.

Enjoy!

INSTALLATION:

Optional: Backup the original MOVIES folder and its files from the game directory first if you like.

1. Extract the MOVIES folder and its files from NFSC_QHD_Video_Pack_v1.0.zip to your Need for Speed Carbon directory and overwrite existing files.
2. Make sure you installed the Widescreen Fix by ThirteenAG and set FMVWidescreenMode = 2, otherwise all videos will be vertically stretched.

NOTE: English language only!


These free tools saved me multiple times. Many thanks to the authors:

NFS-Disculator by nfsu360
XBOX360 Iso Extract by somski
Disculator Extractor by Xanvier
Shutter Encoder by Paul Pacifico
VGMToolbox by Snakemeat
VirtualDub2 by Anton Shekhovtsov
VP6 Builder by Siberian Gremlin
NFS Multimedia Converter by CTPAX-X Team
EA Audio & Video Converter by VAG, ARR


COMPARISONS:
















Comments


8thC0D3 (September 16, 2023 @ 13:08)
Really nice mod! I wanted to ask you: how did you manage to compress the upscaled videos with VP6 while keeping high quality video output? Every time I try to compress my videos in VP6 with VirtualDub I always end up with bad quality.
Thank you very much for your answer! :D

Madevi (January 14, 2022 @ 01:08)
Unfortunatelly, that all what I have from PS3 now.

ProjectFM (January 12, 2022 @ 17:23)
P.S. I used the NTSC versions (PAL is 25fps). For Samson's introduction I will combine the best bits from the PS3 and X360 files. Not the whole file is damaged luckily. Can you send me the three EA bumpers that are missing from your PS3 files?… "ea_bumper_english_ntsc", "ea_bumper_ws_english_ntsc " and "eahd_bumper_english_ntsc". Thanks In advance!

ProjectFM (January 12, 2022 @ 17:23)
Honestly, I don't have the time right now to make a new version. The third lockdown here in The Netherlands broke many lives into little bits and pieces, including mine. So, I'm putting V2.0 on my future to-do list! Hopefully later this year. I do have the skills (I was a Post-production Supervisor on movies) and written the perfect workflow to get the best out of the PS3 files, so it's worth the wait! To be continued...

ProjectFM (January 12, 2022 @ 17:23)
Hello Medevi, thanks for the info and files! I'm aware that the PS3 videos are better. Especially with moving graphics. I’ve tried using the PS3 files, but didn't manage to decrypt them all. That's why I stuck with the X360 ones. I do have to say, the ones I did managed to decrypt showed obvious signs of the older MPEG-2 compression. So, in the end... it felt like it wasn't worth the hassle and I’d better stick with the X360 ones. And now, here you are... showing otherwise! That it can be done!

Uploaded at: October 25, 2021 @ 20:32