DiRT 3

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DiRT 3

Developers   Codemasters

Publishers   Codemasters

Engines   EGO 2.0

Release dates Windows May 24, 2011

Colin McRae Rally

Colin McRae Rally	1998
Colin McRae Rally 2.0	2000
Colin McRae Rally 3	2002
Colin McRae Rally 04	2003
Colin McRae Rally 2005	2004
Colin McRae: DiRT	2007
DiRT 2	2009
DiRT 3	2011
DiRT Showdown	2012
Colin McRae Rally (2014)	2014

Key points

The game features full keyboard support but an Xbox 360 Controller is recommended.

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys
Steam

All versions require Games for Windows - LIVE.

Devs claim they are working on removing GFWL, however that was in January.

Due to this DLC cannot be purchased.

Essential improvements

Utilities

Dirt3FovChange allows the modification of the field of view of DiRT 3's in-game cameras. It serves as a frontend for another program called binXml whose purpose is to decrypt, edit and reencrypt the binary xml files the EGO engine uses to store the camera information. Dirt3FovChange was originally posted as an archive containing binXml here. See the field of view section below for instructions.

Even though it was created specifically for DiRT 3, Dirt3FovChange could potentially be compatible with a variety of EGO-based racing games. This can be further substantiated by the fact that binXml was originally designed to handle GRID's own encrypted xml files.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\DiRT3\hardwaresettings\

Some other non user-specific configuration files are stored with the game data. See the Field of view (FOV) section for more information.

Save game data location

	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\DiRT3\savegame\

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Steam Cloud
GameSave Manager

Video settings

Graphical settings.

Graphical settings continued.

Graphical settings continued.

Graphics option	Option	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Requires the editing of configuration files. See Field of view (FOV).
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
High frame rate

Field of view (FOV)

The parameters concerning the field of view as well as the point of view of each of the in-game cameras are stored in a binary file named cameras.xml. There is one such file for each car in the game. They are located with other car-related data in the subfolders of: <path-to-game>\cars\models.

These files can be batch edited using Dirt3FovChange although DLC cars may prove problematic as their data is reportedly stored in a different location. Conveniently, a backup of the binary files will be made in text format before attempting to modify them. This allows a quick restore of the most recent state.

Notes about this fix:

This method is reliable and stable: modifications can be made on-the-fly, while in a race.

How-to

Dirt3FovChange user interface.

Using Dirt3fovChange Notes: Backing up the files that are about to be modified is never a bad idea. In some cases, you may have to manually point Dirt3FovChange to your DiRT 3 install folder. It is advisable to restore the original files inbetween modifications. This way, the default settings will always be accessible. Vertical FOV: a larger number will translate into a wider field of view. Adjust FOV for: selects the in-game camera or cameras you want to edit. Head Offset: affects the position of the head-cam (cockpit view). A modification of 0.1 will yield a noticeable change. It is to be noted that the point of view can be placed outside of the car. X: affects the lateral position. A positive value will move the point of view to the left. Y: affects the vertical position. A positive value will move the point of view upward. Z: affects the front/back position. A positive value will move the point of view closer to the dashboard. Head Tilt Change: affects the vertical angle of the camera. Compared to the position values, the tilt value works on a different scale: a modification of 1 will yield a barely noticeable change. A positive value will tilt the camera up. Usage: Extract the files from the archive into a common folder. Launch Dirt3FovChange.exe. Although an essential part of the process, binXml.exe won't require user input. Set the desired values and click the start button. Launch the game. Test the settings in a race. Exit the race. Alt-Tab to Dirt3FovChange. Restore the original settings. This will not erase the values you previously entered in the GUI. Tweak said values. In DiRT3, start a new race to check your changes. Repeat until the desired effect is attained.

Result

• 

  Default FOV, default head position.

• 

  Custom FOV of 65, default head position.

Input settings

Keyboard and mouse	Native	Notes
Remapping
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller Y-axis inversion

Audio settings

Audio options	Native	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Split-screen.
LAN play
Online play

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7	Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.8 GHz, Intel Pentium D 2.8 GHz	AMD Phenom II or Intel Core i7
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	3 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	15 GB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon HD2000 or NVIDIA GeForce 8000 256 MB of VRAM	AMD Radeon HD 6000 Series 1 GB of VRAM

The game is optimised for AMD/ATI graphics cards.