Settings and controls#

Most settings live in the game, on F6, and apply at once. MSAA and the language are among the few that need a restart.

Keys#

On a Mac, where the F-keys are media keys, use Cmd+, for the settings, Ctrl+Cmd+F for fullscreen, Cmd+Shift+P for a photo, Cmd+T for the trainer and Cmd+Q to quit.

On a controller, hold Back + Start together (View + Menu on a Steam Deck) to open the settings, and LS + RS for the performance panel; both chords can be changed in F6 > CONTROLS > CONTROLLER.

Driving on a keyboard#

Keys can be rebound in F6 > CONTROLS, and RESET KEYS returns to this layout. An install from before this layout keeps the keys it had until then.

Graphics presets#

1x is the console's 1280 × 720; up to 4x is available. Output scaling is bilinear, CAS or FSR 1. Ultrawide displays get a wider field of view with the HUD kept at 16:9. Bloom, motion blur and depth of field are optional. TEXTURE GAMMA > FAST makes terrain and foliage a little darker and saves about 8 % of the GPU's frame on a Mac; it makes no difference on a desktop GPU. On Linux, SCENE SHADING > COARSE shades the scene once per 2 × 2 pixels: a little softer, and about 8 % of the GPU's frame saved on a Steam Deck.

POST-PROCESS AA (FXAA) smooths the game world only, so HUD text stays sharp; AA ON THE HUD smooths everything, as before. ANISOTROPIC FILTERING and TEXTURE DETAIL apply to the world's textures; the sun's shadows and the HUD keep the game's own filtering. COLOUR LUT gives the world a different look from a .cube colour table (17 or 33 points, as photo and video editors export) put in a luts folder you create in the state folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\PinyonShift\source\<version>\.local\preview\luts); LUT STRENGTH blends it with the game's colours. The HUD keeps its colours, though translucent HUD panels show the game's colours behind them. These apply at once on the Vulkan renderer.

HUD#

F6 > DISPLAY > HUD shows or hides the HUD (the same as F2), and sets HUD SCALE (80 to 120 %) and SAFE ZONE, a margin of up to 10 % on each side for TVs that crop the picture. Both scale the HUD around the centre of the screen while you drive; menus without the game world behind them keep their size. Labels that follow the world, such as event banners and driver names, move with the HUD.

HDR#

On an HDR display, turn on HDR in the system first (on Windows, Settings > Display > Use HDR), then F6 > DISPLAY > HDR. HDR PAPER WHITE sets the brightness of white menus and the HUD, HDR HIGHLIGHTS how far bright highlights reach, and HDR CALIBRATION sets both from test patterns. HDR COMPARE shows SDR and HDR side by side. Every HDR setting applies at once. HDR is tested on Windows and on Android (AYN Odin 2 Portal); on Linux and macOS it's offered when the driver provides an HDR output. On Android, HDR appears only on displays that report HDR10, and the brightness slider doesn't change the HDR image: set HDR PAPER WHITE to match the menus to your usual brightness. Run HDR CALIBRATION once: the display reports about 420 nits on the Odin 2 Portal, and the peak square shows where it really clips.

Immersive camera#

F6 > DISPLAY > IMMERSIVE CAMERA makes the camera react to the car: it is pushed back under acceleration and thrown forward under braking, jolts when the throttle or brake goes on, leans into corners, shakes a little at speed and under hard braking, and moves with slow breathing and head sway in the cockpit. The cockpit view gets the full effect, the hood view a little less, and the chase and bumper views only the G-forces. Choose OFF, SUBTLE, DEFAULT or STRONG, or set G-force, lean, speed shake and head motion on their own rows (CUSTOM). Changes apply at once and keep your own save. The immersive camera isn't available on Android or with the v4 title update yet.

Sound mix#

F6 > AUDIO sets the level of each part of the game's sound against its own mix: ENGINE (your car), OTHER CARS, TYRES, WIND, AMBIENCE (crowds, traffic and the world) and GAME MUSIC (the radio), from 0 to 200 %. FH1's engines are quiet against the rest; raising ENGINE or lowering AMBIENCE brings them forward. FULL DYNAMIC RANGE turns off the game's output compressor, so loud moments keep their peaks; leave it off for TV speakers. These settings apply when the game next starts. At 100 % and with FULL DYNAMIC RANGE off the game plays its own mix unchanged. A mod that changes the same audio files is the one the settings apply to.

Your music#

F6 > AUDIO > YOUR MUSIC plays your own MP3 and WAV files instead of the game's radio once you are in the festival, as a soundtrack from the Xbox 360 dashboard did: the game silences its radio by itself and keeps its effects. The title screen keeps the game's own music. Put the files in the music folder of the install's state folder (%LOCALAPPDATA%\PinyonShift\source\<version>\.local\preview\music, created when you turn it on), in subfolders if you like; they play in name order or shuffled. The AUDIO page also has MUSIC VOLUME, SHUFFLE, NEXT TRACK and PREVIOUS TRACK and shows what is playing; F9 and Shift+F9 skip forward and back. On macOS and ARM builds only WAV files play for now.

Custom radio stations#

The launcher's Radio button turns your music into radio stations. Each one takes the place of Horizon Bass Arena, Pulse or Rocks, so you can have up to three. Give a station a name, add music folders or songs (any format FFmpeg reads), and optionally a PNG logo, which is fitted into 210 by 100 pixels for the station popup. Keep the station's own songs too adds your music to the station's playlist instead of replacing it. Build stations encodes the music and turns the stations on from the next start; the name shows in the game's radio options and loading tips in every language. Building needs FFmpeg (on Windows, winget install Gyan.FFmpeg); Locate FFmpeg points the launcher at it. The stations copy the game's 680 MB radio bank, so they need that much disk space, and your music files are never changed. Deleting a station brings the original back after the next build.

Language#

The game runs in any of the disc's 18 languages. Press F6, open Profile > Language and choose a language and region with Left and Right, then restart the game.

Controllers#

Connect the controller before starting the game. XInput controllers work as they are; DirectInput devices use SDL's mappings. If one isn't recognized, or its buttons are in the wrong places, open F6 > CONTROLS > MAP CONTROLLER, choose it, then MAP BUTTONS and press each control it asks for; a control the controller lacks is skipped after a few seconds. Then try the controller: hold Start to save the mapping or Back to start over. It is kept in config/controller_mappings.txt, and RESET TO DEFAULT MAPPING removes it. If a controller doesn't show up at all, close Steam or other remapping software, reconnect it and relaunch.

Racing wheels#

A wheel drives through the same controller path: steering on the left stick, throttle on the right trigger and brake on the left trigger. Wheels that SDL knows are detected; for another, open F6 > CONTROLS > MAP CONTROLLER, map it, and set RACING WHEEL to YES on its page. F6 > CONTROLS > RACING WHEEL then shapes its input, since the game expects a thumbstick: STEERING SATURATION (full lock at that share of the wheel's rotation, so 50% on a 900-degree wheel locks at 225 degrees each way), STEERING DEADZONE (skips the game's stick deadzone), STEERING CURVE and PEDAL DEADZONE. Gamepads are not affected. Force feedback isn't supported yet, and the shaping has been tested with simulated input, not yet on a physical wheel.

Gameplay switches#

F6 > GAMEPLAY turns on three switches the game kept from its development builds. All are off by default and apply at once. SKIP VOICE-OVERS WITH A lets A close a dialog before its voice-over ends. AUTOMATIC CAR RESET off stops the game from putting the car back on the road when it strays too far. REPLAY INTRO WHEN IDLE off keeps the title screen from replaying the intro movie after about a minute without input. The HUD is hidden with F2.

Saves#

Saves are in the install's state folder, %LOCALAPPDATA%\PinyonShift\source\<version>\.local\preview\user (under data for a portable install).

• Backups. After each save, the save files are copied to backups\saves. The last 10 are kept. Restore one from SETTINGS > PROFILE > SAVE BACKUPS.
• Photos. F8 writes PNGs to the photos folder in the state folder. Press F2 first for a photo without the HUD.
• Saves from Xenia. A Xenia save is signed with its profile's XUID, so copying it over doesn't work. Import it with the tool from a repository checkout:

.\tools\import-xenia-save.ps1 -StateRoot .local\preview -Source 'C:\Xenia\content\E030000012345678\4D5309C9'

The previous Pinyon Shift save is kept; -Restore switches back to it.

Trainer#

Turn cheats on in SETTINGS > CHEATS and restart. The game then plays a separate copy of your profile (user-modded in the state folder), so cheated progress never reaches your own save. F10 opens the trainer:

• PLAYER: set or add credits, set the wristband level.
• WORLD: game speed, time of day, free camera, collectibles on the map, and ANY CAR IN ANY EVENT. With it on, events drop their class, make, year and other car limits, so the car you drive is eligible as it is. Turn it on before you drive up to the event.
• GRAPHICS and DEBUG: bloom, motion blur, depth of field, filtering, a file-open log.

Treasure Map#

The Treasure Map add-on was sold through a service that no longer exists. It's included and on by default. Turn it off in the launcher's Settings. Once a save's map is revealed it stays revealed.