Bayview Forever Patch

Bayview Forever Patch — a large patch for NFS: Underground 2 by Broski280 that fixes the game's main problem: after beating Caleb, the career ends and there's nothing left to do in Bayview. The mod doesn't rework the balance of the first five stages, but adds a full-fledged sixth stage and brings back what was once cut from the release.

Author: Broski280
Source: https://nfsmods.xyz/mod/8043
Source code: https://github.com/cleone12/nfsug2_bayviewforever

What's inside

• Sixth career stage. 183 event templates: until you complete them all in the region, they don't repeat, and the rotation includes tracks and reversed routes that weren't in the original career. AI difficulty, race lengths and payouts are configured in the ini — including separately by race type.
• Rewards make sense again. Wins bring magazine covers and DVDs closer, and won Outruns give unique parts — both visual and performance. Rachel no longer talks about an empty world after the finale and lets you drive her three cars, including the restored Evo.
• Garage without a ceiling. The sixth stage unlocks infinite slots, and the "virtual garage" lets you move cars between cells without losing them.
• Restoring what was cut. The PC version lacked 5.1 surround, even though the game supports it: the patch enables up to 5.1 channels, fixes engine sound positioning and makes the turbo and blow-off louder. The second restoration is H-pattern shifting with an analog clutch and a penalty for shifting without it.
• Wheels. The stock steering curve and speed sensitivity are unlocked, full steering resolution, center spring and minimum force are added, and force feedback clipping is fixed.
• Little things you feel. Fixed severe stutters with particles enabled on modern systems, drag gets real steering instead of "rails", AI stops causing a pileup at the start, "rubber banding" is disabled, and profile loading can start in the garage.

Everything listed is optional and can be turned off in the ini: by default Surround, H-Shift and garage respawn are inactive. The author also has a separate archive with a utility for migrating and merging old saves.

How to install

1. Check your game version. You need speed2.exe version 1.2 without CD check, with matching MD5 — 878678327c1aa744f2fe248cba081c86 or 6445adbf4e8d64be51e96a69bba168a4 (HOODLUM). The patch won't activate on any other exe.
2. Install the ASI loader. If you have Widescreen Fix by ThirteenAG or ExOpts, it's already there; otherwise get Ultimate ASI Loader (x86) and put dinput8.dll next to speed2.exe.
3. Unpack the scripts folder from the archive into the game's root folder, where speed2.exe is located.
4. Open the ini file in the scripts folder and enable what you need. Difficulty, payouts and the number of available events are also configured there.
5. Launch the game as usual.
6. If something isn't working right, check the log BayviewForever\BayviewForever.log in the game folder — at the end of the ini there's a debug section with detailed logs.

Important

• Back up your saves before installing.
• Do not install DSOAL. The game doesn't use DirectSound3D or EAX, and DSOAL will mix the six channels and ruin speaker separation.
• The patch has been tested with Widescreen Fix and ExOpts and is compatible with most mods, as long as they don't touch the sixth stage.
• The author refined part of the code with the help of AI and static analysis in Ghidra.