Pinyon Shift 0.3.0

The first stable release since 0.1.1. Forza Horizon now runs on a renderer
built for the game, on Vulkan by default or Direct3D 12, at up to 120 fps and
4x internal resolution, with settings, a trainer and mods in game. First-time
setup is sturdier and says what went wrong when it fails.

Highlights

• A native renderer for this game. Every draw, clear, resolve and swap runs
  in order with the game's own shaders, translated to SPIR-V (Vulkan) or DXBC
  (Direct3D 12). Vulkan is the default and the faster choice at 1x and 2x.
  Shader packs are prepared on your computer during setup, and repaired
  automatically when one is missing.
• 60 and 120 fps at the right game speed. The render rate is decoupled
  from the console's 30 fps and the simulation follows the host clock.
• 1x to 4x internal resolution, changeable in game, with FSR 1 or CAS
  output scaling. The launcher shows what you get: for example, renders
  1280 × 720, FSR 1 upscales to 3840 × 2160.
• Settings in game. F6, or SETTINGS in the pause menu, opens display,
  graphics, audio and controls settings drawn in the game's own fonts and art.
  Most changes apply at once; the graphics API and the language need a restart.
  Presets: Performance 120 and Quality 60.
• Any display. Monitor and window size, letterbox, crop or stretch,
  frame-rate limits, and a wider view for ultrawide screens with the HUD kept
  at 16:9 and a field of view setting.
• Your profile. Gamertag and picture, an achievements list (F7), photos
  saved as PNG (F8), automatic save backups, and the game in any of the disc's
  18 languages.
• Controls. Button remapping, inverted right stick, rumble strength, and
  mouse camera or mouse steering.
• A trainer (F10, after turning on SETTINGS > CHEATS > TRAINER and
  restarting): set or add credits live, game speed, hold the time of day, the game's free camera, and undiscovered discount
  signs and barn finds on the map. Cheats play on a separate copy of your
  profile.
• Mods. Native plugins through a C ABI, file and archive overrides,
  database patches, texture replacement (reloadable in game), replacement text,
  HUD labels and menu actions. See Modding.
• The Treasure Map included. The add-on that marked every discount sign and
  barn find was sold for Tokens through a service that no longer exists. It is
  on by default and can be turned off in the launcher's Settings.
• A redesigned launcher with a Settings panel, and portable installs: a
  portable.txt beside the launcher keeps everything in a folder you can move.

Setup fixes

• The launcher starts PowerShell by its full path, so a PATH without it no
  longer fails setup with "The specified file cannot be found" (#317).
• Declining the administrator prompt for the Build Tools now says so and how
  to retry (#318).
• A failed setup step reports its name, exit code, log and the first real
  compiler, CMake or file-copy error, with a hint for common causes (#45,
  #62, #212). The report is also saved in .local/logs/setup-error.json.
• Copying the runtime beside the game retries while antivirus or a running
  program holds the file, and names it if the copy still fails (#69).
• Shaders missing from a freshly prepared pack on a slower PC no longer stop
  setup; the game fills them in on the next launch (#316).
• The build sizes its parallel jobs to the computer's memory.
• Setup unpacks its compiler with Windows' own tar, so Git's optional Unix
  tools on PATH no longer stop it.

Known limitations

• Only NVIDIA GPUs are qualified. AMD and Intel GPUs are untested.
• Crowds and the car-purchase animation can play too fast above 30 fps.
• Some rendering regressions and slowdowns in some areas remain. A long session
  has been seen to arrive from a fast travel with the world not fully loaded;
  loading the save again restores it.
• Relaunching between the end of the intro and the first festival event can
  return you to the drive to the festival without a route; drive to the
  festival again to continue.
• For 3x and 4x, choose Direct3D 12.
• Only the USA retail disc (MS-2505) is supported.
• The launcher is not code-signed, so Windows may call it an unrecognized app.

Updating

Updating rebuilds the game and prepares its graphics again, once. Your saves
and settings stay where they are.

Download PinyonShift-Launcher.zip, keep the two files together, and use the
ISO you dumped from your own disc. The package contains public source and the
launcher; the game is translated, built and its shaders prepared only on your
computer.