OVERNeed for Speed: Carbon's PC version now runs natively on Android, online included
The NFS Android Evolved family has a fourth member. Developer codepdbh, who already brought the PC versions of Underground 2, Underground and Most Wanted to Android, released NFS Carbon PC Android Evolved on October 23 and shipped three versions in about an hour, ending at v0.1.2. The project starts from the Most Wanted port's runtime.
How it works
It isn't an emulator. Every function in the PC game's NFSC.exe (version 1.4) is translated ahead of time from x86 to C with a modified version of sp00nznet's pcrecomp, then compiled for arm64 with the Android NDK. Like its siblings, it draws through Vulkan.
What works
- Career, quick races and free roam.
- Online play through the community NFSCO mod, whose authors allowed the developer to translate its binaries for this port. A globe button opens commands to find, create and join races, plus an in-game chat window.
- Widescreen camera, HUD and menus through ThirteenAG's WidescreenFix.
- Touch controls with nitro, crew and SpeedBreaker buttons, and the game's cursor follows your finger in menus.
- A launcher for internal resolution, graphics quality (including an Ultra Low mode capped at 360p), an FPS limit, the Vulkan driver and the game language.
Updates so far
v0.1.1 steadies sound on MediaTek, Mali and Unisoc phones and stops sound looping on loading screens. v0.1.2 fixes two crashes when some races load; the developer says races now load and run at 120 fps on a Galaxy S25. Low-end phones are still a struggle: on a Redmi Note 8 (Snapdragon 665), menus hit 30 fps but races with many cars run at about 10 to 13 fps even on Ultra Low.
What you need
An arm64 device on Android 10 or newer with Vulkan 1.1, and your own PC copy of Carbon at version 1.4. Copy the game folder, including NFSC.exe, msvcr71.dll and msvcp71.dll, to an nfsc folder on internal storage, add d3dx9_30.dll from a Windows PC, and install NFSCO and WidescreenFix as the release notes describe. The APK contains no game files, and Overclocked doesn't host or link them. Release notes are in Spanish.
Grab the APK from the project's GitHub releases; the port is now in the Overclocked ports directory next to its siblings. Today's other directory updates bring Free Riders Recompiled 0.10.30, Knuckles' Chaotix Recompiled 0.15.2 and LAS Recomp for Android (mamcjr) 0.5.2 preview.