Forza Horizon Full PC Emulation Guide | Xenia

Forza Horizon 1 on PC at 4K/60 is a truly impressive experience - here's a full in-depth guide on how to install and configure it on your PC!
Xenia Canary: github.com/xenia-canary/xenia...
Patch Files: github.com/xenia-canary/game-...
XE Mod: www.moddb.com/mods/forza-hori...
0:00 Intro
0:50 Install/configure Xenia
12:42 Troubleshooting/common bugs
16:00 DLC/mods
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Check out Hoki's Second Channel HERE: / @hokitwitch
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[@HokiHoshi]

It looks like there might be a motion blur patch that works for with TU4/DLCs! Download it here: pastebin.com/GH4hKRmE You will of course need to get the title updates / DLCs for this, and make sure to update "license_mask" to "-1" in the config file You can also try to set *"d3d12_readback_resolve"* to *"true"* in the config file to fix car thumbnails but this will come with a big performance hit, and you'll still need to update the thumbnails for them to work! (paint the car, install parts etc)

[@wydua2049]

how do i install it

[@HokiHoshi]

@@wydua2049 same place the other patch goes - this file replaces the original

[@purwantiallan5089]

​@@HokiHoshiForza Horizon 1 turned 12 years old in 2024 and somehow, its still as amazing as 2014 game of Driveclub.

[@Unithen]

Dude thank you that patch fixed the rally dlc and it’s now completable for me 🎉

[@Lak3-]

Is there any possible way to put mods into the game?

[@Fastminer07]

What I'm really hoping for is getting proper online support, because online was so good on FH1, plus I wanna see if I can top the rivals now.

[@PlaidZoomer]

same with Forza Motorsport 4, since both the games servers are down

[@VXRPaddy]

;)

[@wwymqtjqtjjtqj4438]

You can still play online but servers are usually just empty

[@purwantiallan5089]

​@@PlaidZoomereven though servers are permanently down, we can still play FM4 and FH1 to 5 locally.

[@purwantiallan5089]

​@@VXRPaddywhat are your favourite cars in 2012's FORZA HORIZON 1? For me my favourites are Lamborghini Miura, Saleen S7, VW Golf Mk V and Ferrari 458.

[@jerichom11x]

A much better game than the new ones. It actually has soul and passion behind it.

[@purwantiallan5089]

Test Drive Unlimited 1 and Enthusia Professional Racing both also still have soul, thrill and passion behind it.

[@fartloudYT]

@@purwantiallan5089 TDU felt like the most generic game ever made. Should have been called something else, because that is not THE Test Drive i've grown to like. If it was released today it would be accused of being an assett flip with AI generated voiceacting, that is just how bland it was. Meanwhile Test Drive 5 greeted you with an intro with Pitchshifter music.

[@sjsharp2007]

Yeah I haven' tplayed the origina lones but I di dercentl y acquire copies of Horizon 1 an d2 on Amazon I have played 3, 4an 5 aon PC but I d ohave a series X as well s oright now I'm planning on enjoyin g1 and 2 on there through the backwards compatability. I think my favourite of the newer ones is 5 but I do enjoy 3 a lot as well. 4 was OK but I really struggled with the winte rweather on it.

[@Oreo108GD]

@@sjsharp2007I had a stroke reading that

[@GasandGames213]

If you or anyone else is interested, I made mods for FM2, 3 and 4 to run on Xenia Canary. Updated tire physics, realistic forced induction and all of the DLCs set up along with some different career modes too. It’s called Project Forza Plus!

[@Buuster1999]

That's so cool man, props to you :D

[@Mrinal523]

Thats mental! I'd love to see the mods you made.

[@purwantiallan5089]

​@@Mrinal523Forza Horizon 1 despite only has ⅓ of the Horizon 5's 668 cars its still 9.8/10 overall.

[@sleepdeep305]

Do you think you could re-implement FM4’s triple monitor support?

[@GasandGames213]

@@sleepdeep305 I’m not sure, I’m limited on stuff outside of directly messing with the cars. Lots of things will cause the game to not launch or make it infinitely load.

[@ledooni]

Super thankful for everyone involved in getting this running and improving it over time. You guys are the real heroes!

[@alexandrusofronie4633]

Thanks Hoki, as coincidence would have it, I got into xenia specifically to play the first couple of Horizon games some 2 weeks ago, and your timing couldn't have been better! While my system said increasing the rendered resolution was a bit too much, I appreciate the steps to actually increase fps and remove the motion blur. Thanks bud

[@tyranus1111]

Why would any company EVER cash in on an easy remaster or pc port? That would make so much money and make fans happy and as weve seen lately thats not what being a AAA game company is all about.

[@maxdamien08]

Licensing

[@ninjafrozr8809]

The game got delisted because the car & music licenses rann out (The same thing is happening to FH4 as we speak). A remake of FH1 would never make more money than a brand new FH6, therefore it's not worth it to get those licenses back and remake the game.

[@AdamsApples]

Thanks for this tutorial! Growing up I never got to play FH1, and it really is a different experience from the newer games!

[@4dhyperglizzy174]

Been waiting for this video

[@M3ntalR]

I am so glad I found your channel. I am doing this! 🙂 Just need to dust off my old 360 and find my Forza Horizon game disc!😁

[@ctrlcf]

Good to know that upscaling works now, it was buggy last time I played

[@M1XED17]

You're a legend! Thank you for this video! 🍻

[@NeedForMichael999999]

I do recall a config setting where the ghost foggy colored parts can be solved. In my experience that happens when the game dips below the vsync value. FH1, just like on a real Xbox 360, is harder to run then FM4. So if your able to get 4K 60, you'll probably get 4K 120 with FM4. I think you should create a video about modding FH1 and other forza titles due to unicorn cars, custom engine swaps, sound values, etc.

[@HokiHoshi]

Yep, totally to do with the vsync because I could "force" the issue by setting the vsync framerate too high for what my PC could hit lol. I read about a config setting that fixed it too, might have been clear memory page state? but I tried it and it didn't work for me so I chose not to put it into the video, I'll look into it a bit more though!

[@blast4uff429]

Please bro how to get registration key plzzz broooo plzzz​@@HokiHoshi

[@WillFuI]

I can’t wait till we can play the Xbox one version of fh2

[@HokiHoshi]

Seriously would be a dream come true. FH2 is arguably my favorite game, but 30fps hurts 😭

[@WillFuI]

@@HokiHoshi and the 360 version sucks. I think we have the power to emulate early Xbox 1 titles

[@mightyhead4962]

@@WillFuI there are no Xbox One emulators in development unfortunately. There's still no known way to dump and decrypt Xbox One game files.

[@valeanuantonio9603]

Thanks man, u saved me here, always wanted to play the first one, but never had an xbox

[@ROCKEROTM]

Awesome video!

[@AutoAbsolute]

amazing guide - thanks so much!!!

[@DrowningInTea]

Hello, I have tested both the Xenia Canary Build 50fce8b from October 2022 recommended by online guides and the latest experimental build. The latest experimental build keeps crashing, but Build 50fce8b is really stable. For this reason I will also recommend this build to people who want to play this game.

[@KoenRogaar]

Great Guide!!

[@rodsk8dude731]

High frame rates don't cause visual bugs, increasing resolution does. I can't run with higher resolution, but can run it between 70~80fps, and I have no visual bugs. The visual glitches only happen, as someone already pointed out here, when the game drop fps below vsync, but even then I think it's only with higher resolutions. One thing though, if you can almost get a certain framerate target, but not quite, there's a trick: *"readback_resolve = true" fixes the decals/vinyls/liveries, but is very heavy. My game drops from around 70 to like 15fps. *Increasing resolution to 1440p also drops it to around 20. *BUT, using both options, while it negates the visual fix of "readback resolve", for some reason gives you (or me at least) better performance. I can almost get 30fps with it. But since it's not locked to it, the visual bugs appear. Didn't know the F5 to clear cache thing, very useful. Was that always there? I played the game mostly early last year. Around the same time I was setting up Xenia, that guy released the XE mod, and I tested it out, checking cars on the Autoshow, driving 'em if they seemed bugged. Last time I tested, there was one car I think with a null wheel, some traffic trucks crashed the garage if you bought them, and one Ferrari, a very cool one, the first in the list, crashed the game too. Sadly he didn't want to keep modding the game as he did pretty much everything he could at the time, but they seem to be progressing in their modding capabilities recently. Model editing would be really awesome, much better than trying your luck with Horizon 5 without getting banned for it.

[@gustavrsh]

Thanks for this guide, as you can only buy the game second hand

[@benjaminhoff5004]

Still by far the best game in the series. The future games got increasingly mindless with no direction.

[@rowannoland2337]

I would pay gladly for a remake/remaster for horizon 1 and 2

[@Shockload]

Why would a 2012 game need a remaster lol, it's still looking fresh even today, if you mean like a new console gen and PC port like NFS Hot Pursuit then yeah sure

[@Critical365]

The game is working like an charm but the problem that i have is that car models get bugged after some time its only fixable by entering a shop (or anything that will trigger an loading screen) then the bug gets fixed

[@dankojanco2301]

Thanks for the tutorial. Everything works except below the car there is like bugged texture of the ground. Do you know how to fix it?

[@rokkudayo]

I'm just a bit bummed that people haven't fixed the motion blur mask being incorrect. I prefer how the game looks with it and it shouldn't be impossible to fix. I took a look into how the renderer messes it up and it should be something related to the depth stencil buffers IDs being incorrect but progress with Xenia is unfortunately very slow so I doubt this will be sorted out anytime soon. Upscaling the game also breaks the fake projected shadow below the car for some reason.

[@user-yv1bf4rx7r]

Do you know if there’s anyway to fix the shadow thing and still play at 1440p?

[@rokkudayo]

@@user-yv1bf4rx7r At the moment, not really. If we could dump and edit shaders like people used to do with 3DMigoto maybe it could be fixed without touching the emulator's code but that isn't possible since it runs on DirectX 12. Our only hope is to pray that more progress is made in this area soon.

[@liesideways]

Need an Xbox one emulator just to play fh2 and fm6.

[@0uttaS1TE]

This game, Alan Wake and Halo 3 were the games that I always wished I got to play as a kid. Thanks for the guide. I hope the next step is to get multiplayer working. It's an unlikely scenario, but other games have it even on emulation

[@Yeedman]

atleast alan wake and halo 3 (kind of) got actual pc ports

Hello, I have a shadow bug on the cars, but this only happens when I increase the resolution in upscaling. Do you know how to fix this? I really wanted to play in 1440p

[@maximrukinov3101]

Same problem, I felt like I was the only one who encountered this bug. Did you manage to fix it?

@@maximrukinov3101 So far nothing, I'm playing in 720p anyway...

[@user-yv1bf4rx7r]

I think I am also having this problem. Are there like frozen black shapes underneath the car?

[@maximrukinov3101]

@@user-yv1bf4rx7r yep

[@Lucky_9705]

This is one of my favorite video games of all time.

[@BullymongFur]

on the Steam Deck, did you switch it to Vulkan, or stick with d3d11 ? On Vulkan for me It's like a graphical mess in-game, but d3d11 is playable, just a bit choppy.

[@TheBlue028]

can you use a force feedback wheel with this emulator?

[@Zarifzar4]

What build of Xenia are you guys using? I am unable to make the config file appear at all even after creating portable. I tried copying another config file but that does not seem to work unfortunately.

[@gh0stdrag0n62]

hey hoki, please do a guide for forza motorsport 4 if possible as well when you get the time. The game is really fun but the version of xenia i used is old and still has loads of issues and i am scared of losing my progress when updating to the newer version.

[@YDINO69]

We need a review on this game

[@KingTairun]

this is awesome we need one for FH2 and the other Forzas for XB360

[@dreadhavoc]

Having issues with my game. It seems to love crashing right as I enter the first event thingy to get my first wristband. Any fixes? And if I were to get a new copy that might work better, would my installed DLC still remain?

[@andreanastacio9548]

This is a somewhat unexpected but great video, and really in depth, which is awesome. Horizon 1 is backwards compatible on newer consoles so I probably won`t be rushing to get it working on my PC, but I would love a similar guide for the pre Xbox one Forza motorsport games, since I don`t have a good way to play them, and I think they would be a good fit for my ROG Ally (I tried the original motorsport in it, but I assume there are config file settings to mess with, as ir runs like hot garbage out of the box) If possible, I would also love a similar video for the PS3 gran turismo videos, as well as GT4, if you know of a good fix for the license test crashing issue, that doesn`t involve causing the UI to bug out

[@timefluxz4774]

for some reason the patches applied text is not appearing in the game window. ive double checked that is enabled in config file but still not applying patches

[@maxbgc3950]

You could try the other Forza games from 360 on Xenia. I know for a fact they require tinkering, but they do in fact work.

[@stephenmuckle4185]

I have one issue at the minute that I can't seem to fix. I have installed the rally expansion, but in the main menu the option to select it isnt there. I have done the license mask fix in the toml file and all of the DLC cars are in the game and working as they should. Even the cars associated with the Rally Expansion are there but the option to play the actual expansion isn't. Is there a way to correct this?

[@casualamber]

14:51 that happens with vanilla Horizon 4/5

[@suiton20]

My horizon disc got cracked at the center and doesn’t read anymore 😭. I got a copy through other means on my PC. I tried running Horisont on my steam deck and it doesn’t work. The game stops working after going through the initial menus or like it is a black image but sound works. It might have something to do with Vulcan. But if there has been any recent update, I will give it a try again later.

[@kirevola]

Pls make one for forza horizon 2 too!

[@zack.x1285]

Yea, I downloaded that XE Game file from the description, When I open default.xex it tells me I have a bad io or something and doesnt wanna open, any fix?

[@anticalgary]

Is it possible to use a wheel and pedals?

[@wendelgoncalvesdonasciment7439]

Is there any path for guitar hero 5 audio? In Xenia I hear only the guitar and drums, the audio of the vocals and bass disappear.

[@Flynnycore]

Wow, I'm having such a blast playing FH1 for the first time. Too bad that there are these glitches with 60fps. Coming from FH4 and FH5 the old story and progression system from FH1 is so superior. And the car handling still feels very similar. I just wish that there would be a difficulty between Insane and the second hardest though.

[@EnvyCT9A]

Any solution for the funky shadows that can occur? Seems to coincide with internal mirrors and gauges flickering.

[@user-yv1bf4rx7r]

I am also having this problem. It’s caused by upscaling apparently, and the only “fix” is to play at 720p :(

[@titaniac3037]

I really hope that when FH6 is released, they will release a legacy pack of all 6 games for both PC and console. It'd be cooler, imo, if they leave each one looking like it did back in its time, and just make it able to run on modern hardware. However if they decide to remaster that'd still be cool.

[@rxshovxx]

One question Are the dlc cars in the emulator?

[@NDSno1]

Can you use a steering wheel with this? Say the Logitech G920, or Thrustmaster T300

[@noureb3833]

I played with Xenia in FM2 what I find crazy is that the driving is better than FM5. arcade but more realistic when you go off-road you skid and slow down on fm5 you can literally do 250km/h in the middle of a forest or a field with a Ferrari... I have the impression that the peak of the gameplay has passed at the ps3 xbox360 era today there are still good games but 80% of AAA no longer make any effort and create super easy games or guide car purchases etc.

[@h4f976]

Will the emulator work with a wheel?

[@user-jm9mo7it3c]

Is there a way to play the game in 1080p and not 1440p or 720p?

[@supremacy98]

Have you tried getting DLCs working? Because I don't get why my "install content" option not work

[@HokiHoshi]

In my experience the "install content" option only worked for the title updates, in order to get the DLCs I had to manually unpack them (with a program called Velocity) and then put them in the right folder. I can help you out later over Discord if you want to shoot me a DM (there's a link to my server in the video description). You can get them working though!

[@Ta5.]

10:22 if you could have said that at the start of the video, you would have made my life SO much easier

[@shittyecrap]

It crashes once I try to start the first race after the intro. Any suggestions?

[@JDM_LIKER]

after races my car gets a black texture under it and it only gets away after restarting the game. Does someone got a fix?

[@alejandrohabernaud7226]

Guys you know how yo avood weird black línea under the car whitout giving up shadows??

[@Shockload]

I already got the game working a year ago but i cant find a way to play on keyboard and mouse, i dont have controller

[@syygnis]

I have never been able to play Horizon upscaled I always run into graphical and stability issues. I have played it perfectly all the way through at the Horizon's native resolution

[@tyranus1111]

God forza horizon was 8.5 gigs.... truly the good ole days

[@JetL]

and was better in many ways lol

[@Mr_Death.-.]

the 8.5 gigs game from 2012 had nearly everything (exept customization and graphics) better than the 2022 150 gigs forza horizon 5

[@palmtree5489]

@@Mr_Death.-. 170 on pc

[@No-vq1iv]

Anyway to play it with the keyboard?

[@fuegonomics2536]

This is fantastic but someone should mod in the maps from tdu2 and come up with a way to make it a shared world like the more modern horizons. That would be neat eh?

[@ThrillHog]

I did everything but yet vsync isn't working and its very laggy idk why this always happens to me when I emulate. :(

[@Lak3-]

Is there any possible way to put mods into the game?

[@lee99bay]

Still is hokihoshi 😊

[@carsonj4031]

Now time to try it on the steam deck 😈

[@optimumplatinum2640]

I have a 16:10 display, and I don't see my resolution there, is it possible to get that aspect ratio?

[@HokiHoshi]

You'll just have black bars when you fullscreen, I'm on a 32:9 display but use the 2560x1440 16:9 option. You can't get the game itself to render in a different aspect ratio

[@znanoopb8810]

Will this run if i have gt 730

[@6891s]

I have done the new method to patched fh1 but it's doesn't really works for some reason i still kept the original patched that i've done a few years earlier and it still works just fine with 70+ fps and sharp quality no problem but the new method just didn't work at all and the fps is still capped at 30 fps, the quality is still blurry, motion blur is still active and it has more bugs. I don't get it am i doing something wrong? maybe i should checked the other tutorials

[@6891s]

i managed to find one but it’s in a different language since the original one got taken down not long after i done it, it’s a bit outdated with a few xenia tweaks have been replaced but i will figure it out eventually

[@mightyhead4962]

I hope one day there's a method to emulate Forza Horizon 2 - the Storm Island DLC is the only one I haven't been able to play yet :(

[@FirssenSimracing]

There was downgraded FH2 on X360 so u can run it on Xenia but for proper experience... U gona need to wait like 10 years for stable XO emulators :E

[@PeachyMedia]

im getting some weird input delay, anyone have a fix?

[@ZERO-Zac]

Speaking of FH1 what's your opinion on the damage model and visual change with certain upgrades (like race weight reduction removing the passenger seat) changing from FH1 to FH5? I kinda find it disappointing the didn't keep the race weight reduction removing the seat amd damage to the cars feel less specific and more generic.

[@shamwow2880]

patches do not apply in my case. Any idea why?

[@thatdude7692]

My patches are applying but arent working in game

[@AuroraZarah]

but how do you install the dlc into forza?

[@andyklomp2979]

I love forza horizon but i still would love to play forza motorsport 4 on pc so much nolstagia

[@StonedNoob]

How does one get the game though? I don’t own this game nor do I own an Xbox. How do I get to play this? Could anyone help. Thanks

[@thehunt8r]

Look up the disk image file for FH1. The file type name should be .iso, then run it using xenia

[@bigshacaca6932]

Trying to get this working on my rog ally. I’m getting a lot of stutter any idea what’s going on? Is it caching?

[@mrratchet]

Yes stuttering are caused by shader compilations. They are cached whenever a new effect is shown. Usually this means the first playthrough will have shader compilation stutter until the shaders have compiled, making the second playthrough smoother. You may be able to find a complete shader cache online.

[@ig33ku]

ETA Prime?

[@ISAK.M]

Perfect timing I tried running Horizon 1 on Xenia like 2 years ago and it ran like shit, I had a much worse GPU back then too aswell.

[@cloudstrife1983]

But how can I get it to stop crashing?

[@domv2746]

but how do you download the game to your pc so you can play it via emulator???

[@alexc.8424]

think really hard about what to put into google, I'm sure you'll figure it out

[@jaydenmorris2560]

But where do I actually get the game file???

[@sabastiangipson8163]

I cannot edit the disable motion blur text

[@Gdlen1]

unfortunately the line "vsync_fps" is not in the latest version of xenia canary config file and if you add it and save, it gets deleted, so there is no current way of forcing the game to run at 60fps, unless it's in some other setting that isn't obvious.

[@hamza.991]

you can use rtss to cap fps

[@Jordh_media]

Struggling to get this to work for me, keep getting guest crash on the first race. Tried both canary and master. Anybody have an idea?

[@HokiHoshi]

This usually happens if you have mount_cache set to "false" - double check that's "true"

[@SoxarPL]

i need a lil help because everything works fine except the fact that all the cars are like covered in neons, they're glowing and flashy for no reason and i don't know why

[@HokiHoshi]

I cover that right at the start of the troubleshooting section at around 12:50 - check that out

[@KingTairun]

hmm strange i set it to 1080 but my resolution didn't change

[@user-rh6qn5jw1k]

Does anyone know the minimum system requirements?

[@firedell1031]

pleeeeeeeeease do this for FM4 as well

[@CHEF2077]

Man I want a FH2 Xbox One Emulation

[@ForzaMemories]

Hoki please make a video on Forza Motorsport 4

[@c4r4dd1ct6]

Are there any minimum specs to get the emulator to run? I really want to play the original Forza Horizon, but I have my doubts that my laptop can handle it.

[@barmiiiii]

Xbox 360 will be 19 years old this year I'm sure you'll run just maybe not on the settings from the video

[@c4r4dd1ct6]

@@barmiiiii Do you think I could do it on a laptop with an i7 (12th Gen), Intel's Iris Xe graphics, and around 3 GB of RAM (the computer normally has more but most of it is constantly in use)?

[@barmiiiii]

@@c4r4dd1ct6 you have like really good cpu and the xbox emulators base more on the cpu than gpu so id guess you're good

[@c4r4dd1ct6]

@@barmiiiii Alright, I'll try it sometime. Thanks a lot!

[@pravnav]

@@c4r4dd1ct6 Not with that ram lol, do u know if u can upgrade ur ram in ur laptop

[@bluetuber982]

Question, can you play Race Driver: Grid on this emulator?

[@marcelosoares7148]

Bunch of problems that aren't fixed it, but that game has a native PC port so there's no need to emulate it.

[@bluetuber982]

@@marcelosoares7148 How do you get it?

[@SakoVlogs642]

my game is full black any fix?

[@AuroraZarah]

I crash when I do Horizon Heats loading screen

[@anabolicsanonymous]

what about fh2?