NASCAR Racing 2003 (NR2003) Graphics Guide
By TheBenCrazy
Updated 11/5/23 1:00 AM
This guide will walk you step by step on how to improve NASCAR Racing 2003's graphics on your Windows 10 & 11 computer.
Table of Contents
Download
Before we get started, we need to download a couple files that will help us improve the graphics of NASCAR Racing 2003 so that it can look the best that it can for a 20 year old game.
Race Under Beautiful Skies - Hover your mouse over the download button and click on HD or 4K to download.
4GB Patch - Will help the game run when it is loaded with mods. Click download the 4GB patch.
D3d8.dll - Forces the game to run in Direct3D 9 to improve compatibility and stability. Under assets, click D3D8.dll.
Install
After downloading the files, go to your downloads folder and unzip the zipped files into their own folder. You can then delete the .zip files.
In another window, go to where you installed NASCAR Racing 2003 on your computer and go to the tracks folder, then the shared folder (default location is C:\Papyrus\NASCAR Racing 2003 Season\tracks\shared)
Open the NR2003 Skies folder and drag and drop all the files into the shared folder.
Then you can delete the empty NR2003 Skies folder.
Go to your NASCAR Racing 2003 Season folder and drag and drop the d3d8.dll file into this folder.
Open the 4gb_patch folder and run the 4gb_patch application.
A Windows Explorer window will open. Navigate to where you installed NASCAR Racing 2003, click on the NR2003.exe file, and click open.
It will say that it was successfully patched and click ok.
You will now see a file called NR2003.exe.backup in your NASCAR Racing 2003 Season folder. This is the original nr2003.exe file if you ever need it.
In your downloads folder, you can delete the 4gb_patch folder.
NASCAR Racing 2003 Settings
Open up NASCAR Racing 2003 and go into options, graphics tab, and match all of the settings pictured below (Note that settings like steering wheel, windshield buildup, and solar effects are personal preferences).
Close the game and go to your NASCAR Racing 2003 Season folder.
Find the file called core.ini and open it with Notepad.
Scroll down and add a 1 to the CacheSize (CacheSize=14194304).
Scroll down father and make sure that both the MaxBlockSize and PoolSize are set to 524288.
Save and close.
Go back to your NASCAR Racing 2003 Season folder and open the rend_dxg file with Notepad.
Change AnisotropicLevel to 0.
Change TextureSetSize to -1 (NOTE: If you update your graphics card driver and run the game, you will need to go back and change this setting back to -1).
Save and close.
Go back to your NASCAR Racing 2003 Season folder and open the players folder, your player folder, and then open the player.ini file.
Scroll down to [Graphic Options] and make sure both draw_ahead_distance and draw_behind_distance are set to 100.
Set enable_CarMegaShader and enable_ShadowVolumes to 1.
Set texture_quality to 100
Save and close.
Nvidia Control Panel
Note that I have a Nvidia GPU so if you have an AMD or Intel GPU, try your best to match these settings if they are available.
Right click on the desktop and select Nvidia Control Panel.
Select adjust image settings with preview and make sure that Use the advanced 3D image settings is checked. If not, change it and hit apply.
Select manage 3D settings, select the program settings tab, and select NASCAR Racing 2003 in the drop down menu (If it does not show up, click add, find the NR2003.exe and click open. It should now show).
Copy the settings pictured below and click on apply.
Note!
Please note that some GPUs will have more or less settings available depending on how old or new your GPU is.
Also note that some of my global settings will be different so be sure to check that those settings match on your control panel.
Antialiasing - Setting and Antialiasing - Transparency set to 8x might be too high for low end PC's. If you experience low framerates, lower these settings to 4x or 2x.
Settings you do not need to change include Monitor Technology, Preferred refresh rate, and Vertical sync.
If you want to limit the fps to lower the amount of resources NR2003 is taking, you can change Max Frame Rate to a set fps.
Done!
With those changes, you have drastically improved the graphics of NR2003 as well as prepared the game so that it is ready for any mods you throw at it! Below, you can see the big difference from before making any changes to after. And that is with the default game with no mods.
Enable Shadows on Cars (Optional)
Thanks to a Reddit post by broy48 linked here, it is possible to enable shadows on cars with ReShade. Since it is a lot of work for little gain, this step is optional so do not feel that you need to do it.
Download
Reshade - Scroll down to the bottom and download the latest ReShade.
ReShade d3d9 With Shadows - On the top right, click the download icon to download the .zip file.
Install ReShade
After downloading the Reshade Setup, double click it.
A list of games and applications will show up. Scroll down and select NR2003 or if it does not show up on the list, select browse, go to the location you installed NR2003, select the NR2003.exe and click open. Then click next.
Select Vulkan and click on next.
On the select preset to install window select skip.
On the select effect packages to install window, Keep it default (unless you want to experiment with the other packages in the future), select next, and select finish.
Install d3d9 with shadows
Go to your downloads folder and unzip the Reshade d3d9 with shadows zip into its own folder. You can then delete the .zip file.
Open a new window and go to your NR2003 install folder.
Copy and paste the 2 .dll files into the NR2003 install folder. A pop up will say that the destination already has a file named d3d8.dll, select replace the file in the destination.
Next, run NR2003. At the top should be a grey bar saying to press the "Home" button to start the tutorial. Ignore that for right now and go into a test session, click continue and then drive. Then, exit and exit out of NR2003 back to the desktop.
Go back to your NASCAR Racing 2003 Season folder and open the rend_dxg file with Notepad.
Since we are running the game through Vulkan, it reset the settings to the rend_dxg file so we will need to change it back to the correct settings.
Change AnisotropicLevel to 0.
Change TextureSetSize to -1 (NOTE: If you update your graphics card driver and run the game, you will need to go back and change this setting back to -1).
Save and close.
Next, open the ReShade.ini with Notepad and scroll down to [OVERLAY] and change TutorialProgress to 1 and save. This will stop ReShade from asking to do the tutorial.
NASCAR Racing 2003 Settings
Open up NASCAR Racing 2003 and go into options, graphics tab, and under Shadows, check everything under On Cars and click done.
Go into a race session or a test session and click drive. Press the Home key on your keyboard to open ReShade.
One of the issues with using ReShade is that it disables anisotropic filtering and antialiasing from the Nvidia control panel which means that the game now looks jagged on the curved lines.
To correct this the best we can, click continue, click continue and finish on the bottom, and then check SMAA.
Click the Home key and that will close ReShade.
Done!
Congrats! You just did a ton of work just to enable shadows on the car. I told you this was optional for a reason.
If you run into any issues or problems, comment below so the community can help you! Also, that will allow me to correct any mistakes in the future by updating the guide! Click the button below to go back to the NR2003 guides. Some guides to check out next are the FoV Youtube Tutorial and the recommended websites.
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