Twelve years after it launched on Xbox One, Forza Horizon 2 is running on PC. Microsoft didn’t make that happen. An independent developer did, with an unofficial project called Azimuth.
Azimuth comes from itch.io developer Almost There Games. It isn’t a port in the traditional sense, and it isn’t a full Xbox One emulator either. It’s a lightweight wrapper built for this one game. It translates Xbox WinRT calls to Win32 and converts the Xbox version of DirectX 11 into desktop DirectX 12. Because it doesn’t emulate a whole console, it runs well on fairly modest hardware.
What Azimuth Adds
The original Xbox One release was locked to 30 FPS. On PC, Azimuth gives you more control:
- 30 or 60 FPS frame rate options
- Resolutions from 720p up to your monitor’s native resolution
- Three graphics presets: Low, Default and High
- High mode doubles shadow and reflection detail, triples shadow draw distance, uses photo-mode car models and adds 16x anisotropic filtering
- MSAA anti-aliasing at 2x or 4x
- Steam Deck support through Proton
The developer says the Steam Deck manages around 60 FPS at 720p or 30 FPS at 1080p. Anything at or above Steam Deck level with 16 GB of RAM should handle it. Those are the developer’s own estimates, not independent benchmarks.
The Catch: Bring Your Own Game
The Azimuth download is only about 2.6 MB because it contains no game files. You need your own copy of the Xbox One version, and it has to be version 1.0.0.64. Other builds aren’t supported. On first launch, the tool asks you to point it to the folder with your game data.
That’s the biggest hurdle. Microsoft delisted Forza Horizon 2 from the Microsoft Store years ago, and pulling console-format files off an Xbox One isn’t simple. Azimuth doesn’t help with that part. The developer says the project uses no decryption or circumvention and isn’t affiliated with Microsoft, Xbox or Playground Games.
Offline Only
Don’t expect to race online. Turn 10 shut down online services for Forza Horizon 1 and 2 in August 2023, and Azimuth has no Xbox Live integration. That means no multiplayer, no online leaderboards and no achievements. What you get is the full single-player campaign: championships, road trips, showcase events and the open roads of southern France and northern Italy, now with sharper visuals and double the frame rate.
Early Days, Rough Edges
Azimuth is still at version 0.9.x, and the developer openly calls it unfinished. Known problems include infinite loading screens (especially at 60 FPS), stuttering on some AMD GPUs, audio quirks and occasional crashes in the livery editor. Dropping to 30 FPS or a lower resolution can help with the loading problem.
Recent updates have already fixed issues with car purchases, paint customization and photo mode. The developer’s plans include HDR, an Ultra preset, higher frame rate caps and more performance work. Storm Island DLC support and mod support haven’t been confirmed yet.
Why It Matters
Forza Horizon 2 is the one mainline Horizon game that never made the jump to PC, and plenty of fans consider it a high point for the series. It introduced dynamic weather, brought over 200 cars at launch and let you cut straight across fields between events. Azimuth is the first real way to play it on modern hardware.
Azimuth is available now on itch.io as a name-your-own-price download.
