Grafic problems with win 7 and rt3

[rodpc007]

WPandP

I tried all possible settings, and also my video card is updated, but for now it's all the same.

[johnb]

Hi all

Would the difference between running laptop and pc be how the graphics are connected.Could the laptop connection be analog[VGA].If anybody understands graphics set-ups better,could put me right?

[Gwizz]

Some cards have both the old VGA and the new PCI system on the board.
You might try using the Video cards own graphics control.
I found GeForce controls to be a bit touchy, but doable.
Just run the RT3 while you adjust the controls and make small adjustments as you go.

[johnb]

Hi gwizz

Tried playing with ati settings while in game but no change.Was thinking it was the way the cards were connected.laptop VGA and pc with PCI.would this cause the graphics differences.maybe xp used both types of connectors with rrt3 better.might see if i can switch monitor to analogue and see if anything changes.

[BobTheBull]

Actually, there is a WinXP mode for Win7, but it is only available for the top two tiers, Professional or Ultimate. This is actually a full version of WinXP, SP3 in a virtual machine (VM). The minimum to get this (legally) is $90-$140 to upgrade from lower levels of Win7 or $200-$220 to upgrade from XP or Vista. You can bet the Windows that came with your computer isn't Professional or Ultimate.

This article gave a much cheaper alternative, run WinXP using Virtual Box, VBox, in Linux. This is a popular vm program available for free as are any number of Linux distros, and that is exactly what I am doing. VBox is also available for Win7, so I would certainly try that before spending a lot of money to upgrade.

Stop trying to make programs written for XP (and early XP at that) run in Win7, as part of the development thrust from Microsoft was that Win7 would NOT run XP programs. Quit trying to flog a dead horse and look around the forums for VBox and other vm packages and find one which works for you. And when you do, report back to us so others can take advantage. Or, set up a dual boot system and boot into an XP install which is set up strictly to play games, which means you load only the bare essentials to play; NO internet access as then you do not have to run AV, firewall, and all the other stuff that takes up memory and other resources. I used to do this to play games on machines with less than optimal hardware. Works pretty good, too.

BTW: OpenSuSE 11.2, KDE 4.3 with VBox 3.1.6.

[Gwizz]

You are saying the game looks better on the PC than it does on the Laptop. Are both running with 7? I'm running with XP. I was thinking about moving to 7; but changed my mind. An hour ago I even dumped Vbox from my system. No need for it now.

There is a lot of difference in performance between different video cards depending upon how they are paired with other components on each system. Sometimes new graphic cards don't perform as well as older graphic cards.

Recently I spend a couple of hours at Fries looking to see if I could upgrade my video card. Turns out the card I already have was best for what I wanted to spend.

Use the free "Belarc Adviser" program and take a snap shot of each system.
Then go to one of the sites below to see what you can find out. Both sites are large.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bes ... 569-2.html

http://www.hardware-revolution.com/best ... arch-2010/

If these sites don't help do a search for other similar sites.

[johnb]

sorry Gwizz i'm confusing you here.looks great on laptop W7 but its tormented on the Pc with the pci gfx.Win 7 on both.Not sure how the gfx are connected on the Acer laptop.I,m running a dual boot with Xp too so its not a big problem but just a pain and wanted to see if i could find an answer.If not will just use XP as a RRT3 player.I cant keep taking the wife's laptop to play games on lol.Maybe i should'nt moan cause it it runs great apart from dodgy gfx.I dont even need the Vista add-on or any tinkering.

[jayo]

If only there was some utility that would restrict the amount of video memory a given program can access...

[thietavu]

I'm getting fairly sure that this problem is related to the amount of video RAM. Here's why. I just built my friend a fairly powerful quadcore PC (2.4 GHz AMD Phenom X4, 4 GB DDR2-RAM, Windows 7-64 and integrated Nvidia GeForce 6200 graphics). To my eternal surprise, RRT3 plays just beautifully on it! No graphics problems whatsoever! But I already bet my 2 cents on things changing when my friend eventually decides to get a more powerful graphics card, with more VRAM.

Right not it seems to me that RRT3 can't understand more than 256..384 (?) MB video RAM. So, as someone here noted, we probably need some tool to limit the VRAM RRT3 "sees". And those who have integrated graphics can easily test this theory by changing the available VRAM from the bios. I shall ask my friend to test this asap.

It is also possible, although less likely that some "modern" features in the better new graphics cards might conflict with RRT3 engine. We already know that the game doesn't like certain accelerations (the trick to get it to run when using Vista/W7).

Anyway, I think we shall solve this one way or another. ;)

[thietavu]

Yes, RRT3 claims that I have "-35 MB (!) video memory and 0 MB free". I think, the problem is found now. Negative amount of RAM - interesting... Someone at PopTop must have hard-coded the upper limit of possible video memory. This might be tricky to fix. Wonder what the PopTop guys do these days and who owns the original source code..?

[Harmeulius]

I've been told that this happens because RT3 doesn't like videocards with 1GB RAM or more.
I've got the same problem on windows Vista with a ATI Radeon 4870x2 2GB videocard, exactly the same problem.
I don't know a fix yet but if I find one I'll post it in this topic.

[thietavu]

Yes, RRT3 claims that I have "-35 MB (!) video memory and 0 MB free". I think, the problem is found now. Negative amount of RAM - interesting... Someone at PopTop must have hard-coded the upper limit of possible video memory. This might be tricky to fix. Wonder what the PopTop guys do these days and who owns the original source code..?

I wrote to the current owners of RRT3, asking for perhaps personal help when it comes to their programmers. Unfortunately, no luck. I was told that RRT3 is no longer supported. So disappointing! :( Business. The programmers are already doing something more "important". So, unless someone here personally knows someone who did program RRT3, we may be in a bad situation... :(

[rodpc007]

Also I think the problem is the video card of 1GB. I think I'll buy a notebook and put it a 512MB.

[Gwizz]

Kim Komando has a chart on her site about which window version
in compatable with what.

I only spend a few moments on it. So, I'll go get the link.

http://komando.com/buyguide/index.aspx?id=7957

The graph is on page 2.

[jayo]

Also I think the problem is the video card of 1GB. I think I'll buy a notebook and put it a 512MB.

That's exactly what it is! Maybe if there was some utility that would limit how much of the video memory the game sees...

[rodpc007]

Here the problem and confirmed that the video card.

I took my 9400GT offboard and onboard just let the 8200GT. The game was perfect again.

[BobTheBull]

OK; I got this.

Two things. First, researching the versions of Win7 from the link above, there is a Starter Version, which is 32 bit only and sold only with notebooks. Second, the video card.

I run RT3 1.06 in a WinXP guest using VirtualBox on a linux 64 bit host, and get identical graphic results to the screenshot of the laptop on page 2, with all the effects working and everything set to highest. My graphics card is a Geforce 7950GT with 512M of ddr3 memory, circa 2005 when RT3 was still being developed. It seems much newer cards probably have much newer instruction sets which do not work well with older programs based on earlier versions of d3d. Can't really tell about the memory limit, but it sounds likely there is a problem with cards with higher memory levels which could only be fixed by rewriting and compiling the .exe file and dll's.

For a solution, first try setting up WinXP 32 bit in a virtual machine; VB, VMware or some other package or XP Compatibility Mode (which is MS's virtual machine) if your distro has it; only the highest versions do. Use d3d 9.X. if that does not work you might try an earlier version of d3d but I don't think that will help. If that doesn't work out, you are left with the video card. Unless you are willing to downgrade your card or have an older machine you can use to play RT3 you are probably out of luck.

[nedfumpkin]

I'm wondering if maybe there is a string that could be executed with the RT3 exe file that somehow affects the graphics.

I would love to some how figure out how to keep the detail crisp without it always bumping down as soon as I move on the map.

Any computer gurus out there who think of anything like this could work?

[Moggie]

Yes, RRT3 claims that I have "-35 MB (!) video memory and 0 MB free". I think, the problem is found now. Negative amount of RAM - interesting... Someone at PopTop must have hard-coded the upper limit of possible video memory. This might be tricky to fix. Wonder what the PopTop guys do these days and who owns the original source code..?

How can you check the amount of video memory inside RT3?

[jayo]

I just got a laptop with an intel core i5, Windows 7, and a 1.696GB intel graphics card. I tried RRT3 on it for a while, and had no problem with the graphics!