RT3 running on Windows 7

[EPH]

Copying my old 1.06 NoCD folder over the new installation and then running the Vista Fix did not work.

The score so far:

The basic installation with no upgrades or patches WILL run.
With Coast-to-Coast patch installed, the game launches to the main menu, waits a second or two and then crashes. It does this no matter what else I install.

[EPH]

Okay... I think I found it. I had copied the vistafix patch over but evidently did not get the engineconfig file in the right place.

Did that... and my old version works, no new re-installation needed.

[Hawk]

Have you had any luck patching it?

[EPH]

I ran 1.06 no CD this afternoon and it seems to run fine. A great relief... Even after all this time I still play RRT3.

[Hawk]

Great! Glad yo hear you got it running.

Do you have any plans on a new map or maps?

[EPH]

Ah, man... you know. The last few I did kind of vanished without much interest so I haven't done anything in a while.

I do think Express D'Orient is a great improvement on the original. And I'd still like to do Russian Miracle, though I'm not convinced anyone would play it.

[Hawk]

Believe me, there are a slew of RT3 players outside of this forum.

With this new script I'm using that requires a person to create an account before they can download any files, I have seen close to 2,000 users that are not forum members.

[Gumboots]

I think people just tend to try maps without bothering to give feedback on them. Like the one I made recently got absolutely no comments, even though it was downloaded (and presumably tested0 well over a dozen times. I think you just have to make maps that you like playing yourself, and if anyone else likes them too then that's a bonus.

[EPH]

I'll wrap this up with one more comment before Hawk tells us we've taken the thread too far off-topic. :)

I do make scenarios that I like to play, and I probably play them more than others. Sorry for not downloading and testing yours, by the way. But I spent the last 4 months traveling for my company. Now they've decided to carve it up and sell it, so I'm looking for work again.

I was very lucky to have some expert help from forumites when I was making scenarios. And I'm proud of the results. But the last one I did got some harsh negative remarks from someone who didn't understand what I was trying to do... As my mother used to say, it's no more trouble to cook for a dozen than it is for one. But if you are cooking for a dozen it's fun, and if you are cooking for just one it is too much work. And as for cooking for people who complain...

So for the moment I'm content to make more logos and kick around ideas for Russian Miracle. Maybe there will be something new one of these days... I never thought I'd do anything after Japanese Miracle, and then came British Miracle, Farewell to Steam and North-South Corridor (at least). So I just have to wait for inspiration to strike.

That's enough for his thread. PM me if you like.

[OilCan]

I think you just have to make maps that you like playing yourself, and if anyone else likes them too then that's a bonus.

That's the key thing. I like certain game styles, thoughtfully prepared maps and I like a good story line with a game, so I make games that I like. I have 3-4 games that I've never released but that I like to play every now and then - as well as the ones I've released to the map archive. And, once in a while, I will play one of Arop's games, usually on rainy Sunday afternoons.

[Gumboots]

Well Hawk can always split this out to a new thread if he thinks we're going bonkers.

I know what you mean about the cooking. I'll make the effort to try your maps.

[thietavu]

So true. I have now tested my own Great China 4 map for TrainMaster for two years and hundreds and hundreds of hours, fixing this and that, adding things, trying countless strategies - never had a dull moment! So, at least for myself, the end result has been about as great as I can hope. :)

Yes, the final revision seems to be 4.61, meaning that I have played this map at least 61 times, mostly to the end. And when each game will take, perhaps, 20 hours or so (maybe longer, I always lose sense of time with this one), you get the picture... Meaning: I have no life! Then again, these hundreds of hours playing of the largest, most detailed RRT3 map ever made (I'm pretty sure) with hundreds of trains moving, is the ultimate reliability test for RRT3 under Windows 7. It's a robust game even on modern computers!

[Hawk]

Well Hawk can always split this out to a new thread if he thinks we're going bonkers.

I know what you mean about the cooking. I'll make the effort to try your maps.

Let's just try to get back on topic.

Future RT3 and Win 7 users may find this thread not much help if it gets too far off topic.

[dmay1982]

I've been able to run RRT3 on Windows 7 without any major problems, until I ran into a bit of patch confusion. On the title screen, it says version 1.0.0, yet in the history file for the game it lists it including the Coast to Coast expansion and being version 1.04. I know I'm at that version because I have the maps that came with ctc. When I tried to patch to version 1.05, unzipping the files to the suggested destination, I get a message saying "can't create output file" to the destination. This happens whether I try unzipping to the game through "program files" or "program files (x86)" through my c: drive. What's the deal?

[Hawk]

Starting with Vista and continuing on into Win 7, Windows will no longer allow overwriting of files in the Program Files (86) or the Program Files directories.

If you have RT3 installed in either of those directories, you need to uninstall it and reinstall into a directory outside of either of those two directories

[Knave]

Starting with Vista and continuing on into Win 7, Windows will no longer allow overwriting of files in the Program Files (86) or the Program Files directories.

If you have RT3 installed in either of those directories, you need to uninstall it and reinstall into a directory outside of either of those two directories

I tried to play rrt3 on my windows 7 machine. Met with no success until I read the quote above. I am curently patched to 1.06 and running just fine. I am not sure I should use the vista fix or not.

Thanks everybody. I would not have figured it out myself.
Bobby

[eastwind]

Just came back to the game again, glad to find the low-res graphics glitch has been fixed, my old installation, all patched up to 1.06 from before, now works with T&L enabled, and I'm getting high-res graphics at 1600x1200 -- on my 1920x1200 monitor.

So has anyone had any luck getting the game to work at 1920x1200 fullscreen or windowed?

I've tried hex editing the engine.cfg file. It seems like what I'm doing should work, but it doesnt. Here's what I've tried so far:
- First 4 bytes of the cfg file are 1B 04 00 00, that appears to be a version stamp or something the program to read to identify an engine.cfg file. Leaving that alone.
- Next 4 bytes is the currently selected graphics resolution width, in little-endian (byteswapped) order.
- Next 4 bytes is the currently selected graphics resolution height, in little-endian (byteswapped) order.

If I go into the game main menu and choose windowed mode, a 1440x900 resolution is available, a wide-screen aspect resolution. If I choose that and save, the game updates the engine.cfg file and the first 12 bytes are:

1B 04 00 00
A0 05 00 00 // 1440
84 03 00 00 // 900

So I was hoping I could change this to
1B 04 00 00
80 07 00 00 // 1920
B0 04 00 00 // 1200

and it would just work, but No. When I start the game it rejects that resolution and resets to 640x480.

I've tried comparing an engine.cfg the game saved when it was set to 1440x900 to one it saved when at 1366x768 (also widescreen aspect ratio) and apart from the first 12 bytes I didn't see any other differences in the two config files.

I also tried setting the game to fullscreen at 1600x1200 and then editing the config file, again it resets to 640x480 (fullscreen) on restart.

Anybody know about any other config file that lists the legal resolutions that I might try to hack? It's got to be populating that from somewhere. Since the game can do one wide screen resolution I think it probably can do others.

Web searching hasn't turned up anything of help either.

[thietavu]

I just re-installed RRT 3 yesterday on my Windows 7-64 bit computer to check out whether there are any problems between RRT 3 and W7 these days.

There were none. The installation went without problems: version 1.0 from the CDs, then updates 1.04, 1.05 and 1.06. I tested the game in every phase. No problems whatsoever! Works beautifully (just spent several hours with the campaign... ;) ).

- I did *not* disable the T&L hardware acceleration in game's settings. There was no need.
- No "Vista fix" etc. used. No need.
- I did use the unofficial .DLL -file that restricts game's video memory to 512 MB ("low rez graphics fix"), but I doubt that made much or any difference. Not sure, though, so I recommend downloading and using it, since at least it doesn't damage anything!
- Important! I installed the game to C:\program files\Railroad Tycoon 3 folder. Your PC may suggest a different directory, but this is the correct one. Be sure that the updates install into the same directory (some did that automatically, some did not)!
- I forced the game to run in Windows XP compatibility mode. Don't know if it made any difference, but it's safer that way for an old game.

After all this, there were absolutely no unexpected things. The game works perfectly.

Important: As said before, I *very* strongly suspect that RRT 3 has some hardware-related issues with some 64-bit Windows 7 and 8 computers! My computer is 100% AMD (CPU, motherboard chipset and the Radeon 7870 graphics card). It has run RRT 3 flawlessly all the time, no matter what AMD Radeon graphics card or drivers I have used (tried 4 cards of different generations). The only problems I faced were with an Nvidia graphics card (the infamous "low resolution" issue).

So, it feels safe to say that you can run RRT 3 with a modern all-AMD computer and Windows 7 or 8 (tested with pre-release version of 8) without too much trickery. I haven't been able to test this on Intel-based computers and graphics. What seems likely, however, is that at least some Nvidia graphics have issues with RRT 3. Perhaps the before mentioned "512 MB video memory patch" .DLL -file fixes them, I don't know.

But if you're updating your computer, an AMD-based system seems to be a way to play RRT 3 without problems. You can see my system details in my signature.

Hope this helps someone after the long debate about RRT 3 and Windows 7! The game looks good and runs smoothly (I witnessed over 1000 fps in a simple scenario... Crazy! ;) More normal numbers when there's a lot going on in the game are 40..70 fps - more than enough.)

[vtmike]

I'm new here, so first off I just to want to say thanks to everyone for all the great info, maps etc on this site. Its definitely breathed new life into RT3 for me.

I have found one thing else where that I think some people might be interested in, that I haven't seen posted here. I found a hack that modifies the engine.cfg to allow for widescreen resolutions (or any resolution for that matter).

Its posted over at the widescreen gaming forum. Its a small executable that modifies your engine.cfg (it takes a backup as well) and sets the resolution to whatever you specify. You can find it at http://www.wsgf.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=25118. Its attached to the 2nd post. I've used it and been able to set my resolution to 1920 x 1080. I haven't noticed any ill effects, but someone that is more familiar with the game engine might be to tell for sure what exactly its modifying.

[Gumboots]

Sounds handy. I'll try it out.