RT3 Textures are blurry.

[Blackhawk]

I won't really be of too much help for you in fixing this problem but what sort of graphics card are you running? There may be a program that would work with your gfx card to limit your fps.

[hoochy]

Hi everyone. The fix for blurry textures posted here did not work for me so I made a new fix that does not crash on startup. If the other texture fix crashed on startup for you then mine should work. I tested this on Windows 10 x64 . Hopefully it is helpful for anyone out there still playing this great game!


http://www.speedyshare.com/bdtpd/new-texture-fix.zip

This is a fix for low resolution textures in Railroad Tycoon 3. The other texture fix crashed on startup for me, and apparently for other users also. It basically is the same as the other texture fix except the crash bug it has is fixed and there is a configuration option and a visual cue that the fix is working.

Instructions.

1) Place d3d8.dll and optionally vramsize.txt in your railroad tycoon 3 folder.
2) Run game (rt3.exe)
3) If this fix is working you should see a number on the screen telling you how much the VRAM size is set to (in megabytes), this will display for 10 seconds then disappear.


Configuration.

You can edit vramsize.txt to specify how much free texture memory (in megabytes) you want to report to the game. I have tried 1024 and it works fine for this Railroad Tycoon 3. The reason I allowed you to specify the amount is this d3d8.dll can be used for other games too, and you may want to specify different amounts for different reasons.

If vramsize.txt is missing then a default of 512 will be used.

Help.
You may need to install the latest Visual Studio 2015 distribution binaries for this to work
*Tested on Windows 10 x64

[Hawk]

I never could download from that site. That solve media thing didn't work. Probably due to my browser security settings.
How about attaching the zip to a post.

[hoochy]

Hi hawk, I can't find a way to attach something. There seems to be no "attach" tab like in the description above. I tried a different upload site.

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 9150522595

[Hawk]

That's my bad. I forgot you can't attach files until you have 2 posts.
You should be able to attach files now.

That download worked though.

[Hawk]

Have others tested this fix yet?

[hoochy]

Have others tested this fix yet?

Not to my knowledge. I'm not sure how popular this game is anymore but I keep coming back to it after some years. I've attached it to this post.

[Hawk]

There is over 10,000 registered members for the archives, and there's a couple hundred downloads of various files daily.
Maybe a couple of the forums members will download and try this fix. I personally don't need it because I'm still running XP with a video card with only 512 MB VRAM.

[hoochy]

There is over 10,000 registered members for the archives, and there's a couple hundred downloads of various files daily.
Maybe a couple of the forums members will download and try this fix. I personally don't need it because I'm still running XP with a video card with only 512 MB VRAM.

Yeah it seems to do with going over 2GB VRAM, which is the size of a 32bit integer. So the game must be using an INT32 to store how much VRAM is left, if its over 2GB then it actually think there is negative video memory left, so they reduce texture size in memory to compensate and try to claw some memory back.

It could be fixed another way, the same way the 1.06 patch works by patching the EXE/memory. Just patch out the check altogether.

I've been playing some hours with my fix set to 1024MB , there was one crash in this time but I think it was caused by alt-tabbing too much. This game doesn't like alt tabbing and I've had this same crash in the years before in a similar fashion. So just avoid alt tabbing with this game and it seems to run fine on Windows 10 x64 with my texture fix. Played about 4 hours consecutive no crash and no alt tabbing, with Anti Aliasing on and all details set to max.

[Hawk]

I'll give it a few days to see if anyone tests it from the forums.
Then, if you want, I'll add it to the archives as an alternative fix or replace the existing fix.

We'll see.

[RulerofRails]

hoochy, have you seen this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3734#p37970?

I use that one. For my Win 8.1 machine I also use the widescreen hack for 1920x1080, and this: viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3805#p38902 (no need for the Vista Fix). The last one does use some extra resources, but it's only an issue on very large games. Worth it to see the proper price gradients in normal play conditions.

Sorry, I don't have Windows 10 (trying to avoid it at this point) so can't test your file out.

[hoochy]

hoochy, have you seen this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3734#p37970?

I use that one. For my Win 8.1 machine I also use the widescreen hack for 1920x1080, and this: viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3805#p38902 (no need for the Vista Fix). The last one does use some extra resources, but it's only an issue on very large games. Worth it to see the proper price gradients in normal play conditions.

Sorry, I don't have Windows 10 (trying to avoid it at this point) so can't test your file out.

Hi there, no I hadn't seen that thread. Like i said in my post up there ^ patching the game is probably a better way to do things and if that is working fine for people then probably not much use for mine. The only thing would be if that patch did indeed get all the locations the function is called, if not there is still a use for the d3d8.dll . If someone fixed it "properly" in a 1.07 patch or whatever I think it would be great.

Always good to have options anyhow.

[Gumboots]

hoochy, have you seen this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3734#p37970?

I use that one. For my Win 8.1 machine I also use the widescreen hack for 1920x1080, and this: viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3805#p38902 (no need for the Vista Fix). The last one does use some extra resources, but it's only an issue on very large games. Worth it to see the proper price gradients in normal play conditions.

RoR, does enabling hardware T&L give any noticeable benefits apart from the cargo gradient shading?

I'm more or less an "if it aint borked, don't fix it" sort, and my installations are working, so if all it does is give subtler cargo gradients I may not bother. OTOH, if it does other nifty stuff as well then I might.

Come to think of it, I wonder if it would affect water reflections. Those have never worked on my box, and I've always run the "Vista fix" because without it I get instant CTD.

[hoochy]

hoochy, have you seen this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3734#p37970?

I use that one. For my Win 8.1 machine I also use the widescreen hack for 1920x1080, and this: viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3805#p38902 (no need for the Vista Fix). The last one does use some extra resources, but it's only an issue on very large games. Worth it to see the proper price gradients in normal play conditions.

RoR, does enabling hardware T&L give any noticeable benefits apart from the cargo gradient shading?

I'm more or less an "if it aint borked, don't fix it" sort, and my installations are working, so if all it does is give subtler cargo gradients I may not bother. OTOH, if it does other nifty stuff as well then I might.

Come to think of it, I wonder if it would affect water reflections. Those have never worked on my box, and I've always run the "Vista fix" because without it I get instant CTD.

I had a different crash with T&L with the older texture fix which made me wonder what was going on with it. For what its worth I can run my texture fix with T&L enabled, at least for some time. When is it supposed to crash with that enabled? Instantly or some time into the game?

[Gumboots]

Instantly. At least on XP and Windows 7. Haven't got around to trying 10 yet, and avoided 8 like the plague.

This is running the original disc version of the game (not the Steam version) with the no-cd patch added after the game is installed.

[hoochy]

Instantly. At least on XP and Windows 7. Haven't got around to trying 10 yet, and avoided 8 like the plague.

This is running the original disc version of the game (not the Steam version) with the no-cd patch added after the game is installed.

Did you ever try that without the texture fix? ie just the base game?

[Gumboots]

Yup. Instant crash. The "Vista fix" went in long before the texture fix was available.

[RulerofRails]

Ok, I remembered/re-discovered something here. The alternative to the Vista Fix (viewtopic.php?f=82&t=3805#p38902) uses a different d3d8 dll file that cannot be interchanged with yours or the older one. So the patch to the exe is probably the only way to get around the blurry textures.

The need for the Vista Fix seems to be mainly about the type of graphics card. There is enough info around to know that this applies to Windows 7, some info about Windows 8.1, but not much about Windows 10 yet. The fact that the Vista Fix isn't needed in RT3 version 1.03, before the developers did something to improve the game with Nvidia cards (see version notes), makes one wonder was this a step backwards in the long run?

Gumboots, the detail on the price map makes a big difference to my gameplay as so much more info is available at a glance. I tested mine for water reflections, and I can't get water reflections with Hardware T&L disabled either. With this you'll probably get them on your box as well. Just be aware that for me the game switched them off after each change of the Disable T&L setting. Also, take the files associated with the fix out of the game folder when turning the Hardware T&L off or the game might load the map with bright ground colors (sort of like the fluorescent maps that I fixed at one stage). As to other effects, there may be some but as soon as I got the machine I went about this process because I can't stand those washed-out price overlays. I certainly didn't play any games that way.

[Gumboots]

Ok, so what you're saying is that I can have groovy cargo gradients and water reflections, as long as I can put up with blurry textures. Or I can have groovy looking textures, as long as I can put up with cruder cargo overlays and no water reflections.

For me, this is a no-brainer. I'll take the groovy textures.

Of course, there's another possibility if anyone wants to look into it. Since all these patches rely on a custom d3d8.dll file, it is probably feasible to write one which incorporates both patches. That way we could all have groovy water reflections, accurate cargo gradients, and no blurry textures.

[RulerofRails]

The patch that doesn't rely on the d3d8.dll file is in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3734#p37970; with changes made to the exe itself. I mentioned this link above. For a pre-patched 1.05 no-cd exe, go down to the link in this post: viewtopic.php?p=37991#p37991. This is patchable to 1.06 by the normal setup06.exe method. For TM one needs to open the hex editor but it's pretty easy (maybe I should post a copy of the one I did over in the TM section).


Using this patched exe removes the need for the d3d8.dll file so it's possible to also use the alternative Vista Fix that I described above. This is how I have have nice textures, good cargo overlays and water reflections on my Win 8.1 machine. The only disclaimer is that I did see a reversion to blurry textures after 30 mins or so of play in one install of 1.06 that I had. It was a little hard to work out, but I'm now pretty sure that this was caused by me fooling with some settings in the debug menu. The textures would come back if I saved the game and then restarted, and work fine for awhile before eventually fading out again. As long as you don't play with the debug settings you should be all good. You can always try it. You might like what you see.