Alternative RRT3 fix

[Iso]

I thought I'd share this fix I've come across with this forum, it fixes the low texture and lighting issues.

As most of you know the steam version of Railroad Tycoon 3 doesn't work on Vista/Windows 7 without disabling Hardware Transform and Lighting, however I've come across an alternative way to fix this issue by the use of WineD3D which emulates Direct3D by the use of OpenGL.

I used the method described in this Steam forum post in this instance it was used to make Jagged Alliance 2 run on Windows 8 but it works for RRT3 by including d3d8.dll and the game ran without having to turn T&L off!

The steps are.

1)Download pre-compiled Wine3D for Windows http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/rel ... ined3d.exe
2)Use 7zip to open the .exe
3)Navigate to $SYSDIR and extract libwine.dll, wined3d.dll and d3d8.dll and place them in the Railroad Tycoon 3 folder (example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Railroad Tycoon 3)

[Hawk]

3)Navigate to $SYSWIN and extract libwine.dll, wined3d.dll and d3d8.dll

Those files are actually in a directory named $SYSDIR, not $SYSWIN. At least they are in the file I downloaded form your link.

SYSDIR.jpg (33.69 KiB) Viewed 9071 times

[Iso]

This is what I get for posting it so late in the evening, the fix I came across originally had $SYSWIN as the directory but I guess that had changed in the latest builds of WineD3D, but if the $SYSDIR folder does contain the mentioned libwine etc it should be the correct one.

[Hawk]

I know what you mean.

[3dwa21]

following problem:

I have got Win10 (64bit) and got that direct3d errer, when trying to launch the game..
now that I followed that fix the error is gone and the game process starts.

but it stays in the background... no game window is opening.

PS: I got the steam version of RRT3

****************** FIXED **************************

it was cause by the .exe being in compatibly mode for Win7

[RulerofRails]

If you read my post here, I was testing a newer laptop (64-bit Win 8.1, Nvidia graphics) so I needed the Vista Patch. However the Vista Patch has the bad side effect of wrecking the color saturation on the price maps. This makes it extremely difficult to identify smaller price differentials at a glance.

This solution is much better. It's also really simple. I thought I had to install some sort of emulator. Instead, all you need to do is dump 3 files into your Railroad Tycoon 3 folder. This and the proper blurry textures fix, and the game has got legs on the modern PCs. Much appreciate to iso for sharing this with us.

This gets a big up-vote from me.

For those who want to try it, just remember that while the download is an exe file, DON'T run it. It probably wont run as it seeks to change system files. It's simply not the purpose we are using this for.

I thought I would upload the 3 files (from iso's second step) to make the install process even easier. This is a zip file (will open in windows without 7-zip). Copy and paste these 3 files to your game folder (...\Railroad Tycoon 3) and that's the fix applied.

---

Edited: The first report of attempted use (after 85 downloads!) indicates that I mistakenly included Mss32.dll that came with the original game in place of wined3d.dll. It's corrected now. Sorry.

[RulerofRails]

Just thought I would add a further observation in case there are any programmer types out there who have curiosity and free time. Installing version 1.03 first and then running the the game in order to turn off the Hardware Transformation and Lighting, and then patching that is an alternative to the "Vista Fix" (which via a custom engine.cfg turns off Hardware Transformation and Lighting without running the game).

In the game's version notes (History.txt that installs with the game), for updates in patch version 1.04 we read: "3. Fixed a bug that could prevent the game from launching successfully with certain NVidia cards using the 5x series drivers." Maybe this change is the source of the problems?

This patch is great. Just thought I would mention what I found in my research whether for curiosity or profit.

[claasharvestor]

Hey yall,
Im new here and just blew the dust off my rt3 disk just wanted to tank yall for you help gettin my game up and working again on a modern pc

[Gumboots]

No worries. That's what we're here for.