RT3 running on Windows 10

[Gumboots]

Played with it some more. I figured out a brilliant solution for the D3DCompiler_47 bugz. Voodoo supports D3DCompiler_43 as well, and my box already had a compatible version of that. So just delete _47 and fall back to _43.

No problem. It works perfectly. No error pop-ups when starting the game, and even seems to be a bit faster and smoother when running. And with the game running on D3DCompiler_43 the water reflections are now smooth enough to be nice eye candy, so I'm using those now too.

Take away point here: if you're still running W7, just skip D3DCompiler_47 and let Voodoo run on _43, which you should already have.

So that's sorted. Next thing was testing 1920x1200 set by uniws against RT3's 1600x1024 setting for res. So sure, uniws is fine as long as you aren't jumping in and out of windowed mode. The catch was that, at least with my current box, going from 1600x1024 to 1920x1200 res with a couple of hundred high poly locomotives costs an extra 10-15 fps. The game is noticeably faster and smoother on the slightly lower res, and still looks pretty good. The difference in resolution is only noticeable at really close range, and even then it's not too bad.

Given that any loco skin is limited to 1024 max, at some zoom distance you are going to start running out of skin res even if your monitor res is better. So it comes down to what distance you want to be at when that happens. With 1600 it will happen a bit further out, but with either 1600 or 1920 there will be a point where the apparent size of the asset skin pixels matches the game's screen resolution anyway.

So at the moment I'm thinking I'll just take the extra fps, at least when running a game that puts a load on the game engine and gfx card. Alternatively, I could use uniws to force a 1680x1050 res, which has exactly the aspect ratio as my monitor, and get an 8% improvement in pixel density over the best RT3 setting along with slightly better aspect ratio. That should only cost a couple of fps and the loss probably wouldn't be noticeable.

Anyway, with the game running on 1920 via uniws there are no cursor glitches. It may be a bit slower on the higher res but it's stably slower. So it looks like forcing res via Voodoo is a bad idea for RT3, and uniws is the way to go if you want to force res.

[Gumboots]

Well, this is interesting, on my machine I had blurry textures at the default 1GB setting. If it works for you, use it. Good thing I put a disclaimer when posting the settings I use.

Have you tried taking a screenshot yet? That's what I haven't gotten working yet.

Just tried it. Nope. Doesn't work anymore. Used to before Voodoo. I'm not worried about it. I can always go to windowed mode if I want to take a screenshot.

Only catch of course is that if using uniws to force custom res, it will be teh borken afterwards. I had a wavey brain about this too. Uniws works by making an edit to engine.cfg, and it seems to make cumulative edits that crud up the file. Obvious solution here is to get a vanilla file and apply the uniws patch to it.

Then, this is the clever bit, save an extra copy. That way when it gets teh borken next time, all you have to do is copy/paste the stashed file to your Config folder to overwrite teh borken one. No need to run uniws search/patch again. No extra crud in file.

[RulerofRails]

Found some info on stack exchange (reproduced the links; point to wikipedia and the Microsoft site), partial quote:

When PrtScr doesn’t work for a fullscreen game (or sometimes even a windowed game), it is because the game is using the video-adapter’s hardware overlay [1] [2][3] (not to be confused with software overlays like those of Steam, Fraps, etc.) This is a special buffer (surface for DirectX games) that software can write to which provides hardware acceleration. By nature, it is just a simple (usually near-black) rectangle that the video-adapter fills in with the output image in hardware. As a result, Windows does not have access to the rendered image, and so its PrtScr handler cannot capture it. This is the same for video-players that use hardware acceleration.

If interested, I recommend reading the whole post. After reading, I tried downloading Fraps. The free version will output bmp files only, but it works in full screen mode. Slight drawback is that the output was a little dark, but it works! Can also be handy for testing to get a more accurate reading of FPS.

[Gumboots]

If you want the readme's in normal-human colours I've already done the styling edits.

Sure, if it's easy.

Attached.

I didn't bother asking. I figure his notice about not redistributing bits of the pack applied to the functional game files. A restyling of the readme, with the same content, probably wouldn't bother him. It's the sort of thing that wouldn't bother me, and he seems pretty laid back.

[Akarin]

I was thinking about using this dgVoodoo2setup method, but I had some questions about it first. I'm currently patched up to 1.06 with the Vista fix, the texture fix from the archive, and the resolution fix found here http://hawkdawg.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... =10#p36597 Also I'm using Win8.1. I'm only using one install.

I just installed these fixes before finding this thread so I'm still testing to see if I even need to bother with it. The textures and frame rate are great. I don't have that water reflection others have mentioned. I don't ever intend to enter windows mode (i know that's an issue with the resolution fix I'm using atm). I guess the price map is fine (to be honest I'm not really sure what the issue looks like, if someone could link me to a screenshot of what the price map should/shouldn't look like would be great. I'm assuming mine is fine).

If I were to try out this method, how would I go about doing it with my current setup? Do I need to remove the Vistafix, texture fix (d3d8.dll) and resolution files (the exe and .ini files)?

I've noticed some people talking about running +100 trains in this thread. Does this method improve performance at all, compared to the texture fix at least? Because I'm currently working on a long term scenario that has given me performance issues in the past (the AI spamming trains).

Does using this method affect any other games or programs? My general knowledge when it comes to dll stuff is severely lacking.

[RulerofRails]

Comparison screenshots are here. It's harder to quantify the performance improvement, but everybody reported an improvement. We should expect it too, thanks to more CPU resources for things other than graphics.

What to do with existing patches?
The only one you need to manually remove is the texture fix. The res patch will still work perfectly. The Vista Fix is simply a way to switch the "Disable Hardware T&L" switch without starting the game. It's very easy to undo that!

The download site has a couple links to documentation first. Just look for the one called "dgVoodoo v2.54"
When opening the zip you will have some readmes, dgVoodooCpl, and two folders.
Place dgVoodooCpl on your desktop.
Run this.
Under DirectX settings, make sure to set VRAM to 1024MB (this is analogous to the texture fix). Can turn the watermark off too. Can "Force vSync" to stabilize frame rates.

Now go into the MS folder of the zip.
Select D3D8.dll
Place that in your game folder
Run the game
Go to graphics settings and turn off the "Disable Hardware T&L" switch.
Restart the game.
You're done.

[Hawk]

Under DirectX settings, make sure to set VRAM to 1024MB (this is analogous to the texture fix).

What if your vid card only has 512 MB VRAM? Should this still be set to 1024?

[RulerofRails]

Didn't consider that possibility, just set it to what you have then. TBH, I think those are getting rarer. My old machine has 1GB and it is 7 years old, still going strong. The main point is to go and increase that value, the default (64MB) is far too low.

[Hawk]

Got'cha. Thanks!

[Hawk]

It seems that did the trick. I got the water reflections back.

[Gumboots]

Makes a big difference to a map. You should also notice better shades everywhere. Without dgVoodoo, the Berkshire I made ages ago is so flat-looking that I never noticed some of the normals were flipped the wrong way. As soon as I got dgVoodoo running I could see them. IOW, it's not just water that gets better effects. Every asset in the game gets better effects.

[Hawk]

I haven't actually played a map yet but I did fire one up and to me the rivers don't look as good as I remember them.
I'm going to have to do a comparison with and without the VooDoo thing again some day soon.

I do know that the longer I use Win 7, the less I like it. I've been using it for about 4 months now and I'm close to being ready to go back to XP, so the whole VooDoo thing may soon be irrelevant for me.

[Akarin]

Comparison screenshots are here. It's harder to quantify the performance improvement, but everybody reported an improvement. We should expect it too, thanks to more CPU resources for things other than graphics.

What to do with existing patches?
The only one you need to manually remove is the texture fix. The res patch will still work perfectly. The Vista Fix is simply a way to switch the "Disable Hardware T&L" switch without starting the game. It's very easy to undo that!

The download site has a couple links to documentation first. Just look for the one called "dgVoodoo v2.54"
When opening the zip you will have some readmes, dgVoodooCpl, and two folders.
Place dgVoodooCpl on your desktop.
Run this.
Under DirectX settings, make sure to set VRAM to 1024MB (this is analogous to the texture fix). Can turn the watermark off too. Can "Force vSync" to stabilize frame rates.

Now go into the MS folder of the zip.
Select D3D8.dll
Place that in your game folder
Run the game
Go to graphics settings and turn off the "Disable Hardware T&L" switch.
Restart the game.
You're done.

I really appreciate this post. I was getting rather confused reading through the various fixes, but you summed it up perfectly with easy to follow directions for my situation. I really appreciate that. Your screenshots convinced me so I gave it a try. I got everything running perfectly and the game looks fantastic. I had completely forgotten about water reflections, that's a nice treat to have back. I never had great computers to play this on back when this game was new so I was always playing on low settings. And two years ago when I installed it on a "gaming" computer and found this site I had thought the blurry textures were normal. Never thought about how good it should have looked.
Frame rate now stays around 60. With the VistaFix it was into the one hundreds, but varied a lot more (I didn't notice any visual problems with that, but I don't need more than 60 fps in this game anyway). I'm assuming this is normal, but before I switched off the "Disable Hardware T&L" switch, I had no ground, similar to the screenshot here http://hawkdawg.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... doo#p44201 Went away after turning off the "Disable Hardware T&L" switch of course. I havn't played long enough to run into any problems though, but I'm hopeful.

Out of curiosity, if I wanted to make changes to the settings within dgVoodooCpl, would I have to recopy the D3D8.dll file into game directory for them to take effect in the game? Asking because I don't see how that dll file remains connected with the dgVoodoo program once you move it (or in my case copy it).

[RulerofRails]

Out of curiosity, if I wanted to make changes to the settings within dgVoodooCpl, would I have to recopy the D3D8.dll file into game directory for them to take effect in the game?

No need for that, you don't even need to restart the game.

It uses a config file, that is created in your appdata folder the first time you run dgVoodooCpl. The localization feature means that it actually prefers to look for this config file in the folder where it (the dll) is or the one where the EXE is first. This way you can have different settings for different games. If you want more details look at section 6 in the manual.

I'm happy you got it working easily. Enjoy.

[tek1979]

Hey guys,
Been playing RRT3 on an old XP PC but now I'm investigating how to do it on windows 10 as Steam will no longer work in XP, I have found several work arounds for most of the legacy games I play BUT this is the only place I can find clear information about getting RRT3 working, only problem I have run into is when I download and insert (rename and copy) the 1.03 patch into my RRT3 folder I get an error message asking me to insert the CD, considering I'm using steam I don't have the CD.

I was hoping somebody could give me some help cause this has got me confused

[Hawk]

Try rebooting the computer and see if that helps.

[Silverback]

Hey guys,
Been playing RRT3 on an old XP PC but now I'm investigating how to do it on windows 10 as Steam will no longer work in XP, I have found several work arounds for most of the legacy games I play BUT this is the only place I can find clear information about getting RRT3 working, only problem I have run into is when I download and insert (rename and copy) the 1.03 patch into my RRT3 folder I get an error message asking me to insert the CD, considering I'm using steam I don't have the CD.

I was hoping somebody could give me some help cause this has got me confused

The 1.03 patch isn't needed - I presume you are trying to tun off T&L? - Isn't the steam version already patched to 1.05 anyway? The 1.03 patch will be for a CD/DVD version of the game and DRM enabled.

If the game crashes at startup then try replacing the file engine.cfg in one of the game folders (keep a copy of your current file though) by the direct method - there was a copy of engine.cfg on this site at one point but may have gone AWOl when the files were transferred to mediafire. There is a link to a copy on http://www.thegameengine.org/railroad-tycoon-3/ - use the "local copy" from the site. There are also instructions. This should turn off T&L in the configuration as this may be a problem with Nvidia graphics.

The GOG (good old games) version comes with T&L turned off I believe. I much prefer GOG to Steam for any old games.

[tek1979]

I deleted the steam local files, then deleted the left over files, re-installed it and it worked :)

[Gumboots]

Well, I managed to get RT3 running from scratch on Windows 10. What ultimately worked for me is this:

• Start with an original game disc (v1.04)

• Install to a folder on desktop (do not Install DirectX 8 when asked)

• Install CtC Expansion patch

• Install v1.05 patch

• Install No_CD patch

Try running the game at this point, and get instant CTD. So...

• Install "Vista fix"

Game now runs, but of course looks pretty crappy, so...

• Install dgVoodoo 2.6.3

• Fire game up, enable "Hardware T&L" (ie: get rid of "Vista fix")

Result: game now runs without Vista fix, but still looks like crap. Different sort of crap though. Breaking waves are going about twice as fast as normal, oceans look muddy, etc, etc. So...

• Decide to ignore official dgVoodoo instructions and try an experiment

• Instructions for dgVoodoo on 64 Bit OS say to use one file (D3D9.dll) from the MS/x64 folder

• Instructions for dgVoodoo on 32 Bit OS say to use all four files from the MS/x86 folder

• The experiment was to use all four files from MS/x86, even though I'm running 64 bit W10.

Result: Success! It works. Game runs, with perfect shading and animations.
Only problem now is that with a new 2560x1440 monitor, the default maximum game resolution of 1600x900 looks pretty rough and blurry. So...

• Play around with dgVoodoo settings

• Oh dear, they don't seem to do much. Res still blurry.

• So, give up on trying to force res via dgVoodoo, and just edit engine.cfg to 2560x1440

This works really well. The game looks great. Only catch is that it will obviously turn to crap if I go into windowed mode, so I made another folder inside Configuration to hold a backup copy of the edited engine.cfg. This means all I have to do is exit the game, copy/paste the backup file from Configuration/Cfg_2560 to Configuration, and restart the game. Hey presto, perfect native resolution again.

---

This is all with an nVidia GTX 1050 graphics card (4 gig RAM). dgVoodoo is set to its default card emulation, and a virtual 2048 meg of RAM. For some reason I can't seem to get rid of the dgVoodoo watermark, but that's not really a big deal.

The good news is that with a 4 gig GPU and various other modern thingummies (faster motherboard, solid state hard drive, etc) the game runs faultlessly at a decent frame rate even with 100 trains that have higher poly locos and cargo cars than the defaults. It's noticeably better in terms of frame rate than the old box, even with the much higher resolution. It'll be interesting to see how it handles 200 trains.

[Hawk]

• Start with an original game disc (v1.04)

Just being a little nit-picky here:
I'm pretty sure the original game disk is V-1.00 and C to C is V-1.04

Other than that, congratulations!!!!