Grand Prix 3 With Windows 10 - Tutorial!
Grand Prix 3 With Windows 10 - Tutorial!
I've been getting many requests for a guide on how to run GP3 with Windows 10 so I decided to do my best and here it is! Setting up a racing wheel with pedals also included.
So let's go into it then! Here's a video version of this tutorial if you prefer visuals and sound:
Note that the end result with Windows 10 is not going to be perfect although you're probably going to get it running decently. It'll probably crash to the desktop sometimes but luckily you can use the autosave feature in GPxPatch to prevent losing any progress in your race.
As a disclaimer I have to say that I myself run the game with Windows 7 as I'm live-streaming full distance races and I want the game to run pretty much flawlessly.
You probably would get the best experience with Windows XP but before you run to a flea market and prepare to explain your wife why you need another box in your living room make sure your racing wheel has got legacy drivers for Windows XP! Otherwise you'll need to go back to the flea market and then explain your wife why your new box needs its personal racing wheel and pedals! Some wifes have difficulties understanding why we need stuff like this.
GP3 is the worst kind of game for modern computers because it's one of those very early Windows games that runs on Directx 7 and Windows 10 really does a terrible job emulating it. So you have to pull off some tricks to make it run with a decent performance if you want to use hardware accelerated graphics. With software rendering it's easier to run but it's not quite as pretty, especially in wet conditions.
First in this tutorial we'll get the game running with software rendering and configure a racing wheel. After that the game is playable but if you want to use hardware rendered graphics then continue watching.
First start by installing the game as you would normally.
Next you should install the official patch that brings the game up to 1.13. This will eliminate some bugs and problems with force feedback. You'll find the patch here:
https://www.grandprixgames.org/read.php?50,699633
For the patch to work you'll also need the NO-CD patch found in the same location so download the patched exe and replace the GP3.exe in your installation folder.
Next download GpxPatch. You'll find it here:
https://rsdi.home.xs4all.nl/gpxpatch.html
Install it into the GP3 installation folder.
Start GpxPatch and check the box next to ”Enable debug mode”. Then open a tab a called GPxLap. Here enable autosave. This will save the game into the ”autosave” folder every time the leader crosses start/finish line so if the game crashes you can load the autosave and continue your race.
Now if you think you can settle with the software rendered graphics the game is good to go! Plug in your wheel if you use one, set the wheel rotation to 360 degrees and start the game from GPxPatch by clicking ”Start GPx”. You might get this bug with weird colored menus but you'll get rid of it by going into a quick-race and then return to the menus.
First of all go into the graphics settings and for a render device choose ”software”. Or, in my case: ”BMÄ” Yeah it might be weird but pick the one witch is not the name of your graphics card.
Now let's set up the racing wheel. Go to controls, choose wheel and go to ”advanced”. The presets don't usually work so choose one of the not used ”user sets” and then for the type of controller choose ”wheel”. Then choose the axes for steering device, click your controller and find the appropriate axis by rotating your wheel and choose that one.
Set low sensitivity zone, steering help and speed dependency all to 0% because they're crap and make the car behave inconsistently.
Then set up your acceleration device and brake device in the same manner. Also I would get rid of the low sensitivity zones with both pedals.
Finally find the correct inputs for gear changes and set them up.
If your wheel pulls to the left when going into a race like mine does check the box next to ”wheel pulls left”. I personally use about 60% scaling for force feedback. Also make sure you have ”control driven calibration” checked.
Then you can save your control set and calibrate your wheel & pedals and it's time to race!
IF you're happy with software rendered graphics that is. However if you feel you absolutely need the hardware accelerated graphics, then we need to continue on. By default they look buggy and the performance is absolutely awful.
To make this work we'll need a program called ”dgVoodoo 2”. You'll find it here:
http://dege.freeweb.hu/dgVoodoo2/dgVoodoo2/
Extract the files into your GP3 main folder.
Go into your GP3 folder and then go into the ”MS” and into the x86 -folder that came with dgVoodoo. Copy the three files shown on the video into your GP3 main folder.
Run the dgVoodooCpl file in the GP3 folder.
Go to the DirectX tab, make sure the following settings are in place:
- Videocard: dgvoodoo Virtual 3D Accelerator Card
- VRAM: 1024MB
- Disable mipmapping
- Fast video memory access
- Application controlled fullscreen/windowed state
- Disable dgVoodoo watermark
You're good to go now! Start GpxPatch, start the game and go into the graphics settings. For a render device now choose dgVoodoo DirectX Wrapper.
You should experiment with the graphics settings for the best performance. Mirrors are a great place to start dropping details if you're unhappy with the performance.
As you can see the graphics look better and the performance is also better. However now there are pink stripes on the wheels but there's a workaround for this one as well! Thank you James for providing help for this.
You can find a zipped folder called ”TechJam” HERE. It's located inside the Gp3jamsH floder. Replace the contents of that folder with the zipped one and the tyres should look good again!
That should be it. Good luck with your races and thanks to everyone who have been helping out with the game. There's also a thread in the grandprixgames.org forums where I got a lot of information so if you want some aditional information or tips, you can find it here:
https://www.grandprixgames.org/read.php?1,1097753
Bye for now and I'll see you in the next race!
TED MEAT