Hey there everyone, i recently reinstalled Rollercoaster tycoon 3 and both expansions in order of release(Soaked, then Wild) and I am getting really, really bad framerates at night. I tried to install patches, but the auto update doesnt work for some reason and i cant seem to make any sense of the manual install patches, as its very hard to determine which one i should install or even which version i need. I am English and am playing the english-european version of the game but all patches i find seem to be for the USA version.

I used to be able to play the game fine on Windows XP with a vastly inferior graphics card and around 750MB RAM. I now have Windows 7, a NVIDIAGT 240 graphics card and 3.24GB RAM. Poor hardware is not an issue, though compatability may be.

Can anyone provide me with some help by directing me to the english-european patches? I did not download and install any patches before installing each expansion.

Furthermore, a little plug on a secondary problem here, my game seems to crash when i try to open the custom buildings/structures menu.

Thanks for reading.

Do you have any other games you play that require a good graphics card? Do they play ok?

What is your Windows Experience Index?

Do you have any other games you play that require a good graphics card? Do they play ok?

What is your Windows Experience Index?

I can play the latest games on maximum settings with no slowdown. My graphics card allows up to x8 Anti Aliasing and x16 Antisroptic Filtering. A good example of how well my computer can run things is how it can play Fallout 3 with x8 AA, x16AF, 1680x1050 Resoltuion, Max View Distance on all things, Max Texture Settings, HDR active, Verticle Synch and with a SUPERIOR texture pack installed without ANY slow down. The texture packs i mentioned is basicly a mod that improves the textures by x4 normal quality, so im running a vastly superior game, that has superb graphics ABOVE AND BEYOND what it was originally able to give me. My hardware not being able to handle RCT3 isnt an issue.

Someone on another board said it is caused by anti piracy coding or something like that. Like i said earlier, i could run it just fine even night time when my computer was actually less formidible, aswell as on a vastly inferior machine. And like i said, i have no patches installed, trying to install patches corrupts my game somehow and i have to reinstall. Possibly because i can only find the USA patches, while i require UK patches.

What is the Windows Experience Index and how do i access it?

Ummm, based on your comments I am guessing that you are running a pirated version of RCT3?

Quick way to access Windows Experience Index is to hold down the Windows Key (between Ctrl & Alt and standard PC keyboard) and then press the Pause/Break key next to the Scroll Lock key. This will open up the system properties where you can find the WEI.

Have you used the Auto Detect setting in RCT3 to setup your ingame settings or have you done a manual setup?

Ummm, based on your comments I am guessing that you are running a pirated version of RCT3?

Quick way to access Windows Experience Index is to hold down the Windows Key (between Ctrl & Alt and standard PC keyboard) and then press the Pause/Break key next to the Scroll Lock key. This will open up the system properties where you can find the WEI.

Have you used the Auto Detect setting in RCT3 to setup your ingame settings or have you done a manual setup?

...

No, im not running a pirated version. Pirates are the cancer killing the video game industry. Other than Activision that is.

I used manual settings. RCT3 has outdated graphical settings hence why it only has low tier resolutlion. listed in the options.

Anyway here is my WEI

Overall - 5.4/7.9
Processor: Calculations per second - 5.4
Memory (RAM): Memory opertaions per second - 5.4
Graphics: Desktop performance for Windows Aero - 6.6
Gaming Graphics: 3D business and gaming graphics performence - 6.6
Primary hard disk: Disk data transfer rate - 5.9

Like i said before, i have played RCT3 on vastly inferior systems without these problems. If someone says its my hardware not being good enough they get a punch in the face.

Ok, so simple yet easy test would be to let autodetect decide the settings and see if you have lag at night still. If not, you will need to look at your manual settings. There would be something that you are doing which is causing the lag.

So whats the progress on this? Have you found the problem yet?

To be honest i never tried it. It keeps randomly asking me to insert the Wild! disc, claiming i installed Wild before Soaked, which is a lie. Its 11:57pm atm, so i will perhaps try it tomorrow, i have been very busy lately and have been playing other games that are more stable.

Can i ask you something though? Do you happen to know if there are even any UK patches? All i can find are US ones, and when i try to install any it breaks my game. The auto updater doesnt work, and keeps claiming im already up to date, which im not. I can only assume Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 is not fully compatible with Windows 7.

I am not sure if there are any UK patches. I did do alittle research into your problem and found a patch that specifically deals with the issue you have. I am guessing though that as you have already found out, it is a US patch.

As to RCT3 not being entirely compatible with Windows 7 ... all I can say is that I have run RCT3 platinum on three different installations of Windows 7 on three different hardware types and never had any problems.

Well thank you for trying to help me. I really appreciate it.