Go 2GB if you can.

You would be dissatisfied with an 800x600 display very quickly. The best thing for your game and your machine would be to match the resolutions. So you would only set the game resolution to 800x600 if your monitor was set at a resolution of 800x600.

LOD means limit of detection and is a set of settings in the RCT3 toolkit that you can adjust so that the game can display items in the game at the detail and distance you have selected. Most people play with these set at a medium setting most of the time and then when taking videos or screenshots they whack the settings up so the images look good. Trouble is, while playing a sprawling busy park that’s maxxing out your CPU, RAM, graphics card and game engine, high LOD settings can put a strain on the game engine and can cause your game to crash. To find them open the toolkit, go to graphics settings (the one with the eye icon) and tick the box to enable the display to show LOD settings. You will see two columns containing blue bars. As you will see one set of blue bars is for detail and the other for the distance the game will stop showing an object on your screen. The easiest way to find out what each column does is to turn all the blue bars in that column to the lowest setting and then fly around in your park. That will show you a lot more than I can write here.

I am sure I seen information really similar too this before, but I am not too sure.

does it happent to you that your park is lagging at the end - or when crowded ?

what graphic do you own?

In the mean time it will set the details "LOW" to play in a betterpeformance, but 50% of the experience is in the graphic details after youfinish building it.

To be honest I have never had a completely full/crowded park (cause I usually get distracted and don't end up playing for long) but I have almost finished building a full park and will let you know how mine goes performance wise, but one time I did fill the entire park with water and waterfalls and enabled the reflection option and there definitely was a noticeable decrease in performance.

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Actually, I just noticed... When I turn the camera around and move around the park (in an area where there is just empty space) I don't notice any lag at all - it's all really smooth.

But as I add more rides and such, if I move the camera past a ride, there is a little bit of jumpiness as the ride enters and exits the screen. But it's only very small.

Yes and that is becauce of the game it self! It is old. but still ahead of the time!

and how good is your graphic card? im so confused about whitch card i wouldt buy.. cuz i really dont play all the new games.
so the question is - can i settle with a 1 GB - or do I need a 2 GB.

hmm... :-)

Yes and that is becauce of the game it self! It is old. but still ahead of the time!

and how good is your graphic card? im so confused about whitch card i wouldt buy.. cuz i really dont play all the new games.
so the question is - can i settle with a 1 GB - or do I need a 2 GB.

hmm... :-)

Yeah it's my favourite game for pc lol.

Here's what I have in the way of graphics:
Display adapter type ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM v1.1)
Total available graphics memory 1279 MB
Dedicated graphics memory 512 MB
Dedicated system memory 0 MB
Shared system memory 767 MB
Display adapter driver version 8.97.10.6
Primary monitor resolution 1440x900
DirectX version DirectX 10.1

With those specs, and 2gb RAM, I can play most new games and any older games. But you know, there are still some new games that are a bit jumpy or laggy but still very playable.

I would suggest you get the best card u can afford but stay with Radeon - and if your current card is HD then I would suggest you make sure to get another HD one too. So I guess 1GB (at the very least) would be sufficient, but no less.

Thanks man!

Better Idea change your settings.. From custom to balance it help not lag your game out or crash.... And it's free :P

I customized it from a low setting so now it runs smooth but looks terrible
:-)

You make a very good point. RCT3 is by gaming industry standards, very old. Many of us don’t realize that this game (released October or November 2004 dependent on what one reads) was created for use on XP before anyone had heard of Longhorn, which as we know was eventually released in January 2007 as Windows Vista. Now we’re past Windows 7, currently on Windows 8 with a Windows 9 rumoured to be out there on the drawing board somewhere. RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 has held up extremely well considering the number of new platforms it’s been run on successfully.

I have a very good IT technician who I believe I can trust whose company policy is to not sell the customer something they don’t need. They saved me a good deal of money when I took my system in to them to upgrade. Before I took my system to anybody I got several upgrade feedbacks and considered them all. The company to who I eventually took my machine have earned my trust, goodwill and whenever I need anything else computer orientated they’ll have my business. If you’re going to upgrade your graphics card or any other part of your system do make a lot of effort to find someone similar to do it for you.

I note the features of my new graphics card are that it gives the most performance for the best price while drawing minimum power through a single slot. I understand I can upgrade my card’s DDR2 memory (currently 2GB) to DDR3, DDR4 or DDR5 memory. If I find, for example, that in upgrading my card’s memory to DDR5 it will still be limited to 2GB I shall upgrade to a 3GB or a 4GB card when the time comes. While the remainder of my system is now upgraded to my satisfaction, it was manufactured in 2007 so in the world of computer tech it’s an old machine.

I’ve also got 4GB of RAM which I’ve enabled RCT3 to access through the use of Large Address Aware. However, having done this I find that RCT3’s use of system based RAM now seems to hover at around 1.5 GB with occasional peaks to slightly above 2GB. With my old smaller graphics card while RCT3 was running the at that time 2GB of RAM in my system was always used at full capacity. RCT3 seems to prefer using RAM direct from the graphics card.

I’ve noticed my graphics card has received mediocre reviews on the internet but considering the balance it provides in all-round features I believe my IT people recommended what they thought best and I certainly can’t complain considering the price I paid for it. I couldn’t believe the improvement my new card made in my game, a comparison I have made using the exact same park which with my old graphics card I couldn’t progress because it continually clogged and crashed, a park which my new graphics card had suddenly breathed new life and speed into – until several weeks later after further additions and improvements that park too started to clog and crash. I decided it was time to try a new approach until I got another graphics card.

It used to be the first thing I’d do to start a park would be to increase the map to 254x254 but I’ve gotten increasingly good at using CS and a park that size just can’t take all the CS I want to put into it in addition to all the other stuff I find I simply must have in my park; I can no longer have a maximum sized park with over 50 coasters & rides, a hundred shops & stalls, more than twenty toilets, a dozen information booths, ten first aid stations, with an anticipated attendance of 4,000 to 6,000 guests, some 400 staff and a path system where guests and staff pass themselves already coming on their way back.

Recently I tried to get a park to work with all the CS I wanted rather than the park working until it got clogged so I planned it to be 210x210 which is the minimum size I can get by with. You can see my post of that park here http://forums.rctgo.com/thread-7507-post...l#pid85016. My intention was to have only a dozen coasters & flat rides, eight animal enclosures rather than ten, my usual sprawling pool complex, no more than 50 shops and stalls (just love 'em), around a dozen toilets, maybe four first aid stations, and a simple path system (requiring less staff and less path-extras).

It didn’t work. I’ve got almost all of the scenery to where I want it, placed the keeper patrol areas, eight enclosures, my usual pool complex, placed the two shuttles and five other rides, various staff/administrative structures, various outbuildings, placed a stunning entrance plaza scenery structure and then started having problems. I haven’t yet placed any other staff, there are only eight stalls, no path add-ons, no animals and no guests and with the entrance plaza structure in the park now I can’t do anything else with the park.

Essentially all I’ll be doing now with RCT3 will be fiddling with scenery and structures in a sandbox test park until my graphics card upgrade. When I upgrade again it will definitely be another ATI Radeon graphics card.

You can settle for 1GB but get 2GB or more if you can. If I remember correctly the game opens for the first time with the LOD settings in the middle of the blue bars. The lower settings are undoubtedly terrible to work with.

On a final note, do take a look at this post for additional tips on streamlining your system to make it more receptive to a good RCT3 gaming experience:

http://forums.rctgo.com/thread-7409-post...l#pid83757

One further point to that streamlining post that I didn’t put in is that one should also routinely remove temporary and cache files from their system.

Having someone professionel to trust is a good Thing now a days. It saves time

So playing with a full size park at 254x254 with all the extras (cs stuff) you cannot fill the park fully without any lag with your system spec? - or am i reading it wrong (im from denmark)

By any means I will need a graphic card at 2 gb to enjoy the game fully.

I really like your park - and the way you customize the hole park.

Cant wait to have a full park with lots of coasters WITH FLUENCE GAMEPLAY

:-)

yes i looked at the guide from u.. but it is the graph that makes it slow..

And now the classic question - RCT4???