Mechwarrior 3 in Windows XP

[Objekt]

First bought MW3 almost 2 years ago. My hardware at the time was a
Compaq Presario notebook with:

AMD Duron 1 GHz CPU
256 MB RAM
S3 "Twister-K" onboard graphics (not actual 3D hardware, but faked
through Direct3D in most cases)
Windows XP Home

Mechwarrior 3 installed and ran, but the graphics performance left a lot
to be desired. With detail at max, it often dropped below 15 frames per
second and usually hovered around 20. This was at the lowest possible
res (640x480) without resorting to <shudder> software rendering.

I recently built a new PC:

AMD Athlon XP 3200 (2.2GHz) CPU
1 GB RAM
Radeon 9700 Pro 128MB video card

I initially installed Windows 2000. Had some problems there - older
stuff, including MW3, just didn't work! The music would cut in and out
in the menus of MW3, and when I tried to run the game it would crash
back to the desktop in anything but Instant Action mode. In training,
the instructor would stop talking after a while, well before I knew he
was supposed to from playing MW3 on the old PC.

So, I upgraded to Windows XP Pro. That's when things got really weird.

Running MW3 under Compatibility mode for either Win 95 or Win 98/ME, it
still crashes randomly sometimes when I try to play a Campaign mission,
no idea why. When it does work, some WEIRD shit happens.

-Small vehicles, such as the APCs, fly. I mean they bounce up and down
like demented Mexican jumping beans. Not only does this make them hard
to hit, but it totally ruins the immersiveness of the game. This
doesn't happen with the Bulldog tanks.

-My Mech files too! Occasionally, when walking of a rise in the
terrain, my mech flies straight up while continuing in the established
horizontal direction. I can steer, but cannot stop or go backwards. My
Mech's legs assume the usual "midair" pose for the duration of my
flight. If I shut down before reaching the game world's ceiling, my
Mech drops to the ground quickly - but I then have to wait for the
shutdown/startup cycle to complete before I can do anything. If I don't
shut down before reaching crusing altitude, I get stuck up there for a
while, sometimes several minutes.

Exactly what the heck is going on here? I've heard of older games not
running or crashing randomly when run under 2000/XP, but this in-game
weirdness is utterly unprecedented.

Is there any way to fix this? I'm thinking it must be hardware related,
since the game worked fine under XP Home, but all my hardware drivers
are current so I don't know what I can do.

I guess if nothing else works, I can set up a partition on the hard
drive and install Win98 SE, but I'd rather not fool with it if this can
be avoided.

Objekt

[Objekt]

Sorry, forgot to mention that I have the latest version of MW3 (1.2).

Also tried running in software rendering mode, and the jumping
APCs/Mechs problem still happens, just at a lower resolution.

Objekt

[EJH]

There are known issues with Mech 3 and NT-based operating systems. With few
exceptions, the errors you describe are common.

The only easy way to fix this problem is to install a small dual boot with
windows 98SE (or if you say XP home works, use that). There used to be a
special setup guide for 2000/XP, but i don't have a link.

If you dont want the hassle, ask around the forums at
www.dropshipcommand.com and www.mektek.net

EJ

"Objekt" <t37st...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:GUlWb.11622$%X3....@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...

[warmac...@gmail.com]

I saw this in play through as well. The problem lies in your updated hardware. Because of the new hardware mechwarrior 3 freaks out and causes such issues. I would go back to your old computer if you want to play mechwarrior 3.