Author Topic: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)  (Read 17056 times)

Dometrios

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MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« on: 08 September 2014, 01:37:03 »
Hello everyone, this is my first post. I've seen quite a few posts regarding problems running MechWarrior 3 and Pirate's Moon on newer PC's. I thought I should post that I've found a solution that may remove all issues found in game which include but are not limited to:

- Bouncing APC's
- Flickering Nav. Marker Arrows
- Inconsistent Mech Speed
- Desktop/PC Crashes
- Op 2 (Missing Long Range Missile Platform)

To name a few...

First off, I'd like to say that I'm not making any promises I merely found something that worked for me and I hope it will help others. Second, this is a solution that worked for NVIDIA Cards as you will need access to the NVIDIA Control Panel. Those of you with ATI (or anything else) may be able to apply the solution by transcribing these steps in accordance with your equivalent display driver manager.

With that said let's go over the specs of my "Rig":

ASUS G74SX Gaming Laptop
- Intel(R) Core (TM) i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
- NVIDIA GTX 560M (2GB)
- 8.00 GB RAM
- Windows 7 (x64)

Solution:

Step 1
- Open the NVIDIA Control Panel (access from Start Menu, System Tray, or right-clicking your Desktop).

Step 2
- On the top left corner of NVIDIA Control Panel go to 3D Settings > Manage 3D settings.

Step 3
- In the Manage 3D settings area select the Program Settings tab.

Step 4
- Under 1. Select a program to customize:  you may search for the Mech3.exe in the drop down list provide.
- If you cannot locate Mech.exe in the list provided click Add and a new window should pop up.
- Near the bottom left corner of the new window click Browse and a second window will open.
- Navigate to the folder where you installed MechWarrior 3 and select "Mech.exe" then click Open.

Step 5
- Now that we've located our MechWarrior 3 executable (Mech.exe) we need to go to 2. Specify the settings found on this computer.
- In this area we will find many features that we can adjust to change the way the selected program is run. We need only focus on two specific Features.
- The first (and most important) is Threaded optimization, we need to change this Feature's Setting to "Off"
- The second is Vertical sync, we need to change this setting to Adaptive (half refresh rate).

Step 6
- At the bottom left corner of NVIDIA Control Panel, click Apply.

Finished!

So, what did we do exactly? First off, Threaded Optimization is a feature that newer games make use of (I will not explain what it does or how it works). Being that MechWarrior 3 is quite old, this feature is the main cause of the glitches and crashes. The second option Vertical Sync merely caps the game's frame rate based on your monitor's refresh rate. In the case of MechWarrior 3, this game was originally intended to be run at 30FPS, any more than that, and things get... weird. You can run it at 60FPS if you prefer by selecting Adaptive instead of Adaptive (half refresh rate).

And we're done! You don't need to change your Compatibility Settings, and you don't need to download any 3rd party programs, easy right? Well gents (and ladies) I hope this helps.
« Last Edit: 08 September 2014, 01:41:59 by Dometrios »

Jayof9s

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #1 on: 08 September 2014, 08:03:45 »
Thanks for the info! I've been wanting to replay MW3 for years but haven't had a machine that could still run it. I'll have to give this a try and see if it works for me.

Sapphirus

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #2 on: 08 September 2014, 12:47:57 »
I did and/or posted (but on a different forum) this solution before you did.  :P   And it worked for me.
« Last Edit: 08 September 2014, 12:51:03 by SapphireWolf »

Sid

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #3 on: 08 September 2014, 13:08:18 »
I did and/or posted (but on a different forum) this solution before you did.  :P   And it worked for me.

Well clearly you deserve my gratitude then   :D

Hello everyone, this is my first post. I've seen quite a few posts regarding problems running MechWarrior 3 and Pirate's Moon on newer PC's. I thought I should post that I've found a solution that may remove all issues found in game which include but are not limited to:

<snip>

I wasn't aware the Nvidia panel had customized settings for older executables like that. 

I'll have to give it a try (on more than just MW3).  Thanks Dometrios!
Formerly known as 'Phad'

Dometrios

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #4 on: 08 September 2014, 14:44:19 »
I did and/or posted (but on a different forum) this solution before you did.  :P   And it worked for me.

Sorry, I never saw your post. This was a solution I came up with while trying to fix an issue with Optifine in Minecraft. It's good to see that I wasn't the first to come up with this, as they say "Great minds think alike".  O0

Maingunnery

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #5 on: 08 September 2014, 17:03:10 »

I will give it a go, I will report on how it turns out.
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Euphonium

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #6 on: 28 September 2014, 19:02:06 »
Well, it worked for me, once I remembered to install the v1.2 patch.

Thank-you very much!
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AncientxFreako

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #7 on: 05 October 2014, 12:53:41 »
If you guys have success getting Mech3 running perhaps you'd like to try some of my mods...

click my sig for more info, <S>
Click my sig for the Mod Website:

Just give me my KaliYama Deathblooms and an AC10 and I'll be happy

Greywind

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #8 on: 05 October 2014, 15:36:33 »
I can run MW3 on this machine. I've never had a stable platform for Pirate's Moon.

Vampire8291

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #9 on: 05 October 2014, 16:14:53 »
Hello,

I fix the Bouncing APC on a Intel HD Card.

I use dxtory and fix the fps to 45 fps. When i start the game i get no Trouble with the bouncing apc. The Programm let you see in the top right Corner that the game run with 45 fps. I needed 1 week to fix all the Problems now i have the solution. Maybe this Programm can help me by other old games like silent thunder. i will see.

Check it out

Vampire

Veloxi

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #10 on: 30 May 2015, 13:07:00 »
Hello! I just registered to say thank you for this fix! I'd always been able to install Mechwarrior 3, but never really run it, but now it runs great and I can finally play it for the first time! I also just got a Force Feedback 2 recently, which is wonderful so far with this game. :) Thanks again!

MadCat81

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #11 on: 11 July 2016, 08:06:34 »
Did anyone have the flickering reticle/nav marker bug then get that fixed? I have this problem and the game is now unplayable.

elf25s

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #12 on: 11 July 2016, 11:28:53 »
there are at least 7 other threads  regarding mech 3 issues you may have to dig a bit further back...for specific fix
btw welcome to bt boards
you sure cannot out run death...but sure as hell you can make that bastard work for it!

MadCat81

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Re: MechWarrior 3 Windows 7 Fix (NVIDIA)
« Reply #13 on: 18 July 2016, 19:45:07 »
Hi, thanks. :)

I had the falling over mech on jump jets bug and constantly flickering reticle on Pirates moon but they both seem to have magically gone away. Annoying as I can't fix it if it happens again. Mech 3 still works but crashes out sometimes when I target an ally or just randomly and I've replayed the same mission about 20 times and now I've lost hope I will get through without a crash but can still play Pirate Moon so bring on the godlike difficulty level I suppose.

 

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