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Interstate seriesThe Groovin' I`76 workaround thread.(185 posts)(185 posts)
(185 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 19, 2010
high rated
Interstate `76 is a fantastic game. We all know this, and we all know the number 1 rule: Never get out of the car!

Unfortunately, some of us can't even get INTO the car to begin with. There have been multiple posts relating to many problems, all of which have several potential workarounds. Here's a thread that's dedicated to compiling all of the workarounds floating about into a single megathread.

It might not solve your problem, but hopefully it'll at least help out.

(EDIT: Apologies to you all in advance for the wonky formatting. I'm not a frequent poster here at GOG, and my normal bag of tricks seems to be failing me.)

Generic Suggestion: Try adding -glide or -d3d to the end of your shortcuts if you're having troubles. For some folks, this is all that it takes. See Joq's post here to see what I mean!



Problem: I know this game is set in the 70s, but the graphics look like I just dropped acid!</span>

Possible workarounds: There's probably an issue going on with later versions of Windows and 8-bit color modes in I'76. Several workaround exist for this one:

1 - Kill Explorer before playing, as suggested by HampsterStyle.
Whenever you see colors like that and you're on vista/win7 - make a batch file that kills the GUI (explorer.exe) before launching the game and then restarts it after exiting game.

example:

taskkill /f /IM explorer.exe
start /w <game exe here without carrots>
pause
start explorer.exe
2 - Right click on your Desktop and open the Display Properties window (the pane with the resolution settings on it). Keep it open while you play the game. Some strange alchemy at work seems to let things operate smoothly. A batch file was suggested by ekj7 here.
To make this easier, you can make a batch file out of this so that the display properties window opens before launching the game, althoughI don't know how to have it automatically close when you're done.

DESK.CPL
START /W I76.EXE
3 - Some people have had luck avoiding the 'Kill Explorer' and 'Desktop Properties' workarounds by using the following compatibility fix suggested by WitchDoctorAD in this thread.
Here's what worked for me and isn't at the extreme level of killing your desktop :)

Windows 7 64 bit:
set compatibilityon the shortcut to win 95 with all the compatibility tab options checked except "Disable display scaling on high DPI settings"
In game I had everything cranked in graphics settings except it was on 640x480

Hope this helps.


Problem: Taurus is driving very slowly, and his wheels are wobbly.

Possible workarounds: Before the GOG release of I`76, it was known that the AI in the game is somehow extremely sensitive to the framerate at which the game runs. If your framerate is too high, everything comes apart and the game is basically unplayable. Some workarounds are possible based on your render:

Software Rendering: Using a CPU throttling program might help here. It might not, unfortunately, as mixed reports are coming it.

Glide / D3D: Go to your video card control panel, and force VSync on your video card - either specifically to i76.exe or globally. This will cap your framerate at your monitor refresh rate, and hopefully let Taurus drive as his bad self again.

Using CPU Grabber to use a portion of your CPU so that I`76 can't will help limit the framerate, but be aware that you need to ensure you're using the same core that I`76 is to make this work. It also may produce jerky or choppy gameplay during times when you need more processor overhead. Additionally, be aware that you're pushing your CPU very hard by doing this, because you're essentially forcing a single core to run 100% all the time when you play. You may need to experiment to find out how much processing power to 'Grab' in order to find the appropriate level for gameplay.

Running FRAPS and recording a video at 30 FPS will level off the framerate and keep the game running correctly, but it is a bit processor intensive, and you'll fill up your disk with unwanted video by doing this.

A truly satisfying 30 FPS limiting solution is yet to be uncovered, but from various reports, once it's located it will solve the wheel-wobble problem!



Problem: The game crashes with an error 'Failed to Initialize 3D hardware acceleration'.

Possible workarounds: Some speculation exists about this being related to ATi Radeon cards. Rolling back drivers might be a temporary solution, as proposed by ZamFear.

Update: ZamFear found the offending dll file! The fix proposed is to drop an older version of this file into your I`76 directory. That way you don't have to roll back system-wide drivers. A copy of the driver was graciously uploaded by Manfromx. Though the file came from a 64-bit installer, chances are it's a redundant file that works for both 32 and 64 bit OS installations.

Because I`76 ran best with Glide (a now defunct driver set for the old 3DFx cards), a Glide wrapper (emulator that lets modern video cards run glide) is required for optimal performance. Unfortunately, not all wrappers work with all cards on all systems, so the GOG included OpenGLide might be sub-par for your system. Trying a different Glide wrapper might be best. DosFreak had some good suggestions here.
Try DgVoodoo
Zeckensack
NGlide

In that order. Also for DgVoodoo try different DirectX modes. The first 2 are lights years beyond OpenGlide, I only use OpenGlide as a last resort.
Note that the DgVoodoo result on Google is current a page that's blocked, and apparently serving up Trojans and virus downloads, so it's to be avoided for the moment. An alternative download link can be found here.

Update: DosFreak was kind enough to provide even more information about the Glide wrappers just a bit further down in the thread! Check it out!

Software mode might still be possible under these conditions, but will likely be buggy and look nasty. Framelimiting isn't as straightforward on the software renderer.



Problem: Things don't look as nice as I want!

Possible solution: Check out HampsterStyle's thread with tips here. Also, depending on the wrapper you're using, you might be able to modify settings directly in the wrapper itself.


Remaining issues with no current workaround:

1 - As ZaphodAVA points out, the Mortars and Flamethrowers in the game were heavily linked to the 25-30 FPS limit at which the game typically ran. Even with VSync locked to ~60 FPS these weapons don't appear to function correctly, and CPU throttling to the level required to get them to work seems to have an adverse effect on overall gameplay. The ongoing thread on this issue can be found here.

That's it for now. Hope this helps, though undoubtedly not all problems will be solved by these solutions.
Post edited January 17, 2011 by Firek
Posted February 19, 2010
Thanks! Some good info in here.
Posted February 19, 2010
Thanks TD.
Posted February 19, 2010
Been waiting for a thread like this. Much appreciated. Favouriting. :)
Posted February 19, 2010
There's also PSVoodoo (another glide wrapper)
PSVoodoo and OpenGlide are both maintained by the developer of GliDOS, he's pretty active on updating his programs so if there's an issue with those wrappers you are likely to get a response whereas with Zeckensack & DGVoodoo the devs of those programs haven't updated their programs in quite awhile. So post issues with those wrappers (PSVoodoo\Openglide )on the VOGONS forum in the OpenGlide board.
Last I heard from Dege (Author of DGVoodoo) he was working on organizing his code to open source it. (I could be misremembering tho this was a couple of years back).
I sent him an email tonight about his webpage so we'll see what happens.
Post edited February 19, 2010 by DosFreak
Posted February 20, 2010
Awesome work. I was thinking of doing something similar myself, but you beat me to it.
Maybe try underlining or bolding the entire "Problem: xxxxx" line, as this would make it easier to jump from heading to heading.
Posted February 20, 2010
Thanks for all the positive feedback and advice, everyone! I've tried to update the OP accordingly.
An addition resource that might be useful: NTCompatible had a fairly nice thread about this game Pre-GOG release. You can find the most informative post right here. Keep in mind that this workaround list predates GOG, and so a lot about the installers and patching is probably superfluous. In terms of possibly useful information that might still be relevent on the GOG version, here's my modification of what can be found up there:
1 - Modify the shortcut to launch the game. Change it to i76.exe to skip the splash screen. Turn on compatibility mode for Windows 98. This will prevent the game crashing with exception errors.
2 - You may experience crashes in the menu with certain sound hardware. To fix prevent this, you could try disabling sound acceleration in dxdiag.exe. Alternatively you can edit the Interstate '76 data file to prevent the bad sounds playing:
a) Backup DATABASE.MW2
b) Open DATABASE.MW2 in a text editor like SciTE http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html (ms notepad doesn't handle large files well).
c) Search and replace "RIFF:" with "PIFF:".
d) Search and replace "zrRIFF" with "zrPIFF".
e) Save the file.
3 - If you notice the other cars are driving slowly and/or swerving/bouncing rapidly, you may need to install The Throttle to temporarily slow down your system. http://www.oldskool.org/pc/throttle. (Teflon Djinn's note: If you're running glide or D3D, enabling VSync here might still be a better idea)
4 (optional) You may notice Direct 3D mode only supports 640x480 and with low resolution textures. To enhance graphics, you can install a glide wrapper:
a) download dgVoodoo.
b) Unzip all dgVoodoo files into your Interstate 76 directory (C:\Program Files\Activision\Interstate76\ by default)
c) Run dgvoodoosetup.exe and choose your desired screen resolution for Interstate '76.
d) Tick 'Texmem scaled to 4mb'.
e) Set the texture memory as high as it will go.
These texture memory tweaks prevent the wrong sprites sometimes being drawn.
f) Click OK to save changes and exit.
g) Edit your Interstate '76 game shortcut and add -glide to the Target, so the target is: "C:\Program Files\Activision\Interstate76\i76.exe" -glide
(This assumes you changed splash.exe to i76.exe in step (1).
Posted February 20, 2010
Found the DLL that's causing the "Failed to Initialize 3D hardware acceleration" error on ATi cards.
atiumdag.dll
Drop an old copy of that into your I76 and Nitro pack directories and you should be good.
Posted February 20, 2010
avatar
ZamFear: Found the DLL that's causing the "Failed to Initialize 3D hardware acceleration" error on ATi cards.
atiumdag.dll
Drop an old copy of that into your I76 and Nitro pack directories and you should be good.

That didn't seem to do anything for me (using Catalyst 9.10).
(No offense GoG but crikey. This really is bad for your reputation of games that work)
Post edited February 20, 2010 by evilguy12
Posted February 20, 2010
I don't think the mortars / flamethrower problem WILL be fixed... I found forums dating as far back as 2007 of people getting this game to run and those weapons were unusable due to the high framerates.
I agree with evilguy12 on this one.
Posted February 20, 2010
avatar
Roufuss: I don't think the mortars / flamethrower problem WILL be fixed... I found forums dating as far back as 2007 of people getting this game to run and those weapons were unusable due to the high framerates.
I agree with evilguy12 on this one.

Gah. If only my 10 year old laptop (which ran Mechwarrior 2 (at the lowest settings)) hadn't died recently...
Posted February 20, 2010
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evilguy12: That didn't seem to do anything for me (using Catalyst 9.10).

Tried updating to Catalyst 10.2?
Posted February 20, 2010
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evilguy12: That didn't seem to do anything for me (using Catalyst 9.10).

The DLL I used was from 8.6, since that's what's on the CD that came with my card. I don't know how new you can go before it breaks.
Post edited February 20, 2010 by ZamFear
Posted February 20, 2010
avatar
ZamFear: Found the DLL that's causing the "Failed to Initialize 3D hardware acceleration" error on ATi cards.
atiumdag.dll
Drop an old copy of that into your I76 and Nitro pack directories and you should be good.
avatar
evilguy12: That didn't seem to do anything for me (using Catalyst 9.10).
(No offense GoG but crikey. This really is bad for your reputation of games that work)

Don't apologise man, you have every right to say that. Selling a game that barely works without the possibility of a refund is just plain wrong. Frankly they should either pull the game until they can release it in a more workable state or place a disclaimer on the games page so people know what their getting in to.
Posted February 20, 2010
avatar
evilguy12: That didn't seem to do anything for me (using Catalyst 9.10).
avatar
ZamFear: The DLL I used was from 8.6, since that's what's on the CD that came with my card. I don't know how new you can go before it breaks.

YES! This worked for me, I can now run the game in glide mode without the "3D hardware failed to initialize" error! The tires on Taurus' car are still a bit twitchy though. I'm messing around with CPU Grabber to see if I can slow the system down a bit so that it works a bit better.
Win7 64-bit
Radeon 4870
With CPU grabber at 45%, affinity set on the same CPU as i76.exe (CPU 0 on my quad-core Q6600), the tire twitching is nearly eliminated. There's only the odd time where the tires will flick once or twice. Taurus now tops out at 80-90MPH as opposed to the 30 he was locked at previously. This combined with the atiumdag.dll fix, the desk.cpl running in the background, and all the compatibility options set on the i76.exe file fix almost all of the problems I've encountered. Rube Goldberg would be impressed.
Google for "cpugrab.exe" to get the file. You can have it start with the affinity set to the first CPU in your system (which is what GOG seems to have set the i76.exe to run on as well) with this command in a batch file:
cmd.exe /c start /affinity 1 cpugrab.exe
start /w i76.exe -glide
Unfortunately, when cpugrab.exe starts, it defaults to 30% CPU and you have to click the "start" button for it to actually start wasting CPU cycles. I can't seem to find any command line options that lets you set the percentage and to start automatically.
Post edited February 21, 2010 by ekj7
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This is my favourite topic
Community
Interstate seriesThe Groovin' I`76 workaround thread.(185 posts)(185 posts)
(185 posts)