30 replies to this topic

[Thanatos676]

I have a hardcopy of Mechwarrior 3, i was wondering if anyone has a way to get that game working on Win 7 64 bit?

[Jimmons]

I would recommend that you use a virtual machine to emulate old hardware, and run the game within it.
Though I haven't tried it myself, i would get a copy of VirtualBox, Then just install an old copy of 98SE on it, and then install/play MW3 from there. Since the game came out 13-14 years ago, and ran on 95/98... If you have a good enough win7x64 box you should have no problems making it work.. in theory.

Like I said, haven't tried it myself. I keep a circa 2003 machine around w/98SE for old games of that era, anything older I emulate via DosBox on my current gaming rig.
Good luck to you!

[Stray Ion]

This has been covered in another thread, though I do not have a link.

The issues are with current GPU drivers. There are some workarounds, though the site/forum that offers them seems to be inactive, or was last I checked (have yet to recieve an email reply for the ability to download patches to get my copy working).

[Lightfoot]

"Making MW3 Run on Windows 7"

Finally got MechWarrior 3 working on Windows 7 (64bit Pro). Here are my settings.

Compatability: Windows XP SP3

Game: Self-Shading=Off, everything else On or High, 8MB textures, 1024x768. Theme/music set to Off (This stops the game from accessing the CD for the Music.)

Video card settings.

Vertical Sync. Force ON. (eliminates bouncing APC's, fixes broken physics)
Ambient Occlusion=Off
Anisotropic Filtering=Off
AA Gamma Correction=ON
AA Mode=Enhance the Application Setting
AA Setting= 8x
AA Transparency 8x Supersample
Max pre-rendered frames=4
Negative LOD bias= Allow
Texture Filtering=high quality
Threaded Optimization=Auto
Triple Buffering=On

Note: There is no AA in MW3. Setting AA to "Enhance the App's Setting" seemed to eliminate an occasional CTD.


This is on a Nvidia 550 TI 1GB DDR5.

Installation:

There is what seems to be a hang on installation at the installer configuration point. It reaches 99% and hangs for a minute or so. Just wait and the installation will continue. It does for me anyway.
Install the AVI files in Custom Installation option.

Only bugs are rare APC jumping and an occasional crash if I watch the mission intro video, but quitting to the main game page after viewing the intro and then going back to launch mission eliminates this.

Pirates Moon also works with the above settings. Only bug continues to be an original release bug where Pirates Moon doesn't recognize the Throttle on USB Joysticks.

I hope this works for you. I am guessing these settings would work for Vista and XP also, but haven't tested it yet.


If you need the MechWarrior 3 patch here is a link to MW3.org

http://www.mech3.org/

Edited by Lightfoot, 01 July 2012 - 09:25 PM.

[Mech Wrench]

Thanatos676, on 30 June 2012 - 03:16 PM, said:

I have a hardcopy of Mechwarrior 3, i was wondering if anyone has a way to get that game working on Win 7 64 bit?

you dont have a hard copy of pirate moons as well do you?

[Stray Ion]

Lightfoot, on 30 June 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

"Making MW3 Run on Windows 7"

Finally got MechWarrior 3 working on Windows 7 (64bit Pro). Here are my settings.

Compatability: Windows XP SP3

Game: Self-Shading=Off, everything else On or High, 8MB textures, 1024x768. Theme/music set to Off (This stops the game from accessing the CD for the Music.)

Video card settings.

Vertical Sync. Force ON. (eliminates bouncing APC's, fixes broken physics)
Ambient Occlusion=Off
Anisotropic Filtering=Off
AA Gamma Correction=ON
AA Mode=Enhance the Application Setting
AA Setting= 8x
AA Transparency 8x Supersample
Max pre-rendered frames=4
Negative LOD bias= Allow
Texture Filtering=high quality
Threaded Optimization=Auto
Triple Buffering=On

Note: There is no AA in MW3. Setting AA to "Enhance the App's Setting" seemed to eliminate an occasional CTD.


This is on a Nvidia 550 TI 1GB DDR5.

Only bugs are rare APC jumping and an occasional crash if I watch the mission intro video, but quitting to the main game page after viewing the intro and then going back to launch mission eliminates this.

Pirates Moon also works with the above settings. Only bug continues to be an original release bug where Pirates Moon doesn't recognize the Throttle on USB Joysticks.

I hope this works for you. I am guessing these settings would work for Vista and XP also, but haven't tested it yet.


If you need the MechWarrior 3 patch here is a link to MW3.org

http://www.mech3.org/

Thanks, this is alot easier than switching to an old voodoo3 card. I will give it a try to see if I can get it working with my current vid card

[Thanatos676]

Mech Wrench, on 30 June 2012 - 05:48 PM, said:

you dont have a hard copy of pirate moons as well do you?

wish that i did but i don't, all i have is my original MW3 disc in a box in my closet lol

Jimmons, on 30 June 2012 - 05:27 PM, said:

I would recommend that you use a virtual machine to emulate old hardware, and run the game within it.
Though I haven't tried it myself, i would get a copy of VirtualBox, Then just install an old copy of 98SE on it, and then install/play MW3 from there. Since the game came out 13-14 years ago, and ran on 95/98... If you have a good enough win7x64 box you should have no problems making it work.. in theory.

Like I said, haven't tried it myself. I keep a circa 2003 machine around w/98SE for old games of that era, anything older I emulate via DosBox on my current gaming rig.
Good luck to you!

been thinking of using Virtualbox for awhile for older games, this might make me do that..

[Bobfrombobtown]

I was trying to get old MW3 working on my computer but for some reason, no matter what I tried (went through every compatibility mode option available and ran it as administrator) I couldn't get the setup.exe or the autorun.exe to work. The setup.exe would show up in task manager, but it never fully launched.

[Lightdragon]

just run it in compatibility mode for windows 98, then run it as admin oh and make sure you install all the audio files and whatnot during installation (comes unchecked by default) runs on my 64 bit just fine though it crashes every other mission

[Thanatos676]

i got a virtual machine going today and when i went to the closet to look for my MW3 disc, i found only civ 2 and a few old games in the box where it was supposed to be. Guess Mechcommander 2 will have to hold me over until august.

[Bobfrombobtown]

Thanatos676, on 01 July 2012 - 03:57 PM, said:

i got a virtual machine going today and when i went to the closet to look for my MW3 disc, i found only civ 2 and a few old games in the box where it was supposed to be. Guess Mechcommander 2 will have to hold me over until august.

The Mechcommander 2 source was actually released at one point and you can get a lot of mods and "mechpacks" for it. I'm too lazy to look for a link at the moment, but I'm sure a couple seconds of googling will net you some good results.

[Thanatos676]

Bobfrombobtown, on 01 July 2012 - 04:26 PM, said:

The Mechcommander 2 source was actually released at one point and you can get a lot of mods and "mechpacks" for it. I'm too lazy to look for a link at the moment, but I'm sure a couple seconds of googling will net you some good results.

Yeah, i know there are multiple campaigns that modders have made for it, some of them are really good. Getting to play as the clans invading the inner sphere was a good one.

[Lightfoot]

Lightfoot, on 30 June 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

"Making MW3 Run on Windows 7"

Finally got MechWarrior 3 working on Windows 7 (64bit Pro). Here are my settings.

Compatability: Windows XP SP3

Game: Self-Shading=Off, everything else On or High, 8MB textures, 1024x768. Theme/music set to Off (This stops the game from accessing the CD for the Music.)

Video card settings.

Vertical Sync. Force ON. (eliminates bouncing APC's, fixes broken physics)
Ambient Occlusion=Off
Anisotropic Filtering=Off
AA Gamma Correction=ON
AA Mode=Enhance the Application Setting
AA Setting= 8x
AA Transparency 8x Supersample
Max pre-rendered frames=4
Negative LOD bias= Allow
Texture Filtering=high quality
Threaded Optimization=Auto
Triple Buffering=On

Note: There is no AA in MW3. Setting AA to "Enhance the App's Setting" seemed to eliminate an occasional CTD.


This is on a Nvidia 550 TI 1GB DDR5.

Only bugs are rare APC jumping and an occasional crash if I watch the mission intro video, but quitting to the main game page after viewing the intro and then going back to launch mission eliminates this.

Pirates Moon also works with the above settings. Only bug continues to be an original release bug where Pirates Moon doesn't recognize the Throttle on USB Joysticks.

I hope this works for you. I am guessing these settings would work for Vista and XP also, but haven't tested it yet.


If you need the MechWarrior 3 patch here is a link to MW3.org

http://www.mech3.org/

Yes, I am on mission 9 in MW3 and 4 in Pirate's Moon using the above settings in Win7 64 bit. Install everything by the way. Including the AVI files in MW3. Sound default install is fine, high quality. It's important to turn the mission music off though because this stops the game from continually accessing it off the CD. No crashes so far.

There is what seems to be a hang on installation at the installer configuration point. It reaches 99% and hangs for a minute or so. Just wait and the installation will continue. It does for me anyway.

[x Zool x]

Thanks Lightfoot.

I'm running a GTX470 and these settings helped.

Still having 2 problems.
1/ No throttle control. It's either flat out forward or flat out backwards. I can't actually stop the mech. No joystick, only mouse & K/B controls.

2/ I am unable to get the mouse x-axis to work the torso twist with out holding down the freelook key. Is there a way to do this/

If anyone can advise on these 2 issues I would be very grateful.
Thanks in advance.

[Perigren]

Not sure about the throttle controls,but try restoring them to default.

For reticle control I believe it is ctrl+ num pad 0 to lock unlock reticle.

[ErikModi]

Lightfoot, on 30 June 2012 - 05:47 PM, said:

"Making MW3 Run on Windows 7" Finally got MechWarrior 3 working on Windows 7 (64bit Pro). Here are my settings. Compatability: Windows XP SP3 Game: Self-Shading=Off, everything else On or High, 8MB textures, 1024x768. Theme/music set to Off (This stops the game from accessing the CD for the Music.) Video card settings. Vertical Sync. Force ON. (eliminates bouncing APC's, fixes broken physics) Ambient Occlusion=Off Anisotropic Filtering=Off AA Gamma Correction=ON AA Mode=Enhance the Application Setting AA Setting= 8x AA Transparency 8x Supersample Max pre-rendered frames=4 Negative LOD bias= Allow Texture Filtering=high quality Threaded Optimization=Auto Triple Buffering=On Note: There is no AA in MW3. Setting AA to "Enhance the App's Setting" seemed to eliminate an occasional CTD. This is on a Nvidia 550 TI 1GB DDR5. Installation: There is what seems to be a hang on installation at the installer configuration point. It reaches 99% and hangs for a minute or so. Just wait and the installation will continue. It does for me anyway. Install the AVI files in Custom Installation option. Only bugs are rare APC jumping and an occasional crash if I watch the mission intro video, but quitting to the main game page after viewing the intro and then going back to launch mission eliminates this. Pirates Moon also works with the above settings. Only bug continues to be an original release bug where Pirates Moon doesn't recognize the Throttle on USB Joysticks. I hope this works for you. I am guessing these settings would work for Vista and XP also, but haven't tested it yet. If you need the MechWarrior 3 patch here is a link to MW3.org http://www.mech3.org/

Tried it with your settings, and I'm still getting suborbital APCs, rare random occurrences of my 'Mech levitating, and crashes to desktop. Suggestions?

[Deadalus3010]

@Marack Drock

Marack Drock, on 21 May 2014 - 05:58 PM, said:

It works on my Win 8.1 without any patching or anything.

Can you say how ?
I insert the Disc, i open the disc and run the setup.exe and autoran.exe but nothing show up...
The task are activated but nothing suws up !
Its a real pain in the ass :/ I Love the old Mechwarrior / Mechcommander games !

[Ive got Win8.1 too]

Edited by Deadalus3010, 10 August 2014 - 08:03 AM.

[Lily from animove]

Deadalus3010, on 10 August 2014 - 08:02 AM, said:

@Marack Drock



Can you say how ?
I insert the Disc, i open the disc and run the setup.exe and autoran.exe but nothing show up...
The task are activated but nothing suws up !
Its a real pain in the ass :/ I Love the old Mechwarrior / Mechcommander games !

[Ive got Win8.1 too]

have you waited long enough? on ym W7 it did took ages after the autoplay to actualyl make somethign happen, but it did afetr quite a while.

[Zack Esseth]

There is a third party add on you need to download to limit how fast the game can be processed. I will do some digging to find where I got if from and post it up here. Mine runs stable on windows 7 64bit.


EDIT: Looks like the page I got it from no longer exists. Use to be a mechwarrior3 dedicated forums and content maker called mechwarrior3.org. I put in an app to join their forums a long time back but never got approved. Think the bill finally ran up and the server provider closed it out.

Edited by Zack Esseth, 10 August 2014 - 01:10 PM.

[Lexx]

I gave up on trying to get MW3 working on a modern PC.

What I do is keep an old computer that runs Windows 98 with an old Microsoft Sidewinder joystick attached to it, and switch my current PC with that one when I want to play older games.

It's just too much hassle what you have to go through to make them work on a modern system.

One thing Microsoft has never believed in is "backwards compatability". All they would have had to do was keep DOS at the core of every operating system (it barely uses up any memory), and all the old games and programs would still work on modern systems. They didn't do that so now we have to jump through hoops to try and make them work.