Do Vista have some compatibility modes? If so, you should try these.

Right-click on the executable to see any additional options.

I have tried that, but it doesn't work properly

I have compatibility set to Win98/ME for this on my XP machine and it works. I might be using a different version of the game exe though.

Have you tried the latest patch 4.80?

http://dlh.net/cgi-bin/dlp.cgi?lang=eng&sys=p … 4_80.zip&ref=ps

Sorry for replying to an old thread, but I also have a problem with IRC.

It runs quite well in Win98 compatibility mode, but only when I race during the day. If I set a night race, the game slows down. I've installed the 4.80 patch, but it didn't help. Same thing happens with NFS2SE in software mode.

My PC is: Windows 7 64 bit, AMD Athlon Dual Core M300 (2x2,0 GHz), ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4350 512 MB, 4 GB RAM. I didn't have this problem on my old PC (Windows XP SP3, Athlon XP 2800+, Radeon 9600 XT, 1,5 GB RAM).

Any solution?

It always seemed to run a bit slower at night as the game drew light patches ahead of you and all the competitor cars, but I suspect it could be just modern graphics drivers not liking older games. I've found that the later Nvidia drivers cause games of DirectX5/6 era with alpha transparencies to slow down and down and eventually lock up (e.g. Formula 1 99, Sports Car GT, Motorhead), so it could be a similar issue with the ATI drivers you have potentially.

So, is there anything I could do with that other than buying an old PC or downgrading the drivers? I've tried installing Win 98 inside Sun VirtualBox, but the game runs even slower.

I just tried my copy, it does seem jittery/jerky in the night levels (and possibly also in fog). This is almost certainly related to drivers. I have to change back to 163.75 to get older games with transparency to run smoothly 🙁

I won't downgrade the drivers - I have some newer games (TDU, The Wither), and they probably won't run with old drivers. Besides, if I buy a new computer in the future, with a newer graphics, it won't run with old drivers at all 🙁

There has to be some kind of workaround... unfortunately, I didn't find any 🙁 If anyone finds a solution, please post it here.

BTW, it's ridiculous that a quite powerful graphic card can't run an 1997 game.

I find it ridiculous too. They actually can handle, but the drivers are completely messed up. I heard Catalyst drivers do not have this issue. If NFS2SE is also slowing down in software mode, must be something else.

OK, I made the game greate a logfile, and here is it:

Log started Sunday 9th May 2010 18:19:43.79

$VER: Rally 4.81 (9.12.98)

cpu= 15 00100F62 AuthenticAMD
fpu= 1
mmx= 1
machinetype= 1
ram avail/total: 2740476 4190416 Kb
swp avail/total: 4194303 4194303 Kb
free space on partition= 49552628 Kb

noaudio= 0
nocdaudio= 0
noreplay= 1
nofmv= 0
forced3d= 1
forceprimary= 1
forceno3dcard= 0
force16bittex= 1
force3dtrans= 1
force3dalpha= 1
force3dshadow= 1
force3dfogging= 1

OpenWindow
Find3DHardware: 2D hw found: caps: hw is 3d: primary card
DetectVideo
Open DirectDraw
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Closing DirectDraw
2d 8bit modes found FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000000 00000000
2d 16bit modes found FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000000 00000000
16bit modes found on prim/sec FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000000 00000000
Open DirectDraw
OpenDirect3D: D3DDetectCard
shadecaps= 000C528A
srcblendcaps= 00001FFF
dstblendcaps= 00001FFF
texturecaps= 0001EC4D
texturefiltercaps= 0703073F
textureblendcaps= 000000CF
caps3dtrans= 00000001
caps3dalpha= 00000001
caps3dfogging= 00000001
caps3dshadow= 00000001
d3d hal found
video memory avail/mem= 2346106 2350204 Kb
Changing to mode 640 x 480 x 16 3d= 1
ssm 1
Starting new mode:
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Creating screen: Create Surface: format= 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F GetAttached: Create 3ddevice: OpenDirect3D: shadecaps= 000C528A
srcblendcaps= 00001FFF
dstblendcaps= 00001FFF
texturecaps= 0001EC4D
texturefiltercaps= 0703073F
textureblendcaps= 000000CF
caps3dtrans= 00000001
caps3dalpha= 00000001
caps3dfogging= 00000001
caps3dshadow= 00000001
found tf=16 555 00007C00 000003E0 0000001F : found tf=16 565 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F :
Systex surface: sd flags= 00001001 sd caps= 00001000 pf flags= 00000040 rgbcount= 16 rmask= 0000F800 gmask= 000007E0 bmask= 0000001F amask= 00000000
complete
texpages allocated on card= 19 x 16bit
Changing to mode 800 x 600 x 16 3d= 1
ssm 1
Starting new mode:
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Creating screen: Create Surface: format= 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F GetAttached: Create 3ddevice: OpenDirect3D: shadecaps= 000C528A
srcblendcaps= 00001FFF
dstblendcaps= 00001FFF
texturecaps= 0001EC4D
texturefiltercaps= 0703073F
textureblendcaps= 000000CF
caps3dtrans= 00000001
caps3dalpha= 00000001
caps3dfogging= 00000001
caps3dshadow= 00000001
found tf=16 555 00007C00 000003E0 0000001F : found tf=16 565 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F :
Systex surface: sd flags= 00001001 sd caps= 00001000 pf flags= 00000040 rgbcount= 16 rmask= 0000F800 gmask= 000007E0 bmask= 0000001F amask= 00000000
complete
texpages allocated on card= 19 x 16bit
3d 16bit modes found usable FFFFFFFF FFFFFFFF 00000002 00000003
OpenAudio: RESV_JOYDEV 0 attached= 0 1 0 0
RESV_JOYDEV 1 attached= 0 2 0 0
using 16bit stereo
OpenCDAudio
Changing to mode 640 x 480 x 8 3d= 0
ssm 1
Starting new mode:
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Creating screen: Create Surface: GetAttached: CreatePalette: SetPalette: complete
1 0 1
2 0 1
Changing to mode 640 x 480 x 8 3d= 0
ssm 1
Starting new mode:
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Creating screen: Create Surface: CreatePalette: SetPalette: complete
Changing to mode 800 x 600 x 16 3d= 0
ssm 1
Starting new mode:
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Creating screen: Create Surface: format= 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F GetAttached: complete
Changing to mode 800 x 600 x 16 3d= 1
ssm 1
Starting new mode:
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Creating screen: Create Surface: format= 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F GetAttached: Create 3ddevice: OpenDirect3D: shadecaps= 000C528A
srcblendcaps= 00001FFF
dstblendcaps= 00001FFF
texturecaps= 0001EC4D
texturefiltercaps= 0703073F
textureblendcaps= 000000CF
caps3dtrans= 00000001
caps3dalpha= 00000001
caps3dfogging= 00000001
caps3dshadow= 00000001
found tf=16 555 00007C00 000003E0 0000001F : found tf=16 565 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F :
Systex surface: sd flags= 00001001 sd caps= 00001000 pf flags= 00000040 rgbcount= 16 rmask= 0000F800 gmask= 000007E0 bmask= 0000001F amask= 00000000
complete
texpages allocated on card= 19 x 16bit
Clearing Video Texture Cache
Initialising System Texture pages
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Changing to mode 800 x 600 x 16 3d= 0
ssm 1
Starting new mode:
Closing DirectDraw
Open DirectDraw
Creating screen: Create Surface: format= 0000F800 000007E0 0000001F GetAttached: complete
Closing DirectDraw

Look at the bold text. It seems that the game simply disables 3D mode every time it launches, even if I set forced3d= 1 in the ral.cfg file. I think this could be the problem and the reason of the lagging. Any ideas how to fix that?

strange it tries to set 640x480
because when i first bought the game I only had a 14inch crt max res 640x480 and the game wouldnt run becuse the game runs at 800x600 it wasnt until I bought a 15inch crt that could do 800x600 that I could play it

Does the game look different if you set it to software mode? Try upgrading the Catalyst drivers. The latest set is reported to be quite good.

Yes, it looks different - the colors are completely messed up 😜 I've already got the newest drivers.

Try closing explorer.exe before launching the game to see if it helps.

Yes, the game works fine in software mode, I can play it normally now 😀 thanks 😀

However, if someone had an idea how to run the game properly in accelerated mode, I'd be grateful (BTW, King of the Road doesn't see my 3D accelerator either).

EDIT: Problem solved - I added this line:

1force3dtrans= 0

to the var\ral.cfg 😀

Try disabling alpha textures and see if it helps. If it doesn't, must be something else that is slowing the game down.