I had neglected to say that I am using Silentpatch. I have not tested to see if that is the cause of my issues.

I used nircmd and created a .bat script to open the GTA III .exe, wait 10 seconds while I manually skip the silent logo and opening credits, go to the desktop, automatically change the speaker setup back to 5.1, and return to the game window. This works great!

But now I got greedy and found an old version of ThirteenAG's Widescreen Fix that actually works in Windows XP. The problem now is that when it activates upon game opening, it seems to disrupt the game's ability to "connect" to the EAX3 "option" (for lack of a better word). So when I go to the GTAIII audio options, it defaults back to Miles 2D Positional Audio. If I change back to EAX3, then I lose my 5.1 sound again!

So what works now is: make sure Windows in on 5.1 speaker setup, lunch GTA III with the .bat file, manually skip the opening screens my smashing the mouse buttons, go to audio options, change to EAX3, all before nircmd changes the speaker setup back to 5.1. If I do all that and in the right order and allotted time, then I am ready to play in patched, EAX, and widescreen goodness.

But surely other people have tried to play these games with a 5.1 system using Silentpatch and Widescreen fix? Can anybody help? AI does not help. It always defaults to modern OS solutions.

Thanks!

I've done more research, testing, and troubleshooting. Here is what I've discovered for GTA III in Windows XP, and the final setup I've landed on:

1. The game (even in pure vanilla form) directly changes your Windows speaker setup. If the GTA III speaker setting is "2 Speakers", then it changes the Windows Speaker Setup to "Desktop Stereo Speakers". If the GTA III speaker setting is "More than 2 Speakers", then it changes the Windows Speaker Setup to "Quadraphonic Speakers". As far as I can tell, there is no way around this. I never noticed because until now I always played on a 2 speaker setup.

2. The most recent Silentpatch works perfectly in Windows XP. As far as I can tell, the DDraw.dll companion mod is not needed in Windows XP, and creates issues with the sound/speakers.

3. Using the Wayback Machine, I was able to find a 2017 version of ThirteenAG's GTA III WidescreenFix that works on Windows XP. However, installing it in its standard format (d3d8.dll in root game directory, the rest of the files in a scripts folder) is what what causes the sound engine to default back to Miles 2d from EAX3. So I removed the dll and placed the rest of the files in the root game directory. Now the EAX3 setting sticks! But read #5 for an unintended consequence.

4. I downloaded another mod which skips the intro movies. And since I don't have to manually toggle the EAX3 setting anymore, I modified my .bat file to automatically change the Wndows Speaker Setup back to 5.1 only 3 seconds after launching the game.

5. Because I "hacked" the widescreenfix, if I try to quit the game normally (even with alt-f4), I get an unhandled exception error that is difficult to clear out because the game UI still controls the screen, and alt-tab doesn't work unless I CTRL-ALT-DELETE first. It also gums up the Windows Event Log. So I build a shortcut that kills the GTA3.exe process (not app) when I use the hotkey Ctrl-Alt-K. When I do that, the game ends peacefully.

6. While most of the mods say to stay on gta3.exe v1.0, I was not able to start the game without mounting the audio cd, even when silentpatch claims that it removes the cd requirement. As a result, I just installed patch 1.1, which removes DRM (legitimately...it was made by Rockstar), and allows playing without a cd in the drive, as long as I copy all the game audio to the audio folder in the game directory.

That's about it. I'm happy to answer any questions from other people who want to optimize GTA III in Windows XP.

I'm now in the process of optimizing GTA:VC. My first hurdle is that no version of Silentpatch after Build 8 seems to work in Windows XP...

I have spent the last several days focusing on GTA Vice City on Windows XP.

My initial comment about Silentpatch Builds 9+ not working was incorrect. All my problem stemmed from trying to use the vanilla gta-vc.exe 1.0. There is a patch to 1.1, but even Rockstar warns about not using it if you don't need to. So I found an alternative solution to get the mods to work with my gta-vc.exe file. Use your imagination.

Armed with a working Silentpatch (latest version), my next challenge was getting the widescreenfix working. I did not have any luck with Wayback Machine this time. All the archived files were still too recent. I then found a hosted file from one of the GTA mod websites from 2016. Unfortunately, it didn't work, but it DID come with the source files. And so began my journey to learn how to code and compile!

I downloaded Microsoft Visual Studio 2019, including the v141_xp platform toolset and components, and after sorting through all the compiling errors, got an .asi file that worked! The next problem was that I did not have a matching .ini file. I found the part of the code that read the file, and reverse-engineered an .ini file and now everything is working great! What a good feeling to learn something new and be rewarded for it!

With newfound confidence, I then moved on the Project 2DFX, another mod by ThirteenAG, that adjusts visual limits and distant lighting to the game. It is very pretty. Even thought ThirteenAG provide old versions of this mod on his GitHub, the earliest version still didn't work in Windows XP. However, the source code on his GitHub is still from 2015, do I downloaded it, fired up Visual Studio again, compiled my own version, and reverse engineered the .ini file. The limit adjuster from ThirteenAG's v3.3 DID work in WIndows XP, so I just used that. Most of my time now is tweaking settings to push the most out of my Windows XP rig. My hardware (i7-4930K, GTX 980 Ti) is fully capable of max settings, but unfortunately Windows XP's 4GB RAM limit is a major blocker, and I have no interest in messing with memory patches. So I have settled on a very enjoyable settings, but not fully maxed out.

Then I got to thinking, my PC is an XP/7 dual boot system, why don't I try the same mods in Windows 7, presumably with more modern or latest versions of the mods, and see what a fully maxed out experience looks like. The latest version of some of the mods doesn't work in Windows 7, but versions from 6-12 months ago do.

My results were spectacular! the 64-bit OS makes a huge difference. I can fully max out all the settings, and basically have the whole Vice City map load into memory with full-detail elements. And a huge bonus is that the game DOES NOT automatically change my speaker setup to Stereo or Quadraphonic! EAX3 still works with Alchemy and a very basic EAX fix mod.

My final conclusion, for GTA: Vice City at least, is that if you have the horsepower, there is no reason to play it on Windows XP if you have a Windows 7 system at your disposal. I know many people play it on Windows 10 or 11, and that is fine and even more spectacular with some of the mods I've seen. But I insist on EAX3 sound, and want to preserve the original early-2000's look and feel as much as possible (I even prefer to play GTA at 30fps instead of 60fps).

My next step will be to revisit GTA III and see if I can get the same results on my Windows 7 rig. I'll probably report back in a couple of days/weeks, but honestly, I don't know if anyone is reading these posts or cares. Hello out there?

Barley wrote on Today, 15:09:

My next step will be to revisit GTA III and see if I can get the same results on my Windows 7 rig. I'll probably report back in a couple of days/weeks, but honestly, I don't know if anyone is reading these posts or cares. Hello out there?

While I'm not the biggest fan of GTA games, I do find your research interesting. Kudos on recompiling those mods into WinXP-friendly versions!

I can give you a similar example with the first two Splinter Cell games. After hunting down old mods to fix the buggy lighting under WinXP, I ultimately ended up playing those games on Win7, using dgVoodoo2 + ALchemy. Worked out great in the end, while requiring far less effort on my part. 😄

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 15:36:

I can give you a similar example with the first two Splinter Cell games. After hunting down old mods to fix the buggy lighting under WinXP, I ultimately ended up playing those games on Win7, using dgVoodoo2 + ALchemy. Worked out great in the end, while requiring far less effort on my part. 😄

Joseph_Joestar, thanks for your message! You are one of my favorite posters here!

I just love learning and experimenting. Even though I will play GTA on Windows 7 now, I still have some Windows XP machines that will benefit from my research.

Once I finish my GTA work, I will focus on trying to figure out what other games are better on Windows 7, and what games are better on Windows XP. I suspect all my NFS games (NFSU-on) will be better in Windows 7, due to also having Silentpatch and WidescreenFix available. But I wonder if I will just keep on playing all the Half-Life games on Windows XP. I don't do multiplayer.

A question for you. Is EAX on Windows 7 with Alchemy "true" EAX or emulated? And does that even matter? Will it still work and sound exactly the same?

Barley wrote on Today, 15:53:

A question for you. Is EAX on Windows 7 with Alchemy "true" EAX or emulated?

Depends on the sound card. On any Creative Audigy and X-Fi card that has hardware EAX acceleration, ALchemy will use that, since it can access the hardware directly via OpenAL. But on those cut down models without hardware acceleration (e.g. X-Fi Xtreme Audio) it will use emulation instead.

Barley wrote on Today, 15:53:

And does that even matter? Will it still work and sound exactly the same?

While I haven't done a detailed A/B comparison, I can tell you that officially supported games like Splinter Cell sounded the same to my ears. Aside from a few edge cases, ALchemy is pretty solid.