Looking forward to the angel of darkness post.
BRO, TR series ended with TR3.
Speaking of which...
How to play
Tomb Raider 3 in 2022?
Sadly, there's no source port for TR3, as opposed to TR1 (Tomb1Main) & TR2 (TR2Main). So you have to do everything manually.
1a) GoG / Steam users: install the game. Game should be Win7/Win10 compatible.
1b) Vanilla CD / image users: insert / mount CD and install the game.
2b) Install
Tomb Raider Series Multi Patch (it makes the game Vista/Win7 compatible).
3) Run the game. Set it up:
I went with 1920x1080 'cuz why the fuck not + disabled gamepad, since a) game only supports DirectInput, so Xinput pads won't work & b) my DirectInput pad doesn't work properly anyway (only left stick works, but not buttons). We will need sth else for gamepad support...
Game should run. Problems:
- FMVs won't play without the "Win7" or "WinXP" or "Win98" compatibility settings.
- 2D elements have wrong aspect ratio (original game is 4:3), plus are kinda borked (vertical line near Lara's left boob):
- 3D isn't properly scaled either:
It looks like we need ADDITIONAL PYLONS...
But wait! There's more...
4) Fixing broken secret counter
Not visible, but vanilla game has a bug related to counting secrets (TR1 was the same). "Coastal Village" mission only counts 3 secrets properly, instead of 4. To fix this, you have to use
TR3 Patch: Extra Secret Fix by Suikaze Raider. There's an installer for GoG / Steam versions, but for the "vanilla" CD version you have to modify the .exe yourself (Manual Fix Tutorial). Which is piss-easy, as long as you've used a hex-editor even once in your life:
BROs, to make your life easier, I've prepared a "base installation" file, which has both the Multi Patch Fixes and Extra Secret Fix already applied. Get this shit here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/jcctcs0tjegp4ni/
To "install" the game, all you need is to:
- Extract contents of this archive somewhere.
- Copy required data folders to the "Tomb Raider 3" directory, either from the CD/image or the GoG / Steam installation. These are: audio, cuts, data, fmv & pix.
And that's it.
Well, almost...
5) Going Widescreen & playing the game
You have two options here:
a) Not recommended
- Set the compatibility of the Tomb3.exe to "Win7" / "WinXP" / "Win98" (check which one works best for you).
- Use the
Tomb Raider 2-3-4 Widescreen Patch to modify the Tomb3.exe, setting desired AR & FOV.
b) Recommended
! Actually, use dgVoodoo2 instead of Peixoto's patch - info in one of next posts.
Grab the
Peixoto's Multipatcher (link to the old but gold version, since the new one is bloated & doesn't work properly with TR3).
Advantages over previous method:
- proper widescreen, AR & FOV out of the box
- fixes borked menus
- deinterlaced FMVs + FMV scaling +
support for HD FMVs (doesn't work for me)
- configurable Xinput support
So, grab it, extract, run the help.exe, configure the game:
I would recommend enabling "Force native resolution" to prevent the game from switching to 640x480 for FMVs and messing with pulpit icons + set the "FMV scale" to 2 or more).
Create special shortcut for the game (uses Peixoto's patch to run it). And voila:
As you can see, 3D elements use widescreen with proper AR and UI glitches are fixed. We're almost there!
PROTIP:
If you get a black screen at any point (audio plays, but no graphics), just run the "Peixoto Link" while holding Shift and re-set game's settings (mainly resolution).
6) Making 2D elements "widescreen"
Grab the
TR 2 - 5 Widescreen Fix by TRJTA. Extract TR3-related content to game's folder. Game now looks like this:
Not a perfect solution (2D backgrounds are pixelated due to the high res), but looks decent. To use the high-res backgrounds, we would need a source-port (original pics are 640x480).
Remaining problems:
3D UI elements like health / air bars are kinda small, and font is not the best to read, but nothing can be done with these problems ATM (except making a source port).
So, that's it methinks... Unless you need even more ADDITIONAL PYLONS?
7) Applying an
Unofficial Patch by Sardoc
This shit includes many fixes (models, textures, audio track) and also entirely removes the "health crystals" from the game (optional). Recommended.
8) Gamepad support
a) Xinput pad? Enable & configure gamepad support in Peixoto's patch:
b) DirectInput pad? Use
JoyToKey or sth similar.
And now that's really it.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to like and subscribe, you cunts.