Playing Tomb Raider III at 4K in 2022

[Moon-Safari]

I'm sorry im interrupting a very productive conversation, but this is so much work. The FMV's the texts the hydrocollider. I just want to download the whole game package, upgraded with the best HD texture fan pack, anti-aliasing, 4k, AI upgraded FMVs, all working in one download file. Why hasn't someone done this yet, when we have TR1 open source available and a whole new Level editor update someone made. Technically couldn't someone just put it all together and make the game available for free?

[TombHackR]

Originally Posted by Moon-Safari

I'm sorry im interrupting a very productive conversation, but this is so much work. The FMV's the texts the hydrocollider. I just want to download the whole game package, upgraded with the best HD texture fan pack, anti-aliasing, 4k, AI upgraded FMVs, all working in one download file. Why hasn't someone done this yet, when we have TR1 open source available and a whole new Level editor update someone made.

Anti-aliasing and 4K can be achieved in about 5 minutes with dgVoodoo. If you want texture packs or interpolated FMVs then there are other patches. It really is nothing at all compared to the loads of work put in by Dege, Pexioto, Asrunt, and others to create these patches. You can be the one to bundle it together in one package.

Originally Posted by Moon-Safari

Technically couldn't someone just put it all together and make the game available for free?

I am sure you can’t just give away the game for free. The ‘TR1 open source’ was built from scratch, the real original source is private and Square Enix don’t even own it.

[Iazu]

Originally Posted by daedrix

I know this is the umpteenth time someone asks about playing TR III on a modern PC, but please bear with me.
While the others in the PS1 series have pretty solid ways to be played nowadays, especially TR I and II, III sticks out like a sore thumb.
I've looked around a bit on the forum, and found a wide array of solutions, none definitive, and the answers I read are all at least 2 years old.
So I created a new thread, to avoid the risk of necroposting, to find out if any new solution to play III has been found that I may be not aware of.

I've been using Arsunt's patch for the past years, which is like a minimal version of his masterpiece, TR2Main.
At 1080p it was enough, but now at 4K fullHD it looks muddy, so I was looking for a way to still have its improved FMV player AND set the rendering res to 2880x2160 (Arsunt didn't patch the resolution; the maximum his exe can go is up to 2048x1536).
To play at 4K I'd need to go the Peixoto or dgVoodoo2 route, but then I'd have to deal with those unwatchable "crt" effect FMVs many game of that era suffered from.
Now, I know I can't mix patches. Arsunt specified it and I tried to mix his patch with dgVoodoo2 because he only mentioned Peixoto's in the readme. The result was that the FMVs would only show a black screen.
So, I wondered if any new patch has been made.
I read about a "TR3Main" project, but that is more like an "OpenLara3" as far as I understand, and it's still in its infancy. I need something for the OG game.
What's the best, bug-free method nowadays to play at 4K while still having watchable FMVs? Just without that "crt" interlace is enough. They don't need to be upscaled because I play the italian version, and afaik only the english FMVs are upscaled.
And last but not least, is there at last a way to upscale the UI and the font? At 4K they are ony like 5x2 pixels xD

Sorry for the text wall, and thanks to anyone who will take their time to read and answer.

Been fooling around with TR3 for the past couple of days or so trying to achieve pretty much what you've outlined in this post.... and I've gotten mostly there?

Using Arsunt's patch (which, btw, was a pain to track down. People mention it all over the place but no one seems to link it) from here and DGVoodoo got me most of the way there.

By using DGVoodoo to insert the custom resolution 427x240, selecting it in TR3's setup, then forcing 3840x2160 in DGVooodoo itself I was able to get the game to run at 4K with menus and such basically the same size as the PS1 version. 427x240 is essentially a 16:9 version of 320x240 aka PS1 res so DGVoodoo does it's thing and renders the 3D bits at 4k while keeping the 2D stuff at 240 without stretching. Add in the Upscaled FMVs (which need to be renamed to .rpl), and the widescreen loading and title screens and you're most of the way there. Since I have an Nvidia card I was even able to force 8x SGSSAA via Nvidia Profile Inspector to help smooth out the shimmering of textures in the distance (I don't use bilinear filtering so it's an issue)

However there's a still several issues that I don't think I'll be able to overcome....

• Not a huge problem, but using Steam Input I can't quite replicate some of the PS1 control scheme. Specifically the flare hotkey, analog movement, and the right stick analog looking. I just don't think the analog stuff is present here and while I can accomplish the flare button combo I can't seem to do it while also keeping select as "open menu". Again, not really game breaking.

• The Nvidia Profile Inspector AntiAliasing I mentioned earlier does have a drawback. Since DGVoodoo converts the game to DX11 and DX11 doesn't technically support driver level AA, the workaround to enable this (called MFAA) can cause a little graphical corruption when turning the camera fast. Not super noticeable unless you're looking for it and it's only on certain patterns (the ceiling pattern in Lara's mansion gets it the most from what I've seen) so it's not terribly bad.

• You can't use texture packs this way, not a huge deal for me personally really, but for some it might be an issue. I tried to use Peixoto's patch but I couldn't get it to work very well. Plus I was doing this whole thing with an eye towards also getting this to run on a Steam Deck and trying to get that mess of autohotkey scripts, injectors, and oldschool help.exe interface going on the deck in linux seems like it would be a nightmare and a half if it's even possible at all.

• The biggest problem however is the Health/Air/Stamina bars. I'm guessing that due to the way DGVoodoo handles the 2D stuff mixed with how the game draws the bars is causing this issue. It's the correct, large, size for the 240 res the game thinks it's running at, but it's drawn as several very thin lines with spaces between them. The only thing that fixes it is not forcing a higher resolution in DGVoodoo, which kind of defeats the purpose. You'll see this in the following screenshots.

So right now I'm kind of stuck. There's no way around the health bar issue as far as I can see and judging by the posts I've seen here on this forum Arsunt's patch is five years old and he hasn't really posted about it since. Is he even still working on it? I've used his TR2 patch and it's awesome but it's been radio silence on anything TR3 past these half decade old files.

Good news is this all shouldn't matter for the Steam Deck, since the res there is 1280x800 and that means the health bars shouldn't be too bad. DGVoodoo even works on there though I might not even need it if Arsunt's old patch works fine.

Now, some links to a few screenshots. You'll notice the health bar issue I was talking about in the first one here...

https://i.imgur.com/GpVfyJ7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ENP7YBS.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MfJPpNG.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/j3ZU9oe.jpg

[Mokono]

Originally Posted by Iazu

Using Arsunt's patch (which, btw, was a pain to track down. People mention it all over the place but no one seems to link it) from here and DGVoodoo got me most of the way there.

I've had Arsunt's post in my bookmarks for a while, but i couldn't do much with it cause i get error 404 whenever i try to download it.

I know there's a planned TR3Main, but it's not public yet, as said on this post:

Originally Posted by Arsunt

Hey! It's not a public yet. Only TR2Main is public right now. If you have questions or suggestions, we could chat in PM/Discord/whatever.

Considering we have all the other engines covered (plus OpenLara making strides towards full compatibility), i think it's only a matter of time before TR3 gets the love it deserves. I still wouldn't play TR3 in 4K though (except for GiovanniLucca's remaster)..

[Iazu]

Originally Posted by Mokono

I've had Arsunt's post in my bookmarks for a while, but i couldn't do much with it cause i get error 404 whenever i try to download it.

I know there's a planned TR3Main, but it's not public yet, as said on this post:



Considering we have all the other engines covered (plus OpenLara making strides towards full compatibility), i think it's only a matter of time before TR3 gets the love it deserves. I still wouldn't play TR3 in 4K though (except for GiovanniLucca's remaster)..

Weird, I was able to download his patch with no trouble at all after I actually found a post linking it.

Hopefully Arsunt is still working on it. That post about it not being released is almost two years old. Still, better than five years

I check on Openlara every now and again, but aside from occasional posts about getting it to run on some other device there hasn't seemed to be much progress over the past year or two. Would be a shame if it stalled out. TR at 60fps is very nice.

[Arsunt]

Originally Posted by Iazu

Hopefully Arsunt is still working on it. That post about it not being released is almost two years old. Still, better than five years

Not really, the project is paused for a while. Right now I'm trying to escape from Russia before borders will be closed (interesting damn time).

[NikkySan]

Originally Posted by Arsunt

Not really, the project is paused for a while. Right now I'm trying to escape from Russia before borders will be closed (interesting damn time).

Stay safe! The work you have done for the classic games should never be taken for granted.

[Iazu]

Originally Posted by Arsunt

Not really, the project is paused for a while. Right now I'm trying to escape from Russia before borders will be closed (interesting damn time).

Yeah I'd say that's far more important! Good luck and stay safe man!

[tlr online]

Good luck with everything Arsunt.

[laracroftswest]

Originally Posted by Iazu

Been fooling around with TR3 for the past couple of days or so trying to achieve pretty much what you've outlined in this post.... and I've gotten mostly there?

Using Arsunt's patch (which, btw, was a pain to track down. People mention it all over the place but no one seems to link it) from here and DGVoodoo got me most of the way there.

By using DGVoodoo to insert the custom resolution 427x240, selecting it in TR3's setup, then forcing 3840x2160 in DGVooodoo itself I was able to get the game to run at 4K with menus and such basically the same size as the PS1 version. 427x240 is essentially a 16:9 version of 320x240 aka PS1 res so DGVoodoo does it's thing and renders the 3D bits at 4k while keeping the 2D stuff at 240 without stretching. Add in the Upscaled FMVs (which need to be renamed to .rpl), and the widescreen loading and title screens and you're most of the way there. Since I have an Nvidia card I was even able to force 8x SGSSAA via Nvidia Profile Inspector to help smooth out the shimmering of textures in the distance (I don't use bilinear filtering so it's an issue)

Whew, going through this and trying to use DgVoodoo to get this to play in 4K while maintaining the 2D visuals of the health bar and menus has turned out to be a doozy. Thanks for this tutorial. Experiencing two issues though:
1. FMVs play audio but only show a black screen
2. The entire game, including the menu ring, is completely textureless. No matter the options I select, nothing seems to change. Anyone know a resolve for this?

Wishing you the best btw, Arsunt.