Need For Speed III Modern Patch v1.5.

3 [2016/05/03]
(C) Evgeny Vrublevsky <me@veg.by>
http://veg.by/en/projects/nfs3/

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Key Features
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- Full HD and widescreen resolutions support.

- Improved graphics. No more cars with non-rotating wheels, better textures and
models for other's cars, much better graphics in the rear view, etc.
- Fog effect and light beams support in the DirectX 6/7 (they were exclusive
effects for the 3dfx Voodoo).
- Portability. All system settings are loaded from the ini file. No more registry!
- Compatibility. Most problems with modern Windows were fixed. New system settings
were added.
- Full support of multi-core processors. Original game could work correctly only on
one core. This change dramatically improves performance of the nGlide and the
dgVoodoo.
- Alt+Tab support. You can safely minimize the game when nGlide or dgVoodoo
renderer is used.
- Built-in screenshoter. Just press Print Screen key, and a screenshot will be
saved into the screenshots subdirectory in the JPG/PNG/BMP format.
- Improved keyboard support in the menu. Now it is much more consistent. You can
also use the Tab and Shift+Tab to switch between elements.
- Optimizations. 10 times faster gameplay loading on modern systems. To skip
loading animation just press any key.
- Bugfixes. More than 200 changes at all!

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How To Install
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1. Copy FEDATA and GAMEDATA directories from the NFS3 CD to a new empty directory.
2. Extract contents of this archive into that directory with replacement of files.
3. Done!

Warning! If you had used original NFS3 before, it is very likely that some
compatibility patches are installed in your system. Usually these patches disallow
NFS3 to use all cores of your processor. It will be a cause of performance
degradation of Modern NFS3, because these patches are installed globally and they
affect all copies of NFS3 on your PC. As a result you will have Modern NFS3 with
poor performance of original NFS3. If you would like to remove these patches,
download and install Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit
(http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=82101). Run Compatibility Administrator
(32-bit) and see what you have in the Installed Databases. If you will find some
patches according to NFS3, just remove them.

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Network multiplayer
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Find other NFS3 fans for the network games in our Skype group chat:
https://join.skype.com/xLP4dCluGg1s

It is strongly recommended to use the latest version of the game and port 9803 for
every player. Port 1030 is just for compatibility with the original NFS3. Modern
versions of Windows often occupy port 1030, so Modern Patch suggests you to use
9803 by default.

Every player have to use the same port! If you are a server, ports 1030 and 9803
have to be accessible from the network, so you have to add the appropriate permit
rule in your firewall for the nfs3.exe and configure a port forwarding properly. If
you're a client, port forwarding isn't required.

If you're using default Windows firewall, run the game and try to create a new
network game. Windows firewall will ask you if you wish to allow network access for
the nfs3.exe (the dialog will be under the window of the game). So, minimize the
game and agree with your system. To configure port forwarding please read the
manual of your router and ask your internet service provider if it is available for
you at all.

If “The port is already occupied” error occurs when you're trying to create a new
network game, possibly, the port is occupied by some program or system service. Use
TCPView or “netstat -bn” command to find out which program occupied this port.
Probably, you have to close the program or reboot your system to fix the problem.

If the port 1030 is occupied by your system, the most probable cause is Windows RPC
services. You can use “netsh int ipv4 set dynamicport tcp start=49152 num=16384”
command to change the dynamic client port range for outgoing connections, which is
used by the Windows RPC services (don't forget to reboot after it!). Use “netsh int
ipv4 show dynamicport tcp” command to view your current values. But these
manipulations are strongly not recommended. It is much better to use an updated
version of the game and port 9803 everywhere.

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Renderers (thrash drivers)
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Recommended:
- nGlide (Glide 3x API emulator) supports fog effect, renders sharp fonts in the
menu, uses DirectX 9, supports minimizing and windowed mode (Alt+Enter to switch).
Recommended for modern computers with Windows XP/7+.
- dgVoodoo (Glide 3x API emulator) supports fog effect, renders sharp fonts in the
menu, supports minimizing and windowed mode (Alt+Enter to switch), uses DirectX 11,
but requires very powerful GPU.
- DX6 supports fog effect, but doesn't support minimizing, and FPS may be a little
lower than with nGlide or DX8 on the Windows 7+ because of limited DirectX 6
support. Recommended for old computers with Windows 98/Me/XP.

Other:
- DX7 supports fog effect, but doesn't support minimizing, works not very smooth on
the modern systems. Also you will see a huge black polygon near the Old Church on
the Hometown track. Just for a collection :)
- DX8 works smoothly, but doesn't support fog effect, can't display intro video,
and on some systems doesn't render dashboard on “In Car” camera view.
- DX5 is based on the original thrash driver of the NFS3. However, it doesn't
support fog effect, it may not work in the Windows 8+, looks worse than others in
some details (e.g. artifacts when a large number of spray or dust from under the
wheels).
- SoftTri doesn't use hardware acceleration and predictably it looks worst. May not
work on Windows 8+. Useful for running the game on virtual machines.
- Glide3x is intended for using with the real 3dfx Voodoo hardware through the
Glide 3x API.

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Ini file settings
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Language — language which is officially supported by NFS3

(English/German/French/Spanish/Italian/Swedish). Language files have to be already
installed.
NoMovies — don't display opening movie and demo movies when idle in the
menu.
ThrashDriver — renderer name. For DX7 and DX8 renderers you can specify
(without spaces!) @ and number of the needed device (e.g. dx7@0).
IntroSplashTime — time of displaying of the intro splash image before main menu
(in seconds). Use 0 to disable it.
LoadingSplashTime — gameplay starts too quickly on modern computers, so you can
set desired time of loading in seconds. Use 0 to get maximum possible speed. It can
be skipped by pressing any key.
Hide16bitModes — hides 16 bit resolutions if similar 32 bit resolutions are
available.
Use32bitModeInMenu — enables 32-bit rendering in the menu. But movies can't be
rendered in the 32-bit modes, so it is recommended to use NoMovie setting also.
AllowHugeTextures — experimental setting which enables huge texture support for
track elements and cars during gameplay. 1 is for 512×512 size limit, 2 is for
1024×1024, and 3 is for 2048×2048.
SingleProcAffinity — bind game's process to one core, disabled by default, not
recommended.
OwnHeapLimitMb — heap size limit in megabytes. Might be from 16 to 512, 32 by
default, in the original version it was 16. Helps to get rid of “Out Of Memory”
error.
NoErrorReporting — enables suppressing of Windows Error Reporting dialog on
fatal errors. It isn't recommended.
PreventMinimize — disables Win key, Alt+Tab, Alt+Esc, and Ctrl+Esc for
preventing accidental minimizing of the game. Useful for renderers which don't
support restoring after minimizing. Disabled by default.
ScreenshoterEnabled — enables built-in screenshoter feature on Print Screen key.
ScreenshoterFormat — format of screenshots. Possible values: BMP, PNG, JPG. The
JPG allows to specify quality from 0 to 100 just after @ (e.g. jpg@90). PNG and JPG
require GDI+ (included in Windows XP and newer, for older systems the gdiplus.dll
is needed).

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Command line arguments
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-driver= — renderer name, overwrites ThrashDriver ini setting, format of value is

exactly the same as format of ThrashDriver ini setting. Spaces before and after “=”
symbol aren't allowed.
-nomovies — don't display opening movie and demo movies when idle in the menu.

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 thrash.ini settings (a file inside each driver subdirectory)
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File — driver DLL filename.

Type — driver type (d3d/voodoo/software/none).
FogSupport — have to be “1” if the renderer supports the fog effect.
DirectDrawLagFix — enable “DXPrimaryEmulation -DisableMaxWindowedMode”
compatibility mode (acceptable only for the DirectX 5/6/7 renderers, fixes
performance problems on Windows 8+).

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nGlide settings in the ./drivers/nglide/thrash.ini
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nGlide renderer has additional settings in the according thrash.ini file. This is
done by setting NGLIDE_* environment variables before glide3x.dll loading. Every
setting is gotten from the [ENV] section. If you would like to use global nGlide
settings, just remove [ENV] section in the ./drivers/nglide/thrash.ini file.

nGlide v1.05 settings:

- NGLIDE_RESOLUTION — always use desktop resolution instead of game's resolution (0
or 1).
- NGLIDE_ASPECT — preserve aspect ratio when desktop resolution is used (0 or 1).
- NGLIDE_VSYNC — enable vertical synchronization (0 or 1).
- NGLIDE_GAMMA — gamma setting (from 0 to 10, 5 by default).
- Additional info can be found at the official nGlide forum: http://www.zeus-
software.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=796

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Interesting statistics
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- 20000+ lines of assembly code were written for this patch.

- 150+ days of reverse-engineering and coding.
- 34 sheets of A4 paper were covered with writing during development.

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Known Problems
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Original code of the Need For Speed III is very old and it completely not adopted
for modern Windows. All of these problems are from the original game.

- The game have to have write access to its directory because NFS3 uses it to save
all data. So, you can't install this game into Program Files on modern Windows with
UAC.
- If you have graphical glitches with headlights in night driving mode, go to
advanced graphics settings and switch “Headlights” setting from “Projected” to
“Vertex”. This problem is occurs on some GPUs.
- Fog doesn't work with the DX6 renderer when the game is runned in Wine/Linux.
Instead of this horizon is corrupted. Disable the fog effect in the graphics
settings or use nGlide renderer.
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Thanks
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- Thanks Zeus (http://www.zeus-software.com/) for the nGlide.

- Thanks Dege (http://dege.fw.hu/) for debugging the DX6 renderer, and for the
dgVoodoo.
- Thanks kruto (http://kruto.deviantart.com/) for a great icon.
- Thanks Kirill Diduk, Gonzalo's, and kgt_jp for help with translation of the new
strings.
- Thanks BrainRipper, Goblinit, Ivan_83, kai, Kerouha, Manticore, and RejZoR for
testing.

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What's new in v1.5.3 [2016/05/03]
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- Fixed a bug of the original game which was a cause of different volume of the
race music each race.
- Fixed a bug of the original game which was a cause of ignoring of the latest Rock
track and all Techno tracks when Random race music is choosed.
- Added two additional random race music modes: Random (Rock) and Random (Techno).
- Added two additional random menu music modes: Random (Fast) and Random (Slow).
Fast: Romulus 3, Triton, Pi. Slow: Minotaur, Whipped, Whacked.
- Random race music actually works as a playlist (each race a new track). It
prevents from repeating same music tracks frequently.
- Prevented double music fading in the audio settings when user presses Race
button.
- Fixed a regression of the v1.5.2 which was a cause of problems with windowed mode
of the nGlide.
- Fixed a regression of the v1.5.1 in the fallback code for the unupdated language
files.
- Menu music volume will be used for the movies.
- Proper handling of the case when EAX was presented in the system and choosed by
user, but for some reason had become unavailable.
- Sound Volume and Dead Zone slider values are rounded correctly.
- More accurate time measure function is used (timeGetTime instead of
GetTickCount).
- HSV and Ford logos from the LOGO2.QFS aren't used in the menu animation if there
is no cars from the Australian Edition.
- Fixed a problem which was a cause of the inability to start the game on some
systems.

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What's new in v1.5.2 [2016/04/10]
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- Better Rear View Detail setting. Light from the car headlights and cop flashers
will be rendered even on Medium value of this setting. View Distance and Car Detail
in the Rear View Mirror now depends on Rear View Detail also. So, if you have
performance problems with High level of the Rear View Detail setting, just use
Medium. It have to be much more usable now.
- Better compatibility with the Thrash API v107 according to fog. So, the DX7
renderer can render fog in the NFS3 now.
- Fixed a bug which was a cause of config reset after loading of ghost files from
the other versions of the NFS3.
- Fixed a bug which was a cause of using player name from the loaded ghost file
instead of the current player name.
- Step size for the Alpha Intensity and sound volume sliders is 5%.

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What's new in v1.5.1 [2016/03/25]
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- “Rear View Camera” setting which allows to lock the rear view camera in the car.
It greatly increases visibility and reduces the blind spot when the current main
camera is not “In Car”.
- Fixed a bug which had allowed to save duplicated cameras when the user presses
"Race", "Credits", or "Exit game" buttons instead of the "Done" button.
- Experimental ini setting AllowHugeTextures which enables huge texture (512×512,
1024×1024, and 2048×2048) support for track elements and cars during gameplay.
Useful for the game modding.
- Fixed a small bug in the DX5, DX6, and SoftTri renderers in the thrash_lockwindow
function.
- Fixed mistakes in new strings in German, Spanish and French languages. Thanks
Gonzalo's and Kirill Diduk for hints.

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What's new in v1.5.0 [2016/03/20]
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General:
- No more non-rotating wheels in the rear view mirror and in the split screen mode
(when Car Detail is High).
- Rear View Mirror can display clouds, lightnings, and light from the headlights of
cars and from the flashers of cops.
- Rear View Mirror can use better 3D models of the track, so the problem with the
holes in the objects (displayed in the mirror) is solved now.
- “Rear View Mirror” detail setting. Low is equivalent to the original; Medium is
for better track 3D model and view distance; High is for the best track 3D model,
clouds, lightnings, and light from the car headlights and cop flashers rendering.
- Better proportions of the objects in the rear view mirror.
- Fixed direction of the camera of the rear view mirror. The horizon is on the
middle of the mirror now (for a better view).
- Fixed a small horizon glitch at the edge of a screen when the wide view angle is
enabled.
- An ability to enable or disable the fog effect directly from the graphics
settings menu.
- An ability to set volume of menu sounds separately from the volume of the ingame
special effects.

Engline limits:
- No more "Render_GetTm() raM out of raN" error for high poly cars. Corresponding
buffer is increased from 0.8 MiB to 8 MiB.
- 512×512, 1024×1024 and 2048×2048 textures support in the voodoo2a.dll. Support of
such textures was introduced in the 3dfx Voodoo 4 and 5.
- The limit of texture size for track elements was expanded from 128×128 to 256×256
pixels in this release.
- Support of the big 512×512 and 1024×1024 textures for cars and track elements
still available only in beta versions of the patch.

HUD:
- Smooth edges of the cop/player points on the map.
- Gear numbers are right-aligned now, like the digital speedometer.
- Gear numbers use smaller font if there is not enough space for them.
- Opponents List and Speeds List have standard bevel when SoftTri is used (as it
was for other renderers).

Menu:
- An ability to enter digits from the Num Pad when Num Lock is on.
- Commas are treated as dots when parsing an IP address.
- HUD preview in the settings now arranged well.
- Volume and Alpha sliders display own value (in percents).
- Logos from the LOGO2.QFS (if it exists) are used for animation in the menu
(together with logos from the LOGO.QFS). Original version of the game have this
file, but it is unused.
- Animated logos of automobile manufacturers are disappearing more smoothly.
- Fixed rendering piority errors for the top dropdown lists in the the “Location”
and “Opponents” menus.
- “Car Showcase” subtitle and “Compare All Cars” subtitle are displayed using the
same font as the “Race Results” subtitle.
- Other insignificant improvements.

DX7 renderer:
- DX7 renderer is included into this patch. Just for a collection :)
- Based on the dx7z.dll from the Motor City Online.
- Dithering is disabled by default.
- Resolutions under 640×480 are hidden.

Other:
- Gameplay loading animation takes into account time of preliminary synchronization
of a network game.
- IntroSplashTime ini setting, which allows you to set duration of the intro splash
image.
- Fixed a problem with discolored light from the taillights in the menu when DX6
renderer is used and fog support is enabled.
- Fixed a bug which cause a crash when using the screenshoter feature on Windows
XP.
- The game doesn't change resolution to 640×480 when “exit to system” is used
during the gameplay, so closing the game is faster in this case.
- Updated version of nGlide with fixes according to the NFS3 is included.
- dgVoodoo v2.5.1 (Napalm).
- Fixed a bug in the SoftTri renderer. Now it outputs all available resolutions.
- DX8 renderer outputs 16-bit resolutions also. However, it still can't play movies
at all.
- nfs3.exe sorts resolutions that it gets from the renderer. Refactoring of the
graphics initialization and resolution choosing code.
- If ini file with the same name as a executable file name (e.g. nfs3test.ini for
nfs3test.exe) is not found, nfs3.ini will be used.
- Hide16bitModes ini setting which hides 16 bit resolutions if similar 32 bit
resolutions are available.
- Use32bitModeInMenu ini setting which enables 32-bit video mode for the menu.
However movies can't be played in 32-bit video modes.
- All renderers can use any DLL wrappers from the own subdirectories on the Windows
XP SP1+.
- DDRAW.DLL is removed from imports of the nfs3.exe and voodoo2a.dll.
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What's new in v1.4.0 [2016/02/16]
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Multiplayer:
- TCP port 9803 is used by default, because original port 1030 often is occupied by
Windows, so a network game can't start.
- You can change the port in the “TCP connection” menu. You can choose between 1030
(legacy) и 9803 (modern). Every player have to use the same value!
- You can specify a port after “:” symbol when joining IP game. If not specified, a
value from the previous dialog will be used.
- When you're trying to open TCP multiplayer game menu, “The port is already
occupied” error message will be shown if needed port is occupied by other
application.
- You can join to other's game even when the same port on your system is occupied.
Original game doesn't allow to do this.
- For compatibility with the original NFS3 use 1030, but it is not recommended
because this port often is occupied by Windows.

Menu:
- Don't allows to send empty chat messages.
- Tab and Shift+Tab can be used to switch control of the menu.
- Tab, Shift+Tab, and Esc work even when multiplayer chat is in the focus, so you
can switch focus to another control without using your mouse (original game doesn't
allow it).
- All menu sounds have same volume.
- Consistent sounds for the mini dialogs when using the keyboard.
- Consistent sounds for the top dropdown lists when using the keyboard (the same as
for general dropdown lists).
- A car color dropdown list uses consistent (with other controls) sounds and has a
normal padding.
- List of replays works correctly using keyboard (fixed an invalid positioning of
the mouse cursor). Also it uses consistent sounds (like others).
- Fixed errors of element switching order (when keyboard is used).
- 3D view of a car interior can be stopped using Space key. Arrow keys change
rotating speed more smoothly now.
- Options button is placed near Exit button on the first menu screen (Game Setup).
- “Connect Players”, “Connect IPX” and “View Car Interior” menu screens also have
standard set of buttons (Exit and Options).
- This set of buttons don't disappear in the Options when they are opened directy
from the race results screen.
- This set of buttons is smart: when user opens Options from the first screen
without choosing game mode, the Race button are hidden.
- Drop down list of cars displays the class of the current car not only for the 1st
player, but also for the 2nd player.
- You can use Left and Right keys to switch slides in the car slideshow and in the
credits (inclusive 3D panoramas of the developers).
- Noticeable “More...” button in the credits (opens the 3D panoramas of the
developers).
- Credits page with the 3D panoramas of the developers has same controls, as
general credits (with Back and Next buttons).
- Increased quantity of visible elements in some long drop down lists (resolution
list, car lists).
- Fixed unaligned paddings of the all drop down lists.
- “Reset To Defaults” button in the Controllers menu was shifted one position down.
- “Predefined Keys”, “View Car Interior”, “Load”, and “IPX connection” are aligned
well.
- NoMovie ini setting also disables demo movies on menu idle.
- Demo movies aren't starting when the game is minimized in the menu mode (useful
for the nGlide driver).
- If demo video files are removed, the game doesn't try to play them.
- Length of a track in the track info is displayed in units, which is choosed in
the HUD of the 1st player.
- “Wide Screen” setting was renamed to “2:1 Field of View”, just to avoid
ambiguity.
- The top dropdown with the player type selection is always displayed in the HUD
settings.
- Fixed bug, when previous text was lost on first key press when entering player
name or IP address.
- A hint about an ability to abort using Esc button in the “Connecting...” window.

Thrash drivers:
- Refactoring of the Voodoo thrash driver. 32bpp support for 3dfx Voodoo 4 or 5 was
added.
- DX6 thrash driver outputs 16bpp resolutions and sorts them.
- DX5 thrash driver outputs 16bpp resolutions, limit of resolutions count is
expanded from 30 to 100.
- Refactoring of the thrash driver initialization code.
- No more hardcoded environment variables for the 3dfx Voodoo.
- Instead of this the game sets environment variables from the [ENV] section of the
current thrash.ini file.
- The nGlide uses general voodoo2a.dll now, its settings can be changed using the
[ENV] section of the thrash.ini.
- Added separate Glide3x thrash driver for using on the real 3dfx Voodoo hardware.
- VideoDriver ini setting was renamed to ThrashDriver (original name). Filenames of
all thrash drivers also were renamed using original format.
- Included glide3x.dll from the gGlide v1.05.
- Included glide3x.dll from the dgVoodoo v2.5.1 (Napalm, WIP16).

Screenshoter:
- Uses Print Screen key instead of inconvenient combination Alt+P.
- Does one screenshot per second when Print Screen is held for long time instead of
hundreds of screnshots without delays.
- Saves screenshots in the BMP format (instead of rare TGA).
- Better quality of 16bpp screenshots (original code converts RGB565 to RGB555
because of limitation of the TGA).
- Smaller files for 32bpp screenshots because BMP allows to drop alpha channel, so
the result is stored as 24bpp.
- Ability to save screenshots in the PNG or JPG formats (use ScreenshoterFormat ini
setting).
- Saves screenshots to the screenshots subdirectory instead of the Desktop
directory.
- Remembers last screenshot number. If you would like to reset this counter, just
empty screenshots directory.
- Makes shutter sound while screenshoting.
- Saving a screenshot file was moved to a separate thread, so the game have to
freeze for less time while the screenshot is taking.
- Ability of making screenshots of the gameplay loading screen.
- Screenshoting doesn't stop intro movie.

Other:
- Super quick gameplay loading on modern systems
- LoadingSplashTime ini setting for slowing down
in seconds or 0 to disable this feature (and get
- If this “splash” is enabled, it can be skipped
(thanks Zeus for a hint).
gameplay loading, set desired time
maximum possible speed).
just by pressing any key (but Esc
aborts loading).
- The View Angle setting allows to enable wider view angle, which is useful for the
widescreen resolutions. New set of options: Narrow, Normal (former Wide), Wide.
- It is possible to show rear view mirror when viewing replays (using F7).
- Autimatic creation of empty directories for saving game data.
- Working directory is set automatically to the directory of the exe file.
- Useless RemoteOnly ini setting was removed.
- The KeyboardHook ini setting was replaced by the PreventMinimize. Now it works on
Windows NT also.
- Better code for the system cursor hiding, as result the cursor isn't hidden in
the standard system menu of the window.
- Language files with text strings are included, so the patch is compatible with
rare prerelease version of the game now.
- Opponent Name HUD element was moved to the top of screen, just under the rear
view mirror.
- Reset HUD just after installation of this patch over the original version of
NFS3.
- Zoom of cop's minimap will be the same as zoom of racer's minimap (by default,
can be changed).
- i586 and newer are recommended. The game displays a warning for older systems.
- nfs3.exe has an application manifest now.

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What's new in v1.3.1 [2015/07/14]
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- DirectDrawLagFix is readed from a thrash.ini of according driver, not from the

nfs3.ini. So, this setting isn't applied for drivers that doesn't require it. This
option is useful only for drivers that use DirectX 5/6/7 on Windows 8+.
- A small optimization in the voodoo2.dll and nglide.dll: grGlideInit and
grGlideShutdown functions aren't called when display mode is changing.
- Windows 98/Me support was returned.
- If you choose the biggest available resolution, when resolutions list is changed
(e.g. when you are using external display with notebook), the biggest resolution
will be choosed automatically from the new list.
- KEY_READ access right is used instead of KEY_ALL_ACCESS for reading path to
desktop from the registry for saving a screenshot (Alt+P).

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What's new in v1.3.0 [2015/06/22]
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Changes in the nfs3.exe:

- Hangs on multicore systems were completely fixed, so you don't have to use
SingleProcAffinity kludge now. The game works much smoother without this kludge
(expecially with nGlide and dgVoodoo drivers).
- Unexpected game termination at the end of gameplay loading was fixed. (Thanks
Zeus for help with debugging.)
- Multiplayer game bug were fixed. It had been introduced by the first version of
this patch. (Thanks Ivan_83 for testing.)
- HUD was updated a little.

Menu changes:
- The Wide Screen setting has no any relation to proper widescreen support, so its
location next to the Resolution setting is confusing. This is why this setting was
moved from the Graphics to the Advanced Graphics settings. Now it's placed near the
View Angle setting because it is more logical. The View Distance setting was moved
to freed space in the Graphics settings.
- Menu subitems in the Controller and in the Connect menus aligned vertically like
in the other menus.

Other changes:
- nGlide is updated to version 1.04.3. Now you can safely minimize and restore
NFS3. (Thanks Zeus for it.)

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What's new in v1.2.0 [2015/06/10]
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Changes in the nfs3.exe:

- If ini file hasn't some setting, program tries to read environment variable with
name like SECTION_SETTINGNAME, e.g. for setting NoMovie in the [NFS3] section
environment variable name will be NFS3_NOMOVIE. If environment also isn't present
default value will be used.
- Fixed a bug according to race type autoselection in the race selection dialog
(Hot Pursuit and Tournament were mixed up).
- Mercedes and Ferrari cars aren't locked in the Hot Pursuit mode. It seems that it
had been done because of licensing restrictions. Thanks to Manticore for a hint.
- Structure of thrash video drivers was changed. All drivers stored in “drivers”
directory. Every driver has own subdirectory with name which is used in VideoDriver
ini setting. Inside this subdirectory have to be dll file of the driver and file
thrash.ini with information about this driver (File and Type are required fields,
type may be null, d3d, voodoo, or software). This change allows to save several
different Glide API emulators to neighbour directories and use them when needed.
- Some thrash driver capabilities could be set in thrash.ini: FogSupport and
LightBeams. For example, it allows to override hardcoded values and allow to use
fog for d3d thrash driver (if this driver supports it). It allows to use fog in the
dx6 thrash driver from NFS4/3DSETUP.
- Thrash driver is loaded only once.
- When game can't init thrash driver error message box is displayed. In the
original version there was no error reporting.
- Resolutions count limit was extended up to 100.
- Fixed a bug of the first release of this patch: returning to the main setup menu
instead of a menu of a current game mode.
- Added an ini setting DirectDrawLagFix which fixes performance problems of DirectX
5/6/7 in Windows 8+ via enabling “DXPrimaryEmulation -DisableMaxWindowedMode”
compatibility mode (enabled by default).
- Added an ini setting KeyboardHook which allows to disable keyboard hook that has
been used by the game for blocking Win key and keystrokes like Ctrl+Esc, but this
code doesn't work in Windows 7+ so it is better to disable it (disabled by
default).
- Slightly better multilanguage support. When language directory is absent in
the ./GameData/Audio/Speech/ directory the game doesn't crash and uses sound files
from the English subdirectory. Also Swedish language can use own speech sounds
(original game uses English sounds for it) now. The name of the language directory
have to be Swedish, and the one-letter code in file names is W.
- config.dat was moved to its original destination (./FeData/Config/) for
preserving settings of original NFS3 when updating. However, graphics settings are
reset to their defaults in this case (because format is changed a little).

Changes in the dx6.dll thrash driver:

- Based on the 3dsetup/d3da.dll from the NFS4, supports fog effect in the NFS3.
- Fixed a bug according to non-working fog effect on modern systems. (Thanks Dege
for debugging this driver and much valuable information about Direct 3D.)
- Fixed a crash when system supports too many texture formats. (Also thanks Dege.)
- Resolutions count limit was extended up to 100.
- The driver hides resolutions with height lower than 480 pixels now.
- 640×480 always reported as 16-bit because intro movie doesn't works in 32-bit
mode. Other resolutions are reported as 32-bit if they are available.

Changes in the voodoo2.dll thrash driver:

- Firstly file glide3x.dll is searched in the same directory from where voodoo2.dll
is loaded, then it is searched in current directory, and then in system directory.
This change allows to save several different Glide API emulators to neighbour
directories and use them when needed.
- Thrash driver voodoo2.dll distributed with two different Glide API emulators:
nGlide and dgVoodoo. You have to choose nglide or dgvoodoo instead of voodoo2 in
the VideoDriver ini setting.
- If you would like to play NFS3 on the real 3dfx Voodoo or 3dfx Voodoo 2 hardware,
create new subdirectory with name voodoo2 in the drivers directory, copy into this
subdirectory thrash.ini and voodoo2.dll from the dgvoodoo subdirectory, set
VideoDriver ini setting to voodoo2.
- glide3x.dll is loaded only once.
- Resolutions count limit was extended up to 100.

Changes in the nglide.dll thrash driver:

- It's a slightly changed version of voodoo2.dll with special code for the nGlide
wrapper. It's created to prevent unwanted using global settings of nGlide.
- This is done by setting NGLIDE_* environment variables before glide3x.dll
loading. Every setting is gotten from the [NGLIDE] section of according thrash.ini
file. Each setting of this section is formatted like NGLIDE_SETTINGNAME and used as
name of an environment variable. Names of settings and their formats can be found
at the official nGlide forum: http://www.zeus-software.com/forum/viewtopic.php?
f=9&t=796
- If you would like to use global nGlide settings, just remove [NGLIDE] section in
the ./drivers/nglide/thrash.ini file.
- Bundled with nGlide v1.04.2 (this version also fixes possible problems with
projected headlights).

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
What's new in v1.1.0 [2015/05/22]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------

Changes in the nfs3.exe:

- VideoDriver ini setting now accepts a name of a driver file, not one of the
predefined values. Thus, you can put several thrash video drivers of the same type
in the game's directory and switch between them with a simple changing of the ini
setting, without renaming files. It is important to understand that the game uses
drivers in different ways depending on the type. The type of driver is determined
by the first letter of the name of the driver file (d — d3d; v — voodoo; s —
software; the rest — none).
- VideoDeviceId ini setting became a part of VideoDriver. If it is necessary to
specify device number, just put “@” and device number just after the driver name
(e.g. dx8@0).
- -voodoo2, -d3d and -softtri command line arguments are replaced by one universal
-driver=. This argument has the same format as VideoDriver ini setting.
- Improved validation of thrash video drivers.

Changes in the dx8.dll thrash driver:

- Original dx5.dll not always works on modern operating systems (e.g. Windows 8.1).
That's why dx8.dll was created.
- Based on the dx8z.dll from the Motor City Online (uses DirectX 8).
- The driver hides resolutions lower than 640×480 pixels.
- The driver reports resolutions in a slightly different order.
- The problem with ugly 16-bit menu was fixed by using 32-bit mode.
- The problem with non-working video still not solved. It's recommended to disable
the intro video by the NoMovie ini setting.

Changes in the voodoo2.dll thrash driver:

- Renamed from voodoo2a.dll to voodoo2.dll.
- Always reports that all resolutios are 16-bit even when nGlide is used. Otherwise
making screenshots by pressing Alt+P will not work because in low-level all Glide
resolutions are still 16-bit modes from the game's side.

Changes in the dx5.dll thrash driver:

- Renamed from d3da.dll to dx5.dll similar to dx8.dll, because it uses DirectX 5.

Changes in the softtri.dll thrash driver:

- Renamed from softtria.dll to softtri.dll.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
What's new in v1.0.0 [2015/05/17]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------

Support of widescreen and other resolutions:

- All resolutions with aspect ratio from 5:4 to 16:9 (inclusive 4:3 and 16:10) are
supported.
- All objects will be properly scaled for every aspect ratio and you will see them
in correct proportions.
- There is no unreasonable limits for maximum resolution anymore (e.g. for D3D it
was 800×600), you can use almost every resolution which is supported by your system
(e.g. 1920×1200).
- Font size is choosed on the basis of screen height, not screen width. It prevents
from choosing too big font for widescreen resolutions.
- HUD will be completely recalculated with the purpose of different aspect ratio
support when resolution is changed in settings. Besides the result looks more
accurate than original one even on 4:3 resolutions. Files ./GameData/DashHud/*.POS
are unnecessary now and can be removed.
- HUD borders was reduced twice to look better on modern huge resolutions. Without
this change they look too fat.
- Compact cop's speeds table. Now it looks like the standard opponents list.
- As a whole positions of all HUD elements were adjusted a little to look better on
all supported resolutions.
- Resolutions list limit was extended from 20 to 50.
- The games uses the best possible graphics settings by default when it detects
that the game is runned on the modern computer.
- On first run game tries to choose gameplay resolution nearest to current Windows
default resolution.

Better graphics:
- New “High” car detail level. New quality of graphics for cars other than 1st
player. There is no non-rotating wheels and disappearing side-view mirrors! Also
the game uses twice better textures for all cars. Even traffic cars looks twice
better. Also it fixes unfairness when 2nd player's car has worse graphics. Old
“High” car detail is “Medium” now, old “Medium” is “Low” now, old “Low” was
removed. Warning! You have to restart the game when you've changed car detail level
to see full effect because the game loads textures only once when loading gameplay.
- Much better “Full” view distance level. Now it also affects rear view mirror (in
“Far” and “Full” levels).
- View distance in “Full” level renders farther in splitscreen and night driving
modes, the same as in singleplayer day driving mode.
- “Alpha Intensity” setting works for Voodoo2 mode now. Cars look too shining
without it.
- A little better rendering of an image when loading gameplay. An attempt to
improve quality of scaling of this image.
- An attempt to get rid of glitch lines near some sprites (e.g. in exit dialog near
NFS logo).
- Cabin image in “In Car” view now rendered for a pixel bigger in every dimensions
for get rid of chinks on the edges of screen.
- Because of fixed hardware detection bug quality of the starting movie will be
much better (in comparison to original version) on modern computers.

Portability:
- The game reads system settings from ini file now. No more registry! Name of the
ini file have to be exactly like the name of game's exe file, but with *.ini
extension. For example, for nfs3.exe it have to be nfs3.ini.
- The game automatically binds own process to one core for avoiding hang, so there
is no more reasons to install any SDB compatibility files to run this game. This
behaviour might be disabled, see SingleProcAffinity setting in ini file.
- The game doesn't require file install.win which was created by NFS3 installation
utility. All settings which were in this file were moved to ini file (Language and
RemoteOnly options).
- You can choose thrash video driver from ini file, simply set VideoDriver setting
to D3D, Voodoo2, or SoftTri. You can set device number in VideoDeviceId setting
(but it affects only D3D mode, as in original version of NFS3).
- You can disable all intro movies by NoMovie setting in ini file.
- Suppressing of displaying Windows Error Reporting dialog on fatal errors is
disabled by default. So if something go wrong you will know about it. But you can
enable suppressing of error reporting via NoErrorReporting setting in the ini file.

Bugfixes:
- Internal heap memory limit was extended from 16 to 32 MiB. It have to solve “Out
of memory” problem on some rare cases. Also you can control it by OwnHeapLimitMb
ini setting (it may be from 16 to 512).
- Bugfix for situation when you are cancelled editing audio setting, Engine Volume
wasn't restored and set to maximum value, and Sound Effects also sometimes wasn't
restored to original value.
- Fixes for hardware detection function. Original game by mistake tries to simplify
intro video graphics for modern computers because internal benchmark thinks that it
is 166MHz processor (signed integer, result of benchmark too big and it is treated
as negative). This benchmark was replaced to cpuid which sees processor family
(i586/i686 or newer), support of MMX/SSE/SSE2, and in result calculates class of
processor which is used by game for choosing default settings and deciding which
level of video quality user will see.
- Bugfix for error when game says that on your HDD is less than 1 MiB is free which
is not true.

Default settings:
- Use km/h for speedometers by default.
- Two camera views: Heli Cam and In Car (you can restore original set in camera
settings).
- Mini map has 1x scaling for cops and 3x for racers by default.
- Opponent list is displayed by default in splitscreen mode (instead of opponent
name which looked a little confusing).
- “Romulus 3” is used by default for menu soundtrack (but you can change it in
audio settings).

Other changes:
- New icon in variants from 16×16 to 256×256 pixels. Old icon also available and
you can set it for your shortcut in properties.
- Smooth loading indication. Original game does almost nothing between 58% and
100%.
- Original game makes a copy of music file when loading gameplay, maybe to solve
problem with slow CD-ROMs in 90's. Now game plays gameplay music directly from
source file. It saves a little time and 10 MiB of resource of your SSD on every
gameplay start.
- Num Lock, Caps Lock и Scroll Lock aren't turned off automatically on every game
start.
- The game doesn't requires CD anymore.
- The game doesn't try to revert focus every time when it was loosed because it
might be a cause of impossibility to kill game process in some situations when the
game continuously steals the focus from Task Manager.
- Smart installation checking (it checks existance of some critical game data
directories).
- Some error message boxes were fixed a little. All errors have “error” icon, all
warnings have “warning” icon, all fatal errors are displayed with one button “Ok”,
not “Ok” and “Cancel” where both buttons do same thing.
- Information about all unworked debug arguments were hidden in command line help
dialog (you can run it with -h argument).
- Game's config was moved from ./fedata/config/config.dat to root directory (you
can delete ./fedata/config/).
- The game doesn't removes config.dat, player1.spc, and player2.spc files when exe
file is updated.
- The game doesn't resets video settings when video driver is changed.
- “About” slide was added to Credits.

Menu changes:
- Cone Stats and Tuturial Icon widgets are hidden in HUD editor for cops because
these widgets can't be used in this mode.
- Buggy background animation in graphics settings and opponents choosing screens
were fixed.
- Title in pause menu is more aligned now. In original version of the game it was a
little misplaced.
- Flying brands effect added to all slides without large amount of text for
consistency. For example, in original version this effect is present on main
singleplayer game screen, but it is absent on main splitscreen game screen.
- On the first menu screen irrelevant link to Need For Speed website was replaced
to “Credits...” button. Really, you can't find any mention about NFS3 on this
website for 10 years or even more.
- In choose car menu “Download car...” button is hidden because it doesn't work
properly anymore.
- Yellow rect which indicates current player in HUD settings screen doesn't
overlaps other controls.
- Standard bottom set of buttons was added to camera settings screen.

Changes in the voodoo2a.dll thrash driver:

- Based on voodoo2a.dll from the Future Cop L.A.P.D. game. It seems that it is a
slightly updated NFS3 driver which uses Glide3x API instead of Glide2x API. So it
seems that these drivers are highly compatible and all special effects are present.
Original voodoo2a.dll from NFS3 uses Glide 2x API which doesn't have ability do
detect supported resolutions. Official update of this file which uses Glide 3x API
is based on NFS4 and it seems that it lacks fog effect. So it doesn't fit us.
- Added support of huge Glide resolutions with ability to use Z-buffer. Now list of
supported Glide resolutions are: 640×480, 800×600, 960×720, 1024×768, 1280×1024,
1600×1200. Widescreen resolutions aren't possible with standard Glide API. This
list is used when extended Glide API isn't supported.
- Jointly with the author of nGlide wrapper we are extended Glide API to support
all possible resolutions. So if voodoo2a.dll detects that this extended Glide API
is supported then it displays all possible resolutions (inclusive widescreen ones).
- nGlide 1.04.1 with support of extended API is included in this archive.
- If you would like to use other Glide wrapper with support of all resolutions,
please write to author of this wrapper a suggestion to add support of extended
resolutions Glide API. This extension is easy to implement and it should not take a
long time.

Changes in the d3da.dll thrash driver:

- Based on the original d3da.dll from NFS3 (works on DirectX 5). Newer versions of
this driver not fully compatible with NFS3 and may be a cause of graphical glitches
like huge black polygon near Old Church in Hometown.
- The driver hides resolutions with height lower than 480 pixels now. It frees
space in the list for modern resolutions.
- The driver works in 32-bit mode if it is available in the system. It improves
quality of dust or splashes from wheels.
- 640×480 always reported as 16-bit. Original title movie doesn't works in 32-bit
mode.
- Light beams effect now works in D3D mode. In original version this effect
available in Voodoo2 mode only.

Changes in the softtria.dll thrash driver:

- Based on the original softtria.dll from NFS3. Newer versions of this driver
render worse image or crash.
- The driver reports only 16-bit resolutions now. Original version was reported
that 32-bit resolutions are supported, but it isn't true. This driver can't work in
32-bit mode.

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-------------------------------------

P.S. Sorry for my English, it isn't my native language. Please contact me if you
wish to help to improve this readme.