Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit (1998 not the remaster)

[TomasHubelbauer]

Compatibility Report

• Name of the game with compatibility issues: Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Need_for_Speed_III:_Hot_Pursuit
• Steam AppID of the game: N/A - not on Steam or in SteamDB

System Information

• GPU/Video driver version/Kernel version: SteamDeck
• Link to full system information report as Gist: N/A - not sure how to generate on the SD
• Proton version: I tried Experimental, 8.0-3 and the default on SteamDeck as of the time of writing (not sure how to tell)

I confirm:

• that I haven't found an existing compatibility report for this game.
• that I have checked whether there are updates for my system available.

There are reports for the remaster but not the original. SteamDeck is up to date and I use several versions of Proton to no avail.

Symptoms

With Proton as it ships on the SteamDeck as of the time of writing, the game won't start at all, it crashes right away. When switching compatibility to force Proton Experimental or 8, the game will run and everything in the menu is fine, but in game, only the background and the HUD renders, not the car or the environment.

Reproduction

Download NFS III: Hot Pursuit off Archive.org:
https://archive.org/download/need-for-speed-iii-hot-pursuit-win-preinstalled-en/Need_for_Speed_III_Hot_Pursuit_Win_Preinstalled_EN.zip

• Extract the ZIP and copy the folder over to the SteamDeck on an SD card
• Go to Desktop mode and find the folder, copy it over to the SteamDeck's SSD
• Launch Steam in Desktop mode, click on Games > Add a Non-Steam Game and find nfs3.exe, add it
• Go back to Gaming mode and launch the game - it will crash
• Use the gear menu and go to Properties > Compatibility and turn of Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool
• Select Proton Experimental or Proton 8.x
• Launch the game - it launches!
• Configure WASD+Mouse input mapping
• Go through the menu and start a race
• Notice only the backgrounds and the HUD are rendering, not the actual car or the environment (sound plays)

[d1mastaaa]

It's sad that nobody else seen this and replied till today. I have the same issue and can't find on internet what is wrong and how to fix it. I've tried my own dump and those I found on Internet and the issue is the 100% reproduced on my device.

[TomKTW]

@TomasHubelbauer @d1mastaaa I've managed to run NFS3 with few caveats.

First of all, I've used Need for Speed III Modern Patch for general improvements and compatibility. With it, I'm able to use Voodoo (nglide or dgVoodoo2) or DirectX (5/6/7/8) renderer, which should provide additional tinkering with it (read the documentation for it for more info).

Since this is a non-steam game, I've set it up within Bottles under independent bottle with Gaming configuration and soda-9.0-1 Wine runner.

Hint for adding game from Bottles to Steam: To add the game to steam through Bottles, use "Add Shortcuts...", navigate to the game folder to add it to Programs list, open 3-dot menu button, and then click "Add to Steam" button. If it fails to launch in Game mode, rename the shortcut name to something else, rename back to original name and then re-add to Steam (you may end up with duplicate non-steam entry, try to launch both and delete broken one if it happens).

By default, the game will most likely start with nglide renderer. This should at least provide access to movie stuff and menu. However, when you start the race, you'll probably end up with what Tomas already had mentioned, without rendering the cars or track. This is fixed by disabling Z-Buffer in Graphics section in game.

At this point, you should technically have a graphically runnable game in Game mode. In desktop mode, there is a problem with joystick input. The game does recognize Steam Deck and Xbox 360 controllers, but it does not detect any input from them (you can confirm this by opening Dead Zone section in Controllers menu). In this case, you'll have to configure keyboard keys instead of joystick to make it work, even in Game mode (regardless if Steam Input is enabled or disabled, prefer disabled since joystick input is not detected at all).

If you want to have Z-Buffer enabled, you can consider switching to dgVoodoo2 or dx7 renderers. To switch to those, open nfs.ini file in game folder and change ThrashDriver to matching renderer name (check readme for modern patch). You can also launch dgVoodoo configuration tool in Bottles to tweak it further if you want. Take note that dgVoodoo2 renderer won't have proper rendering for projected headlights, so you have to change those to vertex.

If you want to have mostly well rendered projected headlights, but semi-invalid lightning environment, you can switch to dx7 renderer. Avoid using dx8 renderer since it's broken in this case.

If you want most enhanced rendering, go with dx6, which should have reasonably projected headlights and lightning environment.

I would suggest to give yourself few tinkering attempts to see what you prefer when it comes to balancing compatibility and enhanchements.

And that's pretty much it. You should be able to play the game in this case.

Preview with Hot Pursuit race, Lost Canyons track, dx6 renderer, Z-Buffer on, projected headlights, fog on, 1280x800x32 (with modern patch):

[TomasHubelbauer]

I really appreciate you putting all this information together! And the result you got looks great. I'm hoping to give reproducing this a shot at some point. Have a great day!

[d1mastaaa]

Oh wow! Thanks so much @TomKTW for such extensive reply and help! I will do what you have suggested! Thanks again and have a nice day!