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How to play the game on modern systems - tutorial

SPEEDER_BG

Active member
Altough the word "tutorial" usually scares people because it sounds like something hard to do, this tutorial will be quite short. Since the game is from 2006-ish, it was meant to be played on single core systems which nowadays could cause performance problems. I'm sure Jack and the other devs will eventually make it support multi-core systems but until that happens, there's an easy way to reduce performance problems which could include CTD (crash to desktop). And since ProjectTorque was never made to put you back into the race after a CTD, if a CTD happens, you'll be DNF and those players get the least RP of all. So, using this method is a way to prevent or at least reduce the chance of a CTD.

1. Download PsTools 2.2 (or whatever the latest version is) from this Microsoft page:
2. Extract PsExec.exe and PsExec64.exe to a location you'll remember and know these files are there. You'll need them for all old games (such as NFS Underground 1), not just Project Torque.
3. COPY PsExec.exe to the directory where Project Torque's exe is located (in my case it's "D:\STEAM_WIN\steamapps\common\Project Torque").
4. Create an empty text file, then open it to edit it and enter:
Code:
psexec ProjectTorque.exe -a 0
This "tells" the game to run only with the first core of your CPU. You can change to to whatever number you like. 0 is for the first core, 1 is for the second, 2 - for the third and so on.
5. Save the file, close it and rename it to whatever you want and also change its extension to '.cmd'. I chose to name it "PT.cmd".
6. Create a shortcut on the desktop which leads to that cmd file you just created, you can also browse to the PT icon, so that the new shortcut has an icon. As for the original shortcut, you can either delete it or rename it. This step isn't mandatory but having a shortcut to the cmd file is a convenience.
7. Right click on ProjectTorque.exe and choose compatilibity for Windows XP. Depending on your Windows and the UAC settings, you may have to click "Run as Administrator", if the game is installed on the same partition where Windows is.
Double click the newly created shortcut and you'll play PT using only one core of your CPU.

Using this method you can run ANY old games, like NFS Underground 1, for instance - this game in particular is very senstive when running on multi-core systems. All you have to do is copy PsExec.exe and the cmd file you created in the above tutorial to the game's main directory (or where its exe file is located) and edit the cmd file's name. You also have to open it with a text editor and replace "ProjectTorque.exe" with the executable for the other game. For instance, for NFS Underground 2 the syntax would be
Code:
psexec speed2.exe -a 0
and then you can create a shortcut leading to the cmd file for speed2.exe and choose an icon for it.
 
Maybe they could create a Steam launch option to utilize only one cpu core? I'm sure Steam has built in features like that.
 
A good tutorial, but I have two points.
  • The game ran on 4 core systems back in the Fiona build with zero issues whatsoever. We are getting a build from that point onward. (It ran fine on 8 core FX processors after those were released, too)
  • I would preface this tutorial by saying you should only use the tutorial if it's necessary on your system for stability. Adding an executable to run through if it isn't necessary just adds unneeded overhead.
 
A good tutorial, but I have two points.
  • The game ran on 4 core systems back in the Fiona build with zero issues whatsoever. We are getting a build from that point onward. (It ran fine on 8 core FX processors after those were released, too)
  • I would preface this tutorial by saying you should only use the tutorial if it's necessary on your system for stability. Adding an executable to run through if it isn't necessary just adds unneeded overhead.
While in menu the game runs fine on multicore systems. The problems start when you get into a race. From 2012 till 2014 I had Intel Quad Core Q6600 and crashes to desktop happened only during a race, never in the menu but most frequently - while racing in TA. So a friend of mine back then told me of this way which I've been using ever since for all sorts of old games, Level R included - until its last day among the living.
 
Not had any issue on quad core Intel i7 desktop and mobile variants so far.
 
While in menu the game runs fine on multicore systems. The problems start when you get into a race. From 2012 till 2014 I had Intel Quad Core Q6600 and crashes to desktop happened only during a race, never in the menu but most frequently - while racing in TA. So a friend of mine back then told me of this way which I've been using ever since for all sorts of old games, Level R included - until its last day among the living.
Interesting. I never had issues on my Phenom 2 and FX Piledriver systems at all. Only issue was the memory leak in HO caused by the free roam. No idea why that is. I suspect it was something to do with Leila and Maggie builds that was making it unstable.
 
Interesting. I never had issues on my Phenom 2 and FX Piledriver systems at all. Only issue was the memory leak in HO caused by the free roam. No idea why that is. I suspect it was something to do with Leila and Maggie builds that was making it unstable.
And I never had any memory leak problems. Not even with my first computer (2006) which had only 1 GB RAM.
 
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