Windows XP Virtual Machine

Hello

I may have missed it but I couldn't find anything in the FAQ for GP3 or GP4. I am contemplating purchasing a machine with Windows 10 and installing a Windows XP Virtual Machine to run GP3 and 4. There seem to be big issues with GP3 particularly and Windows 10. Has anyone tried this? Running a Dual boot with both systems seems to have issues as well. I would be very grateful for any feedback. The planned machine has an Intel Core i3 2nd Gen CPU and Nvidia GT710 GPU card.

With your CPU a virtual machine is going to be too slow.

I haven't watched it, but this vid claims to have your answer.

[www.grandprixgames.org]

(PS: I'm biased, but if it was me I'd bin all the MS rubbish and install Linux).

Okay. Thank you for the reply. What sort of size CPU is necessary. Or is it better just to get a an old Windows XP machine?

Second option is best, obviously. If you want to go virtual, your processor needs to handle two OS at the same time: W10 and your virtual XP. Same goes for your RAM.

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Thank you. I can understand that thinking logically. There is a machine available near me with Windows XP, Intel Core 2 Quad 2.2 ghz and Nvidia Geforce GT710 GPU. I think this should be better than my old machine which died a death this week and had an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66 ghz and an Nvidia Geforce 8500 GT. Both GP3 and GP4 ran reasonably well, so I'm hoping this would be a minor step up.

When GP4 came out it hammered almost any PC of the period and even today it requires fairly decent hardware to get the most out of it.

The quad core CPU will help, but the slower clock speed will detract from that a little. Both CPUs are barely adequate really. However the GFX card should give a noticeable improvement over your old one.

Nearest equivalent I had in the past (E5430, GT720, 4gb RAM) ran GP4 at about 25fps with 2gb RAM and about 30fps with 4gb, but you'll need to try a few f1graphics.cfgs files to get the most from it (plenty on the forum - give several a try to find the best one for you). Also, depending on the RAM you have, install the 2gb or 4gb patch - it always seemed to give me a boost.

Others will recommend you don't let GPXPatch use more than one core. They might be right, but I always use all of them - and you'll probably need to as well if you want to have a playable game.

That said, if you don't really need Gate's kludgeware, Linux is definitely a great choice for GP4.

Thanks. I had no idea you could run GP4 on Linux. How does that work? Apologies for my ignorance. The machine with Windows XP has 4 GB Ram. With my old system I had 4GB ram and got around 30 fps with the excellent Ripping Corpse 80s mods.

Yes, the older period mods tend to be easier for weaker machines. Not as many polygons to throw around.

Linux uses something called WINE to run GP4 (and many other Windows apps and games). Wine is built into most Linux distros and it basically runs the game in a stripped down (fake) Windows environment within Linux - which is why it's quicker than native Windows (generally).

If I had your new machine, I'd try one of the 'lighter' Linux distros first, such as Puppy Linux, rather than the more powerful but heavier distros like Ubuntu etc. Installation of any Linux distro can throw up all sorts of problems, but if you get stuck (which is quite possible TBH), let me know what's going on and I'll do my best to help you OK?

Note that even if we can't get it to work (which is unlikely) your XP installation will still be there - because Linux, unlike the Windows monster - will NOT destroy other operating systems when you install it. It'll just set you up with a dual boot like a proper operating system should.

Go for it. It's fun...

Thank you very much, that sounds well worth looking into. The machine has a 1TB hard disk, so lots of room.

Just so you know, if you have a working GP4 folder/mod in Windows, the game should function perfectly in Linux directly from the Windows partition, i.e. there shouldn't be any need to have to install again. (Not if it's run through CSM though - CSM is a bit of a problem in Linux). I have a solution for that too, but all in good time...

Good luck!

Thanks again. It will probably take me a week or two to get myself organised around my work, being self employed. The Linux option looks really good and also safe like Mac OS for internet connection. I am coming back to the GP series after several years and particularly GP4. I never really used Zaz tools except to unpack wads.

Grand Prix 3 is perfectly playable under Windows 10.

Install the game and patch plus the fixed exe
Add GPxPatch
Install the voodoo patch
I changed some settings in Nvidia Control Panel (Number 1 and 2 in the notes below)

It's all described here
[www.grandprixgames.org]

I'm running it on a decent gaming laptop at full settings with PO around 30%, never crashes, set processor to ALL in gpx Patch



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2021 09:07PM by sadler.

Hello - thanks. In the end I have gone for a dual boot XP/10 machine. I only have windows effectively for GP3 &4 and probably some Netflix via Windows 10. It looks like I should be 40 to 50% faster comparing with my old xp machine. Its also a USFF machine so good for space saving at a low cost. My main work machine is a MacBook. Thanks to Noog I'm going to look at Linux with Wine to run GP as well. You probably have a fairly high end GPu with a gaming machine.