Running CFS3 in Windows 10: solved for now

[hypercide]

Hi folks,


Bought CFS3 from old-games yesterday because I wanted to buy WOFF. Initially no joy under Win 10 Home, with XP SP3 compatibility mode, running as Admin--the only suggestions I could find on the net.

Then, in a what-if kind of moment, I toyed with the "Settings" options under the Compatibility tab in the cfs3.exe Properties. I've enabled "reduced color mode" at 16-bit, "Run in 640-480 screen res" and "Display display scaling" (in addition to XP SP3 and run as admin). This works, and in game you can then fiddle with the display options. Additionally, I have it running in its own directory in my second hard drive. And I've successfully installed the current WOFF bundle (also on second hard drive) and did three different mission types over 45 mins with no problems. Joy.

(I have a Dell XPS with a GeForce GTX 745)

Tim

[hairyspin]

... I toyed with the "Settings" options under the Compatibility tab in the cfs3.exe Properties. I've enabled "reduced color mode" at 16-bit, "Run in 640-480 screen res" and "Display display scaling" (in addition to XP SP3 and run as admin). This works, and in game you can then fiddle with the display options...

Tim, you are a steely-eyed missile man. And I have my CFS3 running again in 1680x1050, full colour, YAY!

[garykidman]

I know that any patches are taboo on SOH. But the WOFF team have developed a patch that will make WOFF run in windows ten, so it would be
nice if there is one for CFS3, otherwise I am trying to avoid upgrading to windows 10. And so far I feel I have made a wise choice.

as far as the DVD version of CFS3 I can't find that anywhere.

[Autothrottle]

No luck at all with changed admin settings

[hairyspin]

Patched W10 to latest update last night and had to redo the compatibility settings as per Tim's advice above, but I have CFS3 running in W10 as before.

[hairyspin]

Much tweaking and experimentation later, here's the lowdown on CFS3 in Windows 10. My thanks again to Tim (hypercide) for his discovering this.

1. Install CFS3 from your original CDs (or DVD if you're lucky). Make life easier by not installing to the default folder, use something like C:\CFS3 and avoid UAC problems later. Don't run the sim yet!
2. Apply the 3.1 and 3.1a patches. Don't run the sim yet!
3. Replace cfs3.exe with the unmentionable patch but don't run the sim yet!

Now set the patch program's compatibility as shown :–






Yes, the program is being set to run in 640x480 display mode and reduced colour. Don't panic!

Now run CFS3 and once the sim starts (in ghastly 1998–style graphics) you can set the display resolution and colour depth to suit your system (in my case 1680x1050 and 32-bit colour.) CFS3 will run happily but to exit the program use Control-Shift-Q.

With this done you can now use cfs3config.exe (run in XP SP3 compatibility) to set your preferences: disable intro movie, switch off dual-pass render, switch on high resolution z-buffer, the usual suspects. But one thing you must not do is switch on anti-aliasing. If you do there's a crash to desktop every time.

If your experience differs, let us know!

[langshan]

Thanks for the info. Prior to the last update I was running it, now this one is a no go. Will give it a try. Thanks.

[mongoose]

QUOTE hairyspin

Much tweaking and experimentation later, here's the lowdown on CFS3 in Windows 10. My thanks again to Tim (hypercide) for his discovering this.

1. Install CFS3 from your original CDs (or DVD if you're lucky). Make life easier by not installing to the default folder, use something like C:\CFS3 and avoid UAC problems later. Don't run the sim yet!
2. Apply the 3.1 and 3.1a patches. Don't run the sim yet!
3. Replace cfs3.exe with the unmentionable patch but don't run the sim yet!

Now set the patch program's compatibility as shown :–





Yes, the program is being set to run in 640x480 display mode and reduced colour. Don't panic!

Now run CFS3 and once the sim starts (in ghastly 1998–style graphics) you can set the display resolution and colour depth to suit your system (in my case 1680x1050 and 32-bit colour.) CFS3 will run happily but to exit the program use Control-Shift-Q.

With this done you can now use cfs3config.exe (run in XP SP3 compatibility) to set your preferences: disable intro movie, switch off dual-pass render, switch on high resolution z-buffer, the usual suspects. But one thing you must not do is switch on anti-aliasing. If you do there's a crash to desktop every time.

If your experience differs, let us know!
END



The only advice I took from here was the last re anti aliasing. Don't know why but all my D drive installs then worked (without changing compatibility beyond win XP SP3) Prior to that my vanilla C drive CFS3 was fine but all D drive installs crashed after initial screen.

[Autothrottle]

I have tried everything but this sim isnt working on my Windows 10.

Thanks to everyone who gave advice and helped.

Im hanging up my wings for good I guess.

Good luck to everyone and God bless.

[Dave(Dangerous)Boynton]

Thank you guys for the great info... I have Win 10 and installed CFS3 after what must be 10 years ish and it wouldn't work but thanks to you guys I now have a working CFS3. Now just gotta make time to fly and get back to doing modelling.

[gosd]

joining the win10 crowd with a new rig.
The vanilla install went flalesly, the other installs of six different versions are not so good ; I get a config overide error on all of them even afther making shure the compatibility setting where as edited and the game was run as administrator.
Any suggestion would be welcomed

[Easy Flier]

Much tweaking and experimentation later, here's the lowdown on CFS3 in Windows 10. My thanks again to Tim (hypercide) for his discovering this.

1. Install CFS3 from your original CDs (or DVD if you're lucky). Make life easier by not installing to the default folder, use something like C:\CFS3 and avoid UAC problems later. Don't run the sim yet!
2. Apply the 3.1 and 3.1a patches. Don't run the sim yet!
3. Replace cfs3.exe with the unmentionable patch but don't run the sim yet!

Now set the patch program's compatibility as shown :– Yes, the program is being set to run in 640x480 display mode and reduced colour. Don't panic! Now run CFS3 and once the sim starts (in ghastly 1998–style graphics) you can set the display resolution and colour depth to suit your system (in my case 1680x1050 and 32-bit colour.) CFS3 will run happily but to exit the program use Control-Shift-Q.With this done you can now use cfs3config.exe (run in XP SP3 compatibility) to set your preferences: disable intro movie, switch off dual-pass render, switch on high resolution z-buffer, the usual suspects. But one thing you must not do is switch on anti-aliasing. If you do there's a crash to desktop every time. If your experience differs, let us know!

Just noticed your compatablity screen is different than mine. don'y have a disable display scaling

[jwkreidler]

Much tweaking and experimentation later, here's the lowdown on CFS3 in Windows 10. My thanks again to Tim (hypercide) for his discovering this.

1. Install CFS3 from your original CDs (or DVD if you're lucky). Make life easier by not installing to the default folder, use something like C:\CFS3 and avoid UAC problems later. Don't run the sim yet!
2. Apply the 3.1 and 3.1a patches. Don't run the sim yet!
3. Replace cfs3.exe with the unmentionable patch but don't run the sim yet!

Now set the patch program's compatibility as shown :–






Yes, the program is being set to run in 640x480 display mode and reduced colour. Don't panic!

Now run CFS3 and once the sim starts (in ghastly 1998–style graphics) you can set the display resolution and colour depth to suit your system (in my case 1680x1050 and 32-bit colour.) CFS3 will run happily but to exit the program use Control-Shift-Q.

With this done you can now use cfs3config.exe (run in XP SP3 compatibility) to set your preferences: disable intro movie, switch off dual-pass render, switch on high resolution z-buffer, the usual suspects. But one thing you must not do is switch on anti-aliasing. If you do there's a crash to desktop every time.

If your experience differs, let us know!

Tom/Hairyspin,
I have an HP Pavilion 550-126 desktop system running Windows 10 Home version 10.0.18363 build 18363. I have installed a 2-CD version of MS CombatFlightSimulator3 with files predominantly dated 2/3/03 and csf3.exe version 3.1.030203.01. The CSF3 product runs fine on my older system running Windows XP Pro svcPak 3, but program startup on my Win10 system goes immediately to full black screen for about a second, then exits (no splash screen, no exit message). Presence/absence of CD in drive has no impact. I initially thought that my copy of CSF3 might simply be Win10-incompatible, so went looking (in vain) for a later version. I then searched online for variations on 'csf3 vs win10', where most hits led eventually to SimOutHouse. I have followed most recommendations in this forum thread (install from CDs as admin, install in non-default location, install v3.1 patch, install v3.1a patch, set compatibility WinXP SP2, set 16-bit color, set 640 x 480 resolution, & run as admin). I have been unable to find a copy of the unnamed-but-oft-mentioned other patch. Perhaps I have overlooked something in my reading of the forum thread, or perhaps Windows10 has been updated further (I have accepted numerous updates since installation in Feb 2020) so as to present a new variant of the problem. I would be grateful for any advice/insight.
Thanks,
John