Alien Crossfire problem

Warmax1955 · July 13, 2003, 18:54

Is there any way at all to get around the damn terranx crashes caused by the invalid page fault with the terranx.icd file? I've done some searching and it looks like this problem (or bug) was never fixed with version 2.0 of Alien Crossfire. I'm currently running Win 98.

Help!

laurentius · July 15, 2003, 03:58

I have had the same problem. I don't have it anymore so I guess I've done something right. Also running with win98.
Try to reinstall and this time do not update it to v 2.0

Also, i think downloading some modpacks/scenarios/maps/faction editors etc. may help.

Warmax1955 · July 15, 2003, 08:52

Thanks Laurentis but I've tried uninstalling several times with and without the 2.0 patch and even deleting the terranx.icd file so that it would have to recreate it each time upon installation. Nothing seems to work.

lucky22 · July 16, 2003, 11:41

I have finally gotten SMAX up on my machine and I'm hitting the same problem- but it reminds me of the same kind of issue SMAC had during a large MP game. That problem was apparently 'sound module' related, so I reinstalled AC w/o the movies or sound files and things ran great. I just don't want to do that now that I've got SMAX because I want the full, deluxe-o experience- sigh... if there was a simple way to fix it on the OS side (i run win95) that would be cool, but who to ask?

knighterrant · August 17, 2003, 12:23

Apparently this problem isn't resolved yet.

FOr old time's sake I installed alien crossfire on my XP Professional machine. No worky. I get TerranX.icd crashes.

moi · August 18, 2003, 04:51

is it really a widespread problem? i've played smacx quite a bit on win98, and now on xp prof, and never got an appreciable amount of crashes

knighterrant · August 18, 2003, 19:08

In my case I can't even get the game to work. It crashes immediately upon startup. Well after the menu and the splash screen displays for a while.

Laplace · June 22, 2004, 18:24

Yeah, I've had similar problems.

When I installed SMAC/X I got SMACX to work OK (after playing with classic SMAC for a bit) once I installed the patches.

Then one day I try to play SMACX and get a terranx.exe error and haven't gotten the game to work since. I have tried numerous combinations of patch applications, but to no avail. I may just try a complete erase (not just an Uninstall but manually deleting the folders [saving the save games of course]) and see if that works.

smacksim · June 22, 2004, 18:41

Have you done the change in the .ini file for new processors? (I can't find the file right now to check it's name, but this fix should sound familiar if you've done it)

Everyone should get to play.

-Smack

Kaboth · June 22, 2004, 19:44

Those of you who mentioned problems with XP professional this post by me in SMAC/X FAQ post might help:

When launching Alpha Centauri. I receive the error message "CPU not supported". My computer has a Pentium 4 or newer CPU.

Answer
You will need to modify a line in the Alpha Centauri.ini that is located in the game folder. To do this:

Double click on My Computer
Double click on the C: Local Drive (your Hard Drive or the drive that the game is installed to)
Double click on the Program Files Folder
Double click on the Firaxis Games Folder
Double click on the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Folder]
Double click on the Alpha Centauri.ini File (The file looks like a read me text file with a little gold symbol on it).

Once the file is open in Notepad, change:

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0

to

ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1

Be sure to save your changes, then run the game. You may still receive the error message. If it occurs, click OK and the game will load fine.

If you are Installed Sid Meier's Planetary pack then their will be no Alpha Centauri.ini File initially. Upon attemping to play the game and
clicking ok despite CPU being unsupported the ini file will be produced. Then simply change the ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm to 1. Or if necessary copy ini file from original SMAC.

ALSO download the patch that helps XP:

Alpha Centauri (PC) PATCH - Update for XP.

Question
What does this update do?

Answer
This patch will attempt to locate your installation of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and defaults to that location, if found. If the patch cannot locate Alpha Centauri, it will default to C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

In this situation, you should ensure the patch installs to the directory that you have installed Alpha Centauri into.

This patch is a Windows 2000/XP compatibility update, to allow users of Windows 2000 or XP to run Alpha Centauri. It is not required for users of Windows 95, 98, or ME. However, users with these operating systems may will need to install this patch if they wish to play multiplayer games with other players who have installed this patch.

There is a known issue with sounds skipping on Windows ME machines. This should not affect the game stability.

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

I didn't need the XP compatability patch on my machine. I've never encountered not enough memory though. If it helps I run a P4 1.7 Ghz, 256 MB SD-RAM, 64 MB Geforce 2 and 40 GB hard disk space.

The latest patches need to be installed before the compatability patch can be also. But if your running planetary pack you should be at SMACX 2.0 already from memory.

Enigma_Nova · June 23, 2004, 00:08

Quote:

Originally posted by Kaboth
I run a P4 1.7 Ghz, 256 MB SD-RAM, 64 MB Geforce 2 and 40 GB hard disk space.

/me giggles like a schoolgirl
Kaboth has a small computer!

I can't help much, I'm on Windows 2000.
Got the patch, set FOVA to 1, but I get an annoying issue of sounds not playing occasionally...
meh, that will teach me to stuff around with the registry.

#endgame · June 23, 2004, 01:01

.icd files are used by SafeDisc protected games.
Get something like UnSafeDisc and crack SMAX and it should work fine. I have had no troubles after doing this.

Blake · June 23, 2004, 01:12

I agree, the no-cd might very well solve your problems. It's available as a download at quite a few fansites, so shouldn't be hard to find.

Sikander · June 23, 2004, 01:50

I've never had problems with SMACX in Windows 95, 98 SE, or XP. I can't run SMAC on my new XP machine though, after applying the patches. I'm not too concerned though, I never play SMAC anyway, and if I want to I still have two machines that will run it.

knighterrant · June 23, 2004, 07:59

Ah, the thread that just won't die.

I have yet to find a way to get smacx to run on XP pro. The regular smac does just fine until near the end of a game (has anyone ever finished a multiplayer game from firaxis?) at that point its just a matter of corrupt saves or something because we'll crash from a no sync or just crash to desktop at the same stage every time in a game.

Smacx just refuses to work. I may, err, um, try the no-cd solution.

Kaboth · June 23, 2004, 15:01

Yes my SMAC used to be the only one to work; SMACX wouldn't but as soon as I made the ini change I posted above all was good. I didn't even need the XP compatability patch.

Googlie · June 23, 2004, 15:07

You can get the no-cd fix here

Laplace · June 23, 2004, 21:04

I have tried the no-CD fix on the ICD but to no avail (it did say it was successful but did not fix the problem).

What REALLY puzzles me is that originally SMACX WORKED on my XP box (after playing around with SMAC and the patches [including the Voxel algorithm]). But then one day arbitrarily (didn't do anything special) terranx.exe produced an error and haven't been able to get it working ever since, including doing a complete uninstall and reinstall on SMAC/X.

I wish they WOULD produce an XP fix for SMACX.

Petek · June 23, 2004, 22:26

Laplace,

From your description, it seems that something on your system changed. Did you apply any operating system patches? Update any drivers? Have you run scandisk or some other utility to check your hard drive for errors? Have you tried running SMAX in some lower compatibility mode?

Did you perhaps change video modes? If so, try changing back to fewer colors or a lower resolution.

Not real familiar with XP. Can you perform a "clean boot"? End task or disable running processes? (and then see if SMAX runs)

Can you think of anything else that changed?

Might also experiment with adding any or all of the following lines to your Alpha Centauri.inin file:

DirectDraw=0
ds3d=1
eax=1

Googlie · June 23, 2004, 22:37

I'm running the no-cd crack with no problem with XP (in fact I have 2 installations, one for regular games and PBEMs and one for mny scenario and faction tinkerings)

here's the .ini from my regular smac folder:

[Alpha Centauri]
ds3d=1
eax=1
FastUnitAnim=0
SmoothUnitAnim=0
MainFontSize=16
InterludeFontSize=16
DisableOpeningMovie=1
Prefs Format=12
Difficulty=5
Map Type=3
Top Menu=3
Faction=5
Direct Draw=0
Video Mode=1024
WindowsFileBox=1
Preferences=11001011111100101001001110001111
More Preferences=101011001011010111101100
Semaphore=00000000
Announce=111111110011111111
Rules=101100000011111
Customize=2
Time Controls=1
Custom Map X=96
Custom Map Y=96
Faction 1=GAIANS
Faction 2=HIVE
Faction 3=UNIV
Faction 4=MORGAN
Faction 5=SPARTANS
Faction 6=PEACE
Faction 7=ANGELS
Latest Scenario=
Main Volume=126
Voice Volume=127
Music Volume=63
SFX Volume=95
Base Sort=0
Gamma Correction=150
Custom World=4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,

Copy this and see if it helps at all on getting - and staying - started

G.

#endgame · June 23, 2004, 22:50

also, you could try
d3d=0
eax=0
instead of
d3d=1
eax=1

Commy · June 23, 2004, 23:37

Besides that Voxel Algorithm thing, I have never had any problems with my game or machine. ONly had one crash, ant that was when my base reached population -127. Now isn't that interesting? If any of you are looking for a way to crash your game, I believe I have found one...

knighterrant · June 25, 2004, 18:37

Just took the time to verify the voxel engine fix and even the ahem, no cd fix. Neither made a difference.

MrWhereItsAt · June 26, 2004, 06:16

More puzzlement... it is clear this is related to something other than just XP, as SMAX works on my version of XP Pro.

fender · June 26, 2004, 11:23

I get this same error once every 4 months or so. If I load the autosave it will do it again, but always at the very same point in the turn if I re-played every move the same as the move that caused the crash. I found that if I did something different than I actually did in the turn that caused the crash everything was fine. If I was attacking someone at the time of the crash, I simply wouldn’t attack at that point on that turn on the retry. I don’t know if this is the same thing you are getting, but it’s always fixes my problem.

I have not found a pattern to why it happens, but it's seems to me it has happened more while attacking or being attacked.

Commy · June 26, 2004, 11:47

Perhaps the pathfinding code is messed up when you attack or get attacked...

knighterrant · June 27, 2004, 07:14

I managed to fix smacx to run on my xp pro. I believe it was related to safedisc and my cdrom brand.

Skanky Burns · June 27, 2004, 07:57

Works fine on machine. XP. I have the no-cd patch installed.

ambersand · July 1, 2004, 08:31

We have got the same problem with Alien Crossfire. It was going fine until recently when we also got the dreaded terran.exe crash.

After reading your posts here, I managed to get it to work after installing the patches, the cracked version, changing the .ini file and setting the display to medium 16 bit colours.

(Not quite sure if all those were necessary - but what the heck!)

However as soon as we try to start a new game of Alien Crossfire (particularly customising the rules) it crashes again and the whole thing needs to be reinstalled.

Loading up a game started from before the crash, works OK and it can be saved and replayed.

If we start a new game using quick start we only get the alpha centauri set of factions. Bringing in an old game started previously with the alien crossfire factions is OK however.

Given that all these posts with the same problem re-surfaced recently, is it possible that the problem could be caused by a recent WindowsXP automatic upgrade from Microsoft or a virus?

Recently, my husband did download some recent Microsoft updates. I avoid them like the plague - but he thought he was doing the right thing!!!!!

He has a conspiracy theory that Microsoft got told by the US Government to bug any programs that contain the word "alien" because of their current state of paranoia!

Laplace · July 2, 2004, 16:30

Yes, I DO distinctly remember installing some MS-XP upgrades (Critical updates) after installing the then working patch of SMACX, and then sometime afterwards, the terranx.exe error.

It could be mere coincidence that the crash occured after the upgrades, but now I am less inclined to think so.

What's interesting to note is that when I uninstall SMAC/SMACX, the registry for SMACX is NOT deleted; I have to do that manually. That's what I've been doing with my uninstalls/reinstalls.

If I ever get it working, I'll let you guys know that I changed which did the trick.

Thank you for all your help on this though!