SMAC/X Unofficial Patch v1.0

[Tails]

So no luck recreating that error Tails? Did you get a chance to try out if using newer hamachi made a difference?

During tests with Ashery & bdanv I didn't have this error, neither they. We used the 1.0.1.5, since this whole weird error I had with Skyway happened on that version. Tomorrow both of us gonna try to see if it happens again. Btw is there any specific way I could debug game to get some useful info?

 

[scient]

Well, do you have any experience with assembly or debugging in general? You could run the game in OllyDbg (what I use) but tbh it would probably be easier to gather as much info as you can and let me find it. If you can get an error message, it would take me two seconds to find code location. All error strings are in jackal.txt I believe relating to networking. Then, inside code the id's for these errors are referenced. So, if I get error message text I and easily find general code location. As to fixing it, well that's another story but it would at least give us some more info.

 

[MetalCraze]

BTW is it possible to scale planet customization pictures to non-standard resolutions? Like when using directdraw=0

In the original resolution you can see all those neat moons, fungus coverage, ocean coverage, etc when you customize the random map.
In the desktop resolution those pictures simply never get showed

 

[Tails]

Okey, here is the error we been getting in past. Choosing "Try again for 20 seconds" option, was leading to nothing (it just repeat and repeat) and when Skyway decided to leave the game, it crashed for us both. Skyway could ping me on Hamachi but I couldn't him. When we tried to ping our real IP's, it was otherwise.

If we took the "Skip this message" option few times, we couldn't send messages between us in lobby. I could start the game but during Synchronization, we had so many "Skip this message" that it's impossible to get even over Global (1/1) synch part. I think that Skyway theory is right, we need connection both ways. This wasn't issue with other games.

btw. I don't know if this will mean anything, but the Civilization II: Test of Time works completely fine on Hamachi.

 

[MetalCraze]

I think SMAC maybe using ICMP connection in the lobby which would be a very stupid thing of Firaxis to do.

 

[scient]

BTW is it possible to scale planet customization pictures to non-standard resolutions? Like when using directdraw=0

In the original resolution you can see all those neat moons, fungus coverage, ocean coverage, etc when you customize the random map.
In the desktop resolution those pictures simply never get showed

Confirmed. Will have it added to bug tracking wiki and look into it. I agree the map customization display on the fly is a nice touch that is shame to lose. I always have directdraw set to 0 myself so I can alt-tab back and forth between debugger.

@Tails: Well that particular error (#NET_SENDTIMEDOUT in jackal.txt) seems to be used in a number of situations. I'll see if I can dig up any more info that might help troubleshoot this.

 

[bdanv]

GameRanger has now better support for Alpha Centauri IP gaming. no problems reported so far.

this was originally posted by Scott Kevill from GameRanger at CFC

After lots of investigation, this is what I found.

With SMAC and SMACX for me, the host crashes back to GameRanger the moment the joiner enters the lobby. This is different to what others are reporting and it's not what used to happen for me, but it's probably related. I suspect something is a little unstable/sensitive with SMAC/SMACX using Internet TCP/IP for DirectPlay, as none of the other DirectPlay games I tested suffer from this.

When I changed GameRanger to force SMAC/SMACX to use IPX for DirectPlay instead, everything worked perfectly, every time.

I tested SMAC by itself from a fresh install plus the "SMAC_Win2000_XP_Compatibility_Update_v1.03f.e xe" update. I also tested SMAC after installing SMACX and the "Sacxpv2.exe" update. I also tested SMACX. All had the same problem, and all worked perfectly with the fix I made.

As part of this fix, I've also made it so that GameRanger automatically does the ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 change as well, for anyone that has forgotten or is unaware of it.

The fix will go into the next GameRanger client update.

Something else that may or may not be in the FAQ. If you uninstall SMAC without uninstalling the SMAC 1.03f update (not obvious unless you look in Add/Remove Programs) then the next time you install SMAC, you need to run the update twice. Once so it "removes" the update that it thinks is still there, and twice to actually install the update.

That GameRanger update is now live. Give it a try and see if it helps.

Tails, Ashery, i will be on GameRanger later today if you are willing to make another test.

 

[Orgasm]

Gamerranger is a vpn too?

 

[bdanv]

it's GameRanger not GameRRanger. and it's a VPN.

 

[scient]

BTW is it possible to scale planet customization pictures to non-standard resolutions? Like when using directdraw=0

In the original resolution you can see all those neat moons, fungus coverage, ocean coverage, etc when you customize the random map.
In the desktop resolution those pictures simply never get showed

Confirmed. Will have it added to bug tracking wiki and look into it. I agree the map customization display on the fly is a nice touch that is shame to lose. I always have directdraw set to 0 myself so I can alt-tab back and forth between debugger.

There is specific check for this that will prevent them from ever being displayed if your desktop resolution is anything other than 800x or 1024x. So it's not directly related to DirectDraw. Will have to see about getting images to display properly because alignment is off if I bypass this check manually.

 

[MetalCraze]

Is it possible for you to include an option to have a 400 turns game on highest difficulties (in .ini file or through exe launch parameter)?
The game just becomes interesting on Librarian (iirc the title) - and Firaxis decided to cut the gametime from 400 to 300 so the scenario on the huge map can easily take only about 5-6 hours. Too short for something as good.

 

[Lim-Lim]

Thank you scient for fixing and improving an old favourite.

 

[Cassidy]

I'm intentionally delaying my next playthrough to check v. 1.1.

 

[scient]

Is it possible for you to include an option to have a 400 turns game on highest difficulties (in .ini file or through exe launch parameter)?
The game just becomes interesting on Librarian (iirc the title) - and Firaxis decided to cut the gametime from 400 to 300 so the scenario on the huge map can easily take only about 5-6 hours. Too short for something as good.

Do you mean the mandatory retirement year? I did a quick look and you can actually change this in alpha/x.txt under #RULES. Look for:

2100 ; Normal starting year
2600 ; Normal ending year for lowest 3 difficulty levels
2500 ; Normal ending year for highest 3 difficulty levels

Or is there something else? If this doesn't work I can look into it further.

@Lim-Lim:

@Cassidy: Will let you know when it's done. If there are any specific bugs you can think of I'll have a look.

edit:
One note about end year, it's saved into saved game so if you want to extend existing saved games you'll have to modify value in hex editor. Offset isn't fixed but you just have to search for year (2500 or 2600) in litte endian hex. So, 2500 would be "C4 09" and 2600 would be "28 0A". You can then just edit it to whatever year you want. Otherwise, for new games use alpha/x.ini.

 

[MetalCraze]

Is it possible for you to include an option to have a 400 turns game on highest difficulties (in .ini file or through exe launch parameter)?
The game just becomes interesting on Librarian (iirc the title) - and Firaxis decided to cut the gametime from 400 to 300 so the scenario on the huge map can easily take only about 5-6 hours. Too short for something as good.

Do you mean the mandatory retirement year? I did a quick look and you can actually change this in alpha/x.txt under #RULES. Look for:

2100 ; Normal starting year
2600 ; Normal ending year for lowest 3 difficulty levels
2500 ; Normal ending year for highest 3 difficulty levels

Or is there something else? If this doesn't work I can look into it further.

Oh thanks, didn't know about this. Gotta check it out, hope it works.

 

[Moray]

Oh thanks, didn't know about this. Gotta check it out, hope it works.

It does - I've done it myself, as well. I altered the starting year to 0, causing the game to begin on MY (mission year) 1, rather than the 2100 starting year, and altered the mandatory retirement years to a somewhat arbitrary 3000, thereby effectively eliminating that mandatory retirement nonsense.

 

[eidahl]

If I went with the SMAX method of installation, the original SMAC is patched as well, not just SMAX, right?

( Or would I have to do another separate install of purely SMAC w/ the SMAC patch to play it? )




EDIT: On another note, WTH. I was just raped by Deidre as Morgan after I refused her advances. I thought she was peaceful. :shock:

 

[scient]

• [If you own the Planetary pack or Laptop pack] Install the SMAC Win 2000/XP Update.
• [If you own SMAX] Install, in this order, the Alien Crossfire v2.0 update then the SMAC Win 2000/XP Update.
• [If you don't own SMAX] Install, in this order, the SMAC v4.0 Update then the SMAC Win 2000/XP Update.

After any these, you'd then apply unofficial patch.

 

[Terror Teats]

scient: Is it at all possible to get SMAC working on Vista? It's impossible to install, so I ported an install from an XP machine, but no luck. Any tips/fixes possible (outside compatibility manager)?

Barring that, is it friendly with Win7?

 

[MetalCraze]

Yes. It works perfectly on 7 with the unofficial patch, no compatibility modes.
Never tried it vanilla on 7 though.

 

[Terror Teats]

Nice. Thanks for the quick reply. Will wait on scient to see if there's anything to be done in Vista.

 

[scient]

Ya, I'm running game on win7 x64 and it works perfectly. As for vista, can you give me error message you get when trying to install it? A ripped install should work. All you're missing are some registry entries which aren't that important for running the game. Have you applied unofficial patch to your rip and still doesn't run?

edit: Also, do you have any experience using disc images with something like Daemon Tools?

 

[Terror Teats]

Terran.exe hates me no matter what compatibility mode I use, what settings I use in the compatibility manager, or even after swapping it out for the unofficial patch. I've tried every permutation of the above with no luck.

As for setup, no error message at all. It just hangs. This seems to happen to me with installers for various games (16-bit installers, maybe? 32-bit Vista, for reference). From Task Manager, ntvdm.exe runs with setup.exe and wowexec.exe in the same process tree. This sits indefinitely.

Also, I have plenty of experience with daemon tools , not sure what you have in mind though.

 

[scient]

I know most of you hate SMAX but for those that do play it I'd be interested in some input on fixes I'm working on. I've finished up complete analysis of how PB code works and that led to fixing some issues in SMAC/SMAX where defense code (ODP/Flechette) would be trigged more than once for a faction. This is all coded/tested and will be included in next patch. Now, I'm trying to solve buggy behavior with Flechette and Fungal/Tectonic Missiles which are SMAX only stuff. QA of SMAX is probably on par with Troika.

See these two posts:
http://www.civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7636 (PB -> ODP/Flechette defense code)
http://www.civgaming.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7640 (Fungal/Tectonic Missiles)

 

[Cassidy]

I prefer the vanilla game, because its factions are much better balanced for multiplayer(and singleplayer too) than the new factions. There should be better ways to provide a single-player challenge than having to fight too overpowered alien factions IMO.