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Author Topic:   Maps of Unusual Size

Gord McLeod posted 03-08-99 01:15 PM ET

I'd like to preface this by saying that if nobody has an answer or solution, I won't be terribly surprised, nor even really disappointed. :-)
My one and only problem with SMAC so far has been that, if I play on maps larger than Huge (via the custom size option) the game will crash in later stages of play. This doesn't really surprise or bother me too much because I realize that playing on maps of that size is really exceeding the design parameters of the game, but nonetheless, if anyone has happened to find a way to get around the problem and keep the game from crashing, I'd love to know. If not, well, I'll stick to Large and Huge maps and play that way...
NuWav posted 03-08-99 02:30 PM ET
Even the huge map is much too small for me...but then the customized ones run very slow even on my P2 350.
I've had the same problem, but crashes for me usually came/come (I've reinstalled the game, patch, directx, and tried the other tweaks so many times I don't know what is really happening anymore)in the first 40 turns. I experimented with map sizes and discovered that I can usually miss the fatal exceptions if I stick to a map size, oh say, 225x225. Anything larger than 250x250 crashes.
I'm beginning to think it has something to do with my voodoo accelerator, which I took out of my machine due to other unrelated problems. You don't happen to have an accelerator, do you, or even Win98?
NuWav posted 03-08-99 02:34 PM ET
BTW, I sent a save to jkm, but haven't heard from him lately.
my current game is on a 225x225, no crashes yet, permanent (hosed game) or temporary (get back into it thru autosaves), year 23something, half expecting a crash soon...
Gord McLeod posted 03-08-99 02:42 PM ET

My SMAC system is as follows:
AMD K6-2 300
128 megs SDRAM
Matrox Millenium G200 AGP, 8 megs
Win98

The crashes are always preceeded by a period of gradual slowdown, so I think what's happening is the map size exponentially increases the complexity of the game - keeping track of movement paths, calculating those paths, weather and terrain tracking all bloat with such huge areas to deal with, so on massive maps like that as you grow and the computer grows, the system resources necessary to maintain it all probably increase past the point of the hardware to handle it. I could be totally wrong, but that's the "feel" I get from it.
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Author	Topic: Maps of Unusual Size
Gord McLeod	posted 03-08-99 01:15 PM ET I'd like to preface this by saying that if nobody has an answer or solution, I won't be terribly surprised, nor even really disappointed. :-) My one and only problem with SMAC so far has been that, if I play on maps larger than Huge (via the custom size option) the game will crash in later stages of play. This doesn't really surprise or bother me too much because I realize that playing on maps of that size is really exceeding the design parameters of the game, but nonetheless, if anyone has happened to find a way to get around the problem and keep the game from crashing, I'd love to know. If not, well, I'll stick to Large and Huge maps and play that way...
NuWav	posted 03-08-99 02:30 PM ET Even the huge map is much too small for me...but then the customized ones run very slow even on my P2 350. I've had the same problem, but crashes for me usually came/come (I've reinstalled the game, patch, directx, and tried the other tweaks so many times I don't know what is really happening anymore)in the first 40 turns. I experimented with map sizes and discovered that I can usually miss the fatal exceptions if I stick to a map size, oh say, 225x225. Anything larger than 250x250 crashes. I'm beginning to think it has something to do with my voodoo accelerator, which I took out of my machine due to other unrelated problems. You don't happen to have an accelerator, do you, or even Win98?
NuWav	posted 03-08-99 02:34 PM ET BTW, I sent a save to jkm, but haven't heard from him lately. my current game is on a 225x225, no crashes yet, permanent (hosed game) or temporary (get back into it thru autosaves), year 23something, half expecting a crash soon...
Gord McLeod	posted 03-08-99 02:42 PM ET My SMAC system is as follows: AMD K6-2 300 128 megs SDRAM Matrox Millenium G200 AGP, 8 megs Win98 The crashes are always preceeded by a period of gradual slowdown, so I think what's happening is the map size exponentially increases the complexity of the game - keeping track of movement paths, calculating those paths, weather and terrain tracking all bloat with such huge areas to deal with, so on massive maps like that as you grow and the computer grows, the system resources necessary to maintain it all probably increase past the point of the hardware to handle it. I could be totally wrong, but that's the "feel" I get from it.