Same SB Problem, w/ Possible Clues to Error?

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Author Topic:   Same SB Problem, w/ Possible Clues to Error?

quixotic posted 04-28-99 12:04 PM ET
Like many of the posts I've seen here, I have a SoundBlaster card and the game consistently crashes on me. Between all of the crashes, there are some similarities:
1. The crash happens in the late 2300's
2. It happens very soon after I get The Supercollider (coincidence?)
3. The crash happens right when I use an air unit to attack a land or sea unit and ENEMY AIR DEFENSES ARE ABOUT TO SCRAMBLE (see below).
4. The error is reproducable, meaning I can reload the savegame, do the same move, and it always crashes.
I have a Pentium 200 w/ 96 MB RAM, and 2.5 Gig of hard drive space left. >>IT HAS BEEN DEFRAGMENTED.<< My video card is a S3 Trio64, and my sound card is a SOUNDBLASTER AWE64 GOLD (big ol' red flag, it seems). I'm not positive I have the very latest drivers, but they are fairly current. It runs Win98 and is configured for optimal performance.
I've tried the tricks with the DS3D and EAX flags, to no avail. I renamed the SOUND.DLL file, and it DOES continue (w/o sound). That's when I learned that an enemy air tactical unit came from a nearby city to defend. Could that be where the problem is?
I'd be more than happy to send the savegame if desired. Also, here is the error dump, in case you're interested.

TERRAN caused an invalid page fault in
module TERRAN.EXE at 0257:004b8123.
Registers:
EAX=fffff7aa CS=0257 EIP=004b8123 EFLGS=00010246
EBX=029d000c SS=025f ESP=00bf1ba8 EBP=00bf1c54
ECX=00002630 DS=025f ESI=fffffffd FS=187f
EDX=00000000 ES=025f EDI=fffffffd GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8a 14 83 83 e2 e0 83 fa 60 0f 8c 4d 01 00 00 0f
Stack dump:
00bf48c8 00bf493c 00000020 00bf2200 00bf2260 00bf2200 000000b4 00000000 005be441 0000373a 00000018 00bf48c8 00bf48cc 00bf4b70 00000004 00000000
Frank Moore posted 04-28-99 12:19 PM ET
I too had the problem w/crashes when an enemy faction's air units scrambled. Tim Train from Firaxis posted me back to out the following line in the alphacentauri.ini file:
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0
I thought that this line was added when v3.0 was released, maybe you aren't running the new version or something. but check to see if that line is in under [preferences] I think.
quixotic posted 04-28-99 10:44 PM ET
Thanks for the info, but I'm at 3.0 already and have that line present in my INI file. Tried changing it to 1 for grins, but still no luck.
Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS posted 04-29-99 10:41 AM ET
So the crashes completely vanish if you rename the sound.dll? Try playing a few turns without sound, then rename the dll back.
jkm
firaxis games
quixotic posted 04-30-99 11:05 AM ET
If I rename sound.dll, let that tactical scramble occur (which works fine w/o sound), save and rename sound.dll back again, it all works fine until the next scramble occurs. Then I do the same process. This is workable in single-player, but would be an obvious problem with MP.
It seems very specific. Is there a sound associated with that scramble other than the usual battle sounds?
I hope this can be addressed in the next patch somehow, even if it's just a flag that mutes sound for that one particular battle...
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Author	Topic: Same SB Problem, w/ Possible Clues to Error?
quixotic	posted 04-28-99 12:04 PM ET Like many of the posts I've seen here, I have a SoundBlaster card and the game consistently crashes on me. Between all of the crashes, there are some similarities: 1. The crash happens in the late 2300's 2. It happens very soon after I get The Supercollider (coincidence?) 3. The crash happens right when I use an air unit to attack a land or sea unit and ENEMY AIR DEFENSES ARE ABOUT TO SCRAMBLE (see below). 4. The error is reproducable, meaning I can reload the savegame, do the same move, and it always crashes. I have a Pentium 200 w/ 96 MB RAM, and 2.5 Gig of hard drive space left. >>IT HAS BEEN DEFRAGMENTED.<< My video card is a S3 Trio64, and my sound card is a SOUNDBLASTER AWE64 GOLD (big ol' red flag, it seems). I'm not positive I have the very latest drivers, but they are fairly current. It runs Win98 and is configured for optimal performance. I've tried the tricks with the DS3D and EAX flags, to no avail. I renamed the SOUND.DLL file, and it DOES continue (w/o sound). That's when I learned that an enemy air tactical unit came from a nearby city to defend. Could that be where the problem is? I'd be more than happy to send the savegame if desired. Also, here is the error dump, in case you're interested. TERRAN caused an invalid page fault in module TERRAN.EXE at 0257:004b8123. Registers: EAX=fffff7aa CS=0257 EIP=004b8123 EFLGS=00010246 EBX=029d000c SS=025f ESP=00bf1ba8 EBP=00bf1c54 ECX=00002630 DS=025f ESI=fffffffd FS=187f EDX=00000000 ES=025f EDI=fffffffd GS=0000 Bytes at CS:EIP: 8a 14 83 83 e2 e0 83 fa 60 0f 8c 4d 01 00 00 0f Stack dump: 00bf48c8 00bf493c 00000020 00bf2200 00bf2260 00bf2200 000000b4 00000000 005be441 0000373a 00000018 00bf48c8 00bf48cc 00bf4b70 00000004 00000000
Frank Moore	posted 04-28-99 12:19 PM ET I too had the problem w/crashes when an enemy faction's air units scrambled. Tim Train from Firaxis posted me back to out the following line in the alphacentauri.ini file: ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0 I thought that this line was added when v3.0 was released, maybe you aren't running the new version or something. but check to see if that line is in under [preferences] I think.
quixotic	posted 04-28-99 10:44 PM ET Thanks for the info, but I'm at 3.0 already and have that line present in my INI file. Tried changing it to 1 for grins, but still no luck.
Jeffrey Morris FIRAXIS	posted 04-29-99 10:41 AM ET So the crashes completely vanish if you rename the sound.dll? Try playing a few turns without sound, then rename the dll back. jkm firaxis games
quixotic	posted 04-30-99 11:05 AM ET If I rename sound.dll, let that tactical scramble occur (which works fine w/o sound), save and rename sound.dll back again, it all works fine until the next scramble occurs. Then I do the same process. This is workable in single-player, but would be an obvious problem with MP. It seems very specific. Is there a sound associated with that scramble other than the usual battle sounds? I hope this can be addressed in the next patch somehow, even if it's just a flag that mutes sound for that one particular battle...