Relentless crashing after installing Yitzi & PRACX on Windows 10

[eoirbhofdihos]

Good evening.

An irresponsible request for assistance on an issue I've hardly lifted a finger to troubleshoot myself.

I am presently getting unceremonious crashes to desktop, with no error, after about 3 turns running Terranx.exe. I installed Yitzi 3.5, then replaced exe with 3.5d, then patched with PRACX 1.11.

My perception is that the issue started when I began using 768p resolution but I really don't know

Curious if there are any red flags here for obvious fixes. My superficial read of pcgamingwiki was that the point of the Yitzi patch was to eliminate crashes.

[bvanevery]

Unofficial patches are unofficial for a reason.  They may fix old things and break new things.

You do not need any patches, at all, to run the game at a modern screen resolution.  You need to put "DirectDraw=0" in your Alpha Centauri.ini file.

The problem with Yitzi's patch is that it's abandoned.  It's not improving.  It wasn't left in a good shape for someone to follow on with maintaining the work either.  Machine code is difficult that way, if you don't leave an infrastructure with the intent of having others contribute and follow your work.

Of great relevance is what version of Windows 10 you are using.  I don't recall anything Yitzi specific, but I remember things in the 18xx release range having weird crashes even with the stock GOG binary.  I think Microsoft quietly fixed some things and those problems went away in the 19xx release range.  If you're using something very, very modern and current, and are getting crashes, well then I don't really know.  Myself, I am using Windows 10 Pro version 21H2, on a 14 year old business class laptop with integrated graphics.  Runs fine.

[Jade76]

Hello there!

Did you fix the issue? I think I might be having the same trouble. Crash to desktop with no error message after about 3 turns. However it seems to be triggered by certain actions, like interacting with a specific former. Also, I am quite far into my first game, and haven't had any issues before now (except some minor issue with the in-game videos. Theyre usually followed by some random error messages and being thrown to the desktop. However it doesn't crash the game, so it's not a big issue).

Running SMACX on latest Windows 11 with Yitzi 3.5d, PRACX 1.11 and directdraw=0.

Perhaps running without unofficial patches, like bvanervery suggested, could be a solution, but I'm very happy with the QOL changes PRACX brings. Looking at the other patches, Scient hasn't been updated since 2014. There is Thinker, but it seems more like a mod than a patch.

Perhaps I'll try installing a new game of SMAC with Scient patch and PRACX and see how that works out. I was kind of regretting playing SMACX on my first game anyway, shouldve gone for SMAC to start with.

[bvanevery]

Looking at the other patches, Scient hasn't been updated since 2014.

That's false.  Some kind of bug related to Secret Project videos and a *.txt file with a line that was way too long, was fixed in the past ~2 years.  I forget exactly what/when.  I don't need to remember too hard though, because it's on the project's home page:

15 August 2019 - Version 2.1

    Fixed: viewing some datalinks entries could crash the game. The automatic open of The Weather Paradigm datalinks entry after completing it was a common cause.
    Fixed: some datalinks entries would overflow their intended display box and look bad

But as far as heavy lifting work goes, no, it's not being banged on a lot anymore.  It's way more mature than Yitzi's patch and hardly abandoned though.  Scient is still around.

There is Thinker, but it seems more like a mod than a patch.

Yes it's a mod.  Mostly for the AI, with a few rule changes.  It's also got Scient's patch baked into it already.  It's even got PRACX in it, but that's turned off by default, for reason of some possible bug I heard.  I forget the details.

[eoirbhofdihos]

Hello there!

Did you fix the issue?

I have not yet. I have been intending to redownload and install from scratch.

[Jade76]

I have not yet. I have been intending to redownload and install from scratch.

Okay. I've done a new install myself. This time I'm going with SMAC + Scient 2.1 + PRACX 1.11. The video issue I mentioned before (shifting from game to desktop every time an in-game video plays, sometimes with an explorer.exe error) is still there, but again it's not a huge issue.

Will see how the game goes...

That's false.  Some kind of bug related to Secret Project videos and a *.txt file with a line that was way too long, was fixed in the past ~2 years.

Oh my bad, I just skimmed the https://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Scient%27s_patch site and it said V2 released 2014 so figured that was the latest.

[eoirbhofdihos]

Fresh install, no more crashing, just works fine "out of the box." (GOG). May add Scient + PRACX later because I can't leave it alone.