17-04-2005 00:39									#1
	Read erros on 128 x 256 maps Put an end to popups!

I have added a mapsize of 128X256 and most of the times it works fine but late in the game I start to get memory read faults. Is this a penalty I have to live with fiddling with alpahx.txt or are there a solution ?

For some time I thought it was a mouse problem, but I have just stumbled into a Drone transporter that triggered the fault if I tried to kill it no matter how.

The crazy thing is that it happens well inside the borders of the map - I could have understood it if it was at the borders of the map (sorry, it's the programmer in me that speaks .

	17-04-2005 06:07									#2
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

As in killing(attacking in general) the drone transport crashes SMAC?

You may just have to let it live for a while... Sometimes you can wait another turn and the problem goes away.

	17-04-2005 15:26									#3
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

I would say that it's the attempt to enter certain tiles that make it crash. This time I had a reason to go for a specific tile (attacking the transporter) - I tried with several different units and the result was the same each time.

Of course I let it alone and went on with the game, but the real problem is that it can happen with any unit I try to move so I have to regularly make manual saves so I don't have to start all over on a turn.

	17-04-2005 17:50									#4
	Increase the size of your Attachments

What is the precise error message?

How much RAM is installed on your system? Extra-large maps take more RAM and you might be running short.

Do you have a save file to post so that we can see if the error is reproducible on other systems?

	17-04-2005 18:00									#5
	Remove this text

I know in my case, 256 MB ram is more than enough for really oversized maps (larger than 128x256)...

Do you use autosave?

Sometimes you just have to wait a turn and then you can attack the unit/move to the square with no problem. (ya i'm repeating myself, but I've confirmed that that's the problem )

	17-04-2005 21:36									#6
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I have 512 Mb and approx 241 is free, so that should not be a problem.

Yes, I use autosave - I'm a chicken

In the attatched file is a rtf with the errormess, a copy of alphax (don't know if needed) and a save of the game.

It took some time to reproduce it because I had to do certain things with other units, otherwise the damn transporter got covered by airunits. The error comes when attacking with the chopper that pops up and the taget is the transporter just below.

Attachment: readerr_save.zip
This has been downloaded 3 time(s).

	17-04-2005 22:41									#7
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I loaded your save file and was able to attack the Drone transport with no error. When I first attack the transport, a Drone interceptor scrambles from the adjacent seabase. The interceptor gets killed and then I can attack the transport.

It's possible that you are running into a variant of the "interceptor bug". What happens if you open the scenario editor (Ctrl + K) and remove the Drone interceptor?

The interceptor bug is usually caused by the presence of a driver for a wheel mouse. If that applies to you, try this:

* Close SMAX.
* Press Ctrl + Alt + Delete and check your running processes. If one of the processes is something like "mswheel" (the wheel mouse driver), kill it.
* Then start SMAX and load the original save file (with the interceptor still in the game).

Do you still get the crash?

Post again if this doesn't help.

	17-04-2005 23:11									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

After removing the interceptor I can attack without crash, so that is probably the reason.

There isn't a process that resembles anything like "wheel", so I haven't tried to kill anything (I could of course do trial and error process kill, but that may make more damage than I want )

I think I'll do some mousedriver updating and see if that makes a difference - maybe even dig up my old cordmouse wich doesn't have a wheel,

Thanks for the help.