Higher screen resolution or windowed mode for Alpha Centauri?

Here's what's in mine right now:

[Alpha Centauri]
DirectDraw=0
ds3d=1
eax=1
FastUnitAnim=0
SmoothUnitAnim=0
MainFontSize=16
InterludeFontSize=16
DisableOpeningMovie=0
Prefs Format=12
Difficulty=2
Map Type=1
Top Menu=0
Faction=1
Preferences=10111011111000011101010110000110
More Preferences=1110100111000101101000
Semaphore=00000000
Announce=111100001010101001
Rules=101000000001010
Customize=2
Custom World=3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,
Time Controls=1
Faction 1=UNIV
Faction 2=GAIANS
Faction 3=HIVE
Faction 4=MORGAN
Faction 5=SPARTANS
Faction 6=BELIEVE
Faction 7=PEACE
Latest Save=
Latest Scenario=
Main Volume=127
Voice Volume=85
Music Volume=63
SFX Volume=95
WindowsFileBox=0
Gamma Correction=100
[PREFERENCES]
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0
 
Your ini file looks good. Are you playing SMAC or SMAX? If SMAC, you may not want to use directdraw=0 anyway. In SMAC, the ini file command messes up the menu displays, making the game difficult to play.

Petek
 
I'm on Windows Vista and when I try this trick it will not allow me to save the notepad file once I have added

DirectDraw=0

Is there some trick to Vista. I also tried to edit this file in order to solve the Alien Crossfire installation issue discussed elsewhere in this forum. Couldn't do it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Mischief61 said:
I'm on Windows Vista and when I try this trick it will not allow me to save the notepad file once I have added

DirectDraw=0

Is there some trick to Vista. I also tried to edit this file in order to solve the Alien Crossfire installation issue discussed elsewhere in this forum. Couldn't do it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Start Notepad using the Runas command as the admin account (even if you're logged on as admin). That should allow you to save the file.

Petek
 
Petek said:
Start Notepad using the Runas command as the admin account (even if you're logged on as admin). That should allow you to save the file.

Petek
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, Petek! I really appreciate it. :worship:

Unfortunately I'm still having problems. When I go to Properties for Notepad and I go to the Compatibility tab, I cannot click on the box: Run this program as an administrator. The whole tab is grayed out. The message reads: Compatibility modes cannot be set on this program because it's part of this version of Windows.

I'm running Vista BTW.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks so much! :)
 
I don't have Vista, so I can't test the following instructions. However, my understanding is that if you right-click on Notepad (or a shortcut to it), one of the options should be Run as administrator. You shouldn't have to go into Properties or Compatibility. Perhaps someone who actually has Vista can check this.

Petek
 
I placed DirectDraw=0 in the said file. Although it did improve the graphics, it also made many of the windows - such as the main game menu disappear. I blindly clicked until a game loaded, I noticed that half of my display windows were also invisible.

I did place DirectDraw=0 above Preferences, but got the same results.

Any suggestions?
 
Are you running SMAC? I was just about to advise you that the directdraw=0 command affects SMAC just as you described. In fact, I've advised dozens of others exactly the same. However, when I just tested it on my system for SMAC, directdraw=0 does not alter the menus. Very strange. I'll have to do some more testing to figure this out. One possibility is that the Win 2k/XP patch changed this behavior. What's the size and date stamp of your terran.exe file?

Petek
 
Thanks for the prompt reply, Petek!

No, I do not have ACAC currently installed.

terran file:
Date: 12/12/2009
Size: 2.92 MB

My OS is Vista.

Thanks!
 
I'm afraid that I don't understand "ACAC". We usually use the following acronyms:

SMAC = Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
SMAX = Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire

Assuming that you're running SMAC, that date stamp in 2009 is odd. It's only two days after your first post in this thread. Anyway, you should download and install the 4.0 patch for SMAC and the Win 2k/XP compatibility update (in that order). Both may be found here. You may want to make a backup copy of your current terran.exe file before doing so.

Let us know what happens.

Petek
 
Sorry, I meant SMAC. Thanks for the advice, Petek, I ran the patches and it now works fine.
 
Thanks for the update. It appears that the Win 2k/XP patch adds support for the directdraw=0 command to SMAC. I didn't know that. I will test this to confirm.

Petek
 
Petek said:
Thanks for the update. It appears that the Win 2k/XP patch adds support for the directdraw=0 command to SMAC. I didn't know that. I will test this to confirm.

Petek
Click to expand...

I misspoke. I only installed 1 of the patches.

I only was able to run Win 2000/XP Update patch. I tired to install the SMAC v4.0 Update patch and got the error message:

"Can't create an output file."
 
It's never been documented, AFAIK, whether you need to install the v4.0 patch if you install the Win 2k/XP update. I've assumed that both patches were needed since Firaxis keeps both files on their website (but removed earlier, unnecessary patches). There are several possible reasons for your error message. Hold off trying to fix it for now. In the next day or two I'll try to verify whether v4.0 is needed (as well as test the SMAC resolution problem).

Petek
 
I've now verified that the directdraw=0 command works in SMAC after applying the Win 2k/XP update. I'm also confident (but not 100% certain) that applying the Win 2k/XP update fully patches SMAC (and so the 4.0 patch isn't needed).

Petek
 
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