Research Screen Problems

[telephonik]

So, everything in my game was working fine until just recently. I'm at the year 2419, and when I was prompted to select a new research goal, the research screen just shows the names of the technologies, and not their icons/what they do. It was working when it last popped up, and if I reload earlier saves it displays properly. I thought I might have messed something up in my preferences, but when I clicked "restore defaults", it still didn't work. I tried taking a screenshot but it didn't work for some reason. Can someone here help me please?

EDIT: Got the screenshots to work:

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Was this directed research? SMAC or SMAX? Patched or not?

I probably can't help you, but those who can will ask...

 

[Petek]

I see the same behavior. Doesn't happen every game. It is not uncommon and I don't know what causes it or how to fix it. I don't think it is caused by any specific system configuration or game setting, since I've seen it over the years on different computers and different patches. The bug doesn't seem to affect game play (I think all the available techs are displayed). The next time I see this problem I'll try to reproduce it.

 

[telephonik]

Was this directed research? SMAC or SMAX? Patched or not?

I probably can't help you, but those who can will ask...

Directed research with fully patched SMAX.

 

[Petek]

Can you post a save game that produced your screenshot? Thanks.

 

[telephonik]

Sure.

 

[Petek]

Got it. I can reproduce the situation in your save game by changing the research goal. (And by the way, your screenshot shows exactly what I was referring to in my first post.)

I'll see if I can figure out when this happens. First thought is that it might have to do with not having any Discover techs available.

 

[telephonik]

Got it. I can reproduce the situation in your save game by changing the research goal. (And by the way, your screenshot shows exactly what I was referring to in my first post.)

I'll see if I can figure out when this happens. First thought is that it might have to do with not having any available Discover techs available.

Hopefully it's fixable, because this sort of makes the game unplayable for me as I have no idea what the techs do

 

[Petek]

Probably can't be fixed unless the bug-fixing project takes off again. However, Google for Alien Crossfire Tech Tree. You'll find lots of SMAX tech trees that are suitable for viewing or printing. You can decide which one or ones work best for you.

 

[Petek]

I spent an hour or so running tests using the scenario editor. I found three more instances in which the research display was similar to the one shown in the first post of this thread. In all cases nine techs were available to be researched, but none of them were Discover techs. I'm guessing that the problem is that the game has troubles displaying that many techs. The lack of Discover techs might be a coincidence or might be related to the algorithms that determine which techs are available. This phenomenon occurred in about half the test that I ran. I only tested with SMAX, not SMAC. I tried changing the display resolution to 1024x768 and 800x600, but this had no effect.

Anyway, I don't see how this can be fixed. As a workaround, if you're not familiar with the tech tree, download a copy as mentioned in my prior post.

 

[Droom]

Shouldn't be unplayable. If you right-click any of the research goals, it will take you to the Datalink of that research.

 

[History_Buff]

Yeah, I'm sure I've seen this before, pretty sure it's just what it does when you have >8 techs to choose from. I've never had them unclickable.