"CPU Not Supported"...but it should be

[Lochlann]

I am attempting to play SMAC on my Pentium 4 machine (WindowsME), and I am told upon starting the game that my CPU is not supported, and that I may experience crashes. Upon clicking "okay", I am immediately dumped back into Windows.

I have checked the readme file, and it says that this message is often displayed if the CPU is not Intel, or Intel-compatible. My CPU is Intel, though....why am I receiving this error message and crash? I have implemented all of the other suggestions in the readme, such as changing screen resolution to a supported mode, reinstalling DirectX, etc., to no avail. This problem occurs for both SMAC and Alien XFire. Someone please help!

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

The program does not recognised P4s and several non petium CPUs even though they are compatible to the game. To get it to run go into the sid meir's ahpha centauri folder and find the the "Alpha Centauri" configuration file (its icon is a text icon with a little yellow gear on it. If you have not played any game since installed it should be empty except for "[Alpha Centauti]" and some sort of end of file mark.
ADD the line "ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1"

if you have palyed the game befor there may already be a line
"ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=0" in which case just change the 0 to a 1.
You will still get the message upon starup, but it will play the game instead of dumping you to windows when you click "ok"

 

[Lochlann]

Hey, great. Thanks so much, that cleared the problem right up. The file did have the ForceOldVoxel line added (and set to zero), even though I hadn't played a game yet, but upon changing the value to 1 I was able to get into the game. Many thanks.

 

[roalan]

I have a p4 and I can play A/CENT. though it is no easy to boot up all the time however when I add the patch and /Or I add Crossfire then I can not play the game it says unsupported. I do not have that "Forceoldvoxel etc. line and I have palyed the game . How do I get the patch and Crossfire to work. At this time I can only play A/Cent, need to know what to do with the patch and A/crossfire?

 

[Sixchan]

Did you try adding the line?

 

[roalan]

Not yet. I am not sure where to put it in the file . Can I enter it at the end of the file or should it be between two lines?

 

[roalan]

I forgot to ask what happens when the patch is installed? and what happens when Alien Crossfire is installed? Alpha Cent. DOES work on my P4 BUT not with the patch or crossfire. Will the added line get those two items to work?

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by roalan
Not yet. I am not sure where to put it in the file . Can I enter it at the end of the file or should it be between two lines?

At or near the beggining

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

Originally posted by roalan
I forgot to ask what happens when the patch is installed? and what happens when Alien Crossfire is installed? Alpha Cent. DOES work on my P4 BUT not with the patch or crossfire. Will the added line get those two items to work?

Yeas it solves it for must platrorms. You still get the CPU not supoorted message, but you just click ok and it runs anyway.

 

[roalan]

Thank you

 

[roalan]

I just read in a thread on another site that the line should be entered at the end of the file-you mentioned tho enter it a t the beginning. Does it make a diference?
Also the word PREFERENCES should be aded above the line,does that make sense?

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

I have not seen either of thoses two condition before that post, and the question has been coming up and answered many times for over a year. Try it the easy way first, if that does not work try it the other way.

 

[Sarnum]

Add exactly this on the end of Alpha Centauri.ini

[PREFERENCES]
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1

 

[HAND]

Thanks Lefty Any chance you can make this a sticky? I imagine many others will have the same problem.