Random Crash (track laying?) Fix

[JesusOnEez]

I reinstalled Railroads recently after upgrading to Vista and found that even after updating to 1.1 and updating my graphics card drivers it would crash randomly, but most likely when laying a big chunk of track that needs to terraform the landscape. I had the same problem in XP, but it happens far more often in Vista.

I searched the 'net, and in case no-one here is aware of this I thought I'd post it. Many people on Hookedgamers.com swear by this 'self patch' at the very least to male the crash less likely to happen, Here it is;

Download this:
http://files.filefront.com/3GB_enabler2zip/;6791818;/fileinfo.html

In this zip file, you should find editbin

Don't forget to backup your original Railroads.exe file (for future patch compatibility)

FOR VISTA 32 and 64 "Vista 32 users may have to apply second step as well."
1. Copy your Railroads.exe from C:\Program Files\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\ to your editbin "3gb_enabler2 unzipped" directory.

2. Open an Elevated Command Prompt with Administrator Privileges " See below if you're not sure how"
3. Change to your unzipped 3gb directiory where you have editbin.exe.
4. type "editbin.exe /LARGEADDRESSAWARE Railroads.exe" no quotes

EXTRA STEP VISTA 32: x64 users do not have to do this at all as x64 has no problems giving 4gb+ ram to 32 bit apps.. however.. Vista 32 users may.

5. type "BCDEDIT /set increaseuserva 2900" no quotes. NOTE: System boards vary. if 2900 does not work try 3072

6. Copy the patched Railroads.exe back to your C:\Program Files\2K Games\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\ directory.


How to Open Elevated Command Prompt with Administrator Privileges in Windows Vista.
1.Click on Vista Start button.
2.Locate the Command Prompt menu item (buried deep inside Accessories under All Programs or appear on program access history).
3.Right click on Command Prompt.
4.On the pop-up right click context menu, select “Run as Administrator”.
Details:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/...th-administrator-privileges-in-windows-vista/



editbin.exe works with securom protected Railroads.exe or with nodvd version. Don't work with starforce protected russian version.


Other Notes:
The clue is 32-bit application without LARGEADDRESSAWARE can't see and use more then 2 GB on any Microsoft OS (32 or 64 bit). Not depend on how many GB you have installed. Stalker on max settings use more then 1,5 GB memory. Vista after start use about 500 MB. 1,5 GB + 500 MB = 2 GB - max memory limit reached and cause application crash when Railroads! tries to use more memory. With LARGEADDRESSAWARE flag 32-bit application can use 3 GB on 32 bit Windows and 4 GB on 64 bit Windows. It is more then enough for Railroads! max settings handle.
BTW the same issue is true for Gothic 3 with max settings and Vista.

Note that you can replace the RailRoads.exe with Supreme Commander's exe and Stalker's exe. This fix was originally done for Supreme Commander and seems to be a problem in general with THQ games.

Note that I don't really know how all this works...I just followed the instructions...I'll try and help if anyone has issues but you're more likely to get help by looking at the hookedgamer's thread here.

 

[duncaru]

I was having trouble getting the editbin.exe to work.

Instead, I renamed railroads.exe to supremecommander.exe and used the startme command in the 3GB enabler folder...then renamed it back to railroads.exe. By using the view header command in startme, the program shows it was enabled properly.

 

[Tae]

Thanks for posting this. One of the things holding me back from going to Vista is I love having this game to play once in a while and heard about its lack of Vista compatibility.