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SMAC is overheating my Win7 64-bit, Core Duo 2.0Ghz, 4GB RAM machine and when I check the Task Manager after playing a few minutes (nothing major happens in the game, I just build my base and move the scout around), I see the following: enter image description here

How should I stop this from happening? Is there a patch that counter-acts this? Would a CPU throttler work? Or something else?

I'm using the GOG version which is already supposed to be patched to the highest official version.

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I've been advised this may have something to do with running SMAC on a 64-bit machine, but I haven't verified this myself yet. – warsong Jun 23 '12 at 19:15
Wow that game is as old as dirt. How odd. Spectacular game however. Good choice. – Ender Jun 23 '12 at 19:42
Yeah I did play it when it was first released. Came back for the nostalgia. – warsong Jun 23 '12 at 20:02
Considering that the GOG version doesn't (as of last time I checked) include Alien Crossfire, I don't see how it could be the most recent version. – Fambida Jun 24 '12 at 3:20
It doesn't include AX but from what I've read the problem exists also on AX, even when patched. – warsong Jun 24 '12 at 9:07
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2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

I keep play SMAX till now, and it works fine on my Win7/x64.

  1. Make a clean installation SMAX (or backup an existing copy)
  2. Install SMAX patch, searchable smacp4e
  3. Install Windows Fix, searchable smacxp103fus

As far as I know, all patches are available for SMAC and SMAX.

Then try the following settings in config:

[Alpha Centauri]
DirectDraw=0 ;; important
Video Mode=2560 ;; your screen resolution
ds3d=1
eax=1
FastUnitAnim=0
SmoothUnitAnim=0

[PREFERENCES]
ForceOldVoxelAlgorithm=1 ;; important

The patches above have quite a few of bugs fixed, including operation on fast or non-Intel CPU's, crashes on air-to-air combat (when fighter defend the city against bombers), division by zero when automated units in polar areas, and many others.

It even works like a charm on WQXGA (2560×1600) screen with no crashes on scrolling.

And it does not require any compatibility settings in Windows.

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I eventually gave up and put WXP on a different machine, it works fine now, no high CPU usage. I think there are some weird processor calls being made that worked with WXP but don't work on W7. Anyway it's sorted now. Thanks. I will check this out and if it does behave okay on W7 then I'll accept it. – warsong Jul 3 '12 at 21:22
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The game runs fine in 32-bit Windows XP (with the usual SMAC patches) on the same machine. It's still hard to prove, but I think it has a lot to do with being 32-bit.

My guess is that some CPU calls are being made that W7 64-bit can't handle properly. I don't know how to prove this, but I've seen it mentioned in several forum threads by now, and starting to see some correlation.

I'll update this when I've checked out a few more possibilities.

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