Smr Simple!

I recently upgraded to 64-bit Windows 7, and I have 4GB memory. I've played a few good long sessions on SMR without any CTD's. I have gotten some CTD's but they only seem to occur when I try to do awkward track placements, so I just try to be more careful how I lay track. Though I think that actually may be a glitch in the game, not tied to the memory issue.

I to have recently upgraded to a new computer with relatively high specs (certainly enough for Railroads) with Windows 7 and 64bit. Railroads! (version 1.10) works pretty well until I get to a fairly advanced stage with a high number of trains running. The game seems to crash at the same point (I have saved just before the crash point) and whilst I am not doing anything - my existing trains are just running.

I don't know whether patch 1.10 would help but have been unable to use as I am being told that the patch setup cannot detect a version of Railroads! (maybe this patch is already included in version 1.10 of the game?). I have seen in this thread a reference to the Perunga patch but can’t find it anywhere - somebody did mention that they have a copy of it which they might be happy to forward which I would be grateful for. Other than this, are there any other possible solutions to this?

As with many others I have found this to be one of the most enjoyable and addictive games and would really love to find a solution to this crashing problem.

Win 7 in 32bit mode needs 1gig of ram and 16gigs of hard drive space. In 64bit mode it needs 2gigs of ram and 20gigs of hard drive space..."just for 7 to run with nothing else turned on."

On many of my large mod maps, they can use as much as 1.3gigs of memory. So in 7's 64 bit mode I would need at least 4gigs of system ram, and can go as high as 16gigs of system ram. Plus I leave my internet connection active all the time and my PcCillin always needs to run and a few other items and my LightWave sentinal...so even 4gigs wouldn't do me. If I were running 7 in 64bit, I would use 16gigs of system ram on my motherboard. Right now Vista uses half what 7 uses.

The next item is, it may just be a certian mod map. Or, if this happens with the default game maps...how much system resources do you have left after 7 grabs what it wants.

Many thanks, Lowell.

Hard drive is not an issue (I have about 200gig free) but I hadn't thought that system ram would be a problem, although I am not an expert on this. My PC shows installed memory (RAM) of 6gig - is this the same as system memory? If so, as you say, 6 gig may not be enough, although I usually have nothing else running (except what is always running in the background) when I play Railroads.

I have dabbled with some of the other scenarios since my last post and they seem to work fine. Maybe I just need to accept that I will not be able to play a game that has too many trains etc running - a shame, but not a disaster.

Lowell likely means page file when he says system ram. 6GB should be plenty, you may thought need to increase your page file: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows- ... file-size/

How many trains are we talking?

Yes 6gig should work, depends on what needs to be kept running. Those specs are right-off the Win 7 software box. I just made a 7 system and haven't had any issues as yet. I will test one of my large maps on it and see. 7 is "made" to let apps use more than 2.5 gigs like Vista and previous Win loads like XP etc. Not sure about the swap file...mine is still set at default, I will do a crash test and see if I can get it to fail.

Warll - Thanks. I have a dozen trains running and one AI competitor. I will have a look at your suggestion to increase page file tomorrow -(it is 00.30 now and I have just got back from the pub - only had a couple of pints, just rather tired!).

Lowell - many thanks for going to the trouble of crash testing - I would be very interested to hear the resukts.

Hhhhmmm, that doesn't sound right, 12 trains is far from the max I've seen. Have you tried playing other large maps?

The game seems to crash at the same point (I have saved just before the crash point) and whilst I am not doing anything - my existing trains are just running..

It look like there is some error in the map you are playing.
You have more than enough memory. The CPU was never a problem. The graphic card could be a problem, but it will not produce this kind of crash. If the graphic processor is overloaded, the game will freeze.
So, which map are you playing? Will have to check the map.
When the game crashes at the same point it is because a new train, or good, or annex came to be used and there is no reference to that in the game.
Sometimes the Events file is at fault. The game picked an event , for example “ The beer production is up”, and when there is no beer in the game it will crash.

Try this: Go back to an earlier saved game. If you have the autosave running 2 saves back. Delete the last 2 or 3 trains you made, or some tracks you lay-ed. Run the game (keep your fingers crossed) until the game passes that time when the game occurred. This might work about 60% of the time.
But it still points to some error in the map.

Jancsika

So far with my tests I think Jancsika's thought might be the answer, which was one of my first thoughts as well. It may just be the map you were playing. Which map is it that keeps failing?
Oh and don't forget that the self contained mod maps that add new game content, ie new types of industries, trains, goods, have to be placed into the game one at a time...then removed/swapped out when wanting to play the next self contained map.
So far one of my gigantic maps is half full and going strong. I will finish that map Saturday...by scenarios end I should have some where around fifty trains running and thirty three industries running. If that doesn't crash it out nothing will.

If you mess up the self contained maps the game should crash. With that said you might as well use the program I got a friend to program up, it makes managing large map sets much easier. http://www.smrsimple.com/2009/06/how-to ... ifter-exe/

I took up Jancsika's suggestion and went back to an earlier point in the game that was crashing and this seems to have worked. I have got much further with more trains and stations so it looks like the problem that I was experiencing was not necessarily specific to the map but to something that I had done, or a combination of actions, in the game. Probably never know what it was but if it's a once in a blue moon issue, that's entirely acceptable.

Many thanks to all who contributed to this. First time that I have used this board and I was very impressed by the speed and helpfulness that was demonstrated.

A random event is as the name states is a “Random Event” if you go back in the gameplay a couple of stops it might change to a different event. And might come up later again.
If you have an Event file in the game
C:\Users\User\Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Railroads!\UserMaps\MAPNAME\RRT_Events_MAPNAME.xml
you can look at it with a text editor and replace it with this:
<RRTEvents>
<Event>
<szTitle>GLOBAL_RECESSION</szTitle>
</Event>
<Event>
<szTitle>GLOBAL_STOCK_DECREASE</szTitle>
</Event>
<Event>
<szTitle>GLOBAL_BOOM</szTitle>
</Event>
</RRTEvents>
This is foolproof.
Jancsika

Jancsika

This may be beyond my limited understanding of how all this works (e.g. I don't even know what a text editor is!). Whilst I have a usermap sub directory within Railrods but it is empty. What exactly should I expect to find in there? Is the "event" a record of the crash or is it just the game I saved before the crash? If the latter, my games are saved within a "Saves" subdirectory. Sorry to be a bit thick but, as you've probably ascertained, I am a complete novie at this type of thing!

Thanks again

Harvey

OK!
I think I gotten way ahead of you.
If your “UserMap” folder is empty, it means that you are playing the maps that came in the package.
The “UserMap” folder comes in play when one installs custom maps that was created by somebody else, not Firaxis.
In this case the discussion, about the Events file does not apply.

The saved games are in the Saves subdirectory, that's OK. Unfortunately we can not edit them.

Windows Notepad, that came with your computer qualifys as a “Text Editor” so do hundreds of letter writing programs, as long as the saved file has a *.txt extension.

If you stay with the game it will become clearer every time you play. Don't get discouraged. When I started I knew as much as you, but the game grows on you.....
Jancsika