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reedeming CD Key for a digital copy

Started by Ralfger, May 26, 2021, 04:00:24 AM

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Ralfger

I have contacted Origion via the contact function of their website a couple of times to redeem a free digital copy of the game to get a 64bit-version as I am still using the 32bit-original disc version. I have not received an answer until today. Is there another/direct way to contact - as far as I read in the form, some of you have already made an exchange?

Andreas

It's been a while ago, but I tried their chat on the EA support site (not sure if it's still there, but I wouldn't see a reason why not). I had to supply my CD version serial number and the Origin account data, then I was able to download and install the digital copy (and didn't have to deal with Origin again at all).
Andreas

Tarkus

I'll note, if you're on Windows, the copy will still be 32-bit, regardless of where you get it.  The issue with the original disc is that Windows 10 omits the driver (secdrv.sys) that allows the game to check to see if there's a valid disc in the drive, preventing the game from loading.  Microsoft believed secdrv.sys to be a "security threat", and even issued that infamous Windows Update (KB3086255) for Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 specifically to disable it on those versions. 

Windows has no issues running 32-bit applications.  macOS, however, no longer supports 32-bit applications as of macOS Catalina, and Aspyr had to update the Mac ports of SC4 and many of their other titles to 64-bit. in order to allow existing and new customers to be able to continue running them.  (How they're going to handle Apple's inevitable pulling of x86-64 support after a few years of their new CPU platform remains to be seen.)

-Alex

City_Slider

Hi Andreas,

do You remember. how "big" the File was to download it? Or Alex? Do You knows it?

Ralfger

After some complications, it finally worked out with a digital copy - thank you for your info Andreas and Tarkus.
@City_Slider - I did not pay attention to the size when downloading, but I think it was something like 1.2 GB

My region and plugin are transferred, NAM installed. BUT: The game starts smoothly, but the region screen flickers and the game crashes when loading a city tile, whether built on or completely new. What could be the reason for this?

twalsh102

I don't think there's going to be much difference in the size of the download between the various online vendors. The size of the download I got from GOG several years ago was 1.02 GB.

Tarkus

Quote from: Ralfger on May 27, 2021, 11:37:20 AM
After some complications, it finally worked out with a digital copy - thank you for your info Andreas and Tarkus.
@City_Slider - I did not pay attention to the size when downloading, but I think it was something like 1.2 GB

My region and plugin are transferred, NAM installed. BUT: The game starts smoothly, but the region screen flickers and the game crashes when loading a city tile, whether built on or completely new. What could be the reason for this?

That's standard behavior for trying to run the game with the full-blast NAM Controller, but without the 4GB Patch.

If you're running off an existing Plugins folder, since you just started running a new version of the game, you'll need to make sure the new copy has received the 4GB Patch.

-Alex

Ralfger

It seems to become a NAM question, hope it is still OK here.
The problems described are the same for both full and low installation. Moreover the installation of the4 4GB Patch was successfull. I try to run the game under win10 (64bit) and 8 GB RAM (4,55 free)...

Tarkus

The NAM's 4GB Patch batch files (including the .bat to open the installer) are designed to look at the Windows Registry.  If you still have the CD copy installed, it's likely the game's registry entries for the game are still pointing there, and the batch files are instead trying to repatch your old CD copy instead of the new digital copy.  You'll either need to uninstall the old CD copy, or perform the 4GB Patch manually with 4gb_patch.exe on the new digital copy, without the batch script.

Additionally, it's possible you may still have pieces of an old NAM install around, or perhaps even a piece of one of your other recent reinstall attempts.  The NAM installation procedure with the new installer does not remove the old installation (even with the Cleanitol--which hasn't been updated since NAM 36, actually, and is not particularly helpful).  The addition of the Full vs. Low options back with NAM 40 resulted in the folder containing the NAM Controller going by a new name.  The name on the folder differs depending on which version of the Controller you have, and the "Full" one would come later in the load order.  If it's a pre-NAM 40 Controller that's in there, even if it's being overwritten in the load process by a new Controller, the game does attempt to load everything in Plugins, so it very well could still cause a crash.

Our present advice to users performing a NAM upgrade/reinstall is to remove the Network Addon Mod folder in its entirety before doing so, to avoid this.

If it's still proving troublesome after all this, then it may well be something other than NAM Controller/4GB Patch issues, though that is by far the most common cause of this sort of crashing behavior.

-Alex


Ralfger

Thank you for the detailed information, Alex!
I did a virgin installation and started with the 4GB patch so that all those points could not apply. So since it couldn't be a NAM problem, I went through my whole plugin folder (almost 4GB) and finally: A small file named "LK_AppalachianTerrain_Snow_Jagged_Coast_uli" has caused the CTD. Now everything runs perfectly except for a small flaw that some ground textures in zoom level 1 and 2 are no longer displayed correctly. The new features in Nam are fantastic! Thanks a lot to all of you

Tarkus

You're most welcome--glad to hear you're back up and running now!  My other thought if it wasn't a NAM/4GB Patch issue was that it could potentially be a rendering/terrain mod issue--I have a little less experience there with those particular CTD cases, but I do know that there are situations (particularly with HD terrain mods, which require Hardware Rendering to be turned on) where they can indeed lead to that result.

-Alex