Range Check Error - How to fix?

[Arkoner]

Hello i get an range check error today. My game is still playable but only for a 1 hour and than i get this error message After that i need to exit the game with task manager. How can i fix it?

[ekolis]

Have you tried rebooting your computer? How much RAM do you have, and how big a map are you playing on? If you resume your original game do you get the error right away or do you get to play for another hour?

[Arkoner]

My Computer has 8 GB of ram total. And i can only play it on low resolution oon higher resolution it's just lagging. But graphics are not the problem for me.

The map i created at the start for about 2 month's ago was biggest map with round about 100 systems.

I specially get it if i go to the empires options menu in the menu for my alliance. After i was sending the message to alliance error occured.

The time before was i just clicked on next ship button at the map to give him new orders. And it's not about the time it's just clicking on some buttons result in crashing with range check error.

The next thing is i had an windows update before on my windows 10 i am playing and i heard about people having problem with this. And yes i rebooted my computer after the update of course. Can i maybe turn of updates completly just for the time i launch the game?

I had no problems before playing for 2 months this was the first time after the installation the error occured,

Maybe i need to make any special settings or fixes in the folder?
Or maybe there are some special fixes or do you need to reinstall everything?
If yes how can i backup my game so i don't loose progress?

[ekolis]

Hmm, I never used the alliance feature in this game because it's horribly broken, so maybe that's your problem. Turning off updates I doubt would help, you'd have to install them later anyway. To back up your savegames, make a copy of the Savegame folder under your SE5 folder.

[Telfram]

This might help if you have a multithreading CPU
Open the Data folder
Open Settings Text document
Change:
Support Multithreading := FALSE
to
Support Multithreading := TRUE

Also to:'I had no problems before playing for 2 months this was the first time after the installation the error occured,'

Have you tried verifing the files and making sure all the files in the link below are present, i had the same issue, files were repaired and other folders were now missing?

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1690/discussions/0/1693843461196248978/

[Arkoner]

So i checked everything today Verfiying the Files says that 2 files are missing. Looking in you're overlook of the folder for me 2 Folders are missing which i added. I set Multithreading to True before. I did also everything in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw0o-hADE-I&t=51s. For me 1 more file is missing: It's shown in the video at 0:46;Steam_appid.txt can i make it manually?
No the Range Check Error seems to create ingame if i go to empire section, then go to alliance and then want to write a message to the alliance i'm already in, like declaring war or make treaty with my alliance so they trade with me. Sometimes i did not get the error, but i do get the message that a can't make any other political things with other races for as long i am in the alliance, which is weird. because nothing in the alliance menu tells me i am not allowed to have other treatys. Maybe this is what why the game crashes?
Maybe there is something in the Balance Mod(latest version) which doesn't allow me to do that?

[forthehordekt]

You know, for me I've noticed differences in processor brand as well. I spent so long wondering why my laptop plays this game SO much better than my desktop would, even though the desktop was way better of a machine. Both computers were about as old, run win 8.1.

Then sometime last year (around the first of the 2 times a year we get paid 3 times instead of twice if you're on a bi-weekly pay period) I used that extra cash to help fund the extreme beast I run today (well, beast in comparison to what I used to have at any rate). https://pcpartpicker.com/user/forthehordekt/saved/#view=qWcTCJ I have always been an AMD guy, and that was what was in the desktop. I didn't have so much of a choice in the laptop, but between this and other older games I was noticing a huge difference in either performance or just the number of outright odd glitches that old games on new machines exhibit. I just didn't have half the issues on my laptop with an Intel processor as I was having on my desktop with the AMD processor. So when I built this new PC, I went with Intel. And wouldn't you know it, it runs this game a whole hell of a lot better.

So TLDR; This game seems to like Intel processors a little better than it likes AMD, I have noticed.

[Pythos]

I started getting this problem after about 55 hours of game play, and over 60 rounds in a match.I don't know what I did to start playing the game again, but now when I try to save the game, there is an exception error and the game has to be closed.

I know am relegated to 1 off games that last for one play session, which is very upsetting for me, since I've played since Space Empires II ._.

[Telfram]

Originally posted by Pythos:

I started getting this problem after about 55 hours of game play, and over 60 rounds in a match.I don't know what I did to start playing the game again, but now when I try to save the game, there is an exception error and the game has to be closed.

I know am relegated to 1 off games that last for one play session, which is very upsetting for me, since I've played since Space Empires II ._.

Tried using the autosave?

[Arkoner]

Hi the range check error didn't occcour on start anymore. I didn't change anything after double checking everything in the video i linked to before. So i think it has something to do with the resolution and maybe with steam in background conflicting with the game. But reboting my computer and using ccleaner worked for me. But i prefer to use video mode 1024 x 768 x 32 and not windowed maybe this works for other screens as well.

I had this error with saving too, but it only occurs if you use Special characters for saving. I save before i end every round. And use Autosave function for every round as well.

Yes i also think it has something to do with AMD. Cause my older PC which has Windows XP had not this issues.

[Telfram]

I use an Intel chipset, so more likely Windows 10?

[Arkoner]

Yes Windows 10 could be an issue, but you can try to run it in compatibility mode for on of the windows xp ones maybe it runs better? You know this game was not programmed for Windows 10 but for Windows XP.

Also make sure you go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SpaceEmpiresV\SE5\Data and then open the document Settings and set Support Multithreading = TRUE normally it is set to FALSE so make sure you change that.

3rd thing experiment which your resolution, my video mode which worked for me best was 1024 x 768 x 32.

4rd check if you have all folders of the game. Sometimes steam installs not every single folder so check on my picture if you have all folders:
https://imgur.com/lerZc2N

[darthhawk]

I got the range check error. Setting the game to have admin rights didn't fix anything and gave me the message steam.dll was missing.

Turns out the problem was I installed a SSD and began installing games through STEAM on the SSD while SEV was installed on the old hard drive my OS is on. So I have two STEAM install locations on my computer. The first is the original install location and the second is the new install location on the SSD.

I went into properties for SEV on STEAM and chose the option to move the game to another folder. I had STEAM move it to the SSD. Then it started up but flickered and froze. I changed the display driver from primary to my NVIDIA GPU. The game then launched but was not full screen. I then exited and started the game again and changed the display driver back to primary. The game starts now without any problems and is full screen. STEAM moved the modded files over as well so I didn't have to install those again.

I do have other games on the original STEAM install on my computer and they don't have a problem. I'm not sure why this fixed the issue.

[Arkoner]

i had two steam installation folders too, first on my computer, second on my ssd. Maybe this was on of the main aspects why it didn't run first. I am also not sure so please for everyone how will get this error first try out this steps i listed above your comment and in the video i mentioned.

[sekirdelyn]

Here's my journey about "Range check error.".
I played this game on my old laptop (Intel HD Graphics 4600) on and off, last time I played was 2 years ago. About a year ago I was curious about something but I couldn't start it, got the dreaded error message, but I moved on. Couple days ago I tried again. Note, the game was working, then "suddenly" not. Obviously, Windows Updates were happening, installing, uninstalling programs along the years, I had no idea what screwed up starting up Space Empires V.
So, I started searching. I had a hunch I have a video driver issue (more on it later), because I could not press any of the top 3 buttons in Options; always got an "Access Violation" error.
There were advice ranging from simple rebooting to boot up virtual machines. Some of them are:
- running in Admin privileges. Don't remember I ever needed it, but tried and failed.
- reinstalling the game. Obviously, it wouldn't be the solution in my case, no file touching. I've read comments who tried this and failed, still got the error.
- make sure the needed directories are present. This seems a Steam install issue as it might be incomplete. Obviously not my issue here. Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/spaceempires/comments/s6q6w2/how_to_run_space_empires_5_steam_version_on/
If the link is not working, here are the directories needed copied from the post: backup/ Data/ Docs/ Empires/ Fonts/ GameSetups/ GameTypes/ history/ maps/ Music/ Pictures/ SavedEmpires/ SaveGame/ Scenarios/ Sounds/ Temp/ Utility/
- make sure your resolution is selected well. For example, if you run it in windowed mode you can set its size in HUDsettings.txt. Again, not my issue.
- some had struggled because Steam was confused where to access the game files from. See #12. As I did not touch my files at all, this couldn't be and wasn't my issue.
- DirectPlay. Some kind of legacy stuff that could have been screwed up by a WinUpdate or such. You need to check the box here: Control Panel > Programs and Features > Turn Windows features on or off > Legacy Components > DirectPlay. https://postimg.cc/TK4ygjVR We will return to the post where this came from.
- updating video driver. The easy method in control panel (search for new version) did not work, it returned I already have the latest installed. However, I found we can force a manual upgrade, but I won't cite the process because it is GPU specific, everyone needs to find his own way here. Unfortunately, it did not help, my hunch was failed.
- pending windows updates: I've read it can be a pain, so make sure it isn't, rebooting or disabling. As I had no pending one and rebooted several times already this wasn't something I considered my solution. However, it might contributed!
And now!
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/has_anyone_encountered_a_range_check_error_on_space_empires_v/page1
Swissy88 makes points here! First, the DirectPlay, I referenced this above already. But lower more tips: disable WinUpdate. Windows + R > services.msc > Windows Update > Right Click - Properties > Startup type: Disabled > Reboot Computer and test. To be honest, I disabled some other stuff I deemed useless, I can't list them all what those were but I'm pretty sure disabling adobe acrobat update service wouldn't affect Space Empires.
As I was on the cusp to set up a Virtual Machine I turned on Hyper-V, same place as DirectPlay. Why not. I might need it.
And it started! No idea, what made the deal but it seems like disabling WinUpdate and/or activating Hyper-V did it.

Improvements
There was an upside to this error and the struggle to deal with it, namely, I realized there are ways to improve framerate. I didn't care about it too much, this game isn't what I considered FPS needy. But I read somewhere that loading panels can be affected as well, so I ventured in.
I run Space Empires V in 1920 x 1080 x 32. My main problem was loading in colonies, systems, ships panels. For example Ships needed ~35 sec to load. I tried the WineD3D (https://fdossena.com/?p=wined3d/index.frag), but it proved useless to me.
Came across this post: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1690/discussions/0/3195867416973933927/
discussing about https://github.com/narzoul/DDrawCompat/releases some stating great and I can confirm framerate went up from 18 to 29 but more importantly the ships panel load in ~3 seconds! That's usable now! I'm so happy! Not just the game works now, it's better than ever!
Notes:
I tried 1920 x 1080 x 16, the benefits were marginal, won't use it.
Read somewhere turning off ClearType can improve framerate. For me it didn't.

More improvements
First I tried DDrawCompat-v0.5.4, but some suggested to use 0.3.2, tried it and works even better, FPS is now ~38. Ship panel load around ~2 sec, but coming from 35 sec it doesn't even matter if it's 3 or 2 now for me.

This concludes my journey. Now, I have empires to crush!

Edit: I deleted the self reference, as this reply was not originally intended to be posted here.