ValveSoftware / ValveSoftware/Proton

Space Empires IV CD Music Crashes/Freezes (1610)

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Game compatibility - Unofficial
Dominant language
C++
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Description

Compatibility Report

  • Name of the game with compatibility issues: Space Empires IV
  • Steam AppID of the game: 1610

System Information

I confirm:

  • that I haven't found an existing compatibility report for this game.
  • that I have checked whether there are updates for my system available.

Symptoms

There's a known issue in Wine that's been around for several years. It tries to load background music from CD, but throws an error when it can't find it. In the case of the Wine build included with Steam, it actually freezes without an error, apparently waiting for the CD music thing to respond.

Changing se4/Data/Settings.txt so that Allow CD Music is set to FALSE is sufficient for bypassing this problem & it works 100% without issue beyond that.

If it's possible, could you add a script during the install process to change that setting? If so, you can also safely whitelist this game afterwards. Otherwise, I have two logs I can include so you can narrow down the issue better.
steam-1610 (CD Music True).log (I started it up, but it froze before even reaching the launcher. Had to kill the se4.exe process via terminal.)
steam-1610 (CD Music False).log (I started it up, clicked Play Game in launcher, then exited via ingame main menu.)

Reproduction

For the freezing:

  • Install & start the game via Steam.

For the error messages:

  • Install the game & regular Wine, then start the game via Wine.

For flawless play:

  • Install the game, then modify %Game_Path%/se4/Data/Settings.txt so that Allow CD Music is set to FALSE. Save the file, then launch via preferred method.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the reported game configuration at se4/Data/Settings.txt and the supplied CD Music True and False logs, comparing the freeze and successful launch behavior. Review how Proton handles installation and game configuration, then verify that the setting is changed during installation and the game launches without the CD music freeze.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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