[Updated] A Short SMPA60 Error Guide

[Iconography 1383]

This explanation is based around single player car mods only, with only a couple exceptions.
 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
I. INTRODUCTION
II. ISSUES REGARDING REPLACING VEHICLES
III. ISSUES REGARDING ELS V7
IV. ADDENDUM 1 - MULTIPLAYER
V. ADDENDUM 2 - SAVING WHILST ON DUTY
 
 

Introduction

First, this guide will not cover the cause of every single SMPA60 error.  This error is far more complicated than we once thought (even LMS doesn't know everything about it).  As such, it is impossible to cover every cause and respective resolution.  This guide will not cover errors caused when LCPDFR 1.0 is installed, as we do not know what is happening there.
 
You will know when you experience an SMPA60 error because you will receive an error message like this:


image from gtaforums

The way the game is set up, whenever you save the game and there is a vehicle at a safe house, it writes more than just the name of the car to the save game file. It also seems to record the car components, extras, model and skin details, et cetera. No one, except for the developers of GTA, knows exactly how the game writes the data.
 

Issues with Replacing Vehicles

 

So let's get to the problem. Many players like to download modded cars and then use them in GTA IV. There is nothing wrong with this. Some LCPDFR users also like to download new police cars and use those as well. Naturally, many people also like to save vehicles at their safe house for future use. Unfortunately, this is the main source of the problem.

From here on I will use these two cars for an example: A Crown Vic (already in game) and a Dodge Charger (car you want to replace the Crown Vic with).

So lets say that someone has a Crown Victoria in their game. They eventually get bored of it, just like many people do, so they decide to replace it with a Dodge Charger instead. When they replace the Crown Victoria's .wtd and .wft files (the model and texture files) with those of the Dodge Charger, they overwrite the Crown Vic data files. This happens every time you import a car mod. However, now that the Crown Vic is replaced, upon loading the game GTA tries to take the data it saved from the last save game and then apply it to the Dodge Charger. This simply does not work. The game becomes scrambled, it has no idea what to load, where to put things, or what to do. It then faults, crashes to the desktop (also known as a CTD), and outputs an SMPA60 error code.

The best way to avoid this, naturally, is to never save cars at your safe house. But that is completely impractical. Thus, the next best thing to do is to ALWAYS check what you have saved before you replace a car. Another good practice is to SAVE the old car mod data (in my previous example, the Crown Victoria) in a backup folder before replacing it just in case the game faults and you need to re-import it. Should you have a car saved, and you wish to replace it, you MUST remove it from the safe house and THEN save the game. Failure to do so will cause your game to CTD when loading the game with replaced car data.
 

Issues Regarding ELS v7

 
It has been brought to my attention (thanks, DarthWound) that ELS v7 may cause an SMPA60 error.  This seems to be related to allowing AI vehicles to use ELS.  The best course of action is to disable AI ELS if this problem affects you, however you can also change the ClearRandAiExtras setting in the ELS config file.  This will stop ELS from removing the lights on AI vehicles that randomly stay on when the car first spawns (think ELS v6 and earlier). To disable AI ELS, change this line in the ini file: AI_ELS_SP = OFF
 

Addendum I

As Olanov stated a few comments down, it is also likely that one will get an SMPA60 error while in a multiplayer game, if players are using different vehicle mods. In this case the only thing for you to do is to completely remove your mods from the game before you play multiplayer. The best alternative is to have two vehicles.img. One for SP and one for MP.
 

Addendum II

Some say that saving your game while an officer will cause an SMPA60 as well. I have never seen this happen, but it does make sense. I will note that if the game starts to load and IMMEDIATELY CTD's with an SMPA60, meaning it crashes in the loading screen, you should try to remember if you saved as a cop. If you did, your savegame file is GONE for good. If, however, you can start to play the game and it crashes during play, then follow the above steps, since it is probably caused by cars.

Edited February 18, 2014 by Iconography
Heavily reorganized, updated for what will likely be the last time.

[JAM 829]

Wow, Thanks for the explanation Iconography, Im sure many Players who are experiencing this error will greatly appreciate this,

I have one question however, I NEVER save vehicles at my safe house, and in fact, never save after the first Save game is made, But, During random times (and its become somewhat rare, and really isint a problem, just asking) I will be playing then I will go to desktop, and this error will be shown, Why is this? and again, its not a Common acourance, its actually some what rare for me, im just curios, Thanks again for the post :thumbsup:

[Iconography 1383]

Some vehicle modifications are inherently unstable.

A stock version of GTA IV should never crash with an SMPA60 error, there is no need for it to.

Some vehicle modifications are just not optimized (for lack of a better word?) and don't seem to work all the time.

[Monty0112 149]

A well formulated topic Iconography, although there will always be idiots who don't know how to read and keep posting useless threads.

However, now we can just refer to this topic if needed and be done with it. Good work! :thumbsup:

[JAM 829]

Some vehicle modifications are inherently unstable.

A stock version of GTA IV should never crash with an SMPA60 error, there is no need for it to.

Some vehicle modifications are just not optimized (for lack of a better word?) and don't seem to work all the time.

Sounds about right I guess, I just Re installed EFLC (fking steam kept all the scripts :D) And im honestly probably only going to mod a few ceratin things this time, I used to think EVERYTHING MUST BE MODDED, but now, Meh, I could care less, I just want to Protect and Server Liberty City *says in a big man voice* :D

[JAM 829]

although there will always be idiots who don't know how to read and keep posting useless threads.

However, now we can just refer to this topic if needed and be done with it.

Ikr? :D

[Iconography 1383]

You could have combined those posts into one

And yeah there will always be people who won't read... But this might take care of some of the support questions.

[Olanov 1835]

Car mods also cause SMPA60 on multiplayer servers if everyone doesen't have the same car mod. So think twice y'all before rushin' into play some multiplayer with car mods.

[Cyan 4389]

Topic Pinned!

---

This topic has been pinned by G17 Media staff.

If you feel that this topic has been pinned in error, please report this post.

[JAM 829]

You could have combined those posts into one

My bad, Im not that "big" into forums, So im some what new to them, Will put them together next time :D

[Iconography 1383]

My bad, Im not that "big" into forums, So im some what new to them, Will put them together next time :D

You better, or the ninjas will get you.

@Thread

Added a line or two about multiplayer as well, since Olanov mentioned it.

Edited October 10, 2011 by Iconography

[JAM 829]

^ 0____0 Dem ninjas be scary as hell man, *salutes* IT WONT HAPPEN AGAIN SIR! :D

BTW: Thats my last "Off topic" post on here, Lets try to stay on topic shall we? :D

Edited October 10, 2011 by JAM-Justin35

[Mage25 43]

Excellent thread, relevant answer to me is: "P.S. Sometimes, some car mods in general will just crash the game, even if not saved. In that case it is best to try a new car."

Thumbs up! :thumbsup:

[Iconography 1383]

--- I had posted this a few months ago, and it was pinned, but a server failure apparently removed my post. I had no backup copy of my old post, so I had to make this one from scratch. If I forget something that was in the old post, please leave a comment! I will be updating as I remember things. ---

--- Thanks Jay for merging this! ---

Many people find themselves stuck wondering why their game crashes with an SMPA60 error. This post will attempt to clarify any questions involving the error, and explain what causes it and how it works.

First off, the SMPA60 error is caused by modded vehicles. That's it.

Single player:

Whenever the game creates a savegame file it does more than just save the name of the car that is at a safe house. It seems to also record the vehicle positioning, car components, et cetera. Normally, this works just fine. The problem arises when you replace the car's data files with that of another car. When you do that, the game loads the information in the savegame file, including all the information about the car that was saved there. When you replace the data files, the game tries to apply or compare those loaded files to the files that are in the vehicle.img file. This does not work. The game is attempting to apply outdated, invalid data to data which you imported. This causes the game to "fault," which is also why the SMPA60 error is called an "Unrecoverable Fault" error. The game has no way of recovering the old car data you replaced. The only solution is to take the car you had before, place it back in the vehicles.img file, load the game, remove the car from the safe house, and then save the game.

YOU CAN ONLY MOD A CAR WHEN IT IS NOT SAVED AT A SAFE HOUSE!

Multiplayer:

Multiplayer is a little more complex. Safe houses do not tie in with multiplayer. Instead, the problem arises when people playing a game do not have the same cars. The game becomes scrambled trying to figure out what car models and textures to load, because there are two (or more) sets of data for one car. There is no way this will work if the game tries to load a car. It has too much (different) data to work with, and errors out. THe fix here is to (preferably) use all stock vehicles, or make sure that everyone has the same cars.

As a side note, editing the values in data files, such as carcols.dat, does not seem to produce errors.

Edited November 25, 2011 by Iconography

[aparna 51]

Good information Iconography bro...!!!

+1 for you...!!!

[AlconH 1711]

Really Useful.

Thanks! +1

[JAM 829]

I thought there was already a topic on this? I coulda swore I saw one, Thanks for the info though.

EDIT: *Facepalm* Didn't see the top -_-, Long day, Anywho, Thanks for re posting.

Edited November 24, 2011 by JAM-Justin35

[Supper 23]

I had a question about this error. I was wondering if I would get this error if I parked a TBOGT Multiplayer vehicle in the save spot, such as the Police Cruiser (Buffalo). Is it safe to park TBOGT cars in the save spot and reload the game?

[Iconography 1383]

I had a question about this error. I was wondering if I would get this error if I parked a TBOGT Multiplayer vehicle in the save spot, such as the Police Cruiser (Buffalo). Is it safe to park TBOGT cars in the save spot and reload the game?

Should be completely safe (as long as you're running TBOGT). I did it myself a few times. I set, in Singleplayer, the Buffalo cruiser to spawn in-game by editing a group data file and then snagged one and saved it (this was before I knew SNT existed). It should be completely safe.

If you want to make double sure nothing happens, you can save the game to a new slot just in case.

I thought there was already a topic on this? I coulda swore I saw one, Thanks for the info though.

EDIT: *Facepalm* Didn't see the top -_-, Long day, Anywho, Thanks for re posting.

Happens to the best of us. And you're welcome.

And thanks to Jay for recovering my old thread.

--

Edit: At moderator discretion, would it be possible to get this re-pinned?

Edited November 25, 2011 by Iconography

[Mage25 43]

You can actually get this error from just having the car mods. Not saving the vehicles at all.