SimCity (2013)

This page is for the 2013 game. For the first game, see SimCity (1989).

SimCity

Developers
	Maxis
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
macOS (OS X)	Aspyr Media
Engines
	GlassBox
Release dates
Windows	March 5, 2013
macOS (OS X)	August 29, 2013
Reception
Metacritic	64
IGDB	60
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack, DLC, Subscription gaming service
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Building, Simulation
Themes	Contemporary
Series	SimCity

SimCity
Subseries of Sim
SimCity (1989)	1989
SimCity 2000	1994
SimCity 2000 Network Edition	1996
SimCopter	1996
Streets of SimCity	1997
SimCity 3000	1999
SimCity 4	2003
SimCity Societies	2007
SimCity (2013)	2013

SimCity (2013) is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view building and simulation game in the SimCity series.

Originally released with an always-online requirement, update 10 removed the always-online requirement, allowing the game to be played offline with cities separated for online and offline.

The game no longer receives any fixes nor updates as of 2018, thus there are several bugs that may be unfixed.

General information

Origin Server Status and @simcity Twitter feed to check game servers.

SimCity - Answer HQ - EA's technical difficulties forum.

Simtropolis - Bugs & Technical Issues

Simtropolis - General Discussion

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Amazon.com		Limited Edition (download or disc)
		Complete Edition.
Humble Store		Complete Edition.
Mac App Store
Microsoft Store		Complete Edition. Included exclusively with Xbox Game Pass for PC as part of its version of EA Play.
Origin		Standard Edition or Complete Edition. Complete Edition included with EA Play.

All Windows versions require Origin DRM.

For macOS, the Mac App Store version are 64-bit. While the Origin version is 32-bit.

Version differences

The Mac App Store version includes DLC but does not support online multiplayer.

The Complete Edition includes the base game and all paid DLC.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	The minor DLC include smaller item/customization sets.
Expansion pack	The expansion pack includes 2 city specializations and mega towers.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via EA Play.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Cities of Tomorrow
Digital Deluxe Upgrade Pack	Changes the base game edition to Digital Deluxe. Includes Heroes and Villains Set and the French, German and British City Sets.
Airships Set
Amusement Park Set
British City Set
French City Set
German City Set
Heroes and Villains Set	Exclusive to Limited Edition or Digital Deluxe.
Attractions Set	Free limited promotion with Crest and Oral-B products in the United States. The promotion has ended.
Progressive Insurance Set	Free limited promotion for Progressive Insurance. The promotion has ended.
The 100% Electric Nissan Leaf	Free download from Origin to promote the Nissan Leaf.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\SimCity\Games\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Documents/SimCity/Games/

Only offline mode cities are stored in this location; online mode cities are stored on the server.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Origin
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Xbox Cloud

Video

Graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			For unsupported resolution, use -r:XXXXxYYYY parameter, where XXXX is width in pixels and YYYY is height in pixels.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use -w parameter to start in windowed mode.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		30, 60 and uncapped frame rates.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Color blind mode		Go to Settings, Graphics and change Filter appropriately.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		No intelligible dialog. All in-game dialog uses the fictional Simlish language.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				Speech is a fictional language called Simlish.
Traditional Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German				Speech bubbles instead of subtitles.
Hungarian
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish				Origin only lists Spanish for Digital Deluxe version.
Swedish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Notes
LAN play
Online play

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues unresolved

Vertical line on right edge of screen

Line appears on right edge, even when windowed.

Issues fixed

Textures not loading

Textures not loading issue

Reinstall the game or verifying game files integrity.

Video freezes after a few seconds but audio keeps playing on Intel Iris Xe

Download DXVK and place 32-bit d3d9.dll in the same folder as Simcity.exe

Simcity.exe crashes/terminates before the launcher shows up

Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP on Windows 7

Click Start, and then click Network (click Start, type ncpa.cpl into the search box for Windows 7 or Vista, press ↵ Enter). Click on the Network and Sharing Center Click Manage Network Connections. Right click on the Local Area Connection select Properties. Select Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4). Click the Advanced button under the General tab. Click the WINS tab. Click Enable NetBIOS Over TCP/IP. Click OK and Exit the settings.

Reinstall Origin

Completely uninstall Origin. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Origin Games. Depending on how many games you have you will find a few registry folders that come up as numbers. If you click on any of these there will be a value in the right pane called "DisplayName", which shows the name of the game that registry location is for. Find the registry (in the Origin Games registry folder) that shows SimCity for the DisplayName. Once you find the SimCity registry folder, delete it. Re-download a new Origin install file, and install Origin. Now go to the location that you installed Origin in (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin) and find the "Origin.exe" file. Right click the file and go to properties and then go to the compatibility tab. At the bottom there will be a check box with "Run this program as administrator". Check the box, click apply, then click OK.

Checking for updates

'Checking for updates' is stuck when launching the game.

Delete SimCityUserData folder
Delete all files in <path-to-game>\SimCityUserData\

Data maps/region borders/snap points not showing

Applies to computers that use AMD Catalyst Control Center with ATI graphics cards.

Set ATI 3D Settings to Default

Click Start, and then click All Programs (differs for each operating system), then click AMD Control Center Go to GAMING catagory and select 3D Application Settings Change all settings back to default (or make a separate profile for Simcity), specifically the anti aliasing settings. Run Simcity with the Catalyst settings on default to check that the problem has been solved. If not re-install the game and restart the computer.

Blue screen when starting SimCity with Crossfire enabled

Applies to computers with AMD graphics cards in Crossfire.

Disable CrossfireX (AMD Catalyst)[citation needed]
Under the "Performance" section of the AMD Catalyst Control Center, in the AMD CrossfireX tab, select "Disable AMD CrossFireX"

Disable CrossfireX (RadeonPro)[citation needed]

Download and install RadeonPro In RadeonPro, click "Add new profile". Navigate to and select SimCity executable (default C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity\SimCity\SimCity.exe) Select the profile in RadeonPro In the launcher tab of RadeonPro, configure launcher as Steam/Impulse/Origin In the tweaks tab of RadeonPro, under CrossfireX Tweaks, move the slider so that "Turn off CrossfireX" shows above it Play the game

Other information

Debug mode / Pop Fix

Enable Debug mode / Pop Fix using BagOfTrix.package
Download BagOfTrix.package from any of the mirrors on this Reddit Post Place into <path-to-game>\SimCityData\

Mods

Mod guides

Rudimentary modding guide by reddit user Plornt.

BagOfTrix

Place the file in <path-to-game>\SimCityData\ Remember to delete any pre-existing mods: DebugEnable.package~

Features:

• Full Javascript Debug Console/Development Editor - Ctrl+⇧ Shift+E to use
• Un-fudged population numbers
• Expose debug UI
• Debug menus
• Roads outside of boundaries
• Game going on while in budget crisis.

Skyepack Modpack

Included in this GitHub repository is an installer for Skyestorme's Skyepack 3.2 modpack.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)			Support for 64-bit was added in December 2019.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU)	AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	12 GB
Video card (GPU)	AMD Radeon HD 2600 Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX Intel HD Graphics Family 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3.0 support
Other	Broadband Internet connection with at least 256Kb/s Down and 64Kb/s Up

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	10.8.5
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	12 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 8800 series AMD Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256 MB of VRAM
Other	Broadband Internet connection with at least 256Kb/s Down and 64Kb/s Up

Intel GPUs are not officially supported on OS X.