Anonymous edits have been disabled on the wiki. If you want to contribute please login or create an account.

Difference between revisions of "SimCity 4"

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
(→‎Other information: Added API section, albeit with limited information as I don't own a copy of the game.)
m (→‎Video settings: updated template usage)
(One intermediate revision by one other user not shown)
Line 63: Line 63:
 
====[http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/54082-simcity-4-launcher-sc4launcher-updated-r5/ SC4Launcher]====
 
====[http://community.simtropolis.com/topic/54082-simcity-4-launcher-sc4launcher-updated-r5/ SC4Launcher]====
 
{{ii}} Launcher utility that can be installed.
 
{{ii}} Launcher utility that can be installed.
{{++}} Combines autosaving (customisable intervals), renderer choice (DirectX, Software, OpenGL), CPU priority, [[#Single CPU affinity|single CPU affinity]], [[#Widescreen resolution|widescreen resolution]], [[#Windowed|windowed]], [[#Skip intro videos|skip intro videos]] and an ATI/AMD graphics card fix into a single launcher program.
+
{{++}} Combines autosaving (customisable intervals), renderer choice (DirectX, Software, OpenGL), CPU priority, [[#Single CPU affinity|single CPU affinity]], [[#Widescreen resolution|widescreen resolution]], [[#Windowed|windowed]], borderless-windowed, [[#Skip intro videos|skip intro videos]], simple mod manager and an ATI/AMD graphics card fix into a single launcher program.
  
 
====Combined launch options====
 
====Combined launch options====
Line 133: Line 133:
 
|vsync                      = false
 
|vsync                      = false
 
|vsync notes                =  
 
|vsync notes                =  
|high frame rate            = unknown
+
|60 fps                    = unknown
|high frame rate notes     =  
+
|60 fps notes               =
 +
|120 fps                    = unknown
 +
|120 fps notes              =  
 
|color blind                = unknown
 
|color blind                = unknown
 
|color blind notes          =  
 
|color blind notes          =  

Revision as of 09:31, 20 July 2015

Template:Infobox game/row/osxporter
SimCity 4
SimCity 4 cover
Developers
Maxis
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Release dates
Windows January 14, 2003
macOS (OS X) June 20, 2003
SimCity 4 on Wikipedia
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

Key points

SC4Launcher and NAM: Network Addon Mod are both highly recommended.
Enable most fixes by using the SC4Launcher/Combined launch options, and then enabling Borderless fullscreen windowed.
Performance issues on more modern systems.
The OS X port suffers many problems.

General information

sc4modds - full list of mods from /r/SimCity community.
/r/simcity4
SimCity 4 on the SimCity Wiki
Simtropolis Forum
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Steam Users' Forums

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
DRM: SafeDisc
Icon overlay.png
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
Amazon.com
DRM details are not known
Deluxe Edition. Download or retail.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
GamersGate
DRM-free after installation (requires an internet connection during installation)
Deluxe Edition.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
GOG.com
DRM-free
Deluxe Edition.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
Green Man Gaming
Origin
Deluxe Edition.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
Mac App Store
Icon overlay.png
Deluxe Edition. OS X-Only 2014 Re-Release with modifications to improve compatibility.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
Origin
Origin
Deluxe Edition.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
Steam
Icon overlay.png
Deluxe Edition. Includes 2014 OS X Re-Release.
Error: key type '{{{5}}}' not recognised
Error: OS parameter cannot be empty
It is recommended to only use Deluxe version which includes the Rush Hour expansion pack, as this has the highest compatibility with mods and other fixes.[1]
Retail keys can be redeemed on Origin.[2][3]

Essential improvements

Patches

EA hosts one all-encompassing update that includes all patch fixes for all retail versions of the game (digital distribution versions have their own patches).

Large Address Aware

Improves stability on systems with at least 3GB RAM by allowing the application to use more than 2GB RAM.

Skip intro videos

Instructions

Launching game on modern systems

SC4Launcher

Launcher utility that can be installed.
Combines autosaving (customisable intervals), renderer choice (DirectX, Software, OpenGL), CPU priority, single CPU affinity, widescreen resolution, windowed, borderless-windowed, skip intro videos, simple mod manager and an ATI/AMD graphics card fix into a single launcher program.

Combined launch options

Single line of code to be added to 'Target' field of the shortcut or to Steam launch options.
Combines widescreen resolution, windowed, single CPU affinity, skip intro videos.
Instructions

NAM: Network Addon Mod

Extensively reworks of the road system, improves traffic simulator, path-finding and performance.
Compatible with all available versions, since Origin version is now patched.[4]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

Template:Game data/rowTemplate:Game data/row
System Location
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/24780/pfx/[Note 1]

Save game data location

Template:Game data/rowTemplate:Game data/row
System Location
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/24780/pfx/[Note 1]
Beware of issues when using multiple duplicate cities.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Origin
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Template:Video settings

Widescreen resolution

Instructions

Windowed

Instructions

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Remapping

Hotkeys and similar key bindings are stored in plaintext KEYCFG files in simcity_1.dat. A tool like Ilive Reader must be used to edit these.

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language choice determines display language and which side of the road cars drive on.
The language can be forced if needed but only if the release being used includes that language (see Change language).
Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
Some releases also include UK English (cars drive on the left).
Danish
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Spanish
Swedish
Finnish
European retail and GOG.com release.
Norwegian
European retail only.
Polish
European retail only.
Portuguese
European retail only.
Traditional Chinese
Chinese retail only.
Simplified Chinese
Chinese retail only.
Korean
Korean retail only.
Japanese
Japanese retail and Steam OS X versions only.
Thai
Thai retail only.

Issues unresolved

OS X and Intel CPU major flaws

Major flaws when operating on computers by Apple using Intel processors.
Aspyr released a beta of a patch to fix the problems in 2007, but the patch was never finalized and many bugs remain. Some have a serious impact on playability, including frequent crashes if a city exceeds 95,000 population, flawed display of the water surface, frequent blurring or replacement of objects with random other objects, and an inability to significantly accelerate the vehicle in driving mode that prevents many gameplay features from being unlocked.
OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) can render the game completely unplayable, even with the 2007 patch. Running the Windows version in Wine or a Virtual Machine generally gives a more convenient and reliable result.

Integer overflow

An integer overflow bug is also present in the game. Under certain conditions, the Junior Sports Program and Parks and Recreation expense items will be a negative value - thus adding to the end of month balance instead of reducing it.

Issues fixed

Crashes on multi-core systems

Instructions
Instructions
Instructions

Poor performance on modern systems

Running SimCity 4 on modern systems may result in large performance problems.
Instructions

Industrial high-tech (I-H) missing jobs

Every I-H lot in the game does not offer high wealth jobs even though it creates a demand for high wealth residents.
Instructions

Error message: "Could not initialize graphics card"

SimCity 4 may crash on startup while reporting an error that claims that SimCity 4 was unable to initialize the graphics card, this may occur when using a hardware-accelerated rendering mode and a non-standard resolution. Changing the rendering mode to "software" or changing the resolution to one of the supported resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, 1600x1200) should resolve this issue.

Details disappear when scrolling

On some AMD/ATI graphics cards users may find that scrolling the view will cause entities and details to temporarily disappear, including lots appearing completely empty until scrolling stops.
Instructions

Alternatively, this can be resolved by installing the SC4Launcher Utility. Once installed, run the launcher and navigate to the 'Hardware & Audio' tab. Enable the option 'Force Draw on Scroll' by checking the tick box. This should resolve the issue completely and will remain fixed regardless of whether the game is started with this custom launcher or through running the normal SimCity 4 executable.

Other information

APIs

Technical specs Supported Notes
Direct3D 7
DirectDraw 7
Software renderer
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Duplicate cities moved

If two or more copies of the same city exist in the Region folder upon starting SimCity 4, the game uses only one version and the other city copies are either deleted or automatically moved to the Downloads folder.
SimCity 4 determines which file to use by sorting the city file names alphabetically and taking the first entry.
If you have copies of cities in your region folder, e.g. "City - TEST 1.sc4" "City - TEST 2.sc4", then only "City - TEST 1.sc4" will be kept, and "City - TEST 2.sc4"either get deleted or will be moved to the Downloads folder

Launch options

More parameters can be found via this link. Please be aware that if you use the -UserDir parameter, changes made in any ingame options may not be saved properly.

Change language

Language choice determines display language and which side of the road cars drive on.
Supported languages sets include:
  • English and Spanish (North American version)
  • UK English, French, German, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese and Swedish (European version)
  • Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese (Chinese version)
  • Korean (Korean version)
  • Japanese (Japanese version)
  • Thai (Thailand version)

The availability of these sets depends on where the game was purchased, or where the purchaser's billing address states in the case of Digital Distribution.

Instructions
Instructions
The game also recognises Czech, Hebrew, Greek and Russian, however no official translations were ever released and no community translations have been made, possibly due to lack of compatible font sets.

Mods

Mods may require dependencies.

Mod resources

Simtropolis - a very active modding community, hosts the ST/Exchange (SimTropolisEXchange).
SC4 Devotion - a very active modding community, hosts the LEX (Lot Exchange).
Thread listing all possible settings and customisations

Mod recommendations

sc4modds - full list of mods from /r/SimCity community.
Reddit thread - September 17, 2012
Reddit thread - January 22, 2012

Colossus Addon Mod (CAM)

A significant and popular mod developed by the community at SC4 Devotion.
Rewrites and improves how cities and regions grow by including more 'lots' or building transition stages, and increases population density.
Compatible with NAM: Network Addon Mod - when installing CAM, select 'no traffic simulator'.[5]

Tools

  • SimCity 4 Auto Saver - autosave program for SimCity 4 that will automatically save your game while you play, superseded by the SC4Launcher.
  • SC4Terraformer - this is a widely used tool that can render custom maps designed and built within the program.
  • SC4DataNode - this is a tool that checks your plugins folder, analyzes it, and tells you if any mods are missing dependencies.

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU) Pentium III 500 MHz or equivalent
System memory (RAM) 128 MB (256 MB for XP)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB hard drive space
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7.0 compatible
32 of VRAM

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/24780/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (24780) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References