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SimCity 4

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 10:36, 26 December 2013 by Jdenm8 (talk | contribs) (→‎Input settings: Added note about key rebinding)
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

Poorly optimised, but fixable on modern Windows PCs.
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.
The Mac port suffers many problems.

General information

sc4modds - full list of mods from /r/SimCity community.
/r/SimCity
Simtropolis Forum
Steam Power Users' Forum

Availability

Template:Availability Table

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

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, Custom resolution, windowed, skip intro videos 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 Custom 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.

Game data

Save game location

Template:Game Location Table

Beware of issues when using multiple duplicate cities.

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Template:Video settings

Skip intro videos

Instructions

Widescreen resolution

Instructions

Windowed

Instructions

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Key Rebinding

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

Issues unresolved

Macs 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.

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

Retail patches

EA hosts one all-encompassing update that includes all patch fixes for all versions of the game.
Retail versions can be registered on Origin through the CD key.

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 include: English, UK English, French, German, Traditional Chinese and Japanese, depending on where the game has been purchased.
Instructions
Instructions

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'. [4]

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
Operating system (OS) 98, ME, 2000, XP
Processor (CPU)
System memory (RAM)
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB hard drive space
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7.0 compatible
32 of VRAM

References