Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines

Developers
	Colossal Order
Microsoft Store	Tantalus Media
Publishers
	Paradox Interactive
Engines
	Unity 5
Release dates
Windows	March 10, 2015
macOS (OS X)	March 10, 2015
Linux	March 10, 2015
Reception
Metacritic	85
OpenCritic	83
IGDB	76
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack, DLC, Subscription gaming service
Microtransactions	None
Modes	Singleplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view, Free-roaming camera
Controls	Point and select
Genres	Building, Simulation, Strategy, Business
Vehicles	Automobile
Art styles	Stylized
Themes	Contemporary
Series	Cities in Motion

Cities in Motion
Cities in Motion	2011
Cities in Motion 2	2013
Cities: Skylines	2015
Cities: Skylines II	2023

Cities: Skylines is a singleplayer bird's-eye view and free-roaming camera building, simulation, strategy and business game in the Cities in Motion series.

The game is known to perform poorly or crash on systems with 8 GB RAM or lower.

General information

Official wiki

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Publisher website		Deluxe Edition also available.
Epic Games Store		DRM-free when launched directly from executable.
		Deluxe Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming		Deluxe Edition also available, region locked in Latin America.
Humble Store		Deluxe Edition also available.
Microsoft Store		Windows 10 Edition. Includes After Dark DLC. Part of Xbox Game Pass for PC.
Steam		Deluxe Edition also available.
Origin (unavailable)		Deluxe Edition was also available.

Linking to a Paradox account is optional, but grants a free in-game item (Paradox Plaza) if done.

Version differences

The Steam version has Steam Workshop support, other versions rely on finding mods on other modding sites, such as Nexus Mods.

Cities: Skylines - Windows 10 Edition is a completely different version based on the console version of the game and does not have mods support.

Cities: Skylines Deluxe Edition includes: the base game, Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Brandenburg Gate, Arc de Triomphe, Grand Central Terminal and Original Soundtrack.

Cities: Skylines Collection includes: the base game, After Dark, Snowfall, Natural Disasters, Mass Transit, Green Cities, Parklife, Industries, Campus, Concerts, Art Deco, High-Tech Buildings, European Suburbia, Modern City Center, Relaxation Station, Rock City Radio, All That Jazz, Country Road Radio, Synthetic Dawn Radio, Campus Radio, Deep Focus Radio and Downtown Radio.

Cities: Skylines - New Player Bundle includes: the base game, Mass Transit, Industries and Sunset Harbor.

Monetization

Type	Notes
DLC	Minor DLC includes small item packs, skins and radio stations.
Expansion pack	Major expansion packs include new features, items and mechanics.
One-time game purchase	The game requires an upfront purchase to access.
Subscription gaming service	Available via Xbox Game Pass for PC.

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Airports	Expansion
After Dark	Expansion
Snowfall	Expansion
Natural Disasters	Expansion
Mass Transit	Expansion
Green Cities	Expansion
Parklife	Expansion
Industries	Expansion
Campus	Expansion
Sunset Harbor	Expansion
Map Pack	Expansion
Plazas & Promenades	Expansion
Financial Districts	Expansion
Map Pack 2	Expansion
Hotels & Retreats	Expansion
Match Day	Flavor pack, free
Concerts	Flavor pack
Relaxation Station	Music pack
Rock City Radio	Music pack
All That Jazz	Music pack
Carols, Candles and Candy	Music pack, free
Country Road Radio	Music pack
Synthetic Dawn Radio	Music pack
Campus Radio	Music pack
Deep Focus Radio	Music pack
Downtown Radio	Music pack
Coast to Coast Radio	Music pack
On Air Radio	Music pack
Calm the Mind Radio	Music pack
Shoreline Radio	Music pack
Paradise Radio	Music pack
K-pop Radio	Music pack
80's Downtown Beat	Music pack
African Vibes	Music pack
Pop-Punk Radio	Music pack
80's Movies Tunes	Music pack
JADIA Radio	Music pack
90's Pop Radio	Music pack
Pre-Order Pack	Cosmetic pack
Art Deco	Cosmetic pack
Stadiums: European Club Pack	Cosmetic pack, delisted
High-Tech Buildings	Cosmetic pack
Pearls from the East	Cosmetic pack, free
European Suburbia	Cosmetic pack
University City	Cosmetic pack
Modern City Center	Cosmetic pack
Modern Japan	Cosmetic pack
Map Pack	Cosmetic pack
Vehicles of the World	Cosmetic pack
Mid-Century Modern	Cosmetic pack
Seaside Resorts	Cosmetic pack
Heart of Korea	Cosmetic pack
Skyscrapers	Cosmetic pack
Shopping Malls	Cosmetic pack
Sports Venues	Cosmetic pack
Africa in Miniature	Cosmetic pack
Brooklyn & Queens	Cosmetic pack
Railroads of Japan	Cosmetic pack
Industrial Evolution	Cosmetic pack

Essential improvements

Skip Paradox Launcher

Run Cities.exe with the %command% command-line argument
Note that the Steam client requires the path to the main executable to be set, i.e. it should look like so: Windows (with quotation marks): "<path-to-game>\Cities.exe" %command% Linux: <path-to-game>/Cities.x64" %command% macOS: <path-to-game>/Cities.app/Contents/MacOS/Cities %command%

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\gameSettings.cgs
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/gameSettings.cgs
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/gameSettings.cgs

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%LOCALAPPDATA%\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Saves\
Microsoft Store
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/Saves/
Linux	$XDG_DATA_HOME/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/Saves/

This game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux.

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher
Origin
Steam Cloud		The player can choose whether or not a specific save file will be stored in the Steam cloud while saving.
Xbox Cloud

Video

Graphics settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		Steam Workshop mods allow for FOV changes. Link
Windowed		Set your Display Mode to Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		Set your Display Mode to Fullscreen.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA only. Alternatively use the Dynamic Resolution mod for on the fly downsampling.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unity page for more details.

If the graphics look blurry when zoomed-in, turn down the tilt shift amount in settings.^{[citation needed]}

Enable true fullscreen

Launch the game with the -force-d3d9 command line argument.
By default, the game won't support true fullscreen, and only borderless fullscreen is available. To use true fullscreen, the game can be run in DirectX 9 mode. The -window-mode exclusive command line argument also works (will display an error dialog, just ignore it). It has to be applied to the executable, not the Paradox Launcher.

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support		A controller can be used to control the camera using in-game developer tools. Steam controller can also be used.
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, ambient, effects and user interface
Surround sound		Tested with two different devices, 7.1 headphones and 5.1 speakers. Only main two stereo channels are audible.
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio		Most "radio stations" play original music, with the exception of Gold FM.

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
French
German
Hungarian				Fan translation
Italian				Fan translation
Korean
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish				Fan translation, Steam Workshop

Issues fixed

Poor performance on laptops with Nvidia Optimus

Occurs when Cities: Skylines defaults to Intel integrated graphics instead of Nvidia discrete graphics.

Manually select discrete graphics in Nvidia Control Panel[citation needed]
Open Nvidia Control Panel. Select Manage 3D Settings. Select the Program Settings tab. Select or Add cities.exe. Select High Performance Nvidia as the preferred graphics processor. Click Apply and launch the game.

Blurry UI text at resolutions above 1080p

Install the UI Resolution mod

For Steam Users: Install Harmony (a dependency for the UI scaling mod) Subscribe to the mod on the Steam Workshop Enable the mods in the in-game mod manager Adjust UI scaling as needed in the graphics menu For Non-Steam Users: Download UI Resolution and Harmony Extract the contents to the game's mod folder in %LOCALAPPDATA%\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Mods (create it if it is not found) Enable the mods in the in-game mod manager Adjust UI scaling as needed in the graphics settings

Steam overlay does not work

Disable the other overlays (Raptr, Dxtory, Fraps, MSI Afterburner, etc.)[citation needed]

Random crashes

Upgrade to more than 8 GB RAM
On 8GB RAM you must play vanilla game without mods or assets and always under 20k pop to avoid crashes.

Set cities.exe process priority to high

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0c, 11	Option to fallback to version 9.0c using the -force-d3d9 command-line parameter.
OpenGL
Metal support
Shader Model support	5.0

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Linux

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 8.1, 10	10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i7 930 AMD FX-6350	Intel Core i7 2700K AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
System memory (RAM)	8 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 (1 GB) AMD R7 250 (2 GB) Intel Iris Xe G7 (Tiger Lake) DirectX 9.0c compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 (1.5 GB) AMD Radeon RX 560 (4 GB) DirectX 11 compatible

Intel Integrated Graphics Cards aren't supported.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.11
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2 GHz	Intel Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 ATI Radeon HD 5670 512 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Linux
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Ubuntu 12.04	Ubuntu 14.10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ 3.2 GHz	Intel Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz AMD FX-6300 3.5 GHz
System memory (RAM)	4 GB	6 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 ATI Radeon HD 5670 512 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 AMD Radeon HD 7870 2 GB of VRAM

A 64-bit operating system is required.