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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 OS X port suffers many problems.
General information
- sc4modds - full list of mods from /r/SimCity community.
- /r/SimCity
- Simtropolis Forum
- Steam Community Discussions
- Steam Users' Forums
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
- Launcher utility that can be installed.
- Combines autosaving (customisable intervals), renderer choice (DirectX, Software, OpenGL), CPU priority, single CPU affinity, widescreen 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 widescreen resolution, windowed, single CPU affinity, skip intro videos.
- Extensively reworks of the road system, improves traffic simulator, path-finding and performance.
Game data
Save game data location
- Beware of issues when using multiple duplicate cities.
Video settings
Template:Video settings
Skip intro videos
Input settings
Template:Input settings
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 |
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Some releases also include UK English (cars drive on the left). |
Danish |
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Dutch |
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French |
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German |
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Italian |
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Spanish |
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Swedish |
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Finnish |
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European retail only. |
Norwegian |
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European retail only. |
Polish |
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European retail only. |
Portuguese |
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European retail only. |
Traditional Chinese |
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Chinese retail only. |
Simplified Chinese |
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Chinese retail only. |
Korean |
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Korean retail only. |
Japanese |
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Japanese retail only. |
Thai |
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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
Poor performance on modern systems
- Running SimCity 4 on modern systems may result in large performance problems.
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.
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.
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 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.
- 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
- 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 |
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Minimum |
Recommended |
Operating system (OS) |
98, ME, 2000, XP | |
Processor (CPU) |
Pentium III 500 MHz or equivalent
| 1 GHz or faster |
System memory (RAM) |
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Hard disk drive (HDD) |
1 GB hard drive space | |
Video card (GPU) |
DirectX 7.0 compatible 32 of VRAM | |
Notes
- ↑ Notes regarding Steam Play (Linux) data:
References