Highways on region map.

[Dragonator 0]

I have SimCity 4 Deluxe and are developing the first region quite nicely but there's just one problem: The highways I have built aren't shown on the region view map. They only show on the transportation map. This is weird as there seem to be bridges over rivers connecting to nothing and large gaps in my cities. Not even the huge cloverleafs aren't shown. Is this a bug?

[uberubert 0]

Is that the kind of problem one would get if one is missing some files, or dependencies..? I'm also wondering, how do check out the transportation map.. ? is that a plug-in?

[zornor 0]

Uberubert, when in the region view, click on the left most button at the top (looks like a map). This is where you open/create etc new regions. There's a transportation/satellite map option somewhere there

Dragonator, I'm not sure about the highways in satellite. Maybe Maxis simply didn't put in the code to make highways show up on the satellite.

[Sim_BOB 2]

You're probably going to have to reinstall your game, but don't worry, before you do, copy all the contents from the sim city 4 folder in your my documents, place them elsewhere under a name you can remember, then re install. Afterwards, you can replace the files in the new sim city 4 folder with the ones that you copied and then all your stuff will be back to order and your highways and interchanges should be back.

[deimo5 52]

This hasn't worked for me. It's kinda frustrating because I use nothing but ground highways in the suburbs and rural areas and I cannot see any of them. Has anyone come up with a solution for this yet? Is there a way to fix this bug? Maybe a patch? Has everyone been experiencing this issue or just some people?

[Hahayoudied 3]

Hmmm, I can see my elevated highways by using the satellite map, but I never use ground highways, so I am not sure if ground highways shows up in satellite. Do you have the Simcity 4 deluxe or rush hour update?

[tahill79 13]

hahayoudied did you even read the post? go back to his post and read it again and look for the 5th word in the paragraph. but idk what the problem is its not plugins or dependencys. mine show up so try to uninstall then reinstall it

[joeynymets 19]

With me, i can see my ground highways and cloverleafs, do you have the NAM installed?

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello Dragonator,

Recommend starting with optional graphics settings - as somethings are omitted at lower settings.

To check my understanding of your question - are you expecting to see transit details in region view,

when the show transit option (that shows each transit type in a different color) is turned off?

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.

[deimo5 52]

I can clarify what the problem is because I have it too. I am using Rush Hour and I have the NAM installed. When in the Region view, when in satellite view (not transit view) -- meaning I am looking at buildings and roads, the ground level highways do not appear. The elevated highways and cloverleafs show, but the ground level highways just look like undeveloped terrain. I have reinstalled the game before, but this did not solve the problem. My graphics settings are as high as they can go. Obviously, no one else is having this problem... guess I'll try reinstalling again.

If I reinstall, as long as I keep my My Documents/Simcity 4/ Plugins folder intact, I should not have to reinstall anything from them Web again (like the EP1 Updates and all those things from the Simcity Web site), correct?

These pictures show my issue. The first is a picture of how the area shows up in satellite view. As you can see, you would never even think that there is a highway in sight. The second is a picture of how the area shows up in transit view. Clearly, there are a lot of highways but I cannot see them in satellite view.

SATELLITE VIEW:

TRANSIT VIEW:

[joeynymets 19]

hmm i dont have the problem and i have the NAM and highest graphical settings

[deimo5 52]

Did you have to reinstall to make this work?

[Spinmaster 75]

Originally posted by: tahill79 hahayoudied did you even read the post? go back to his post and read it again and look for the 5th word in the paragraph. but idk what the problem is its not plugins or dependencys. mine show up so try to uninstall then reinstall itquote>

And you might wish to check the last word in hahayoudied's post: update. It's a fair question whether or not Dragonator has applied the official update from EA; it's not as automatic to some as it is to others, to check for updates after installing a game. I'm not sure what help if any that update will give him though, I don't recall it having anything in it relating specifically to highways or the region views, but bug fixes... well it does sound like a bug. Only other thing I can imagine is graphics options, if his machine is underpowered or the graphics settings for the game are set too low. It's also possible he did apply that update, but as so many other people do, forgot to reconfigure the game's graphic settings (the update resets them, usually to lower-than-necessary specs).

[david1314 44]

Well, I've gotten this problem.

I'm certain it's not a hardware or external conflict issue. The problem is too wide spread for that to be the case.

It only applies to rushhour/delux because most of the features in question were not in the original.

It's not a texture issue (I've gotten it consistently with both asphalt and unmodded highways).

I think spinmaster is on to something with graphics options, but I don't think it's the whole problem. The fact that people have gotten the same problem with varying degrees of severity (only one type of highway not showing up vs. both) suggest there is more than just graphics options at work.

I suspect SC4 prioritizes processes when saving and creating the image. I also think some of the 'unnecessary' processes are skipped to save on time. I get the feeling it's based on volume of additional content within a plugin folder (or city...not sure how this applies...or if it does for that matter).

The problem appears to be that the highways are not displaying at zoom level 1 for the save pic (any building that is flagged to show at zoom 1-5 will appear in the region view).

The problem is that I can consistently recreate the problem by decreasing display options, but I cannot always fix the problem by increasing the same options. I know this isn't much use to people with the problem, but hopefully it's useful in finding a solution.

[deimo5 52]

I figured out what the problem is. Once I switched from Hardware rendering to Software rendering, the highways started to show up on the map when I would save my cities and exit. So, I will have to go through and do this for all of my cities, but at least I know how to get them to appear.

Maybe it's my imagination, but the Software rendering graphics seem a lot grainier than the Hardware rendering. What is the difference?

[SC4BOY 20]

Hmm... this may be a result of lack of available video memory .. I am using hardware rendering and have no problem with everything showing. Did you per chance do some of the city with SC4 and then upgrade it to RH/Deluxe? or have you always used the RH/Deluxe?

[sjh123 0]

Used to have the same problem. You need a better graphics card or more video memory and the problem should be solved

[deimo5 52]

All of it is in rush hour. i must need a new graphics card. hard to believe. I have a Radeon 9200 Game card... yet i can't seem to find it in my device manager. Maybe when I had to swap the hard drive I had to reinstall the drivers. I'll give that a shot.

[david1314 44]

Ok, so I woke up in the middle of the night last night and recalled how I've fixed this previously (and why I thought it was a prioritizing / plugin volume issue).

I remember turning the display setting DOWN to get it to display. I tried to recreate it this morning, but could not. (Though I am sure this has worked in the past)

Anyway, the software render also fixing this suggest the same.

So, in answer to the question, the fix varies from one computer to the next. A combination of turning down display options and increasing video memory is the solution, but implementing this can be widely different on each comp. So, experiment, at least now you have guidance on how to proceed.

[SC4BOY 20]

If you did not install your manufacturer's card video driver, you are operating on MS default drivers. You must install your card's latest drivers (get em from your card makers web site)

[deimo5 52]

Turns out I already had the drivers installed (I was just looking in the wrong place in the device manager). I will just have to deal with the lower quality graphics if I want my highways to show up on the map. But I can deal with it.

It also turns out that NONE of my highways were showing up, but it looked like the elevated highways were showing up because of the shadow underneath them. The elevated highways actually look gray now.

THANKS FOR EVERYONE'S HELP! And thanks Dragonator for starting this post. I seem to have found the answer to your question as well.