How to run SimCity 4 on Linux

[TV-VCR 15]

You can discuss any issues related to running SC4 in Linux here.

Omnibus article: https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=147&threadid=100866&enterthread=y

[doorknob60 11]

I've been using SimCity 4 in Linux for about 2 weeks now and I like it Also it doesn't have any problems with full screen for me, but I'm using Gnome and you're using KDE so that might be the problem. You should add a part to your guide about actually installing Wine also because not everyone has it.

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: doorknob60 I've been using SimCity 4 in Linux for about 2 weeks now and I like it Also it doesn't have any problems with full screen for me, but I'm using Gnome and you're using KDE so that might be the problem. You should add a part to your guide about actually installing Wine also because not everyone has it.quote>

I'll add something about WINE. I was also hoping this could be stickied for reference to future Linux users.

[JakeMD 107]

Awsome tutorial, thanks for posting this! A new wave of users are now able to play woo

[doorknob60 11]

Also make sure you say that you need to run it with software rendering. And I think this should be stickied too

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: doorknob60 Also make sure you say that you need to run it with software rendering. And I think this should be stickied too quote>

I've had it on Hardware rendering for a while now and it runs just like it does on Windows (a bit faster mind you).

What were the exact issues you were having with hardware rendering activated?

[SC4BOY 21]

Will it run under Windows with hardware rendering? Not all video cards work under windows either and you have to run in software..

[doorknob60 11]

Region View:

City View:

And yes, it works just fine in Windows and I have an nVidia card and not ATI and it works with lots of other 3D games in Wine so I don't know. I guess I'll stick to software rendering for now

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: doorknob60 Region View:

City View:

And yes, it works just fine in Windows and I have an nVidia card and not ATI and it works with lots of other 3D games in Wine so I don't know. I guess I'll stick to software rendering for now quote>

I added something about that to the guide.

[saltandsauce 0]

i managed to get it to install previously but nothing could be zoned or built so i removed it i have crappy ATI integrated graphics radeon express 200

[doorknob60 11]

You might want to try again, because it seems to work a lot better with the newest version of Wine (0.9.54) than any previous versions. (Unless that's the version you used)

[doorknob60 11]

Bump! I'm bumping this because I think it should be pinned Also when I opened up KDE and played SimCity 4, full screen worked fine...maybe it's a problem with compiz or something (if you were using it)? Because I always disable it before I play...

[doorknob60 11]

Bump! I'll keep bumping until it gets pinned or something Also I found out that if you run it in OpenGL mode (by adding -dpengl to the command) that it works and counts as hardware acceleration, BUT at least for me (I use a Nvidia GeForce FX 5200) it actually goes slower than with software mode and has the same graphical glitches. Seems kinda weird, but oh well software rendering isn't that bad.

[CheshireDragon 13]

I seem to be having a bit of trouble with Sim City 4 DE. When I copy all of the info from the 1sst CD out to a "dead" folder and copy the DISC 2 into the first folder, then I wait a min after putting DISC 2 in the drive as well, I click OK to start installing the 2nd disc and it just blinks at me and does nothing. I hit OK over and over and it just blinks at me, the background install images are scrolling by but no files are being installed and the OK/CANCEL dialog box sits there.

I had an older version of WINE, so I upgraded today and have the latest build as of 2008/2/08, but still gives me the same issues.

I am running Kubuntu 7.10 with KDE 3.5.5 and WINE is 0.9.54

I also have Intel Dual Core E2180 2Ghz / 1GB RAM and a 128MB nVidia 6200 LE PCI-e

Not sure what other info is needed, but any help is appreciated, Thanks

-Richard

[doorknob60 11]

What you could try, is copying all files from both discs into the same folder, which has never failed for me before and sometimes it doesn't even ask to change discs when you do that Post back if it works or not because I haven't actually tried that with SC4 yet, just a bunch of other games.

[CheshireDragon 13]

It took a bit of innovation, but I managed. What I had to do was put DISC 1 on the desktop and start the install, then when it asked for DISC 2, I delete DISC 1 contents and put DISC 2 in, then it read and installed, but weird enough it read it from the CD drive and not the HDD. So it is installed now...I need to figure out how to install the sound now :/

Thank you for your help doorknob

[doorknob60 11]

No problem, but what do you mean install the sound? Is sound not working for you on Linux?

[CheshireDragon 13]

Nah, sound works great in Linux. MP3s, CDs, etc all play great. It just doesn't play in Sim City

When I ran the WINECFG, I went to the audio tab and it took a sec for it to load. I noticed this error in the terminal window:

"fixme:jack:JACK_drvLoad error loading the jack library libjack.so.0, please install this library to use jack"

tons of errors come up though when the game starts and it doesn't seem to affect it in any way.

back to the audio tab, it has ALSA driver selected and has and OSS driver and a NAS driver. The OSS one seems to fit because it has my chipset listed as VIA VT1708. i am going to see if I can install the sound into the WINE with the CD that came with the MOBO and see if that works, but before that I am going to just poke around a bit to see if i can find something else that might help.

Thanks for helping out

-Richard

[doorknob60 11]

You DON'T need to install any drivers in WINE, ever. They should work as long as they work in Linux. Just try playing with the audio options in winecfg and it should work.

[doorknob60 11]

Found some helpful stuff at the WineHQ AppDB

Oh and to get to Registry editor go to a terminal and type "wine regedit" and it works the same as the Windows regedit

Enhancement in two steps

Step 1:

If you have a good computer but still have lag (sound & game), you should set a real value using regedit.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]

"VideoMemorySize"="256"

By default wine guess you have only 64.

Step 2:

Also you can use nice command to rise execution priority:

WINEDEBUG=-all env WINEPREFIX="/home/${USER}/.wine" nice -20 wine "C:\games\SimCity4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -introff

Registry tweaks:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]

"DirectDrawRenderer"=""

gdi - Use GDI to draw on the screen (slow but reliable) (default) 

opengl - Use OpenGL (fast but not all programs work correctly)]

"OffscreenRenderingMode"=""

backbuffer: the rendering is done in the backbuffer (default)

pbuffer: uses PixelBuffers

fbo: uses Framebuffer object

"PixelShaderMode"=""

"RenderTargetLockMode"=""

auto:     same as readdraw at the moment, will do benchmarks and use best method later(default)

disabled: effectively disables render target locking

readdraw: uses glReadPixels for reading, glDrawPixels for drawing

readtex: reading with glReadPixels, drawing by drawing a textured quad

texdraw: readback using a texture, drawing with glDrawPixels

textex: readback using a texture, drawing with a textured quad]

"UseGLSL"=""

[When set to "enabled", this enables the use of GL Shading Language for vertex

and pixel shaders, as long as the hardware supports it. This is experimental

at the moment, and not fully implemented.]

"VertexShaderMode"=""

"VideoMemorySize"=""

[sets the amount of emulated video memory. Default is 64 (that results in 64MB),

in the future some automatic ways to obtain the real value should be added.]

More informations here

Stuff helpful

Since most user do not have a clue about debugging wine, you can set the following variable:

WINEDEBUG=-all

wine will have no verbosity and will not display any debugging information.quote>

All I tried was changing the Video Memory size and the Direct Draw renderer. Doing that, it made 1280x1024 work good in software rendering (unfortunately Hardware rendering still doesn't work). You could try some of the other stuff too

[CheshireDragon 13]

I have it all worked out! That is what I did first; just poked around in the winecfg for a bit. The sound works great, the video is on software and it is nice and smooth at 1280x1024. Thank you for all your help, it is much appreciated!

Now off to a weekend of SimCity fun!

 

-Richard

BTW, this thread should be made a sticky, I found it by mistake and I actually benefited. I can finally ditch Windows for good!!

[doorknob60 11]

Yeah, it should definitely be stickied Also I'm really glad I found those Wine registry tweaks so that it can run smooth at 1280x1024 and tv-vcr you should put them in your guide because they speed up the game quite a bit

EDIT: I found this thread about 2 days AFTER I discovered that SC4 finally works well in Wine, and now I almost never go into Windows. But...there's still a few things

[IonWind 3]

Ionwind's diary of "trying to get the game to work with Wine in Ubuntu"

So, anyone active in here anymore?

I'm trying to run my SC4 DL on Ubuntu 7.10 and Wine 0.9.46

I've managed to get to the end of the installation but then, um, nothing. Nothing happens when I try to run SC. I know this is pretty desperate but can someone possibly help?

Edit:

I always read the "joined" date as the last posting day.

Another Edit:

I managed to get the game running by using a no-cd patch, so I'd guess the problem lies somewhere between the wine and CD's

Third Edit:

I forgot to thank TV-VCR for posting the tutorial. Thank you.  d_(^__^  )

Moar Edit:

Ok, I don't know what happened, but now the game starts after few minutes, which is... not good. And when the game gets to the region view, all I can see is a basic flat region and all the texts are missing. When I am trying to do something else than moving around in the empty region the game crashes.

This sure ain't easy.

Edit, again:

I took all the custom plugins and regions from the game folder and now the game actually starts quick and actually runs properly. The problem is somewhere in the plugins and/or regions.

Update on current situation:

I first placed a quite big to the regions folder and everything worked fine. Then I added a terrain mod (Meadowshire) and tree controllers and the game worked. Then I tried some more plugins and at some point (perhaps after those massive airport- plugins) the loading times took a giant leap. It took forever to get to the region view, which was flatted.

So there's something with the game and plugins that is messing up the whole thing. Perhaps I try the .dat-packer next.

Breaking news:

Now I've placed every plugin back except some airport packs. When I put the ACB airport sets to the plugins the loading times rise to unbearable leveles. I don't know then if it's the files themselves or the amount of files that causes this. By now I am too tired to find out. Anyway, the game works now.

Conclusion: If you try to run SC4 on Wine in Linux and you'll get blank regions and no texts or long loading times, the problem is probably with the plugins you have.

Over and out.

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: IonWind Ionwind's diary of "trying to get the game to work with Wine in Ubuntu"

So, anyone active in here anymore?

I'm trying to run my SC4 DL on Ubuntu 7.10 and Wine 0.9.46

I've managed to get to the end of the installation but then, um, nothing. Nothing happens when I try to run SC. I know this is pretty desperate but can someone possibly help?

Edit:

I always read the "joined" date as the last posting day.

Another Edit:

I managed to get the game running by using a no-cd patch, so I'd guess the problem lies somewhere between the wine and CD's

Third Edit:

I forgot to thank TV-VCR for posting the tutorial. Thank you.  d_(^__^  )

Moar Edit:

Ok, I don't know what happened, but now the game starts after few minutes, which is... not good. And when the game gets to the region view, all I can see is a basic flat region and all the texts are missing. When I am trying to do something else than moving around in the empty region the game crashes.

This sure ain't easy.

Edit, again:

I took all the custom plugins and regions from the game folder and now the game actually starts quick and actually runs properly. The problem is somewhere in the plugins and/or regions.

Update on current situation:

I first placed a quite big to the regions folder and everything worked fine. Then I added a terrain mod (Meadowshire) and tree controllers and the game worked. Then I tried some more plugins and at some point (perhaps after those massive airport- plugins) the loading times took a giant leap. It took forever to get to the region view, which was flatted.

So there's something with the game and plugins that is messing up the whole thing. Perhaps I try the .dat-packer next.

Breaking news:

Now I've placed every plugin back except some airport packs. When I put the ACB airport sets to the plugins the loading times rise to unbearable leveles. I don't know then if it's the files themselves or the amount of files that causes this. By now I am too tired to find out. Anyway, the game works now.

Conclusion: If you try to run SC4 on Wine in Linux and you'll get blank regions and no texts or long loading times, the problem is probably with the plugins you have.

Over and out.quote>

Loading times are always terrible when you have tons of plugins. For me it takes about 2 minutes with all the stuff I have. Also, on my Linux install of SC4, I've (Seriously) just copied my plugins folder from windows into the linux SC4 plugins folder. The wait is a little less, but the game runs fine. I also have ACB airport set.

Also, I may have forgot something that has to do with the X11 driver. With all those problems, I highly doubt it's your plugins folder. I recommend you try this and tell me what happens...

Run regedit, then navigate through these keys in this order:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER

-Software

--Wine

---X11 Driver

(if the 'X11 Driver' key does not exist, create it) Now create a new value that is a string and is called ClientSideWithRenderer. Double click on it and type in N (which obviously means no) and exit regedit.

Now try SC4 and enjoy.

[doorknob60 11]

Also you make sure you have the latest version of wine (or at least 0.9.54 because there's no Ubuntu package for 0.9.55 yet). Because I also copied my plugins folder from Windows, which has lots of plugins in it and it loads FASTER than in Windows

[IonWind 3]

I updated my wine to 0.9.54 and altered the X11-value and moved the ACB packs to plugins and now the game won't even show the EA logo. When I remove the mentioned airport packs, the game works quite normally.

There are still some graphical glitches with the cars and other moving 3D-objects, though.

I can stand the minor glitches with the cars, but an another problem is a bit more of a drawback: When plopping things like plazas, parks, custom walls and seawall pieces (like Jeronij's seawalls and walls) next to roads or railways, they always turn themselves to the road and not to the direction I want them to be.

Another question: Do you have the in-game cursors visible? I have only the basic white windows arrow.

It'd be nice to have SC4 working properly in Linux as SC4 is the only good reason why I'm still having windows as the preferred OS.

Edit:

I used the DatPacker (in windows though, couldn't get it to work in linux) and packed all the plugins to one .dat, and now the game loads properly with the massive airport mods too.

[SC4BOY 21]

sounds like you're running out of file handles.. XP will do this too as the plugins folder gets big enough.. Datpacker reduces your open file handles by a HUGE amount.. from like 2500 to like 50..

[saltandsauce 0]

i keep getting this

wine: could not load L"c:\\windows\\system32\\setup.exe": Module not found

i have done all of those steps but its not bloody working

[TV-VCR 15]

Originally posted by: saltandsauce i keep getting this

wine: could not load L"c:\\windows\\system32\\setup.exe": Module not found

i have done all of those steps but its not bloody working quote>

What step are you on? I remember I got that error once because I had made a mistake.

[Rymac91 15]

Just a simple question, but for installing new plugins which would be easier? Installing the Windows versions or the Mac versions?