game wont "remember" graphics settings

[Gustav Von Vader 0]

anyone have this happen? game plays fine, just annoying to load your region and reset stuff like texture detail to start every session. searching past posts, i deleted all recent downloads to clear dependencies and rebooted a few times. still no luck. thanks in advance.

[Gustav Von Vader 0]

**bump**

none of the wonderful contributors to simtropolis has had this happen? maybe im not explaining enough? basically, every time i load the game it resets to the default settings and region (timbuktu)

[Stormblades 0]

I think that the reason why no one has contributed is because either no one knows why this is, or they have other things to do. In my several years of lurking around SimTropolis, I have never heard of such a bizarre problem. It may be that you will have to re-install your copy of the game.

[Gustav Von Vader 0]

after trying everything else, i did indeed remove and reinstall my copy. this also did not help, but i suppose it was good to clean up my plugin folder. "nuke the whole site from orbit- it's the only way to be sure." aside from the frustration of the time wasted, not being able to alter the ui translucency results in inaccurate placement of civic buildings with a radius. so, do i get a prize for stumping the band? very odd indeed....

[CaptCity 4,752]

Saw a problem like this mentioned once a real looooong time ago. If I remember correctly (which could be a big 'if'), one suggestion was that a startup program was resetting the game. What kinds of programs (if any) do you have set to run at Startup? Sorry I'm not able to be more specific. I tried to find the thread I saw before, but couldn't.

For what it's worth...

[bluemoose 223]

Ohhh CaptCity, do you mean like antivirus, or scanners, or bakround programs,

Like SCS had you turn off your antivirus before starting the game

Is that what you mean?

[CaptCity 4,752]

Yes, something like that. Or maybe a registry/system cleaner/defragger... or maybe security settings...(Just a guess...)

[Sam 163]

You didn't alter the command line at any point to include resolution or something similar?

Your video card specs might help. I don't know if SC4 automatically alters your graphics settings if it thinks your card is insufficient. I haven't heard of it happening with SC4 but if you have a low end card its a possibility.

[CaptCity 4,752]

Now that sam mentions it, that was another suggestion in the thread I 'remember' seeing - low system resources.

[GMT 389]

hm... from my point of view, I doubt there's any other low-end graphics card than mine still running, a geforce fx 5600 with 128mb and all the other pre-historic crap like max. dx8 support and stuff...

and my game runs just fine.

but if there's someone running an even older system, I feel free to boost my self-esteem :-)

[NetPCDoc 1]

Hello Gustav Von Vader,

More details would be nice -

Say maybe what Operating System (OS) you are using (Windows - 98/ME/XP/Vista or maybe this is a MAC)?

Do you by chance have one of the Plug-in Managment Start-Up programs?

Have you maybe restricted access to your own "My Documents" folder (and/or the files and folders contained there-in)?

-NetPCDoc

No detail is too small to be micromanaged.

[Gustav Von Vader 0]

thank you all for the responses, and particularly to platyfish for bailing me out of looking like a crazy person talking to myself. i apologize for not listing my specs in the initial post- bad etiquette, but i was hoping it was an easy, generic fix. i have sc4 deluxe running on windows xp using a 2.8 ghz single processor with over a gig ram. i am fully up to date with my nvidia drivers for my geforce 5700le, 256mb card. by no means a race car, but it was nice when i bought it a few years ago. the part that gets me is i have never had a problem like this for the almost 3 years i have been playing the same copy on the same machine. as far as hacking, i have learned more about that from you great folks on this board then i ever tried on my own, but i am confident i have not altered any command lines since i have not downloaded/ installed anything recently. i think captcity maybe on to something with the startup programs. i have a mcafee bundle that, on occasion, attempts a coup for control of my desktop. the worst part is i am unable to uninstall the mcafee junk- even after a somewhat recent reformat. i just cant seem to isolate what is different now then before this problem began. again, thanks to all the respondents, and any further brainstorming is greatly appreciated.

[Sam 163]

Well if you can't figure out what's causing it, maybe modifying the command line might help for some things. Eg you can make a new icon to start the game on your desktop and set things like the screen resolution, hardware/software rendering etc by adding the details to the target eg:

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -w -introff

I don't think you can set things like the city detail level from there though.

[Gustav Von Vader 0]

what a weird bug. it's fixed now, but i have no idea how. after taking a 2 week or so break, i was delighted to find everything back to normal upon my last session. about the only thing different (other then the date) was a thorough cleaning of the inside of my tower. no attempts to debug in the interim. again, many thanks to all respondents- i only wish i had a conclusive fix to share.

ps- sam, i am very interested in understanding about modifying things like the command line. i have no idea about the "intro smiley ff," at the end of the instructions. im pretty tech ignorant, but i try to be an attentive student. thank you for your help.

[CaptCity 4,752]

Originally posted by: Gustav Von Vader... i am very interested in understanding about modifying things like the command line. quote>

 

Might check this thread from SC4D for more command line options.

...i have no idea about the "intro smiley ff," at the end of the instructions.quote>

It is actually supposed to be -intro:"off" (without the quotes). This turns the game's intro sequence off. The forum software turns the colon 'o' into a smiley.

Hope this helps...

[tungston 19]

Just so we know what it looks like.

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -w -intro:off 

Leave out the -w if you don't want to play in a window.

[krbe 193]

What you need is to specify rendering mode in the command line. This is done by adding d:DirectX or d:openGL or d:Software for the different rendering modes (OpenGL is apparently an experimental mode).

However, be aware that forcing the game to use hardware settings (OpenGL or DirectX) when your video card isn't capable of it might actually yield worse result than software. Playing on a MacBook myself I can't say I have a smooth transition when zooming in or out or moving around in built-up / forested cities (takes a bit of loading time), but the result is better than forcing it to use DirectX or OpenGL. My command line currently looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1280x800x32 -intro:off d:Software"

LEGEND -f: force full screen mode. Necessary after I switched from windowed mode (-w switch). -r1280x800x32: my resolution and colour depth. 1280x800 is the default screen resolution for MacBooks, and since I want it to be reun in full screen mode it should be set to this. 32 means 32 bit colour depth, the highest colour depth supported by the game (the other choice is 16). CustomResolution:enabled: necessary switch to let the game support any other resolution than the standard 4:3 resolutions (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024). -intro:off: shuts off the splash screen and takes you directly to region view. d:Software: my rendering mode. I have tried with both OpenGL and DirectX, but software rendering gives a much better experience.

Refer to the already mentioned thread at SC4Deovtion for further information.

And for the rest of us; you can turn off the automatic smileys by checking the Do not parse emoticons option at the bottom of the text window, thus you'll be able to write colons and letters right after each other, like and without problems.