Weird graphical choppiness in SimCity 4 Deluxe...

[Keatonguy 0]

Evenin', Simtropolis. I'm having a weird problem with SC4, one that I haven't experienced before. The graphics are really choppy, no matter how I adjust any of the visual settings the camera is always annoyingly jerky, like it's zigzaging back and forth while I scroll, and cars in my towns skip around like it's the Indy 500 at 2 frames per second. I know the problem isn't a lack of power, my computer can run Fallout 3 and Half-Life 2 almost lag-free.

Has anyone else encountered these issues? Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[Keegan V50 15]

Well I have the encountered almost the same problem as you Keaton..but mines have no problem to do with the cars..and i noticed that when i starter installing plugins...this thing started to appear..and i found out that the main source is the tv station...when i place them in my city..i noticed that there are zigzag lines and a very weird grey stretch line when the newsvan and the schoolbus( it is a different schoolbus...its a mod\plugin...not the maxis yellow schoolbus ) roam around my town...and the line comes from the newsvan and the schoolbus...

so i started to sort this out...i went through my plugins folder...then i went back in the game..and i noticed that my schoolbus mod has make this graphic error happening...it is a small white van schoolbus...if you have that mod..id recommend you to double check it...and i get to overcome this issue by deleting that schoolbus mod...all the best

[Dino007 1]

I had the sameproblem on Ati Radeon HD 2600 Pro, before on nVidia Geforce 6600 LE and now on GTX260 I don't have this problem!

[MassHelper 1]

It's the card problem..... Radeon Cards are like that.... I had Radeon cards and they were like that...

Mass

[Keatonguy 0]

Well, I don't have any plugins installed, I didn't even know anyone did anything with them until I found this site, and I've got an nVidia GeForce 9600 GT, so that can't be it either. Really, it just looks like everything is animating twice as fast as it's supposed to, but I've never seen anything like that happen outside of old DOS games... I've ever tried software mode, but no dice. Maybe I should try running it in OpenGL mode.

[LironTheChick 20]

Well, are you using a dual processing core system?

[The Schmoo 2]

I started having this problem recently as well. I've narrowed it down somewhat by disabling all plugins (renaming the folder and creating a new, empty one). From a fresh reboot, everything works beautifully, but if the computer's been running for a bit, and I've opened up my usual programs before starting up SC4, I get the same scrolling problem as the original poster.

I originally thought this may have been caused by something related to my media player, but it's not Winamp itself, nor does it seem to be caused by the last.fm plugin. My leading suspect at the moment is the plugin I'm using for my Logitech wireless keyboard,  "Logitech Multimedia Keyboard Plugin", lmkp.dll... if WinAmp loads without it, all is well, but using it seems to mess things up. However, disabling its features doesn't solve this problem.

(I know this because, having just checked on it, I have two versions of Winamp installed. I didn't know this. Argh. Anyway, only one of them has the plugin.)

I hate to give this up, but it might be the solution.

[ididntdidit 0]

Ya try upgrading your vid card or clearing BS files from the sim city folders. Try to run only one application at a time. Adjust the settings of your core duo processor (if you have one). Also are you running on a mac? Oh and Schmoo: Try not to bump dead threads

[The Schmoo 2]

Originally posted by: ididntdidit Ya try upgrading your vid card or clearing BS files from the sim city folders. Try to run only one application at a time. Adjust the settings of your core duo processor (if you have one). Also are you running on a mac? Oh and Schmoo: Try not to bump dead threadsquote>

Sorry mate, just figured it'd be better to use an old thread where someone had the same problem than start a new thread over it (plus, it's only three weeks old, so it's not dead yet, just sleeping).

Forgot to post my specs - Athlon X2 4400+ (with the Dual-Core Optimizer installed), two gigs of RAM, and a Radeon x1950Pro (so it could certainly be an ATi-related thing), Windows XP Pro.

EDIT: I reinstalled the Optimizer and now it works. I dunno what's up now.