SimCity 4 Graphics Problem (Windows 7)

[ColdMoney21 2]

Well I just recently installed SimCity 4 Deluxe on my Windows 7 PC. Installation went smoothly and then i installed the EP1 and EP2 updates. Currently I'm running SimCity 4 in the maximum settings using hardware rendering and a resolution of 1280x1024.

When I start to make my city, i notice that when i build a road, the road is invisible (i still see the construction cars and people) when its in construction but once a section is done it appears. The road doesn't appear transparent like it should be when its in construction.

Then i start seeing cars turning invisible in some areas (sometimes i only see their wheels). I'm not sure why that happens. Then I have an issue where transparent buildings turn invisible. For example if i want to plant a powerplant (its transparent at first) and if i start moving the transparent building around, some parts turn invisible.

*I posted some images of the problem. (If that helps)*

*I also installed the DirectX Web Installer. (That didn't help)*

*I also tryed SimCity 4 in compatibility mode. (That didn't help)*

*I ran SimCity 4 in Software rendering mode. (Made the game even worse)*

Well is there anything i can do to fix this? Would it help to change settings in the NVIDIA Control Panel? Or is there nothing i can do about it?

Specs:

Windows 7 Ultimate

1 GB of RAM

AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0 GHz)

NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS

[Yuu Caa Sim 55]

I'm 90% sure this is a graphics card driver issue. Incidentally, I have the same graphics card as you (except it's the mobile version). I have no problems running the game.

I also have all the settings set the same as you as far as I can tell (I have some other settings and a few that you have I don't have).

What's your Forceware version? (Click on "System Information" on the NVIDIA Settings window you've showed us) I've heard that there are problems in running the game with some of the newer ones. I'm currently using version 156.69, the same that came with my computer. You can try and see if that one works, or try updating the drivers to the latest version.

One final thing; From what I recall, Windows Vista and 7 are a bit of a memory hog. You should try and install some more RAM.

[ColdMoney21 2]

Originally posted by: yunxiang

I'm 90% sure this is a graphics card driver issue. Incidentally, I have the same graphics card as you (except it's the mobile version). I have no problems running the game.

I also have all the settings set the same as you as far as I can tell (I have some other settings and a few that you have I don't have).

What's your Forceware version? (Click on "System Information" on the NVIDIA Settings window you've showed us) I've heard that there are problems in running the game with some of the newer ones. I'm currently using version 156.69, the same that came with my computer. You can try and see if that one works, or try updating the drivers to the latest version.

One final thing; From what I recall, Windows Vista and 7 are a bit of a memory hog. You should try and install some more RAM.quote>

Well currently my GeForce 8400 GS version is 196.21. Its pretty up to date. Unless this is the reason why i'm having trouble with SimCity 4.

I'm not sure if the drivers is what's causing this but if your saying that you have the same GeForce 8400 GS card with version 156.69 as your drivers and that SimCity 4 is running great, then that means i need to install those drivers and that might fix the problem.

Hmm. i might try that.

[TomSe001 0]

Try using 191.07 drivers instead. They were the only drivers in the 19x range that worked well for me and SC4.

[DPMorse 2]

Have you tried turning off visual themes for the game?

(right-click on the icon and choose properties. In the Compatibility tab check the Disable visual themes box)

 

[ColdMoney21 2]

Originally posted by: TomSe001

Try using 191.07 drivers instead. They were the only drivers in the 19x range that worked well for me and SC4.quote>

Hey thanks! Finally, I can enjoy SimCity 4 without those wierd graphic bugs. SimCity 4 runs great now!

But I still wonder why would the new graphics card drivers mess up the game? Strange. And I also thought that new graphics cards should run old games like nothing. Oh well. I'm happy now

Originally posted by: DPMorse

Have you tried turning off visual themes for the game?

(right-click on the icon and choose properties. In the Compatibility tab check the Disable visual themes box) quote>

Actually if you run Windows 7, usually it automatically changes the theme to windows aero basic when you run a game. Its a cool feature.

[thingfishs 416]

I'm having some similar issues after reinstalling my windows 7 & SC4 setup. Where previously everything worked fine and the menus scrolled smoothly using the mouse wheel, now there are major lags and the menu graphics flash on & off. Also there are intermittent graphic freak outs that cause all manner of bizarre objects onscreen, and sometimes forces me to restart the computer. (some of these are quite similar to the photos in the first post) I am guessing it's a card issue but my initial searching didn't make it particularly clear what I needed. My card is a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT, running in a 2.4ghz core2duo laptop. Thanks for any clues that can be suggested.

[packersfan 666]

This is really confusing me...it must be something with Windows 7 or a new plugin...because I am using the same system (8 GB RAM, NVidia GeForce 9500 GS) that I played SC4 on great when it had Vista...now with 7 the game has a ton of graphic glitches and is sluggish...I also play SC4 on Windows XP on an inferior laptop. I actually just copied the SimCity folder from the laptop to the new Vista desktop and played and it ran great. Now 7 screws it up.

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Technical Schulmania

Adventures with SC4 and Windows 7, 64 bit color and all that stuff...

All sorts of oddities and drama have transpired after the sudden death of my computer and the launching of SC4 on a new and three generations newer computer. The vintage 2005 computer was on its last legs when a wireless router was added and it could not take it anymore. The proverbial straw that broke the cyber camel's back, if you will. So, in comes the new vintage 2011 computer, with its quad core processor, 64 bit graphics and Windows 7. Since this sudden transition, alol sorts of oddities, vagaries, glitches and mayhem has ensued in the world of Sim City and Schulmania.

The first problem was than over 150 plug ins disappeared, victim of a new, overly aggressive antivirus program which summarily dismissed them into oblivion without asking first. Then, washed out colors and large volumes of vehicles... vehicles visible through buildings. A host of other oddities started cropping up. When I saved tiles, the region view showed some odd colorations and borders. But the biggest problem was when a tile suddenly disappeared, leaving a big hole. Multiple attempts to copy over the tile from the now backup drive were unsuccessful. I gave u p and tried using an intermediary region to import the backup tile under various settings until I finally got it to not disappear. So, I built a new region, named Schulmania & Harar 2.0, and copied over every file and imported them. About 40 tiles in, it appears to be working. The pivotal missing tile has been saved for last. Keep your fingers crossed.

In the mean time, here's some of the mayhem and foolishness Sim City is dishing up for me these days. If you are using Windows 7, 64 bit color (set to 32 in SC4...) hardware graphic rendering, and so forth, have you seen any of this? And, anyone, do you have any suggestions? I am including a representative sampling of the problems with the exception of the region view picture. Any helpful advice on settings, tweaking, or anything else would be welcome.

So, without further ado, see what fun SC4 hath wrought (the pictures are not from Schulmania, but from an older region I use as a test area for stuff).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Aha!  Technical overload.  This is a legacy program, and, Herr Doktor, it does not appreciate your new operating theatre.

First, and probably the most important, it does not run with 64-bit graphics, and you should arrange for it to run with, at most, 32-bit graphics.  And while you are at it, arrange your graphics hardware options so that they are all set to "program selected".  The game doesn't even use anti-aliasing (diagonal smoothing), let alone anything else.  It will often crash in self-defense.

Your photo gallery is fascinating, but try setting the game to run in XP compatibility and consider loading DirectX 9.0c for it.  Apparently both versions of DirectX can be present concurrently.

Tell Igor to get off that table before you electtocute him.

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Good news! The crisis is nearly over! Graphics bugs are down, loading is smoother and I am nearly able to restore the missing tile as it was. The only problem I am seeing now is that any tile I open will run fine but when I exit to region view; it is missing a sliver off of the bottom. Anyone seen that one before?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Known problem and harmless.  Try setting your graphics vertical resolution to less than 1200 ppi, open the region and close it.  You may have to resave each city, but this is caused by rendering a map with a resolution .ge. 1200 ppi vertical.  You should be able to run in a higher density, but you may have to rerender your map at a lower density to fix this.  You could transfer the map data (.jpg, config.bmp) to another temporary region, set your resolution to something like 1280 x 1024 (mine) and rerender.

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Awesome! You are the man!!!!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You are welcome.  Seems that EA shoved the game onto the market before the guys at Maxis finished the QA.

[Schulmanator 5,787]

Schulmanator Salvation

Map Restoration Party!

(Not Starring Christian Bale)

Thanks to a great deal of technical support from FCapt Splunt and various ST members in the Technical & CJ threads, Schulmania has been completely healed from its recent bout with Windows! The only lingering issue is the missing plug ins. And I will tend to that soon enough. So, to celebrate the salvation of the region, I am offering a new map. And it is indeed a rare day when I do so, as this is only the 33rd map ever made for Schulmania (and some of those are variants of one another). The map shows the area where the missing tile was located and I have identified some of the towns shown in recent updates. An added bonus is that it incorporates Harar, thus being the first map to shown the region added to the south of Schulmania.

The offending tile was Harar B-1, which is indicated on the map. Added to the map are several sites of interest. You see the first view of Huddleston Bay and several sites in Harar, including a future update site. Several of the recent Schulmania update sites can be seen as well, including Trixie Port, Stovokor, and Sunbright. One city not yet finished is shown as unreleased and a future update area is west of Schulmanukau at the national park site on the Wirdleonia River. One can also see the Schulmappalachian Mountains, high peaks whose ridgeline now serves as the land border between Schulmania and Harar. An interesting side note: west of the offending tile, off the map, is the location of Schulmauckland. You can read about Schulmauckland in its own thread in the original CJ Forum area (https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=36&threadid=107525&enterthread=y ).

Please enjoy this rare treat of an updated map. If you're good boys and girls, I will make maps more frequently. So, keep your SimHalos on!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Glad we were of service.  If you like, The Moose Factory would be glad to host a party for you.  Drop in, and we can make arrangements.

[Sherman74 0]

I had graphic glitches and then installed the game in VMLite with XPMode http://www.vmlite.com/

Works perfect now and no lag either.

Its not a perfect sollution but worth trying. And also; i`ve seen on the forums people installing SC4

in Program files folder. Thats not a good idea. Make a Games folder in C: and install there.

This could prevent all sort of issues.

I have not played this game for very long yet so im not an expert. But i hope some of this

will help anyone.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Interesting that you should feel the necessity of installing a virtual machine.  That might be a good solution for W7 users, which is what I assume your platform is.  Legacy games of all sorts might very well run better on an XP virtual machine.

What computer are you running?  Fast machines can certainly take advantage of virutal machines.  Are you running any other VMs at the same time?

[Sherman74 0]

I installed a virtuall machine just as a last resort to try out older games that have some problems on win 7.

I really dont use it that often because I have found other sollutions allong the way  to get them running inside my OS.

I have to say that the virtuall machine  I have (VMLite) didnt support directdraw and I have to run SC4 in software mode.

It tend to run games that have graphics problems in win7, usually if you have a nvidia card.

My computer is pretty fast and I have lots of ram (6 GB) and ram helps when running VM as it uses as much ram as

you allocate to it and more is better.

So VM is a last resort but you can at least play a lot of older games in it that have compatibility issues with win7.