SimCity 4 Deluxe reverting to 16bit color depth while in fullscreen hardware mode

[Commander_HK47 0]

So the other day i got back into playing around with Sim City 4 Deluxe edition. I noticed that the game was not running in 32bit color mode even though i had set it so in the game options and as well as in the additional commands in the start up string for the shortcut "-r1920x1200x32".

The game however will run in 32bit color mode under two conditions. The first being in full screen mode with software set as the rendering mode, and secondly is with hardware set as the rendering mode but only while running the game in window mode.

I have both patches installed 1.1.638 and 1.1640 for custom bat night lighting.

I have two ATi 4890 graphics cards in crossfire with the 10.5 driver set installed on  windows 7 x64.

I know that Sim City 4 had issues with some of the earlier ATi cards, however i thought that issue was cleared up some time ago.

[Tysons4 68]

i chose nvidia and im thankful for that choice... i play windowed at my native screen size with hardware rendering, 32 bit color depth, and can play multiple copies (which i do because i have many different game directories to choose from... different looks and whatnot) i have a dual montior setup and it is great to play 2 cities at a time... even playing from the same directory and working on 2 different cities in the same region...

system specs:

quad core amd 2.5ghz 9850 (clocked to 2.8ghz) <<< didint change this to run on one processor for simcity4

4 gigs 1066 ram

4 tb 7200 storage sata

9800gt geforce 1gb gddr3

2 24" 1680x1050 montiors

windows vista 64 (i have 7 64 but havnt installed it yet bc i need to find drivers for my nic)

my computer plays everything on max settings and i can play many differnt games at the same time...

you may need to look into getting a lesser version of direct x as it sounds like you are running a higher version than what the game wants. start with directx 7 and see what that does for your problem, and run the game in compatabliity mode for xp... set in the shortcut tab (right click game icon...select properties, click compatibility tab and run in compatability mode for windows xp

good luck

[Commander_HK47 0]

Originally posted by: Tysons4

i chose nvidia and im thankful for that choice... i play windowed at my native screen size with hardware rendering, 32 bit color depth, and can play multiple copies (which i do because i have many different game directories to choose from... different looks and whatnot) i have a dual montior setup and it is great to play 2 cities at a time... even playing from the same directory and working on 2 different cities in the same region...

system specs:

quad core amd 2.5ghz 9850 (clocked to 2.8ghz) <<< didint change this to run on one processor for simcity4

4 gigs 1066 ram

4 tb 7200 storage sata

9800gt geforce 1gb gddr3

2 24" 1680x1050 montiors

windows vista 64 (i have 7 64 but havnt installed it yet bc i need to find drivers for my nic)

my computer plays everything on max settings and i can play many differnt games at the same time...

you may need to look into getting a lesser version of direct x as it sounds like you are running a higher version than what the game wants. start with directx 7 and see what that does for your problem, and run the game in compatabliity mode for xp... set in the shortcut tab (right click game icon...select properties, click compatibility tab and run in compatability mode for windows xp

good luck

quote>

I'm sure the first part of your post most would agree isn't relevant to my OP, its more of a "sucks for you, look at me though" kinda of statement.

I am not sure on how to force the game to use a lesser version of Direct X. Is there a command i can use in the startup string? I have changed the game to run in windows xp compatibility SP2/3, but there is no effect on color depth.

Personally i do not think it has to do with any of that though. I think it is a coding issue with the game itself, in particularly with ATi card. I am looking into the video cards.sgr and the graphic rules.sgr to see if i can find a way to force it to run in 32bit color depth.

[Panda_Power 1]

Originally posted by: Commander_HK47

I'm sure the first part of your post most would agree isn't relevant to my OP, its more of a "sucks for you, look at me though" kinda of statement. quote>

Agree!

I'm curious...how can you tell it's running in 16 bit mode? Mine's set to 32 bit mode and I have an ATI card and I guess I'm just assuming mine's running in 32 bit mode.

[Commander_HK47 0]

There are a few was.

First you can tell by the gradient quality in most transparent textures while running the game, like in game clouds and the water texture quality.

You can also check in the "Apps" folder in the game's directory, In there you will find a log file called [pc name]-config-log.txt

in that file look for: Numbers, and this line screenBPP = xx, xx will be ether 16, or 32.

This file tells you among many other things, what Sim City 4 last ran in terms color depth mode.

[Panda_Power 1]

 I checked my text file in apps and yes, it's the same as yours...16 bit!

I never even thought about that before....just assumed it was 32 bit. It looks OK to me and any bits that didn't look so good I just put down to it being an old game! 

Now I'm gonna be stressing that's it's not looking as good as it could be.....wish I hadn't read this thread! lol

There's gotta be a fix or some file change we can make somewhere.........

[Commander_HK47 0]

Found this info:

-d:Software

This will run the game in Software Rendering Mode, which is required for unsupported 3d chip sets to run the game properly.

Cons:

Have to disable crossfire to run without screen flickering,

textures and objecst lack hardware smoothing effects.

No shadows

-d:DirectX/Software/OpenGL

This sets the graphics driver for the game to run under. Currently the DirectX and Software drivers are supported, while the OpenGL driver is currently experimental.

Well using -d:openGL will override the games default rendering method and it does render in 32 bit mode  full screen in hardware, but with mass z buffer and other texture anomalies . I still have not found any thing that allows me to use a spasiffic Direct3D version though.

Still though the -r1920x120x32 should force the game to use 32 bit color depth...

[Commander_HK47 0]

Been doing some research, and have found out that Sim City 4 Deluxe has a internal override for the graphics Rules.sgr file. Adjusting the "screenBPP" value between 16, and 32 changes the selection in the option in game, however while running in full screen mode while using hardware rending the game selects 16bit color regardless of the value set in the graphics rules.sgr. This can be confirmed via configuration log file in the apps directory.

It seems that if you remove the file from the games root directory, the game will start and use a set of built in rules. Additionally i think there could be a issue with the way Windows 7 handles direct3D. It seems that since Windows 7 uses Directx 11.

Iam not sure if all the older direct x files that would be need are present. I'm not sure if this is causing the issue with the game choising to revert to the lower color bit depth because of it.

I would like to know if there are others out there that are using windows 7 with a recent Ati based graphics card that have been able to run the game in full screen mode, with hardware rendering.

To be able to confrim if you are, simply look at your configle log file in the Apps directory in Sim City 4 Deluxe.

[Achim93 2]

bit of a necro here:

I'm having the same issues with my Intel HD4000.

I would also like to know if there is something I could do...

 

greetz

[Propfam 2,286]

On 7/5/2014 at 5:48 AM, Achim93 said:

bit of a necro here:

I'm having the same issues with my Intel HD4000.

I would also like to know if there is something I could do...

 

greetz

Try software rendering with borderless window.

Hope it helps

[rsc204 21,804]

59 minutes ago, elfrjz said:

Try software rendering with borderless window.

Do literally anything else, like spreading toothpaste on toast and sticking it to the next passing cat. Software rendering is only intended as a last ditch solution when all else fails option, it is highly recommended to avoid it. DirectX (Hardware) rendering is the best way to enjoy SC4.

Yes, SC4 regardless of hardware plays in 16-Bit colour, despite what people will tell you there is literally zero advantage to getting 32-bit colour, the difference is imperceptible. However, for some hardware it’s useful for compatibility reasons, if that affects you a special modified .exe can be found here.

Again, borderless windowed mode is not for everybody and as such I wouldn’t recommend that path unless you really want to play using it. The game runs better in full screen mode for most folks. 

[Propfam 2,286]

2 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Do literally anything else, like spreading toothpaste on toast and sticking it to the next passing cat. Software rendering is only intended as a last ditch solution when all else fails option, it is highly recommended to avoid it. DirectX (Hardware) rendering is the best way to enjoy SC4.

Yes, SC4 regardless of hardware plays in 16-Bit colour, despite what people will tell you there is literally zero advantage to getting 32-bit colour, the difference is imperceptible. However, for some hardware it’s useful for compatibility reasons, if that affects you a special modified .exe can be found here.

Again, borderless windowed mode is not for everybody and as such I wouldn’t recommend that path unless you really want to play using it. The game runs better in full screen mode for most folks. 

Yeah, so unfortunate we have only just software. Fingers crossed for @simmaster07 attempt.

[rsc204 21,804]

3 hours ago, elfrjz said:

Yeah, so unfortunate we have only just software.

Agreed, but in my experience, especially in the age of DX Wrappers, it's very rare that with a little effort DirectX can't be made to work.