Graphics problem

[Petarkco 0]

I'm running SC4 Deluxe, with the latest patch.

After a while when playing I start to have major graphics problems.

This is an example of one of the problems (this one happens when scrolling)

My specs:

AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.9GHz

4GB RAM

Nvidia Geforce GTX460 1GB

500GB hard drive

Page file: 2070MB used, 6114MB available.

[rubeszilla 12]

Well, I'm no expert, but if it only happens when scrolling then you have an nvidia card there which should handle 'backing store' to make scrolling smooth.

Try this from EA's website:

"Many cards (including the ATI Radeons) lack support for a backing store, which SimCity 4 utilizes. For those cards, SimCity 4 is forced to disable the rendering of many of the view objects (like buildings) during scroll. This is intentional to ensure responsiveness while scrolling. You can enable the rendering of all objects by editing your "Graphics Rules.sgr" which is found in the Sim City 4 directory installed to your hard drive. With any text editor go into this file and change the following property from true to false:

property noPartialBackingStoreCopies false

Note, however, that doing so can adversely effect scrolling speeds."

Give that a whirl dude, see how you go...

  Edited March 15, 2011 by rubeszilla  

[Petarkco 0]

Well, I'm no expert, but if it only happens when scrolling then you have an nvidia card there which should handle 'backing store' to make scrolling smooth.

Try this from EA's website:

"Many cards (including the ATI Radeons) lack support for a backing store, which SimCity 4 utilizes. For those cards, SimCity 4 is forced to disable the rendering of many of the view objects (like buildings) during scroll. This is intentional to ensure responsiveness while scrolling. You can enable the rendering of all objects by editing your "Graphics Rules.sgr" which is found in the Sim City 4 directory installed to your hard drive. With any text editor go into this file and change the following property from true to false:

property noPartialBackingStoreCopies false

Note, however, that doing so can adversely effect scrolling speeds."

Give that a whirl dude, see how you go...

As I said that's one of the examples of the problems, there are other problems that makes things disappear and pretty much make the game unplayable.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

First, hop over to the control panel for your GPU and set all the options it has to "application selected" or words to that effect. SC4 is a legacy game and doesn't understand modern options on GPU cards.

Then, look further in this list for a thread on fixing zooms and scrolls which suggests getting rid of vertex shaders.

[smstevenms 7]

This is fairly new issue I've experienced, and I have tried creating a new region to fix - to no avail. Anyone have a clue as to why this is happing and or how to correct? This is most apparent on the larger city sqaures and doesn't show a glitch after opening city in mayor mode.

PS, as a side question/request, where could I get a color template for proper sizes when creating regions (SCT). Every time I try to create different sizes I only get the same size either smallest or largest. Some colors combinations cause the image to turn squares black, which become water. Any help would be nice, advice or link to proper thread.

Thanks.

[SimCity4IE 202]

Change the resolution to something smaller; that should fix it.

[smstevenms 7]

Change the resolution to something smaller; that should fix it.

Thanks for the advice, but two problems with that. 1) Never had any issue before (same PC), 2) I have NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (x2)... my card can handle it, I only have 4gigs of ram but I don't think that would be an issue. This has to be another issue.

[tungston 19]

Change the resolution to something smaller; that should fix it.

Thanks for the advice, but two problems with that. 1) Never had any issue before (same PC), 2) I have NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT (x2)... my card can handle it, I only have 4gigs of ram but I don't think that would be an issue. This has to be another issue.

This is a known issue when regions are rendered at a horizonal resolution of 1200 or higher. Sometimes it can be corrected by saving the city at a lower resolution, then going back to the higher one.

[smstevenms 7]

Tungston that actually worked. Strange bug uh. Thx

[jdenm8 362]

Tungston that actually worked. Strange bug uh. Thx

Indeed it is a strange bug. Considering the benchmark Testing computer specs are specified in GraphicsRules.sgr and the resolution specified there is higher than the one that triggers this bug.

MLVD,

I get that on my laptop with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD3200 a little bit. Scrolling in the opposite direction or changing zooms a few times usually fixes it and the occurance is rare. Lots of small models tend do it more often than larger models, but It hasn't happened since a recent driver update.

  Edited March 28, 2011 by jdenm8  

[smstevenms 7]

MLVD - The scrolling drag could be caused by a few things. Other processes in background, improper ventalation (over heating), region size/growth all could have issue. I'm not familar with your graphics card, I have dual Nvidia GeForce 9800M GT so I never get this during game play. However from time to time I had this problem while scrolling webpages when my graphic cards fan wasn't venting as it was designed, replaced, and all was fine.

  Edited March 30, 2011 by smstevenms  

[EXVAS3221 5]

This is fairly new issue I've experienced, and I have tried creating a new region to fix - to no avail. Anyone have a clue as to why this is happing and or how to correct? This is most apparent on the larger city sqaures and doesn't show a glitch after opening city in mayor mode.

PS, as a side question/request, where could I get a color template for proper sizes when creating regions (SCT). Every time I try to create different sizes I only get the same size either smallest or largest. Some colors combinations cause the image to turn squares black, which become water. Any help would be nice, advice or link to proper thread.

Thanks.

lol, that's what my problem is any time i use 1600X1200. I'm using a LED, and still do not have a full screen?

Change the resolution to something smaller; that should fix it.

It works for me, but still do have full screen?

[EXVAS3221 5]

I'm running SC4 Deluxe, with the latest patch.

After a while when playing I start to have major graphics problems.

This is an example of one of the problems (this one happens when scrolling)

My specs:

AMD Athlon II X4 635 2.9GHz

4GB RAM

Nvidia Geforce GTX460 1GB

500GB hard drive

Page file: 2070MB used, 6114MB available.

you should try reloading the game, and get the patching the game up, this work for me in the past? good luck

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

First, check your graphics hardware control panel in the Operating System. Make sure all 3D options are set to "application selected" or equivalent wording. Looks to me as though some option has kicked in inappropriately. Does this go away if you press the 1 (numeric) key to zoom all the way out?

Also make sure you are completely up to date on patch fixes. If you are, your game version will be 1,1,640 or greater.