More realistic SC4 patch-Is it possible?

[Sevnur92 3]

If sim city 5 or 6 or something like that don't come out, is it possible to make a patch so it looks more like cities xl camera views?

[Djohaal 121]

The newbie is strong in this one...

  Edited June 18, 2011 by Djohaal  

[jacksunny 741]

Not until it becomes abandonware. You aren't allowed to modify the .exe and this would require it. The only people who could do something like that is EA or Maxis and that is highly unlikely.

[astronelson 339]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: noooooooooooooooooo.

Unlike Cities XL, SC4 is not a 3 D game. Most of the game models (except automata) are saved as a set of 2 D images corresponding to how they appear at the different zoom levels, the four rotations the game has, and during the day and at night. This gives the illusion of being 3 D, but if you change the view even slightly the illusion is lost. This is generally referred to as 2.5 D.

Anyway, I am pretty certain that the camera views are coded into the EXE, as Jacksunny said. Distributing modifications to this is illegal. I am reasonably certain modifying the EXE at all is illegal, and in any case may cause your game to stop working.

So no, we can't make a patch for that.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Hop over to the home page and have a look at the article on this.

[Sevnur92 3]

Not until it becomes abandonware. You aren't allowed to modify the .exe and this would require it. The only people who could do something like that is EA or Maxis and that is highly unlikely.

i don't know how to do things like that and if it was allowed to do that then i hoped someone could do that but thanks

Short answer: no.

Long answer: noooooooooooooooooo.

Unlike Cities XL, SC4 is not a 3 D game. Most of the game models (except automata) are saved as a set of 2 D images corresponding to how they appear at the different zoom levels, the four rotations the game has, and during the day and at night. This gives the illusion of being 3 D, but if you change the view even slightly the illusion is lost. This is generally referred to as 2.5 D.

Anyway, I am pretty certain that the camera views are coded into the EXE, as Jacksunny said. Distributing modifications to this is illegal. I am reasonably certain modifying the EXE at all is illegal, and in any case may cause your game to stop working.

So no, we can't make a patch for that.

So we are just gonna play this ''2.5 D'' game and let maxis and sc4 team sleep, the first SC4 realase were in 2003 and now it is 2011, and sim city societes was just a fail version for me. but you are are right somewere though. We can't do things with the .EXE until (like jacksunny said) it get abandonware.

Hop over to the home page and have a look at the article on this.

if they make a new one, then i hope it is not going to be a fail version or a boring version again!

[Merged posts - Astronelson]

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

So we are just gonna play this ''2.5 D'' game and let maxis and sc4 team sleep, the first SC4 realase were in 2003 and now it is 2011, and sim city societes was just a fail version for me. but you are are right somewere though. We can't do things with the .EXE until (like jacksunny said) it get abandonware.

That is correct. It is not that we don't know what to do, we are just not allowed to do it. We have an iron clad agreement with EA not to discuss outside patches nor to condone them. This thread is on very thin ice.

Here is a link to the home page article.

[jacksunny 741]

Even if the game were to become abandonware and somebody were to attempt to modify the .exe to make it 3-D, it would be next to impossible. It would render all current buildings in the game useless because they are 2.5-D, not 3-D. It would probably require a major modification to the B.A.T so that it renders in 3-D, and you would have to create a whole new set of buildings to replace the current ones. In other words it would be easier to create a whole new game than to do this.

  Edited June 18, 2011 by jacksunny  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Amen. See my comments on Dirk's article on the home page.

A new game should abandon DirectX (a Microsoft lock in) and go to OpenGL wich is a portable standard for graphics. Since I run on Linux, wine uses OpenGL anyway, and I don't notice any difference.

I really would settle for an update without changes if only they'd fix the bugs, and maybe extend the graphics ability to recognize and use new capabilities.

[Sevnur92 3]

Amen. See my comments on Dirk's article on the home page.

A new game should abandon DirectX (a Microsoft lock in) and go to OpenGL wich is a portable standard for graphics. Since I run on Linux, wine uses OpenGL anyway, and I don't notice any difference.

I really would settle for an update without changes if only they'd fix the bugs, and maybe extend the graphics ability to recognize and use new capabilities.

well i am running windows and you have linux. you like opengl and i like DirectX. it is in every game a option to chance it!

and i did read the article

Even if the game were to become abandonware and somebody were to attempt to modify the .exe to make it 3-D, it would be next to impossible. It would render all current buildings in the game useless because they are 2.5-D, not 3-D. It would probably require a major modification to the B.A.T so that it renders in 3-D, and you would have to create a whole new set of buildings to replace the current ones. In other words it would be easier to create a whole new game.

I know, you need to be geniuse.

  Edited June 18, 2011 by CaptCity  
Merged posts - again.

[Jasoncw 11,840]

Also, there isn't a group at Maxis devoted to SimCity, when they decide to make a new game they hire a new group. Sometimes they hire back some people who worked on previous SimCitys, but, for example, the people who worked on SC4 is a different group than who worked on SC3K, and that's a different group of people than SC2K, which is a different group than the original. And iirc, the last SimCity game that Will Wright was involved in was SC2K, so even he's not consistent between the games.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It doesn't take a genius of any kind to fix bugs in an existing program. Just the will and the money. There is a routine that catches the CTD, and if you are running a monitor as I do, you can see the catch events. If they can catch them, they are identified, so it is only a matter of some testing and fixing. EA are acting like a dog in a manger. It can't eat what's there, but won't let the horse have any.

Their intransigent attitude will one day destroy them. Hope it happens soon. All they seem to be doing these days is chasing the buck down the street.