Automata related graphics bugs

[benjames98 7]

After not playing Simcity for a while, I decided to install it on my new computer. After downloading a handful of buildings, some automata, NAM, and a few other things, I noticed cars driving on buildings in certain zoom levels:

It also happens with Maxis automata, and pedestrians. Another glitch is that the cars disappear by going under shadows. By zooming in to the closest or next to closest zoom levels the glitches don't happen. I have all of the graphics options on high, the highest resolution and all of the optional things on. (Variable speed automata, UI translucency, etc.) Changing the graphics settings down doesn't help and seems to make it worse at times.

Computer specs:

64-bit Windows 7, 3.20 GHz processor, 8 GB RAM, Intel HD Graphics.

The game is perfectly playable with the glitches, so it's not urgent, but it would be nice to fix.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

First, check your hardware graphics controls and make sure all the options are set to "application selected" or equivalent. New graphics cards have features the game cannot use nor swallow.

You have ample memory, so no swap issue should appear.

You may have downloaded some lots that conflict with each other in some areas. Did you test each one, one at a time, while you were putting them in? If not, I recommend you remove all of them except the NAM, and put them back one at at time, testing in a sandbox region's city as you make each add. Not all the plugins dance with each other, and there is no way, given the number of them, that they can be generically tested, even by the creators. Only you can test them in combination as you build up your plugin suite. Tedious, but there you are. It's the only way to be sure.

Unlike a lot of games that allow plugins, this one is almost entirely user stuff now, and there are just millions of combinations.

If you have more than, say, 30 or 40 plugins, you can do this by binary search, testing the plugins in halves. Split the plugins into two folders on your desk top, and test with no plugins at all. If the game misbehaves, you need to check your update status. Your game version number must be at least 638 to use the NAM.

If all is OK, put the first half back, and test. If this is OK, you put back half of the remaining, and test again. If this is OK, you keep going. If the problem appears, you remove the last group added, put the rest back, and continue halving until you have one left. If everything else is OK, this is the culprit.

This method works using the powers of 2. If you have less than 1025 plugins, you need to make, at most, nine tests.