Two persistent problems - ploppable plugins and disk permissions

[BuffaloMaine 4]

I'm new to the forum but have been successfully running SC4 Rush Hour Deluxe for awhile now with lots of plugins on a Mac running OS X 10.6.8. I've solved a number of problems myself and have managed to stop it from crashing. All-and-all it's running pretty well right now with the NAM and SC4 updates installed as directed by several of the posters here. However I have two persistent problems that are annoying me and that I can't find a solution to here.

1. Many of the ploppable plugins I have downloaded (as opposed to growable) simply don't show up in any menu when in the game. Even if I didn't have all the dependencies (which I do), they should still show up in the menu. But it's as if the game never even loaded them for some reason, and yet it loads other files in the same folder just fine. Anyone have this problem and, if so, what's the fix?

2. Every time I run the game it screws up my disk permissions. This of course doesn't do much initially, but after awhile it can slow down my computer and cause other annoying problems. Most of the disk permission errors appear to be associated with Java. Anyone else have this issue? What's the fix?

Thanks!

[BuffaloMaine 4]

Anyone?

[Hamish 1,369]

Yeah, I have a few ideas...

1. Can you list a few of the downloads that you are experiencing problems with, and it would also be helpful if you could show us a screenshot of your plugins folder. I think there must be a conflicting plugin somewhere or you haven't quite installed the plugins correctly.

2. I have never had this problem before, but since you have said it involves disc permissions then I have a few options for you. Back up all cities, regions, albums and plugins, then uninstall and reinstall SimCity4. Try running that new version of SC4 before putting your plugins and other saved files back in to see if it is working correctly. If this doesn't work open Disc Utility. Im not sure what you do in here, but it will fix the problem. You'll probably want to click "Repair Disc Permissions" possiably for the SC4 disc, but it may be for your Macintosh hard drive. I have not done this before, so google around to try and get some extra knowledge on disc utility before you try this, although I think it will probably fix your problems.

Hope this helps.

[BuffaloMaine 4]

Thanks for getting back to me. The following are two screenshots. I have the SC4 update and the NAM as well as one or two other things (as you can see) in /Users/Shared/.../Plugins (this is screenshot #1) while I have the buildings and lots in /Documents/.../Plugins (screenshot #2) with textures and props in a folder under the latter that should load first (i.e. I followed the directions given here on Simtropolis and in any Read Me file that comes with a given download).

Specific examples of files that don't show up anywhere include the B87_USA_SpeedLimitSigns, some ploppable cows that I downloaded, and some textures/dependencies that are there but nevertheless the files that use them don't "see" them (e.g. a lot of MTP stuff).

As for repairing my disk permissions, I pretty much do it every time I run the game now but it would be nice not to have to.

The screenshots:

[Hamish 1,369]

I don't know how your got a plugins folder somewhere inside your shared folder. If you installed your game there, then that might be alright, but I don't think I'd recommend it. I place most of mine in the Plugins folder somewhere inside the documents folder.

Having the textures in a folder that loads first might also be your problem, it may make sense to want to load it first, but try taking the files out of that folder so they load where the author intended them to load, because some might need to load last instead of first.

I am going to suggest that you back up any SC4 files that you don't want to loose, like cities, your plugins, albums, anything you want to keep, and then delete and re-install the game. Install it into your applications folder.

There is something wrong with the files, which is why its giving you a disk permissions error. Re-installing, it might just fix anything that may have gone wrong in the previous installation. A couple of years ago I was having multiple problems like you are, re-installing seemed to fix those problems for me.

[BuffaloMaine 4]

Thanks. There are two Plugins folders, both having been automatically created on installation. The first (which is under the SimCity Data folder) was placed (with other things) under Shared according to instructions given here which apparently originated with Maxis itself. Then the second was placed in the Documents folder. There was a post somewhere that outlined how and why to do this and I can't, for the life of me, find it again. There was also a guide somewhere on this site that suggested loading the textures and props first but, again, I have not been able to find it (though, admittedly, I haven't looked for more than about ten minutes).

Anyhow, I have re-installed the game (more than once, I think) and I'm still getting the disk permission errors. But perhaps I'll try placing the game in Applications and see if that helps (though I should note it was originally loaded in a sub-folder of Applications and still had trouble).

In all honesty, this is not a surprise. I never seem to have problems that are easily solved.

  Edited July 17, 2011 by BuffaloMaine