Windows 7 64 - CTD when I reconcile edges or try to build roads or buildings

[kittenOFchaos 0]

Hello,

Having read a thread over at civfanatics about SC4 I was motivated enough to re-install it and get creative.

The game installed fine and I can enter the map and even add trees and name my city, however if I reconcile the edges or try to build roads or buildings the screen goes black and it returns me to desktop.

I'm pretty sure I'm patched up to date and I removed any mods just incase they were causing the issue.

Does anyone have any tips?

I'm running Windows 7 64-Ultimate on a I7 with a Radeon 5850HD graphics card.

Many thanks,

TrailblazingScot

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, facts are needed:

1. Verify that the build version of your .exe for the game is at 1,1,640 or higher. If not you are missing patches.
2. Please describe your machine with special emphasis on your GPU.
3. Make sure all the options in the GPU hardware are set to "application selected" or equivalent wording.

The kind of crashes you are having is symptomatic of insufficient resources or an unpatched game.

[kittenOFchaos 0]

Well, facts are needed:

1. Verify that the build version of your .exe for the game is at 1,1,640 or higher. If not you are missing patches.
2. Please describe your machine with special emphasis on your GPU.
3. Make sure all the options in the GPU hardware are set to "application selected" or equivalent wording.

The kind of crashes you are having is symptomatic of insufficient resources or an unpatched game.

As I said I'm patched up to date 1.1.640.0 and I also said I have an I7 with a Radeon 5850HD.

Patching isn't the issue and my computer isn't going to have insufficient resources (in more detail I7 CPU 920 @2.67GHz with 6GM of RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and a 1GB Radeon 5850HD graphics card with the latest drivers).

It just seems weird that it CTD only when I try reconciling edges or building things. I've even been able to lower terrain.

[Jazzmaster 716]

Well, facts are needed:

1. Verify that the build version of your .exe for the game is at 1,1,640 or higher. If not you are missing patches.
2. Please describe your machine with special emphasis on your GPU.
3. Make sure all the options in the GPU hardware are set to "application selected" or equivalent wording.

The kind of crashes you are having is symptomatic of insufficient resources or an unpatched game.

As I said I'm patched up to date 1.1.640.0 and I also said I have an I7 with a Radeon 5850HD.

Patching isn't the issue and my computer isn't going to have insufficient resources (in more detail I7 CPU 920 @2.67GHz with 6GM of RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and a 1GB Radeon 5850HD graphics card with the latest drivers).

It just seems weird that it CTD only when I try reconciling edges or building things. I've even been able to lower terrain.

This game is pretty old, and doesn't seem to much care for newer hardware. The patches are to your own benefit, as they enable nightlights on buildings you download from the internet.

The main issue is probably your i7. You need to add -CPUCount:1 and -EH:Off to your command line; this will help stabilize the game. You also need to save early and often, especially in larger cities. This is from experience. This game simply can't handle multiple cores, and unfortunately its either push the entire game on a single core and watch it get really hot, or keep having crashing issues.

I have only one city tile that has crashing issues, and I suspect its size and complexity is to blame. Newer computers have no problem pushing all sorts of 'things' on any program, and this is a real problem for older programs like this. SimCity 4 stands out, because its writing is horrible (NO program should crash this often, but many don't expect folks to be using such an old program, especially a game, nine years after release).

[kittenOFchaos 0]

Well, facts are needed:

1. Verify that the build version of your .exe for the game is at 1,1,640 or higher. If not you are missing patches.
2. Please describe your machine with special emphasis on your GPU.
3. Make sure all the options in the GPU hardware are set to "application selected" or equivalent wording.

The kind of crashes you are having is symptomatic of insufficient resources or an unpatched game.

As I said I'm patched up to date 1.1.640.0 and I also said I have an I7 with a Radeon 5850HD.

Patching isn't the issue and my computer isn't going to have insufficient resources (in more detail I7 CPU 920 @2.67GHz with 6GM of RAM, Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit and a 1GB Radeon 5850HD graphics card with the latest drivers).

It just seems weird that it CTD only when I try reconciling edges or building things. I've even been able to lower terrain.

This game is pretty old, and doesn't seem to much care for newer hardware. The patches are to your own benefit, as they enable nightlights on buildings you download from the internet.

The main issue is probably your i7. You need to add -CPUCount:1 and -EH:Off to your command line; this will help stabilize the game. You also need to save early and often, especially in larger cities. This is from experience. This game simply can't handle multiple cores, and unfortunately its either push the entire game on a single core and watch it get really hot, or keep having crashing issues.

I have only one city tile that has crashing issues, and I suspect its size and complexity is to blame. Newer computers have no problem pushing all sorts of 'things' on any program, and this is a real problem for older programs like this. SimCity 4 stands out, because its writing is horrible (NO program should crash this often, but many don't expect folks to be using such an old program, especially a game, nine years after release).

As I suspected it was nothing to do with the hardware - I run plenty of old games without any issues. Whilst reading through the forum it is really surprising some of the advice given. The worst has to be the person implying that the problem one chap had was a virus...great for wasting someones time with running virus checks.

Thanks Yoshiisland, but adding those tags to the command line did nothing useful in my case.

I should have thought of and mentioned it earlier, but I'm running a custom region. Didn't think anything of it as it had worked all those many years ago when I had downloaded it. It is a real shame that the issue appears to be with this custom region as it is a really exciting layout. Running on Fairview I don't have any issues - a pity that region is so dull.

So now I should research why this custom region causes issues...

  Edited September 22, 2011 by kittenOFchaos  

[Jazzmaster 716]

For that, I would PM the author. I've never heard of a region causing a problem on its own but this may be the first time.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I do custom regions of my own all the time. I don't have any problems that are not in the game ordinarily.

When you got this region, was it just landscape or did it have some content as well? If it has content, if any of it is custom, you'll have to be sure you have it all in your plugins.