Simcity 4 crashing

[__A 792]

Hi, I've been having trouble with building big cities because every time the game crashes back to the desktop, this also sometimes happens when I use the rail viaduct.

Is there something that stops the game from crashing or something because I'm trying to make a cj but I can't develop my city....

Thanks

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Hi, I've been having trouble with building big cities because every time the game crashes back to the desktop, this also sometimes happens when I use the rail viaduct.

Is there something that stops the game from crashing or something because I'm trying to make a cj but I can't develop my city....

Thanks

A walk through this thread may be of considerable help.

This legacy game is rather unstable on modern multi-core machines and operating systems. It was written more than 10 years ago and released in 2003, so it requires some hand springs and TLC. Your best defense is to use the in-game save (CTRL+s) frequently to prevent re-do's.

[AdoxxBE 289]

You can run the game on only 1 core, and your game will not crash. But believe me, after a while changing this will get very annoying so I suggest what A Nonny Moose told you. Save regulary!

[__A 792]

Ok thanks, I've been saving a lot as well. But sometimes I just finish loading the city and less than a minute without doing anything it crashes.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You can run the game on only 1 core, and your game will not crash. But believe me, after a while changing this will get very annoying so I suggest what A Nonny Moose told you. Save regularly!

To force single core usage, my friends, you need to add the option -CPUcount:1 to the target line of your shortcut. Note the space before the hyphen. Both are necessary.

For a comprehensive list of options look here.

[AdoxxBE 289]

Damn Noony, you really know everything i'll try it right away ^^

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Damn Noony, you really know everything i'll try it right away ^^

Hot damn! It's Nonny or John. A noony is a quickie at lunch time.

[AdoxxBE 289]

Oops, sorry

[simplybatman 1]

Thanks Nonnymoose for that -CPUcount:1 tip. I had been playing vanilla SC4Deluxe for years and just recently started adding custom content to my game,I was used to the occaisonal crash from not saving often enough,but after getting Gmax,Bat,LE,Plugin Manager,NAM and downlaoding a few items from the Stex and making some of my own was getting lots of CTD's. Changing that target line seemed to have fixed it. No crashes since doing it. Awesome!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Thanks Nonnymoose for that -CPUcount:1 tip. I had been playing vanilla SC4Deluxe for years and just recently started adding custom content to my game,I was used to the occaisonal crash from not saving often enough,but after getting Gmax,Bat,LE,Plugin Manager,NAM and downlaoding a few items from the Stex and making some of my own was getting lots of CTD's. Changing that target line seemed to have fixed it. No crashes since doing it. Awesome!

'Vanilla' usually means without the Rush Hour Expansion Pack (Deluxe). If you are able to use custom content and the BAT, you have more than the original game.

[simplybatman 1]

By Vanilla i meant I had the deluxe version unpatched,same stock version I bought in 2004 or so. Thanks to the community here i did some reading and finally got into upgrading the game and working on custom content. Gotta say the NAM ROCKS!!

[Jazzmaster 716]

A little thought about crashing...

Today I was enjoying a thorough SimCity 4 session whilst listening to The Jazzmasters and getting some things done around the apartment, and I spent a good amount of that time going in and out of the game messing around with a few things such as the Diagonal Bridge Enabler.

Tonight I was working in a city prone quite a bit to crashing (more likely than not due to its complexity) so I was saving early and often. I'm a bit vexed, though, since there weren't any crashes at all and there's usually eventually a freeze or crash no matter how early or often I saved. One thing I noted was that my slope mod was not present...it was downloaded ages ago from Ennedi on the LEX and can be quite aggressive (I sometimes have to take it out because it keeps me from bridges irregularly. The game reports an 'unsuitable grade for construction', even if both sides of the desired span are perfectly equal in elevation). It had never, ever crossed my mind, but could slope mods cause more frequent crashes somehow by modifying the game's terrain parameters and increasing instability? Probably not--and I say this because the NAM in all its complexity and depth of modding never causes a crash if installed properly and proper care is taken regarding puzzle pieces--but I figured I'd chip that in.

Some food for thought...

  Edited January 29, 2012 by Yoshiisland  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

^ Allow me to add a course to your banquet. I picked up a slope mod awhile back, and ran with it for a couple of days. Not only did I get a lot of crashes, but the whole surface texture seemed to be spongy, and there were spots which, if I so much as dropped a street texture on them crashed immediately. Eventually the region I was working on became corrupt and unworkable. I removed the slope mod and had to re-render my region much to my disgust. I don't remember whose slope mod it was, but it was from the STEX. My general feeling on slope mods is that the cure is worse than the disease.

[Jazzmaster 716]

^Hmmm...yep. The slope mod was definitely doing it. Guess I'm going to have to change my routine, and leave it inside the Temp folder unless I plan on doing any work with my transportation infrastructure on interchanging slopes. Always helps to plan ahead.

EDIT: All slope mod documentation should note what it does to the terrain textures. I've always known that as a drawback, and learned to adjust. The fact that the creator of the mod you had been using didn't mention it meant he probably didn't test it thoroughly enough, since something like that would've probably stuck out. Unless he mentioned it in his description as well?

  Edited January 31, 2012 by Yoshiisland  

[jacksunny 741]

Perhaps you had another mod that was interfering with the slope mod.