Weird Side Affect From Crash To Desktop

[memedoug85 36]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas about something that happens after a CTD.

Fair enough CTD is annoying and whenever it happens I yell out a huge profanity but when I load the game back up, it reverts back to a save point several ago!

Eg.

I save city A and exit to region

Load city B, play for a bit then save and exit to region

Load city C, play for a bit then save and exit to region

Load city D, it crashes before i can save!

Start the game again and it loads the region in the same state it was in before i even started city A

Grrrr!!!

Any comments on the subject?

[uvapwns 1]

I had this same problem yesterday. Apparently, it can be caused by downloading plugins and not rebooting before playing. Have you installed any? I can't explain the save point, though.

[memedoug85 36]

I've had the same plugins since before this problem started so it can't be that

[uvapwns 1]

Out of curiosity, were you having a wierd problem with no job zots just before that? I was getting them for absolutely no apparent reason when the crashes were occuring.

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Were Cities A, B, C and D saved?

When you save, do you *save and exit to region*, or just *save* and then *exit to region?

Best way to save is to hit the *save* only button and then leave the game or go to region. This could save you a few CTD's.

Crashes are usually caused by "unfitted" plugins, meaning that some plugins that you have in your plugins are not compatable together and/or with each other, such as two different rocktextures, watermods, etc. But also some files can cause this. Could be anything, that is why you should always have a folder in your plugins with the newly downloaded files until they're proven to play correctly.Could take a few weeks.

Also crashes happen when you run out of computer space (RAM) especially when you play in several different cities for awhile. Maybe you have other programs running at the same time, taking away the necessary RAM for SC4 while you play.

When I play for several hours, I usually save and exit the game, close windows and restart the computer, and then go back to playing for another 2 or 3 hours, depending on how much plugins and RAM you have in your computer.

mrb

  Edited June 17, 2012 by mrbisonm  

[memedoug85 36]

There's no issue with jobs so that's not the problem.

But MRB you might be onto something here. The problem has been happening more now that one of my regions has hit 500K population.

I started a brand new region to muck around in while i get some more inspiration to continue the 500K region.

I'm guessing that having that big of a region sitting in the background is causing the game to sort of lose its short term memory?

Also

I am playing on a notebook, with external disc drive and 4GB RAM, have Windows 7

I can't play on my PC because my LCD monitor doesn't like the graphics

And, in regards to saving. I've always used either way to save. If I've done a lot of work, I'll just quickly press Ctrl and S to save and continue. Sometimes I'll want to go somewhere else so I'll save and exit to region. It's really 50/50 with how I save the game.

[Titanicbuff 1,262]

I've had that once but then it rarely happens to me-

[nukeu123 307]

crashes are pathetically common among multi core CPUs,

so to help reduce this (if caused by hardware) in the short cut on your desktop right click, left click on Proporties, and you should see a text box labbled

Target:

add at the end

(space)-CPUCount:1

by default (simcity4 deluxe) it should look like this

"C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1

hope this helps,

EDIT: if you have different Shortcut command already in place. thats ok just add another space and continue at the end

  Edited June 17, 2012 by nukeu123  

[GMT 389]

also add -eh:off to your target line. this helps a lot with CTDs.

[husher 18]

i've also found that whenever windows send new updates for the vista operating system, one or other of my farm mods can crash the game a couple of times untill the updates 'bed' in then it settles down and everything works properly- it's annoying but i just get on with it.

CTD's are annoying but i'm resigned to it happening- sometimes the screen goes black and the desktop reverts to the background picture but SC is still running- i guess that the processer just wants a rest every now and then.

The only other thing i have running is E-mule, but it dosent seem to slow things down that much-probably the main reason that crashes occour is cutting from one city or region very quickly- it will overload the processer and it wont be able to keep up with the demand and cut out.

[husher 18]

As a further thought:, the crashes on Sim City are NOTHING when you compare it with playing 'Cityville' on FaceBook. Anybody whose played this awfull game will tell you about this bug riddled- slug speed game; lockups, crashes galore- an operating system that forgets what it's doing and so costs you loads of progress, i could go on.

Eventullally i gave up on it and blocked it off my FB in order to save my PC any more heart attacks.

Sim city is much more rewarding and a lot easier by comparison.

[Vapor360 1]

Hi guys,

I was just wondering if anyone has any ideas about something that happens after a CTD.

Fair enough CTD is annoying and whenever it happens I yell out a huge profanity but when I load the game back up, it reverts back to a save point several ago!

Eg.

I save city A and exit to region

Load city B, play for a bit then save and exit to region

Load city C, play for a bit then save and exit to region

Load city D, it crashes before i can save!

Start the game again and it loads the region in the same state it was in before i even started city A

Grrrr!!!

Any comments on the subject?

Please tell me your computer specifications (Mainly the RAM, HD size, ram for video card, number of cores), operating system, options ticked in the properties tab when you right-click Simcity4.exe and the options ticked within the program itself -- Simcity 4.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I was about to ask the same question. We really can't talk about this without some more technical stuff. While you are at it, please open your Exception Reports, pick the most recent one, open it in notepad and copy the first 20 lines only into your post.

Several things come to mind as well:

• Make a friend of the in-game save. Drop it into the conversation regularly. CTRL+s
  
• Run the disk cleanup every week then
  
• Run the disk defragmenter. This NTFS system makes a lot of extents during a city save and these need to be consolidated, and your junk needs to be removed.
  

If you can't run on your LCD monitor have you got DirectX 9.0c loaded on your system? Mine works just fine. How old is this monitor? What is its maximum resolution. You may have to set the following option on your command line as well:

-CustomResolution:enabled -rwwwxhhhxcc

Where:

www is the screen width in pixels

hhh is the height

cc is the colour depth (16|32) in bits

My command looks like this:

"C:/Program Files/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:software -CPUcount:1

Its for Linux, but the only difference is the slashes in the pathname. For windows / becomes \.

As you can see, my LCD screen is a 1080p DVI device.

Don't forget to put a single space in front of each hyphen (-). Options are like words in a sentence.

[memedoug85 36]

Husher says "one or other of my farm mods can crash the game a couple of times untill the updates 'bed' in then it settles down and everything works properly- it's annoying but i just get on with it."

I think this might be an attitude I should have towards the situation and maybe it'll settle down.

Anyway, I've started a new region now and it doesnt seem to happen here. If it does continue though I'll be back.

[Jamonbread 222]

I too run into problems once my region hits half a million or a singular city hits 250,000 but never had a loss of another city except one time when I rebooted it was just a hole... the entire tile disappeared lol so be happy its not that bad!

But ya sorry CTD's remain a mystery a lot of the time to me... good luck

[mrbisonm 1,620]

Anyway, I've started a new region now and it doesnt seem to happen here. If it does continue though I'll be back.

Oh yes , it will come back for sure one time or the other, if you haven't solved the problem. Nothing repairs itself.

Good luck.

mrb

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

You really ought to come in out of the shrapnel and post that dump I asked for.

  Edited June 18, 2012 by A Nonny Moose