Crashes to Desktop

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, I do run software mode, and zoom 6 seems to work. I'll have to look more closely, but I do get a redraw with a larger image.

[SilverCyric 130]

Has anyone else noticed when you limit the program to a single core processor, that the render times are about double?

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Has anyone else noticed when you limit the program to a single core processor, that the render times are about double?

Well its either that or deal with crashes every 15 minutes.

Actually, should that affect it at all? I thought SC4 had no multicore rendering support?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Has anyone else noticed when you limit the program to a single core processor, that the render times are about double?

Well its either that or deal with crashes every 15 minutes.

Actually, should that affect it at all? I thought SC4 had no multicore rendering support?

It doesn't. Are you using hardware or software rendering? If hardware, is your GPU set up properly for this game? All 3D features should be set to "application selected" or equivalent wording.

[SilverCyric 130]

Has anyone else noticed when you limit the program to a single core processor, that the render times are about double?

Well its either that or deal with crashes every 15 minutes.

Actually, should that affect it at all? I thought SC4 had no multicore rendering support?

It doesn't. Are you using hardware or software rendering? If hardware, is your GPU set up properly for this game? All 3D features should be set to "application selected" or equivalent wording.

I use Hardware rendering, and I went in to my Nvidia control panel and set the games 3D to high performance which should allow the application control, I'll try it out...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I use Hardware rendering, and I went in to my Nvidia control panel and set the games 3D to high performance which should allow the application control, I'll try it out...

Should be worse. The game wants to set all these features off. I haven't had an nvidia card for over five years now, but I seem to recall there is a setting that allows a loading application to select the levels of use.

This is a legacy game. It was written before even anti-aliasing was available.

[SilverCyric 130]

Well, my game is much more stable, less CTD's, way less, but it does like to crash when I tell it to exit to region. Which isn't too bad, because at least it will save it first, : ) hehe

But it's a little choppy, just a tad, not so much gameplay, but seamless functioning of the game has been comprimised slightly, it gets jammed up and loops in a few places, but otherwise, I'm liking it so far...

Are you saying it should be worse the way I set it up?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Turning all your 3D controls on full may cause some jitter and other problems because the code isn't there for that kind of treatment. You may also get an occasional crash. Use the internal save (CTRL+s) often to reset and garbage collect the program. It does help to prevent vicarious crashes that are provoked by the newer hardware. In the 2003 time frame, machines were much slower and were unlikely to be able to overflow so many of the badly managed queues in the game.

I would avoid zooming with the mouse. Use the number keys, 1 - 6.

The other thing that really calms down crash frequency is the command line option -cpucount:1 which tells the O/S to not try to multi-thread the program. It is determinedly single-threaded. Multi-core and multi-cpu systems can occasionally get their hands crossed without this little advice.

Scrolling in any direction causes multiple redraw requests that may overload the program's ability to respond. Take it slow, and it should be OK. If in doubt use the keyboard.

[SilverCyric 130]

Ok, so I went a applied to dat packed CAM, but I only datpacked it and nothing else, and I'm kinda surprised, the game runs a bit smoother, and the rendering might/might not be faster but it's definietly smoother. I can jump around in my cities much quicker and there does, maybe I'm just imagining it, but does seem to be a nice little boost to the edge of the graphics. I bet if I start making more small dat packs I'll get it to load quicker and maybe even smooth it out some. But so far I've let the 2 major cities run about 15-20 years, I did do it at cheetah speeds, but I watched the demands, the residential hardly moved, comercial demand is still high, but only on the lower services, basically my city has been building nothing but CS$$, CS$$$, CO$$, and CO$$$, so it's starving for cheap commercial options, but that's still in a city of over 280,000 residents with 250,000 commercial capacity. The industry demands would bounce every couple years, but usually they stayed even as well... While the game runs smoother, like I fixed a bug in it, my commercial demand is still pretty high. I can understand the difference in demand of industry vs commmercial because I keep a very well developed education system. It just still seems weird that they want all these jobs, literally every sim wants to work, no sim will stay at home... : ) hehe

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Feel free to datpack stuff in clumps, keeping careful track of what's in each package (separate directory is as good as any for backups). Yes, Fewer cleaned up files does help, especially when you zoom or scroll because as the zoom level changes, the program has to get the new building model from the files. Having datpacked files helps by reducing the disk access time, but do make sure that you've defragmented your disk after you do the packing. You want these accessible in as few seek/read operations as possible.

If you get to something acceptable, stay with it.

[SilverCyric 130]

I've got a question if you don't mind, since I am running the CAM, will it grow buildings that are not of the CAM? Or do they all have to be CAMpaitble? I always understood it as the CAM buildings will grow to the extra stages, but the others will stay at default growths... Am I wrong?

[Cefien 361]

Normal buildings will still grow up to stage 8, i suppose. After that you will need CAM buildings.

[SilverCyric 130]

Normal buildings will still grow up to stage 8, i suppose. After that you will need CAM buildings.

So do you mean, that the non-CAM building will just not grow any higher or when I reach beyond stage 8 of growth it no longer even looks or chooses to grow the non-CAM buldings? I have both non-CAM lots and CAM lots in my plugins

I guess I'm trying to figure out if once I pass a certain growth stage, as in beyond stage 8, then most of my lots aren't even being considered by the simulator as possible choices to grow on empty zones... I have some new lots and I'm trying to get them to grow, but it's being stubborn and I was wondering if the CAM was disregarding those buildings because if they're stage 8 max and and I'm stage 12 because of the CAM... I'm still a little fuzzy on how that works

[Cefien 361]

Well, not really like that,.the normal building will still grow, i suppose. Only now you have new stages higher than 8, and those higher stages required CAM buildings.

Maybe reading through CAM thread at sc4devotion will give you more comprehensive explanation.

[SilverCyric 130]

Well I didn't think so, but there was that little fear that maybe it did, thanks for alleviating it and so quickly. You're the man!! Thanks

[Cefien 361]

Experiment gives you experiences. You should just test it and see. Make sure you don't save it while testing, so that you can reload anytime when it turn out bad.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Before you start a test session, make a backup copy of the complete region. You can then do intermediate saves as needed. If things go sour you can just copy the backup back in.

[Spearhead44 11]

Right click on the SC4 icon on your desktop and go to Properties. There's a box called Target and inside it says "C:\Program Files\Maxis......exe" After the ending quotation mark, put a space and then type -CPUcount:1. SC4 should never crash again. If it does, it means you either have a plugins problem or you hovered a puzzle piece over a TE lot.

I cannot find the box called target. edit-- actually I found it, it says "Simcity 4" and doesn't let me change anything.

I recently updated origin and now it's crashing to desktop before it even loads my region. I have not modified the game in any way shape or form.

I've just about had it with this crap.... I do not know why I bother playing it sometimes. It should not take me hours upon hours of trying to fix this stuff MULTIPLE TIMES. For the record, I've already changed it from multicore to single core.

I am playing on origin FYI

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Not surprising. You don't have the "standard" structure one gets from a normal installation. You'll have to explore your Origin installation and find out where to put your command line parameters which is probably called something like "start up options".

Having to start the game by using a third party site is beyond the pale, especially Origin (EA). However, if that's what you've got, you'll have to make the most of it. Since you've paid your bucks to EA/Origin, you might just as well find out all the ins and outs of using their private set up.

This really is not an on-line game, so it should not be necessary to log in on any site to play it. I am afraid you've chosen a vendor that I wouldn't use if they were the last purveyor of this game on the face of the earth.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

If you play the game through Origin, many problems can come up with installing plugins and crashing. I would say it's a waste of money. Get a CD.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you play the game through Origin, many problems can come up with installing plugins and crashing. I would say it's a waste of money. Get a CD.

Another waste of money. Get the digital download from a stand-alone vendor such as Amazon or GamersGate.

[Spearhead44 11]

Yes Moose, I've just realized how stupid it was of me to use Origin. I've tried looking on all their help forums, and the best I could find is a mod saying "we no longer support this game, contact so and so to start a petition to have it supported again"

I originally had it on steam, which was another problem in itself. Then my PC broke and could not access my account on the laptop I'm currently using (its a long story). I did not know of the standalone download version -- I much rather prefer to get my games the legal way as opposed to pirated versions. Believe me though, using origin at all was a last resort, Simcity 4 is currently the only game I've got on this computer. Thank god I also have an xbox360.

Question -- its possible for me to just copy and paste my old region from the origin version into my new game, is it not?

[Cefien 361]

Question -- its possible for me to just copy and paste my old region from the origin version into my new game, is it not?

If that is an old empty region, you can simply copy-paste. But if that region contained cities, then you better copy-paste your old plugins too for a custom third-party reason. Meaning, if you downloaded mod, bats, textures from STEX before and use it in those cities within your old region, you better copy-paste your plugins too if you don't wanna experienced CTD.

[Spearhead44 11]

Hey guys.... its me again.

I deleted origin completely. Bought the digital version off of amazon with one of my gift cards. Did the -cpucount:1 thing. Changed the compatibility to XP service pack 2, as well as running in adminstrator mode.

Still isn't working. Whats driving me nuts is the fact that its been crashing on and off for the past year I've been playing it, but now, for some reason, its not even loading the region anymore. It just does the intro video and crashes directly to desktop. Could someone help me out here? I downloaded the patch from SC devotion. Should I post the report thing?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The digital download does not require any patches. If it runs without a disk in the drive, it is current. The version should be 1,1,641.

If you are crashing on an old region, you probably have a plugin conflict. What version of the NAM do you have?

You should probably remove all your plugins (rename the folder Plugins.old) then start the game to see if it still crashes. If so, reinstall.

You then have the privilege of finding the plugin conflict. See the binary search method above. It is tedious, but works. If you have 1000 plugins then it works within ten partitions and maybe fewer.

[Spearhead44 11]

I appreciate your help, and I'm not trying to be rude, just a little frustrated. Again, I have ZERO plugins. I have not modified the game at all. Every version I have been running has been doing the intro screen and crashes to desktop instead of loading the region. It has always been crashing ever since I started playing on this laptop, the last day I played a week or so ago it crashed probably 3 or 4 times in one night. I do not recall doing anything to the system. It is just frustrating because something is obviously very wrong with it but I have literally searched on dozens of sights and NOTHING is helping. There was once I actually loaded the game, after installing, but after that it went back to not loading the region.

Here's my report if your interested, I'll probably just give up after a couple more days of this.

Exception time: 01/27/2013, at 11:54:44.

Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.

Current thread ID: 4860 (0x000012fc).

Version information:

Application/module path: C:\PROGRA~2\Maxis\SIMCIT~1\Apps\SimCity 4.exe

Application/module version name: SimCity 4

Application/module version: 1.1.641.0

System version: Windows NT 5.1

System memory: 1024 Megabytes total, 444 Megabytes free.

Exception module: C:\PROGRA~2\Maxis\SIMCIT~1\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.

Exception address: 0x007abcf1. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x003a4cf1.

Registers

EAX: 00008001

EBX: 0aff8094

ECX: 0aff8094

EDX: 00008080

ESI: 00000104

EDI: 0be602e0

CS:EIP: 0023:007abcf1

SS:ESP: 002b:0018fad8 EBP:00000000

DS:002b ES:002b FS:0053 GS:002b

Flags: 00010202

Please for the love of god, somebody help me!!!

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, you most certainly have the right game and patches. That's a pretty standard dump.

What have you got on your command line?

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Also, what kind of computer/OS do you use?

[Spearhead44 11]

Wow well for some reason after reinstalling its working now... I feel stupid lol. I think maybe there were some files that I had to delete, because reinstalling multiple times did not do the trick until I cleared absolutely everything related to SC4 off the computer. Perhaps one of the regions was corrupted somehow? Thank you anyways though, it's great that at least somebody has some expertise in these matters.

I'm on windows 7, using a lenovo laptop. I guess I'll come back if I need help... its okay for the time being though.

And command line? Do you mean the "target" in properties? Here it is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe"

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

And command line? Do you mean the "target" in properties? Here it is "C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe"

Well, yes. That is actually the command line used by the launcher to start your game. Now, if you want to avoid problems, I suggest you add the following after the final quote <space>-intro:off<space>-CPUcount:1

This turns off the damned movie, and tells the operating system that the program is for sure single threaded.