How big is your plugin folder?

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I have very few plugins compared to many others, so I don't bother with much maintenance on them. Once in a while I get keen and condense individual BAT lots using Files2Dat, which reduces the number of files, but I suspect doesn't remove much space. One has to consider the minimum size of a file and the increment on overflow when considering disk space. I don't have much of a load delay. Just about the time it takes me to walk to the fridge for a new drink.

Currently, I have 557 folders with 2487 files. This comes to 684.2 MB while my SC4Related downloads folder contains 1.3 GB, but this includes all the documentation and images that are not in Plugins, so I guess the saving is about 50%. However, some of the downloads are program distributions like Mapper or Terraformer.

[Harlequin_666 17]

Think mine is about 3GB, but game keeps crashing now, even if I load a city with not much in it, and don't touch anything. So not sure if it's the plugins or what...not sure how to find out what is colliding to cause a crash =(

[Prophet42 1,501]

Mine is a measley 440 MB. I am really selective at what I download. It is growing a little day by day, though.

[Superbacon 380]

Around 1.4GB

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

My plugin file is currently about 50MB. I lost the lot (~5GB) a few days ago when my C:\\User\Documents file cleared itself somehow.

So yes, definitely back up. Happened to me...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Think mine is about 3GB, but game keeps crashing now, even if I load a city with not much in it, and don't touch anything. So not sure if it's the plugins or what...not sure how to find out what is colliding to cause a crash =(

To see if you have plugin trouble, change the name of the Plugins folder to Plugins.hold then start the game. The game makes a new empty Plugins folder and if you don't crash now, then there is a conflict somewhere. If you do crash at this point, post the first 20 lines of the dump on Bugs and Technical Issues along with a description of your machine and a brief note.

Otherwise you could use the to find the offender.

[Harlequin_666 17]

@Moose....or, I could actually patch the game which I don't think I did...seems better

Although it still crashes when I zoom out fast...but I can see why that would crash things...

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

@Moose....or, I could actually patch the game which I don't think I did...seems better

Although it still crashes when I zoom out fast...but I can see why that would crash things...

Well there are only two legal patches. This board has agreed not to discuss any others.

Rapid zooming causes so many redraws to be queued that it probably overwhelms some queue with the resulting crash. If you want to zoom in fast press the 5 key, out use 1. Keys 1 - 6 zoom quickly to a specific level with only a single redraw.

This old girl is really quite elderly and needs to be handled with TLC, not GenXY impatience.

[Turjan 1,048]

I have currently 1.36 GB, but I think I might get rid of some of the stuff. My menus got unwieldy, and DAMN seems to destabilize and freeze my game if I try to use it (I guess I messed something up in the installation).

All of my other crashes stopped after I assigned the game to a single core, so that was good.

[Harlequin_666 17]

I used the patch from the EA site...and I haven't tried the single core trick yet...I'll try that before I do a super-clean of the plugins folder.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Setting up SC4 to run on only one core is a must. It's almost guaranteed to crash without doing that.

Anyway, my plugins folder is sitting just below a gigabyte...I need to download more BATs.

[Harlequin_666 17]

What about CPU/RAM and the size of a plugins folder? I have 3GHz & 4GB RAM....does more RAM help?

[Turjan 1,048]

What about CPU/RAM and the size of a plugins folder? I have 3GHz & 4GB RAM....does more RAM help?

Well, I don't think it matters much if you don't force the game to run on only one core. I have 16GB of RAM, and it still crashed without that adjustment.

I use the following launch options in the Steam launcher (or alternatively the desktop shortcut etc.): -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -CPUCount:1 -intro:off

I would try that, of course with your screen resolution or a fraction thereof. It's a bit jittery for a moment when I zoom out completely, but it doesn't crash, unlike before, when I could only play for a short time without crash.

Anyway, I hope for you that you keep some order in your plugins or have a very good memory . It's much easier to exchange things, then.

[Harlequin_666 17]

Yeah, good to keep the plugins folder clean. I'm doing that right now. Going through wach folder, removing PLOP/LM files, as I never use them...and cleaning out plugins I don't use....like bike trails and other stuff.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

I thought I had a lot, I have downloaded about 1,500 different mods.

Might have to get rid of some, it crashes when I zoom in/out and also if i use the save&continue button.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

What "save&continue" button?

[Harlequin_666 17]

I think he just means Ctrl-S as "Save & Continue".

Yeah, I've been in my plugins folder for about an hour so far and I've already cleaned out 200 items. Plop files, Landmark files, railroad stuff I never used, etc....hopefully it helps

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Well, you know it is always good to take out the garbage. Garbage in, garbage out. Be sure that if you remove a lot from your plugins that it doesn't exist in one of your cities. If it does, bulldoze it first.

[Harlequin_666 17]

Mine still crashes after cleanup, but seems a tiny bit more stable. Wonder if going from 4GB RAM to 8GB would make a difference.

I also saw that one 3rd party thing that compresses your plugins folder...does it help stability at all, or does it just make things load faster?

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Yeah Ctrl S was what I meant.

Hmmm, most of my downloads I'm using in some way, I'll have to go through all the folders and delete pictures and all the read me files, which should take a fair amount of time off the loading time of the game.

[Turjan 1,048]

Yeah Ctrl S was what I meant.

Hmmm, most of my downloads I'm using in some way, I'll have to go through all the folders and delete pictures and all the read me files, which should take a fair amount of time off the loading time of the game.

Cleanitol does that automatically.

[Charlie_Zane 963]

Cleanitol does that automatically.

Oh cool, didn't know that.

Here's the link for anyone else who wants it

https://www.sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=97

[Gn_leugim 853]

I thought I had a lot, I have downloaded about 1,500 different mods.

Might have to get rid of some, it crashes when I zoom in/out and also if i use the save&continue button.

do you pc use a dual/multi core processor?

if yes go to your shortcut, and its adress, type in the end: -CPUCount:1

like this:

"C:\Programas\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe"-CPUCount:1

SC4 dont deal well with multicores and crashes due to it. I had that issue before, now I don't remember when was the last time I had a crash

[Charlie_Zane 963]

do you pc use a dual/multi core processor?

if yes go to your shortcut, and its adress, type in the end: -CPUCount:1

like this:

"C:\Programas\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe"-CPUCount:1

SC4 dont deal well with multicores and crashes due to it. I had that issue before, now I don't remember when was the last time I had a crash

I think I have done that, I'm not sure.

Can I also delete the starting up intro to make it load a tad faster?

Where would it be located?

[Gn_leugim 853]

you can also add a piece of code to the startup shortcut to pass the intro. just add -Intro:off

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I thought I had a lot, I have downloaded about 1,500 different mods.

Might have to get rid of some, it crashes when I zoom in/out and also if i use the save&continue button.

do you pc use a dual/multi core processor?

if yes go to your shortcut, and its adress, type in the end: -CPUCount:1

like this:

"C:\Programas\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe"-CPUCount:1

SC4 dont deal well with multicores and crashes due to it. I had that issue before, now I don't remember when was the last time I had a crash

Syntax Error

Should be

"C:\Programas\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1

Note the space after the final quote on the file string. All parameters are delimited by spaces.

Full command syntax is at: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=3683.msg113280#msg113280

[Gn_leugim 853]

Sorry, my mistake, I erased an extra space while erasing the rest of the command line thank you for noticing

[blunder 1,079]

I also saw that one 3rd party thing that compresses your plugins folder...does it help stability at all, or does it just make things load faster?

You mean the DATpacker? It helped me tremendously. It's not just the size of the plugins folder that slows down SC4, it's the number of files in that folder. Lumping many files into a single .dat does trim off a little bit of filesize but just having most of your stuff lumped into a dozen or so files really helps stability.

Before DATpacking my game would get very unstable at around 1.5gigs of loose plugins (on an old pc with 2gigs ram). After DATpacking i routinely play with around anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5gigs of plugins at a time, and it runs as stably as as ~750Mb of 'loose' plugins.

If you do decide to DATpack be sure to read all the documentation and don't just pack up everything at once: keep it organized. For instance i have all my highrises packed into one dat (actualy two volumes), all my industrials in another, my HK set in another, my core set i use most every tile, etc. And leave loose the individual things you might swap out, like mods that change periodically and the NAM.