Zoom and crash

[husher 18]

I've been getting a bit fustrated of late, i do some work relativly close up on a city and then save it (most of the time) then i go to zoom out using the mouse wheel and guess what: crash to desktop!

I have a relativly modern PC its only three years old and this has begun to happen more and more; i've tried using the games zoom button as well with a one in three chance i'll get A CTDT.

is it a sympton of an over clocked graphics card or processor or is it the game playing silly devils just for the hell of it?

I've got a dual core 1gb processor and Navia graphics driver built in, is it anything i should be concerned over?

any advice would be appreciated

[lhrob 213]

The game wasn't made to be played on a computer with a dual-core processor, but there's a way to work around that.  I used to have the same exact problem you're having, and I set the game to play using only one core.  Do you know how to add command parameters to the target line in the game's desktop icon?  Just right-click on the desktop icon, select Properties, click the Shortcut tab,  then locate the Target line.  At the end of the target line, leave ONE space (only one space), then add the following:  -CPUCount:1

 

Then hit Apply and Okay.  Restart the game and see if that helps.  It worked for me.

[B.C builder 291]

The game wasn't made to be played on a computer with a dual-core processor, but there's a way to work around that.  I used to have the same exact problem you're having, and I set the game to play using only one core.  Do you know how to add command parameters to the target line in the game's desktop icon?  Just right-click on the desktop icon, select Properties, click the Shortcut tab,  then locate the Target line.  At the end of the target line, leave ONE space (only one space), then add the following:  -CPUCount:1

 

Then hit Apply and Okay.  Restart the game and see if that helps.  It worked for me.

I think that one day you gave me the same advice and I must say it works !

[lhrob 213]

Yes, I seem to remember giving you that same advice, B.C Builder.  I'm glad it worked for you, and I'm always happy to help if I can.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The other thing to remember is that one click of the wheel moves one zoom level of which there are only six.  Spinning the wheel can overflow the input queue and cause a crash.

[arozarker12 51]

The game wasn't made to be played on a computer with a dual-core processor, but there's a way to work around that.  I used to have the same exact problem you're having, and I set the game to play using only one core.  Do you know how to add command parameters to the target line in the game's desktop icon?  Just right-click on the desktop icon, select Properties, click the Shortcut tab,  then locate the Target line.  At the end of the target line, leave ONE space (only one space), then add the following:  -CPUCount:1

 

Then hit Apply and Okay.  Restart the game and see if that helps.  It worked for me.

I will have to try that.  Sometimes my game plays nice when I zoom in one or out one but other times not.  Thanks for that bit of info.

[lhrob 213]

Another parameter I have in my Target command line is this:  -EH:off

 

I don't recall which forum I saw that in (it wasn't here at Simtropolis), but someone posted it as a suggestion to help stop CTDs.  I think it has something to do with Exception Handling - and admittedly, I have no idea what that is, because computer programming goes WAY over my head - but I tried it.  Since using -CPUCount:1 and -EH:off, I have not had any CTDs at all.  So it's worth considering as an added Target command line parameter.

[B.C builder 291]

Maybe it helps if you only zoom with "- and +" keys.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I don't think turning off the error handler does you much good any more.  It may have been useful with W'95.  Generally the -cpucount:1 option seems to do the trick for most people.  I tested the -eh:off option and found no appreciable difference.

 

When zooming, remember there are only six views.  You can easily access each one directly by pressing the number keys 1 - 6.

[lhrob 213]

Well, Nonny, I don't know what to say.  The -EH:off seems to have helped me.  I mean, it can't hurt as an added help, so why not add it to the target command line?  And who would play SC4 on Windows 95 anyway?   The minimum requirement listed on the box was Windows 98!  Win95 wasn't supported.  And even then, when the game came out, Windows XP was becoming the dominant OS.  The advice I read was originally posted back in 2007, so I think it's pretty relevant.  But that's okay, go ahead and contradict me if you want.  I'm used to people making me feel like I don't know what I'm talking about.

 

As for the 1-6 number keys, it's much easier to keep your eyes on the screen and quickly press 2 keys on the numeric keypad, as opposed to shifting your eyes down onto the keyboard to fumble around pushing the 1-6 keys.  For me, it's much faster to go back and forth between the + and - keys.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Whatever floats your boat.  Remember that turning off programmer's error handling my increase the number of crashes.  We really don't know what the effect is on the program.  On Linux, I found it didn't do anything, so I simply removed it from my script.

 

I believe it might do something on earlier versions of Windows, but whether it does something now is for you to experiment to find out.  I suspect that what it does is throw a switch in the code that nullifies any try ... catch code in the program.  I have verified that the game is written in Visual Studio using C++ 6.0.  {Yes, I have a tool that lets me dump the binary.  Shhhhh!}

[AnathemaDevice 35]

The game wasn't made to be played on a computer with a dual-core processor, but there's a way to work around that.  I used to have the same exact problem you're having, and I set the game to play using only one core.  Do you know how to add command parameters to the target line in the game's desktop icon?  Just right-click on the desktop icon, select Properties, click the Shortcut tab,  then locate the Target line.  At the end of the target line, leave ONE space (only one space), then add the following:  -CPUCount:1

 

Then hit Apply and Okay.  Restart the game and see if that helps.  It worked for me.

 

It works for me too. Mine used to crash nearly every time I zoomed, even if I used the keys rather than the mouse wheel. Since I added  -CPUCount:1 to the shortcut target it hasn't crashed at all.

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I believe in insurance.  Toss in an in-game save every once in a while, especially after you've built something you'd rather not do over.  Use CTRL+s.

[Max4k 721]

Im going to look more into this. Every since I started using the Launcher It's been crashing when I zoom either with mouse wheel or using the + & - key on keyboard.  I've been very careful not to do any road construction or anything prior and it does not matter. 

I'm probably going to have to ditch this launcher and use a custom switch in shortcut path once I find it again.  I absolutely never had any desktop crashes w/ my custom switch and before using this launcher.

Edit:  I found it, this never caused any crashes and going back to this --  "C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1200x32 -w -CPUCount:1 -intro:off

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

17 hours ago, Max4k said:

since I started using the Launcher It's been crashing when I zoom

Any launcher worth the name should give you a way to set the -CPUcount:1 option. However, I agree that using your own shortcut (after learning how) is a stronger (power-user) way to control any application (it's best to understand what's happening rather than relying on the crutch of a "launcher").

BTW, Can you recall if zooming ever crashed the game while the clock was paused? My recollection is that I was able to do all of my region's day-zero freeway system, intercity rail net and various terraforming projects (e.g. PEG Ponds) crash-free without the -CPUcount:1 switch set. Then as soon as I started the clock running in my first populated sector, zooming suddenly became dangerous. I did not do any experiments to discover whether pausing the game would make it safe to zoom again.

[Max4k 721]

Oh yea, definitely it was random crash while paused too.  Last week, I tried some things to use more than 2GB or RAM and that does not seem to work either. I've never seen this game use more than 1.8GB of RAM.

 

[rsc204 21,805]

On 13/09/2020 at 7:29 PM, Max4k said:

Last week, I tried some things to use more than 2GB or RAM and that does not seem to work either. I've never seen this game use more than 1.8GB of RAM.

As a 32-Bit application, it can never access more than 2GB memory, including Virtual Memory. The 4GB patch can’t overcome this limitation, but optimises how the pool of memory assigned to an app is organised, such as to ensure it can access the full 2GB.

All a launcher does is set these commands for you using a more user friendly GUI. There may be a few extra bells and whistles, but unless you need to utilise Borderless Windowed mode, the command line setup works just fine. 

While SC4 is running, if you open Task Manager and look at the Process running SC4. Right click that select Affinity, then it will show which of your CPU Cores SC4 can access, if more than one is ticked, you are not limited to a single core. 

[Max4k 721]

Ok, I had a feeling there was no easy way around things. I remember some issue with Windows XP using some of my video card memory and ignoring my physical memory to max out it's limitations for the OS long time ago.

It's fustrating, my PC is super powerful for this game and it brings it to it's knee at times.   Ive got i7 4960x Ivy Bridge Extreme w/ 64GB RAM and a server type motherboard that has extremely large memory bandwidth controllers

[+Guest 760649]

1 hour ago, Max4k said:

Ok, I had a feeling there was no easy way around things. I remember some issue with Windows XP using some of my video card memory and ignoring my physical memory to max out it's limitations for the OS long time ago.

It's fustrating, my PC is super powerful for this game and it brings it to it's knee at times.   Ive got i7 4960x Ivy Bridge Extreme w/ 64GB RAM and a server type motherboard that has extremely large memory bandwidth controllers

I have the same problem. If you can find a solution, please let me know. Thank you.

[rsc204 21,805]

There is no solution where simply throwing power at the problem will accomplish anything. Architecturally speaking, it has limitations that don’t allow it to utilise modern hardware and software standards. The single fastest core you can give the game, in theory will be be made use of, but SC4 can’t utilise modern CPU Optimisations, so even then you’re not really fully utilising a core’s full potential. Likewise the game seems to hit limitations in terms of how much data it can push around before bottlenecking. Results detailed here show the very fastest SSDs, Memory and Controllers just can’t be taken advantage of fully. Likewise, a monster video-card may have hardware, driver or even OS compatibility issues. If your system can’t use DirectX, specifically Isn’t fully backwards-compatible with DirectX 9.0c, at least for those functions critical to running SC4 with DirectX Rendering. Then your performance will be further impacted by offloading the GPU’s work onto your CPU.

Add a bunch of custom content for the game to index and shuffle in memory, which is highly optimised, otherwise the game simply would break with the things we can do with it today. Then add a large inter-connected region where the populations are rising. Possibly a bunch of HD Textures for terrain and who knows how many thousand props like trees on screen at a given time. Eventually any computer you might use will eventually succumb to the simulator’s need to make exponentially more calculations. 

in theory a 64-Bit update and proper Multi-core support, would free up SC4 to allow us to utilise more of the available power many of us have. But realistically that’s a job for EA, which is real unlikely, or perhaps from a .dll based mod, but that is really a pipe dream. 

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

18 hours ago, rsc204 said:

proper Multi-core support, would free up SC4 to allow us to utilise more of the available power many of us have. But realistically that’s a job for EA, which is real unlikely, or perhaps from a .dll based mod, but that is really a pipe dream.

A really really nice pipe-dream 

[Scaley McSlither 1,714]

I noticed a few similarities between some of the posts. Has everyone also remembered to configure the game to work with their graphics cards? May not solve the issues though it's a valid process to follow regardless!