Problem Installing Region with Re-Release

[MayorTim 16]

My first post here in years! I must say, it feels good to be back.

I haven't played SC4 since getting a Mac way back in 2009, and I've only ever played on the PC version.

The problem I'm running into is with custom regions - when I open the region dialogue box with ctrl+alt+shift+r to load a grayscale, the box opens, but I can't navigate to anything. It won't show any files or directories, and where files should be there's only a little black box that makes the game crash when clicked repeatedly.

Any ideas?

[TEG24601 32]

If I recall correctly, the one time I used a greyscale image to make a region, I had to actually enter the path into the cheat box.

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

I suspect Aspyr did not cover this in their updated version.  They released a bare-bones SC4 with the absolute minimum adjustments to make it playable.  I doubt they considered custom regions.  The box is looking for a Windows file system, and not finding it.

[dan_d 0]

I have the same problem.. When i double click anywhere on the window it instantly crashes. Also there is no folders or anywhere to navigate to, is there a 'mock' windows folder we can input into the SC4 code somehow? I miss playing this game since I got a mac, and the Simcity 2013 version in my opinion is not nearly as fun as SC4 was.

 

Is there someone we can contact to find a solution to this problem from Aspyr?

[MayorTim 16]

I'm thinking you're right Indiana Joe.

 

So far the only solution I've found is to create the region in terraformer on a PC, then send it to my mac.

 

Unfortunate they didn't put just a little more effort into it.

[dragoncd 0]

I got the same problem, long time no see weird Windows window : /

 

Hope EA can fix it soon.

[TEG24601 32]

This is all due to the sandboxing required for the App Store release, so the game only has access to data inside of its com.aspry.simcity4.appstore package take a look inside - ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/ (~ indicates you home folder) and see if you can't put your region greyscale image there and have it listed.

[dan_d 0]

TEG24601 I tried putting the grayscale image in the folder:

 

~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/

 

but did not have any luck with seeing it in the blue windows box after loading the game. Is there something I am missing here? I tried putting the files in the Region folder as well, but that did not work either. Did it work for you?

 

Thanks

[TEG24601 32]

TEG24601 I tried putting the grayscale image in the folder:

 

~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/

 

but did not have any luck with seeing it in the blue windows box after loading the game. Is there something I am missing here? I tried putting the files in the Region folder as well, but that did not work either. Did it work for you?

 

Thanks

I'm actually waiting for the Steam Release.  However, have you entered the file name into the Cheat box, to load the image?

[Superhai 8]

To make SC4 load your file you need to put it anywhere inside the SC4 sandbox folder.

How I did it: (if you have a file called my.jpg and your mac username is well "username" - if not change to whatever is appropriate)

 

1. Do the usual preparations for regions as before (found in ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/Regions/)

2. Copy my.jpg file to ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/

3. Open SimCity4 and open your region

4. When you have your blank region ready press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R

5. In the file name box enter (by hand) your full path to your file /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/my.jpg

6. (Curse that you can't copy and paste because you wrote one letter wrong, and in that case nothing happens and you need to do it again)

7. Voila, magic happens

 

Tips! To find your Home Library folder (a.k.a ~/Library) go to a Finder window, Go menu and hold your Alt/Option key and you will see it (maybe localized into your local mac language)

 

PS. The reason why it is not possible to see anything is because SimCity tries to load files from the root folder / of your computer and is denied access as it is sandboxed and have no root access, this will fail also attempt to create new folder. It should be an easy option for Aspyr to make it point it directly to folder inside the sandbox structure instead.

[guilop 1]

To make SC4 load your file you need to put it anywhere inside the SC4 sandbox folder.

How I did it: (if you have a file called my.jpg and your mac username is well "username" - if not change to whatever is appropriate)

 

1. Do the usual preparations for regions as before (found in ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/Regions/)

2. Copy my.jpg file to ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/

3. Open SimCity4 and open your region

4. When you have your blank region ready press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R

5. In the file name box enter (by hand) your full path to your file /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/my.jpg

6. (Curse that you can't copy and paste because you wrote one letter wrong, and in that case nothing happens and you need to do it again)

7. Voila, magic happens

 

Tips! To find your Home Library folder (a.k.a ~/Library) go to a Finder window, Go menu and hold your Alt/Option key and you will see it (maybe localized into your local mac language)

 

PS. The reason why it is not possible to see anything is because SimCity tries to load files from the root folder / of your computer and is denied access as it is sandboxed and have no root access, this will fail also attempt to create new folder. It should be an easy option for Aspyr to make it point it directly to folder inside the sandbox structure instead.

 

I did exactly how you said, but it didn't work. Any other ideas?

[qazzy1122 2]

I too have this problem.

[_Michael 2,681]

I too have this problem.

To make SC4 load your file you need to put it anywhere inside the SC4 sandbox folder.

How I did it: (if you have a file called my.jpg and your mac username is well "username" - if not change to whatever is appropriate)

 

1. Do the usual preparations for regions as before (found in ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/Regions/)

2. Copy my.jpg file to ~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/

3. Open SimCity4 and open your region

4. When you have your blank region ready press Shift+Ctrl+Alt+R

5. In the file name box enter (by hand) your full path to your file /Users/username/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/my.jpg

6. (Curse that you can't copy and paste because you wrote one letter wrong, and in that case nothing happens and you need to do it again)

7. Voila, magic happens

 

Tips! To find your Home Library folder (a.k.a ~/Library) go to a Finder window, Go menu and hold your Alt/Option key and you will see it (maybe localized into your local mac language)

 

PS. The reason why it is not possible to see anything is because SimCity tries to load files from the root folder / of your computer and is denied access as it is sandboxed and have no root access, this will fail also attempt to create new folder. It should be an easy option for Aspyr to make it point it directly to folder inside the sandbox structure instead.

 

I did exactly how you said, but it didn't work. Any other ideas?

The way I've got it to work is to NOT use any capital letters. All lowercase, but with spaces.

Hope this helps.

[toasteroven 0]

I figured out how to do this - you need to rename the image without any spaces and put in the documents folder.  the process doesn't seem to like spaces for some reason.  no caps, all lowercase.

[jsweazey 0]

I figured out how to do this - you need to rename the image without any spaces and put in the documents folder.  the process doesn't seem to like spaces for some reason.  no caps, all lowercase.

I've been attempting this for over 2 hours; still no luck. Not sure what I am doing wrong 

i'm using this path: /users/[my username]/library/containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/data/documents/simcity4/[city.jpg]

[Kirk_P 0]

Experiencing the same issue here. None of the above recommendations have worked. 

Is there any chance an update could get released through the app store?

[KeeganPren 0]

Trying the instructions above appeared to work for me, but it complained about the size of the region.  Do they have to be 1025 square?  The file I downloaded was 1025x1492.  It's the file from STEX below.  If the region has to be square, is it just a matter of cropping the source image?

 

 

[Dave Baum 0]

I cropped that Milwaukee file to 1025x1025 and it worked fine.  I used an old copy of GraphicConverter, though really any image editing program should be fine.  SC4 seemed to be fine with .jpg files but didn't like a .png.

You can save yourself a lot of typing by creating a shortcut from the root of your hard drive into the ".../Documents/SimCity 4" folder.  A normal finder shortcut will not work, but you can use the Terminal to create a symlink (which is a different sort of shortcut).

1.  Start the Terminal (in Applications/Utilities).

2. type "cd /", no quotes, and hit return.

3. type "ln -s " (no quotes, don't hit return)

4. Open the relevant Document/SimCity 4 folder in the finder.  Drag that folder onto the terminal window.  This will paste the folder's path into the window.

5. Finish the command by typing " sc4" and hitting return.

6. Test the command typ typing "ls sc4" and hitting return.  This should list the contents of your sc4 documents folder.

This will set up a link from /sc4 that points into the simcity documents area.  If you put an image called mymap.jpg  in the ".../Documents/SimCity 4" folder then you can just type /sc4/mymap.jpg in file dialog.  Also, if you open a finder window for your Macintosh HD you should see an sc4  shortcut that brings you to the SC4 documents folder.

 

[SC4SC4 3]

this's work for me

steps1-4 is another way to create new region

steps5-7 is about region installion

1.you can choose one region folder (any like Berlin, London....) on the "/Users/username/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data/Documents/SimCity 4/Regions" folder, make a copy of it.

2. renaming  the folder into your city's name or whatever......and delete all  "*.sc4 file".

3.put your download "config.bmp" into folder to replace the original one.

4.edit "region.ini", replace "Name = XXX" into "your city's name"  <= this will show on the region dialogue box

5.put "filename.jpg" in the "/Users/username/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.simcity4.appstore/Data" folder 

6.start sc4 and open the region dialogue box and choose "your city's name"（which was named in region.ini）, than press "Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R"

7.you'll see nothing on the blue dialogue pop-up box, but just type your "filename.jpg", than press "ok"

[dmrsunz 2]

SC4SC's method worked for me. Note the .jpg file is in the root of the Data folder, not deeper as per the usual directions. Thanks!

[CorinaMarie 29,576]

8 hours ago, dmrsunz said:

SC4SC's method worked for me. Note the .jpg file is in the root of the Data folder, not deeper as per the usual directions. Thanks!

It's very helpful for others when there is confirmation of a working method for something.

Also, you can scroll up to @SC4SC4's post and click the Like button.

[SimsofLasVegas 1]

@SC4SC4 Is it OK if I delete the .jpg in the Data folder?