Simcity 4 graphics issue in Windows 8

[Ltw 401]

I've just bought a new notebook with Windows 8. I've installed Simcity 4 (from Steam) on that. I've installed SC4-Launcher as well, I've set it on 1 core instead of 4 and Direct-X render mode. I've tried to run it in compatibility mode Windows XP and Windows 7 and I've also ran it without the compatibility mode. The result is (more or less) the same. When I open a city (it doesn't show the problem in the region view) it shows the graphic issue as showed below. Does anyone know how I can fix it? It would be a great help!

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Could be that you've run out of GPU memory, especially if these green patches are for high-definition BATs.  Notebooks and laptops are notorious for having cut down graphics that will only support browsers and minor games like phone apps.  What GPU do you have, and how much memory does can it access?

 

I am sorry to say that I've only run portable machines for business use.  I always use a nice big desktop to run this game, and it usually works flawlessly.

[Ltw 401]

Could be that you've run out of GPU memory, especially if these green patches are for high-definition BATs.  Notebooks and laptops are notorious for having cut down graphics that will only support browsers and minor games like phone apps.  What GPU do you have, and how much memory does can it access?

 

I am sorry to say that I've only run portable machines for business use.  I always use a nice big desktop to run this game, and it usually works flawlessly.

 

Graphics and notebooks are always a big problem indeed. However, even though the graphics-card isn't great (I have a Intel Graphics Family 4400) the available memory should be sufficient, I have 2048MB available and in total about 4GB available (included shared memory), the clock-speed should be around 1100Mhz (with turbo-boost). I've noticed something strange though, it seems like my notebook has two memory cards, the on-board Intel memory card (which it uses according to the resolution-settings) and the AMD Radeon 8600M video card. Both cards are more or less of the same quality, however, the Intel video cards use the DDR memory, in my case it shows that the card can access 2048MB private memory (the same size as the AMD Radeon has to offer). For as far as I know the AMD Radeon has a clock-speed of around 800Mhz.

 

I would be surprised if my specifications would be a problem in this case. I've ran Simcity 4 before at a pentium 4 with a nVidea video card with 64MB and 400Mhz clock-speed and it ran fluently. This notebook is quite good (i7 processor, 8GB RAM and a SSD), the video-card is the only thing that isn't outstanding, but if I would've wanted that I would've payed a lot more. However, even though the video-card isn't great for nowadays standards it should be more than sufficient for an old game like Simcity 4 I assume.

[mattamillion 2]

Software rendering.

I know it's not ideal, but I had no problems with a Surface 1 Pro with 4GB of RAM. Its still really fast, since a core I5 is so much superior to 10-year old hardware. I think you can also skip compatibility mode, as the app seemed to run fine with just the standard shortcut / switches for custom resolution, etc.

[Ltw 401]

Software rendering.

I know it's not ideal, but I had no problems with a Surface 1 Pro with 4GB of RAM. Its still really fast, since a core I5 is so much superior to 10-year old hardware. I think you can also skip compatibility mode, as the app seemed to run fine with just the standard shortcut / switches for custom resolution, etc.

 

I've just tried to software-render the game, the problem as shown in my screenshot above was occurring while rendering in DirectX, however, if I software-render or render with OpenGL it closes down when opening a city, thus sadly it didn't work in my case.

 

I've also tried but this didn't work either. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

OpenGL option is incomplete and you'll find it doesn't work at all.  At the time this game was written OpenGL was in considerable flux and has settled down quite nicely, but there are denigrated calls in the game that are no longer supported.

 

If you can't get software rendering to run at all, it does indicate a memory shortage.  How much memory to you have on your notebook?

[Ltw 401]

OpenGL option is incomplete and you'll find it doesn't work at all.  At the time this game was written OpenGL was in considerable flux and has settled down quite nicely, but there are denigrated calls in the game that are no longer supported.

 

If you can't get software rendering to run at all, it does indicate a memory shortage.  How much memory to you have on your notebook?

 

I have 8GB RAM in my notebook, my video-card has 2GB memory.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you have PEG's mod that substitutes colour patches for brown boxes, then you are missing dependencies for the lots.  Your machine sounds fine.

[Ltw 401]

If you have PEG's mod that substitutes colour patches for brown boxes, then you are missing dependencies for the lots.  Your machine sounds fine.

 

I don't have the PEG's mod, all the plugins seem to load correctly as well. The colored surfaces appear and disappear when I zoom in/out and when I'm scrolling around the map. However, they never disappear completely.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Very strange.  Have you queried these areas?  What are the results of your query?

 

Oh, and do you have a slope mod?  More than one?  Could be a conflict there.

[Compdude787 916]

Ouch, that's worse than my graphics problem with Windows 8.1. Although I must admit that it happened once to me, but was rectified by zooming in or out. If you just bought a new laptop, it would have come with Windows 8.1, not 8. There is a difference, btw. For me, Windows 8 ran SC4 fine without any graphics issues, but when I upgraded to 8.1 I had similar graphics issues but they weren't as bad, and the game was still playable.

 

If you switch to Software rendering, keep in mind that you can't use any sort of HD custom content (that is any sort of props, flora, buildings, etc. that don't look pixelated at the closest zoom level). This means you can't experience the awesomeness of using an HD tree controller.

[APSMS 1,892]

I'd make sure you're running the latest Windows version (8.1) and then go to your manufacturer's website (both for the laptop and the video card) and try out the different drivers offered, choosing the latest ones and seeing if there's any difference between the OEM drivers and the laptop specific drivers. This has worked for others, and even though I have Win7 I've noticed an improvement in graphics performance by using nVidia drivers over the Dell-specific ones for my laptop (which admittedly has a very poor graphics card, worse than yours by far).

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Just a comment.  The game existed before HD was available.  It is nice, but I don't consider it awesome.

[Ltw 401]

Very strange.  Have you queried these areas?  What are the results of your query?

 

Oh, and do you have a slope mod?  More than one?  Could be a conflict there.

 

The colored surfaces look like the surfaces in the picture above or like lines crossing the screen from the left to the right. I've also ran a test without any plugins in a city-tile that doesn't have any additional buildings (the make money tutorial in Timbuktu). The problem was the same in this city tile.

 

I only have the bridge leveler that is included in the NAM, I have no slope mod whatsoever. I've copied my plugin-folder from my old computer, this was a pentium 4 running Windows 7, everything was running fluently on that pc.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If the only variable is Windows 8(.1) maybe you should be talking to Microsoft.  Have you tried backing out your GPU drivers?