SC4 Graphics bug/glitch (Intel HD 4000)

[David Buddy 0]

In case you didn't know Intel's graphics cards don't get a long very well with older video games and SC4 is another victim. Unfortunately its as simple as adding -availablevidmem 8 -nomemrestrict -norestrictions to the end of the target on a shortcut for SC4. I have problems like roads that go North-East and other roads that don't go directly left to right and up and down  they are invisibal same with intersections. When placing buildings you only get the base texture (ex if building in on concrete you only see the concrete) until the building refreshes/updates, also black boxes randomly appear over objects and when bulldozing lines with textures from the side of the land (you know stone dirt textures on side of map) flash and move around quickly and violently on your screen. How do you fix this? I would love to Play SC4 again!

[David Buddy 0]

I figered it out, in options you need to change the colour depth from 16bit to 32bit and change the "renderer" from Hardware to Software

[Compdude787 916]

Yup, this is the same graphics card I have on my laptop and I get the same kind of graphics issues as you. I have Windows 8.1 on my laptop; is that what you have? I originally had Win8 but then upgraded to 8.1, and that's when I started having graphics issues. I'd suggest going back to Windows 7 or 8; even changing the compatibility mode for SimCity 4 to XP doesn't work to solve these graphics issues on Windows 8.1.

 

What I do is hit the "g" key (toggles the grid on/off) several times to force things to display properly, which usually works, but you have to do it whenever you zoom or pan; otherwise the graphics will get all messed up again.

I figered it out, in options you need to change the colour depth from 16bit to 32bit and change the "renderer" from Hardware to Software

Yeah, that can work too but the downside is you can't use HD props in Software rendering mode. (HD props and textures are ones that don't look pixelated on the closest zoom level) That's a shame because the tree controller I use (Cascadia tree controller) has seasonal deciduous trees in HD, so I wouldn't be able to use it in Software-rendering mode.

[David Buddy 0]

Yup, this is the same graphics card I have on my laptop and I get the same kind of graphics issues as you. I have Windows 8.1 on my laptop; is that what you have? I originally had Win8 but then upgraded to 8.1, and that's when I started having graphics issues. I'd suggest going back to Windows 7 or 8; even changing the compatibility mode for SimCity 4 to XP doesn't work to solve these graphics issues on Windows 8.1.

 

What I do is hit the "g" key (toggles the grid on/off) several times to force things to display properly, which usually works, but you have to do it whenever you zoom or pan; otherwise the graphics will get all messed up again.

I figered it out, in options you need to change the colour depth from 16bit to 32bit and change the "renderer" from Hardware to Software

Yeah, that can work too but the downside is you can't use HD props in Software rendering mode. (HD props and textures are ones that don't look pixelated on the closest zoom level) That's a shame because the tree controller I use (Cascadia tree controller) has seasonal deciduous trees in HD, so I wouldn't be able to use it in Software-rendering mode.

Accualy I'm running Win7. But I didn't have this issue before intel updated their graphics drivers to be compatible with Win8. I tryed to downgrade the driver but couldn't find an older version . I'm not so sure if this is a Win8 compatibility thing or just a bug with the drivers. But I had problems with other Video games too as I mentioned. 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Well, we are starting to see hardware that can no longer support old legacy code like SC4D.  The solution is to dual boot into an O/S that can handle the Intel GPU or use a default drivers such as the one I have on my Ubuntu version.  It is worth a try to see if the Linux drivers are better for you.

[Compdude787 916]

Well, we are starting to see hardware that can no longer support old legacy code like SC4D.  The solution is to dual boot into an O/S that can handle the Intel GPU or use a default drivers such as the one I have on my Ubuntu version.  It is worth a try to see if the Linux drivers are better for you.

Did you say in another thread that you can't really get hardware rendering to work properly when running SC4 in Wine? What exactly is it that happens in the game when you try that? If hardware rendering doesn't work on Wine, that would defeat the purpose of switching to Linux IMO.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

The glitch is a problem with my video system.  It is an RS780 by AMD (Radion 3000 equivalent) and is no longer supported on this Linux kernel by AMD.  Linux X-org supports it with a default driver (Gallium 0.4) which is in its infancy.  I expect that time will fix this.  At the moment everything works except some tiny items when they are in "half tone".  AMD are just too occupied with taking over the ATI load to bother with this (now obsolete) chipset, and I am too stubborn to spring for a new GPU for a rather old box of tricks.  The chipset is fully OpenGL capable and the current driver handles if as well as it can.  I suppose there might be something odd about the half-tone calls that are not foreseen in the current driver.

 

If you have legitimate drivers from the GPU builder for Linux, there should be no problem.  Most current cards are supported.  Wine just uses the hardware and software it finds and does not load windows drivers as that is really beyond its scope as a JIT compiler.

[Compdude787 916]

It's too bad that this problem is occuring with Windows 7 too! I looked at some forums on Intel's website regarding this and it seems that they don't really care about supporting old games. I might try installing an older driver on Windows 7, though. I'm not quite ready to make the move to Linux. I'd probably do so when MS stops supporting Windows 7, but that might not be for a while...

[NCGAIO 562]

In case you didn't know Intel's graphics cards don't get a long very well with older video games and SC4 is another victim. Unfortunately its as simple as adding -availablevidmem 8 -nomemrestrict -norestrictions to the end of the target on a shortcut for SC4.

You can read more information about it and also some workarounds on the link below

 

[cavvieira 0]

I've had limited success on Windows 8.1 and the latest Intel HD 4000 Graphics driver. Here's my command line: -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32 -CPUCount:1 -d:OpenGL

 

The only issue I'm facing is that the map is not scrolling when I move the mouse to the edge of the screen. Other than that, I've been able to run with all settings maxed (it's not exactly smooth, but not laggy either).