Larger cities crash or lock up

[Oldrogue 9]

Hi

My system is as follows

HP desktop 450t

intel core i7  CPU   870 @2.93Ghz   870 @2.93Ghz

12 GB Ram

64 bit

WIndows 7 professional

ATI Radeon  5570 (SMBX 2335)  video card

 

I'm running SimCIty4 Deluxe that is downloaded from Amazon (Got tired of buying a new game every year or two.)

 

There is no way that I should have this problem.....that I can figure anyhow.

I can build small towns and villages, anything up to about 12-15k pop.  when I get over that or when my region hits 125k I start getting ctds more and more often, and sometimes my cursor will lock up.......

 

Am running a plugins folder of 3.86gigs....

 

just logged into a city of 52,000 ran for almost 3 minutes....ctd.... frustrating.

 

any thoughts out there?

 

 

[Indiana Joe 1,750]

Have you added the -CPUCount:1 flag to the "target" box in SC4's properties? Otherwise the game crashes on most multicore processors.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

That is one of the main points with newer machines.  Also, because of the high speed of new processors the system accumulates junk.  Best way to avoid a CTD after the single processor assignment is an internal save about every 10 or 15 minues.  CTRL+s does the trick, and no switching away during this, or any save until it completes.

[Oldrogue 9]

Thanks to both of you....so, I've been running the SImCity Launcher by I forget for the moment...went and changed the cpu to 1, also found it was configured for Windows XP and I'm on 7 so changed that.  I have been Cntr S for quite some time.  Played for about 20 minutes, saving after doing just about anything.  Was going along fine and same problem came up...went to save and Game Freeze.... 

 

I think I'll try trimming my plugins folder (sob) even more and then see if the size of that is to big.   Just had the thought that if I take out the agriculture subfolder (since this is meant to be a big city) that could save me a bunch and see if that helps.....

 

Thanks again, and if anyone can come up with something else to try....I'm willing to try it.

[Compdude787 916]

Do you have the 4GB patch for SC4? This basically allows the game to use up to 4GB of RAM instead of only 2 GB, and should prevent crashes while you're saving. It's a 32-bit game and 32-bit computers could only have up to 4 GB of RAM, so any 32-bit program is by default only allowed to use up to 2 GB of memory.

If you have the NAM this patch is installed automatically on 64-bit systems (which you have). If you don't have the NAM, you can download the 4GB patch here. When you run it, navigate to the SimCity 4 executable in the Program Files directory and tell it to apply the patch to that program.

 

NOTE: before you do this, you should install both of the official Maxis patches for this game. The official patches will refuse to install if the EXE been modified in any way, even with this 4 GB patch.

[Oldrogue 9]

Yeah I run the NAM system...but looked at the patch anyway....looks really neat.  Trimmed lots of files from my plugins and will see if that helps.   Okay, I think I trimmed a lot.  Went from 3.86gb....to 3.63.. If this doesn't work, am thinking of  removing me entire plugins folder aside from the textures, props and essentials.  Then adding 1 new thing at a time til I find the tipping point.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

I seem to be experiencing more crashes as well of late.

I have a a Intel ® Core (TM2 Q8200 @2.33GH3, 4.00 GB and 64 bit operation system. I run on Window Vista Home Premium.

 

I do save constantly, but I also freeze at times. I would hate to have to remove some of my plugins since I use them all in my cities. Not sure if downloading a variety of buildings would be the cause? I do have NAM and from previous post, it seems the patch is automatically installed.

 

I guess I will just keep on pressing save.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If you have a large plugin suite, you may have picked up a conflict.  These may not show up until you zoom or scroll depending on which view of a building is being loaded.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

well, the plugin is 951MB..have not attempted to datpack items yet (way too new at this to take a chance to mess up things).

 

I do run the cleaning and carefully read the readme files...guess I will just have to wait and see.

 

Thank you for the information Noony.

[Turjan 1,048]

There are basically 3 things that made my game run stable:

 

1. Using the flag for the game to use only one processor. This removed the majority of CTDs.

2. The 4GB patch. Huge effect on game flow. It's running pretty smooth now. This eliminates problems with large tiles, which became unstable for me from a population of 1 million on or so before I applied the patch, in particular crashes during saving.

3. Tell the game to please use my video card. That was the most involved step but increased speed, especially of scrolling, considerably.

 

Nowadays, I only get crashes in these cases:

 

1. I move a puzzle piece over a transit-enabled lot. That's normally only an issue when building some viaduct rail with stations.

2. Doing something stupid, like removing a tree controller without deleting all existing trees or keeping MMPs of the tree props.

 

Otherwise, my game runs completely stable.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

Thank you Turjan for this information.

 

Unfortunately, I am not a computer genius..like Noony for example! I guess at this time, I will just have to live with it. I tried to understand DataNod and Reader and I admit with no shame that I do not understand how to read these products, even after reading the instructions several time.

 

And for the life of me, I cannot locate an .exe file for this game. Not sure if it has something to do with the fact my game is a digital download from Steam (I know Noony, you don't like them...lol).

[Turjan 1,048]

For Steam, the .exe file is, in my case, at E:\SteamLibrary\SteamApps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe . Yours might be under C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteanApps\... etc., depending on where you tell Steam to install your programs.

 

However, if you want to set the flag, you might as well do this here (right-click on the entry in your library and choose "Properties"):

 

 

The 4GB fix is installed during the installation of the NAM. Just let it do its thing. I'm afraid you may not have enough RAM to fully utilize it though, as Windows will hog half of your resources. If you install the NAM, try to minimize its footprint as much as possible with a custom install.

 

The video card fix is mostly needed with an ATI or AMD card, as then the game gets nasty and ignores the options you set.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

One thing that everyone should know how to use is the search function of windows explorer.  Make sure you have the option turned off to hide extensions on known types, and then you should be able to search for SimCity 4.exe (with the space).  I am not sure if it is case sensitive, but spell it as shown.

 

If you don't understand this post, please spend some time with the help files for windows explorer.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

Ok, well, thank you Nonny for your recommendation.

 

Turjan, thank you very much for taking the time to do a print screen. Will definitely look into this further.

[platinumranger 18]

No need to search just view the properties of your game launcher the target path tells you where your exe is its the same line where you just added you flags for cpu count and no intro

[Bdub01 201]

Have you added the -CPUCount:1 flag to the "target" box in SC4's properties? Otherwise the game crashes on most multicore processors.

What exactly is that and where can I find it?

[Compdude787 916]

Have you added the -CPUCount:1 flag to the "target" box in SC4's properties? Otherwise the game crashes on most multicore processors.

What exactly is that and where can I find it?

Right-click on the shortcut for SC4 on your desktop, click properties, and go to the "Shortcut" tab. All the shortcut parameters go at the end of the Target text field. Just add it after the location path. If you bought the game off Steam, instructions for this are listed in the posts above.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Just a little more information on the command line syntax and you are home free.  All options follow the complete pathname of the game which ends with a double quote (").  Each option begins with a single space and a hyphen.  Here is the write up on options, most of which don't apply to most users. https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=3683.msg113280#msg113280