Simcity 4 PIM-X Question

[Xander Dax 310]

Hey guys got a question, i recently reinstalled PIM-X after the release of a bug fix to allow the program to run on windows 7, however upon trying to use the program it refuses to load and i keep getting an error about runtime.

 

Over on the sim4devotion forums i posted about this same topic and received a reply suggesting i try the program with an empty pluggins folder upon which the program worked as it was supposed to.

The test brought us to the conclusion there was a possibly faulty or corrupted file in my pluggins, and it was recommended i do a binary search to find and eliminate the problem, however this would involve going through putting small amounts of my pluggins back in the pluggins folder and trying to program to see if it loads correctly, and repeating and then whittling down my pluggins until the problem file is found.

 

This method while i am sure would work seems like an extremely tedious and time consuming prospect considering the amount in my pluggins, so my question here to my fellow Simtropolitans amounts to.

IS there another possibly quicker (and easier) method to find the problem file in my pluggins?, a second (or third) opinion is always appreciated.

 

 

Cheers Xander Dax

[rsc204 21,866]

Are you perhaps just simply overloading the program with data? Just like the Maxis LE it is not recommended to run PIM-X with your full suite of plugins. Try just having those items you need to work on in your plugins folder when running either Lot Editor.

[vortext 573]

A binary search is actually pretty fast. Just load roughly half the plugins to begin with: if SC4PIM works the culprit is in the other half and you can load half of that (i.e. a quarter of the original plugins folder). If it doesn't load, you take out another half. Either way, you've checked half the plugins in one step and within 3 of 4 iterations you're probably down to a number of files small enough to find the issue by manual inspection. That said, hunting down problem files always is a bit tedious. Good luck. 

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

A useful option in the PIM-X is the selection option when starting it. This allows certain groups of plugins to be loaded -- the others are ignored. You may find reducing this selection will ease the demand on the program. I'd recommend creating a TEST folder for this purpose, and just load its contents. Like rsc204 said, it performs best with fewer items in memory.

 

(Moved to the modding forum).

[Xander Dax 310]

Well it appears that i have found my problem, i did a section by section search of my pluggins with no real problems with the program loading with each individual section, so i put everything back in my pluggins and encountered

the same problem.

 

I currently have 6.28 GB in my pluggins so my guess is there is just to much for the program so it spits the dummy lol, so looks like whenever i wish to use the program i will have to move my pluggins and just use the sections i require.

How inconvenient lol, oh well but thank you guys for all your help this problem was extremely vexing.

 

Cheers Xander Dax

[rsc204 21,866]

I never load anything more than a few hundred MBs in PIM-X, although you seem to have pushed it to the point of breaking (I never got that far), you will likely find beyond a few hundred MB it can no longer handle creating the preview images of props and buildings causing errors upon starting the program to boot.

 

However as pointed out by Cyclone Boom, to avoid having to manually move your plugins files PIM-X allows you to select which folders to load upon startup, which would be much quicker.