SC4 Startup Manager - manage your plugins!

[ja/att 61]

The program works in anouther prexisting city with out issue so I am thinking that the first profile is missing some key files and that is causing the crash.

[Andreas Roth 607]

If the game loads, then the SUM works fine. Maybe you've included some incompatible mods in your profile(s), such as two different terrain mods, or maybe some essential files are missing.

[2005 FY9 0]

The program I got looked nothing like that, and all I got was something that let me load regions. Did I find the wrong version?

[Andreas Roth 607]

There's an older version 2 and a newer version 3, which look entirely different (but basically do the same; v3 is much more refined, though). The latest version can be found when clicking on the link in my signature.

[joejakejoe 0]

Wonderful tool! Since I can chose which "plug in" I have down loaded or created on my own is there a way to "disable" the SC4's ingame lots. In other words, I only want to use/grow the RCI lots I have downloaded and not the ones that came with the game. Is this possible and how would it be done.

Thanks again for the GRRRRREAT TOOL!

[Andreas Roth 607]

For disabling the in-game content, there are several "Maxis blocker" mods available. Seach the STEX, and you should find something.

[joejakejoe 0]

Thank you Andreas, now I can enjoy truly modded cities.

You are not a Simtropolis Geek, but a Sim God

[herenthere 0]

When I first dl this, I thought great! now i dont have to scroll thru everything if i am not using it on a city. But for some reason, even after I have selected a profile for a region, the buildings/lots I have not selected to load still loads!! Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?

[herenthere 0]

Originally posted by: herenthere

When I first dl this, I thought great! now i dont have to scroll thru everything if i am not using it on a city. But for some reason, even after I have selected a profile for a region, the buildings/lots I have not selected to load still loads!! Any suggestions on how to solve this problem?quote>

SOLVED: Read old posts, you gotta use the Startup manager to load cities in order for the profiles to work

And must run as Administrator (on Vista), and for me, must use fmserver.

[knyght 1]

Hi All,

This looks like a great program but I have a quick question/request to ask.  If it can't be done, it's not a big deal but I think it'd be very handy!

My dilemna is this: I'm only interested in building one large region but I would love to be able to use different plugins (i.e. different trains, trams, buses, buildings, etc...) for different cities.  Is there a way to modify this program it so that you can allow select cities to use different plugins?  If it could be done, it would be very handy!

I apologize if this has been asked before.  I'm very new to the forums here.

Keep up the great work!

Gisa ^^

[Andreas Roth 607]

Yes, simply create several "Region" profiles for your various cities. The game will start with the region view anyway, so just load the profile for the city that you want to play, and choose this city in the region view then.

[knyght 1]

Hi Andreas,

That's fantastic news!  Thanks for the reply.  I will definitely try this later when I get the chance.

Keep up the great work!

Gisa ^^

[knyght 1]

I am happy to say that I got the program working and after some hardcore organizing, I set up a system where I can modify the most common things in different cities.  May I suggest a possible feature?  That being, add in the ability to *select all* or *deselect all* as it makes it quite difficult to select all the folders by hand to make a new profile each time.  I know I can copy it over (I just read the readme again   but it would be handy...

One small question to ask: what does the all surplus folders option do?

Keep up the great work!

Gisa ^^

[alberta13 0]

Hi all

I'm going to ask this question because I haven't encountered anyone else with this problem. The SUM doesn't seem to be hiding my unwanted plugins. The Startup Manager installed fine, i have the cfg file in my SimCity 4 folder. I have created my profiles and assigned them to ciites in my regions, but when I try to load a region, say with just the NAM, all my plugins are still there when the game loads. I think this may be due to the fact that I installed SimCity to D:/My Files/SimCity 4 which would not be a problem in inself, but using Tweak UI, i moved 'My Documents' to 'My Files' when I set up my computer - so in essence my two plugins files - one for My Documents, and the other one for the SimCity application are in actual fact the same folder with the same path. When I look at the 'Edit Profile' window in the SUM, both the My Documents and the SimCity 4 Installation Directory show an identical list of my plugins. Even if I select the NAM folder in both lists, my unwanted plugins still don't disappear. Am I going to have to reinstall SimCity to my C drive in order to fix this problem?

Thanks very much in advance

[SC4BOY 20]

You must load SUM EVERY TIME YOU START TO PLAY SC4 in order for your profiles to be managed.

[alberta13 0]

I do start the SUM everytime. Just to clarify, does a region load directly from the SUM (which it seems to) or should I be launching SC separately (which i haven't been doing)? So anyway, I reinstalled SC to the C drive. I now have a single list of plugins in the SUM. But it's still not hiding my unwanted plugins. Help. Please.

[SC4BOY 20]

If I understand the SUM correctly, it actually is a "file management system" registered under the Windows op system. When you load it up it "sets" the visibility of each file to be either visible or hidden (and other things as well.. but this is the key you're focusing on I think).. Then it "passes off" the files to SC4 to be used. What SC4 sees is what SUM has set. Therefore it should only "see" those assets that you set in the city profile that you profiled before entering the city. Both v3 and v2 work the same in the end, but the mechanics are slightly different. I haven't used it in quite a while, but its possible that you have some configuration set wrong in the startup process.. that seems to be the only thing left to give the problem you mention. Hopefully Andreas will be able to help you better next time he pops in. I don't think how you have SC4 installed should lead to the problem you are having.

[alberta13 0]

Thanks. I even reinstalled the SUM, but still no joy. Hopefully someone can give me an answer. I really need this to work to ease the load on my older laptop.

[xguyx 0]

Alright, this program could be really cool but I am having a little trouble. It's just a simple question. How do you get into the window which allows you to edit the profile of a city? The readme does clearly state to hold Ctrl and right click on the city but it doesn't seem to be working.

[adriana12 1]

I just upgraded my computer, have created a new plugin folder with many newly downloaded files.  I am also having the same problem as you.  I noticed that my parks menu and landmark menu have to many extra files and I realize even if there is a red arrow the game still can see my plugins.  I hope it is not a vista 64 problem

[Daderic21! 10]

So I would be able to build different themed cities within a region, like the Hong Kong theme, Japanese theme, Middle East theme, Aussie theme, etc and so on. Am I right in saying this?

Would this work for mods like Sidewalk Mods as I wish to build different cities that have different sidewalk mods for example.

[Andreas Roth 607]

You can create profiles for any kind of lots/BATs/mods.

[herenthere 0]

alberta13: What I do is I place my plugin files into the C:/Users/Documents/Sim City 4/Plugins folder and SUM should recognize that location since that is where Maxis installed it. Try moving your SUM or SC4 into either the C: or D: drive, it might not recognize it spread over two partitions.

xguyx: To edit your profile/create a new one for a city, click on "Manage Regions" > Click on your region, then on your city. > Add a profile > Select what plugins you want to load making sure its contents are also selected (Use "Select all subfolders") > Exit out > Click to the left of your new profile to connect this to your city > Should now be a green arrow next to it.

Now, for my own question: Does SUM and SC4 work on Windows 7 (or does setting it to XP compatibility mode work just fine) ?

[Slashback 136]

Good work!

[TheDarkwalker 4]

This program is exactly what I've been looking for.

...It's a shame that it doesn't seem to work.

Is there an active support thread for this program somewhere?

[Andreas Roth 607]

Well, this is the support thread, but since the program was developed by JeanLucPicard2 (from SimForum.de) quite a while ago, it's no longer an "active" thread.

[TheDarkwalker 4]

^{Well, I guess I'll ask my questions here anyway, as I really would like to be able to use this tool.}

When I first attempted to use SUM it would hang while initializeing sumjmserver. I have modified the sumhkmodule.ini as described elsewhere in this thread, Now, however, I have a new problem:

The SUM sequence fails at 'hide relevant files' Sometimes it just hangs, and other times it announces that it failed (and then hangs)

The troubleshooting guide does not explain how to resolve this. Any advice would be appreciated

As I mentioned earlier, this tool seems to be exactly what I've been looking for. I just need some help configuring it to work on Windows 7

[Moonraker0 192]

I don't really understand that well how to use this program: I just added three new BATs to my Simcity 4\Plugins\Plugins folder (which I previously selected to have all sub-folders included in all profiles), but when I checked on the profile for one of my regions with "Edit profile", the three new folders were not checked. Does this mean that every time I add some new plugin to my game, I'll have to go into "Edit profile" for every single region I have and manually include each new plugin folder for each individual region's profile? Surely there's a way around this...?

[SC4BOY 20]

No matter which way it is set to work, some group will be unhappy. If you make it ADD all new content to all profiles, many more people would complain about having to go in and DELETE it from all profiles where they don't want it. You're the other case.. You'll just have to add them with the custom content for each of your profiles. It doesn't do your maintenance for you .

[Andreas Roth 607]

SC4BOY is right, there is no perfect solution. If you don't need/like the down-to-the-single-file management capabilities for the SUM, you can use the old 2.x version, which is still available (http://kurier.simcityplaza.de/details.php?file=515). It only manages the folders within \Plugins, and includes all files and subfolders within those automatically when selected.