SC4 Startup Manager - manage your plugins!

[Andreas Roth 614]

When you check the "Development" option, you can define separate profiles that start the developing tools, like the Lot Editor. You don't need them if you don't create your own stuff.

[SC4BOY 21]

Welp I love the concept, but count me as one of those needing subfolder help.. to make my add-ins a "flat file" structure would make my management of plugins totally unmanagable.. Great idea tho.. I'll poke my head in occasionally and see what the progress it..

Edit: lol.. never ran into the "page wrap" bug before.. thank god for the "delete" button.. I thought the server was not accepting replies...

[Andreas Roth 614]

A version that supports subfolders is in the works, but unfortuantely, JeanLucPicard2 has no internet connection at the moment, thanks to the stupid German Telekom.

[DARKO 3]

Any update Andreas on the subfolder Version?

[JeanLucPicard2 2]

I'm currently still working on a that new feature. I rewrote a lot of the code. And I know it takes long. But at least, it seems to work so far.

[Nardo69 51]

I do have a question / wish: How do I backup my different regions settings? I will have to restore all my region settings for the third time this year when I hopefully get my pc working again, and this is quite some work ...

So ... if there is a wishing list for a new version a backup / restore function would be my one and biggest wish!

Bernhard

[Andreas Roth 614]

If you backup your plugins folder (and the plugins_backup folder, if necessary), your regions folder, and the SimCity 4 StartupManager.cfg file in the MyDocs\SimCity 4 folder (I think that's where the profiles are stored), it should work fine. I backed up my whole MyDocs\SimCity 4 folder (and the folder where the SUM is installed), put it back after a re-install, and it worked perfectly.

[Andreas Roth 614]

It's been a while since the last version of the Startup Manager (SUM) was published, but JeanLucPicard2 finally released the first internal beta for the other SFBT members. The SUM v3 has been rebuilt from scratch, and it contains a lot of new features that were missing in the current version. The major improvement is that you can select individual subfolders for your profiles now, and the profiles are not only restricted to regions, but even to individual cities.

Since managing thousands of files in hundreds of subfolders is almost impossible when they are moved into and out of the plugins folder, the new SUM introduces a special driver that hides the files which are not selected from the game itself. I'm sure JeanLucPicard2 can explain this better than me, but here are a few screenshots with the key features.

The new startup screen, complete with regional thumbnails:

If you click on a region button, you can select a city (and the associated profile). There are three different views (regional map, city list and profile list). This screen also shows some information about your cities, just like in Region Census. Clicking on a city will start the game, like in the old SUM:

You can sort the region buttons by drag and drop, and also move currently unused regions to a separate list, so they don't show up on as region button on the main screen, but without losing the associated profiles. As said before, you can associate profiles to entire regions, as well as individual cities:

Finally, this is the folder tree where you can select entire folder structures or individual subfolders:

[DARKO 3]

Wow. I'm impressed. I actually stopped working on my region figuring I'd continue when the new version of this would be released.

I'm anxious to download it and give it a test run. Thanks Jean andAndreas for all of your hard work, it is greatly appreciated.

[DJGspinNhitz 7]

Sub Folder selection!!! Awesome, look forward to using this.

Thank you for all your work on making a more efficiant SC

GQ

[RippleJet 36]

A much wanted update!
Can't thank you enough...

[SC4BOY 21]

OH

MY

GOD!!!

F A N T A S T I C

What else can be said.. JLP2.. THANKS!! Nice support there too AR!

Can't wait to get my hands on this one!!

[DJGspinNhitz 7]

After 3 weeks of redownloading after a software error ruined my laptop I await this release so I can play again. I figured I'd re-organize my folders to suit this new version but it means I can't play until it come out b/c I have several conflicting MODs installed. Thank you all for your hard work on this!!!

GQ

[SC4BOY 21]

This is not getting a lot of press, but I for one think that this comes very close to the BEST SINGLE PROGRAM I have ever added to my downloads for SC4.. Thanks a TON.. I believe that EVERYONE other than rank beginners should download and use this fantastic program. Getting it set up for your SC4 will save you a lot of heartache in the future.. CONGRATS to the very low profile JeanLucPicard2!! 

Everytime I start up SC4 I am reminded again how sweet this program is..

[MrGScoTT 3]

This is an amazing update to the start-up manager.  I hope you guys get a news post on the home page of Simtropolis when the final version is released.  Do you guys over SFBT have any other game changing programs in the pipeline?  Wow!

[Andreas Roth 614]

Thanks for the compliments! At the moment, no other programs are under development, and it'll take some time to develop the current ones (you know, the old "real life syndrome" ).

[SC4BOY 21]

Oh I did forget to mention that the version I downloaded doesn't look at all like your posted pics.. dunno if that is because I have a newer version, there are errors in the postings, you have a newer version that is not generally available or what. It still does what I need pretty much. And I can figure out how to use it.. at least based on things that I have tried.. but I cannot follow your material. It is not even similar other than in concept.. Not trying to complain, just pointing out that the two don't seem to agree. The version I have shows version 2.1.2 and does not operate as shown above in your posts.

[Andreas Roth 614]

The screenshots I posted above are from an alpha version of the Startup Manager, which I received from JeanLucPicard2 for testing purposes. It's far more advanced than the current public release, but there are still some serious issues that need to be fixed before we can publish a beta version. As I said, unfortunately, there's also something called "real life", which makes the process a bit slow. But rest assured, we're working on it.

[BigSlark 0]

Hi Andreas,

Since you seem to be the "go to guy" for SUM support, I need your help. My SC4 install is not in the default location, nor was it installed through Windows. I've managed to lose my discs in my many moves in recent years, and so my install dates to several years ago and just gets copied from one hard drive to another.

So, I found the fix back on page 3 that involves regedit, but to no avail. I've tried both ../maxis/simcity4 and .../maxis/simcity4/apps in the binary in the value data. Is there any way to manually input this data in the registry and make SUM work?

That's what I've created in the registry in an attempt to get SUM to work.

Thanks,

BigSlark

[Andreas Roth 614]

I've compared it with my registry, and the entry is called "Install Dir" (note the capital letters). Also, the registry "folder" is called "SimCity 4" (without space between "Sim" and "City"). Most likely, the latter one is the culprit.

[BigSlark 0]

I really appreciate the help, but no luck Andreas. I also tried "Apps" as well, but to no avail. Don't worry about it, I'll manually manage my plugins.

[JeanLucPicard2 2]

The appropriate value for “HKLM\Software\Maxis\SimCity 4\Install Dir” is the path to the “\SimCity4” folder (not to the “\SimCity4\Apps” folder).

Additionally, you should make sure that there is a “My Documents\SimCity 4” folder.

[Andreas Roth 614]

It took quite some time to develop this version, but now it's almost ready: The SC4 Startup Manager v3 (SUM). As with the previous version of this tool, you can create profiles for your regions, and only load the files that are necessary. Depending on the size of your plugins folder, this might speed up the game quite a lot. The old version of the SUM had some drawbacks, though. It was not possible to select individual subfolders, and the files were moved in and out of the plugins folder constantly, making it hard to keep everything in place when installing new content and the like.

The SUM v3 has been reprogrammed from scratch by JeanLucPicard2, one of the programmers of the SFBT. It has an entirely new interface and lots of useful additions for an even better plugin management. The files aren't moved to a "PluginsDisabled" folder anymore, but they are hidden from SimCity (and Windows) while the SUM is running (or better: a special File System Control Server which is running as a Windows service). If the FSCS doesn't work on your system for some reason, the old method of moving the files is used.

But enough explanations, here are some pics.

This is the startup screen, featuring a list of your regions. If you hover the mouse cursor over an entry, a region thumbnail is displayed (can be disabled, if desired). You can specify which regions should show up on this screen, so you can hide regions you don't play at the moment to save space.

Clicking on a region will give you more details about it. There are three different views in the detail mode, a simple list of your region profiles, which enables you to select different profiles for your region, a city list with additional information about your cities (shown above; similar to the Region Census tool), and a large region image, like the region view in SimCity (shown below).

You can start SimCity with the selected region from all three views (the SUM will remember the last view you selected for each region individually). As I said, you can select an individual profile from the first view, the second and third view will start the game with the profile that you selected as default.

This is the region profile manager window where you have full control over all of your regions. The list in the upper left corner contains the regions that are currently active (the ones that are shown on the startup screen), and the list below show the inactive regions. You can use this list to "park" regions that you don't use at the moment, but don't want to lose your profiles for those. If you select a region from the list, it shows up in the right part of the window, where you can select the default profile, edit the profiles etc. You can use drag & drop for most tasks, such as moving regions, profiles etc.

If you select a profile and click "edit", you'll get the window above. As you can see, it shows you a tree view of your plugins folder with all subfolders. The green arrows indicate the folders that are selected for the current profile, the red arrows show the folder that are unselected. You can select/deselect entire folder structures, or individual folders, just as you like. It doesn't matter how you organized your plugins folder anymore, just pick the folders you need and deactivate the rest!

 

You can also create new regions, and the SUM v3 features an integrated config.bmp editor. Just enter a name for your region, enter a size, and pick one of the predefined city patterns, if you like. Or select a city size by clicking one of the buttons on the right side, and place city squares on the region map (shown below).

You can also edit existing regions with the editor, and select between different modes, so you can lock your existing cities in order to prevent any damage. This will make expanding your region a lot easier, and you don't have to mess with a BMP editor anymore in order to get a certain city pattern.

The new SUM v3 will be available soon, currently in English and German. If you want to translate the language file, please go ahead and do so. The program should run on Windows Vista as well. Before using it, I suggest to make a backup of your plugins and regions folder, just in case. Also, make a backup of the "SimCity 4 StartupManager.cfg" in "My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins", this is the file where the SUM v2 stores the region profiles. If you don't wan't to use the new version for some reason, you can easily put that file back into the folder and use the old SUM as usual. Detailed information about the SUM can be found in the included help file (both in English and German as well).

[JeanLucPicard2 2]

The SUM v3 is now available at the SimCityKurier - you can download it here: http://kurier.simcityplaza.de/details.php?file=311

[pzl 0]

Sorry about the post... answered me own question

[seanallenpearce 1]

i dont quite understand how the program works can anyone explain. thanks

[JeanLucPicard2 2]

As in the previous version, you can define arbitrary region profiles, wich are basically a set of which plugin directories should be used and which should not be used when running SimCity 4.

You will find a quick overview at the download page.

There is also a detailed description included for every application window. The help files can be found in the "\Help\en" folder and are accessible via F1. If you have a specific question after having read that, feel free to ask!

[SC4BOY 21]

Hmm.. Thanks for the updated SUM.. seems to work well and addresses many problems that people want in this kind of application. Very nicely done!

This application is the only new thing I have installed on my pc at all, not just SC4.

I have developed a problem however. Since I put in the new SUM (I did a re-install, so nothing was there from the old SUM) I have had occasionaly SC4 crashes. This did not happen in the old version, nor did it happen before I put SUM in. Is there some kind of "crash log" or something that gets written if the file manager has a problem? If there is I can look at my file and let you know whatever message was recorded. This does not happen a lot, probably about 1x per 3 or 4 hours of SC4 play. It also doesn't seem to relate to any particular event. The mode of "crash" is twofold

1. Sometimes the game just "crashes to desktop" .. ie I am back on my desktop and both the file manager and SC4 are gone, but everthing else seems to be working.

2. The game "locks up" the pc.. ie nothing is working, including "cntrl-alt-delete" nor will the mouse pointer move. The only recovery I can find is to turn off the pc and restart by using the power button.

I thought I would report this so that the "SUM team" might find the problem and correct it.

I have set the "configure" to do "no intro screen" and to use "single processor". I think I will turn that single processor off as I have modified the SC4 exe to run with only one processor already. It was not clear to me whether I should check that one or not. It doesn't seem to matter during normal operation as it started and ran .. but since I have this crash problem with SUM I will uncheck that one.. (I can't "un-modify" the exe I don't think.. although if I did research on it there is probably a way as I used a tool from the Windows 2000 admin kit)

If you wish me to follow any particular procedure, let me know.

Edit: One other bit of data I forgot to add... the drive is a raid 5 array.. dunno if that might matter, but thought I'd let you know anyways..

[Andreas Roth 614]

Well, this is the first time that someone is reporting crashes, probably caused by the SUM, so I doubt that's really the case. You said you modified the actual EXE file, so I suspect something might have gone wrong. Try it with a fresh SC4 installation, and see if it works better now. Also, play the game with an empty plugins folder (but still use the SUM to start up the game, maybe with a few empty dummy folders in it that are disabled in the profile). If you suspect that the File System Control Management service is not working well on your PC, try to switch the method back to the old "move folders before startup", please refer to the included documentation on how to do this.

[SC4BOY 21]

Haha.. well to suggest that I "modified" the "exe" is quite an exageration.. actually I let it be modified by a Windows 2000 Admin Kit tool. The procedure is explained clearly via a link from here. I did this about a month before I added the SUM back in after my crash (as I explained I had made a fresh install). The procedure returned the proper parameters after running the tool, indicating it had executed properly. I of course don't have the expertise to accomplish this anymore than I would zip a file myself.. I simply used a tool

I had done this modification to the exe previously too before my pc HD failure and had used it for approximately 1.5 yrs with no problem. (also with the old SUM)

Does this prove the SUM is causing the crash? of course not. I may have a hardware failure or whatever that is causing it which coincidentally failed in the last 2 weeks and is causing the problem. I was not accusing SUM, simply indicating that it appears to be linked. That is why I asked if SUM used an error log. 

At any rate, I have unchecked the "run in single processor" mode on the SUM. There has not been a crash since (only been a day so far). Since there was a check for doing that, I thought there may be a conflict between how SUM forces single-processor vs the way the kit does it (I also forced a specific processor.. I forget offhand which it was, 0 or 1). 

If I continue to get crashes, I shall use the "move folder" method as you suggest to see if that matters. Thanks for thinking about it.

If there is no log, I'll simply see what happens. At any rate, simply report it to JLP2  for his interest. I don't expect anyone to "fix it" for me. Thanks.