Simcity 4 region background bug

[lowietje123 0]

Hey whatsup guys!   

Since a short period of time I decided to play Simcity 4 Deluxe again, but I encountered some graphical issues in the region screen (see photo).
I never had this issue before and I tried many things to get rid of it, I even uninstalled all of my mods but without succes.

When I start a new region nothing is wrong with it, but when I start a city and go back immediately without even touching something in the city then the black squares appear.
If someone has a sollution for this problem it will be much appreciated!   

Thank you



 

[Abrams 1,744]

What rendering mode you use?Add theese lines to the launch option:

-CPUCount:1 -intro:off

Also theese solve ctd-s

[lowietje123 0]

What rendering mode you use?Add theese lines to the launch option:

-CPUCount:1 -intro:off

Also theese solve ctd-s

Do you mean the CPU cores to 1? I've set CPU cores to 1 and I disabled the intro option, but no succes.

And I use DirectX for rendering but setting the rendering option to software or openGL doesn't solve it.

And I don't know if my PC specs are important to mention but I use Vista 32 bit if you're interested in knowing that.

I've read somewhere that changing the resolution can also solve the problem, but that is not the case as well.

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

I recommend moving up to Windows 7.  Vista was really a trial balloon for W7, so a step up might fix this problem.

[rsc204 21,866]

Does the problem happen if you switch to a different resolution?

 

Otherwise if you are using Hardware rendering have you into the Graphics Rules and Video Cards .sgr files?

[lowietje123 0]

Does the problem happen if you switch to a different resolution?

Otherwise if you are using Hardware rendering have you into the Graphics Rules and Video Cards .sgr files?

Yes, I've switched between different resolutions but that didn't work unforunately.

I use DirectX for rendering but I can switch to hardware rendering without any problems.

I'm going to try what you've told me, I hope it helps!

Thanks for your help!

-EDIT-

That didn't even work, I added my videocard in the two sgr. files but the bug is still there. I dunno what to do   

Nevertheless thanks for your support!

 

[VermonsterMainEac 3]

I recommend moving up to Windows 7.  Vista was really a trial balloon for W7, so a step up might fix this problem.

It happens in Windows 7 as well, I can attest to that.  It's also sporadic.  Sometimes it occurs, sometimes it doesn't. 

[lowietje123 0]

 

I recommend moving up to Windows 7. Vista was really a trial balloon for W7, so a step up might fix this problem.

It happens in Windows 7 as well, I can attest to that. It's also sporadic. Sometimes it occurs, sometimes it doesn't.

Just that. I assume that you have experienced this problem as well or maybe you've seen the problem elsewhere, if so, have you been able to fix the problem?

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Computers don't argue.  They also don't do inconsistent things.  What background tasks have you got running when this occurs?  Are you running some memory hog like an Internet Browser while running the game?

 

I've never had this happen and I often run other stuff.  Maybe you don't have enough swap space?  Try setting it up to 4 GB or as close as you can get.  My swap partition is 20 GB and I can add another one to this if need be.  It is really starting to sound like a memory allocation problem.

[lowietje123 0]

Computers don't argue.  They also don't do inconsistent things.  What background tasks have you got running when this occurs?  Are you running some memory hog like an Internet Browser while running the game?

 

I've never had this happen and I often run other stuff.  Maybe you don't have enough swap space?  Try setting it up to 4 GB or as close as you can get.  My swap partition is 20 GB and I can add another one to this if need be.  It is really starting to sound like a memory allocation problem.

Sometimes I run an Internet Browser yes, but nothing more than that.

My recommended swapspace is 4603 MB and I've set it from 3600 mb to 4000 mb, but that doesn't help as well.

Thanks for your help though

-EDIT-

I remember something now. A couple of weeks back I cleaned my computer and I removed my videocard, but then a component broke of the circuit board

 

So I mean one of those little bastards, almost impossible to solder them back on.

Do you think this accident had something to do with my Simcity problem?

Never noticed any problems with my computer because of this, and due to the fact the problem comes up sporadic I don't think it has something to do with it but I can be wrong ofcourse!

-EDIT-

I think I have fixed the problem, I overlooked a topic on here that mentioned the same problem, downgrading my videocard would fix the problem, I'm doing this now!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

If you monkey with your circuit cards all it take is a hairline crack in one of the traces to cause intermittent problems that depend on the temperature and the vibration of the cooling fans.  Sometimes just a hard look will do it.

[blunder 1,080]

Your original graphics problem looks like something that's endemic when (IIRC) using an nvidia card with drivers newer than version 3.20ish.  So if you are using an nvidia card, try grabbing a legacy driver from the 2.90-3.15 range and uninstalling your newer driver.

[rsc204 21,866]

It's weird, I'm running the latest 340.52 here on a GTX 750ti without troubles, perhaps the Windows Version/GPU type is also part of this?

 

Over on thread it's reported that revision 314.22 solves some graphical errors, so maybe start there? Obviously be aware that making SC4 run better may have the unintended consequence of worsening compatibility and performance for other, especially newer applications.

 

One last thing, if you've adjusted the Virtual Memory (Swap Space) in Windows, I'd recommend you switch it back to allow the O/S to control this automatically. Windows will increase the amount of Virtual Memory as required based on optimal system conditions, it's a case of don't play here if you don't know what you are doing - inadvertently if an application did for whatever reason need more than 4GB, it would now crash since you've told Windows it can't use any more, whereas before it would just adjust (where possible).

[lowietje123 0]

It's weird, I'm running the latest 340.52 here on a GTX 750ti without troubles, perhaps the Windows Version/GPU type is also part of this?

 

Over on thread it's reported that revision 314.22 solves some graphical errors, so maybe start there? Obviously be aware that making SC4 run better may have the unintended consequence of worsening compatibility and performance for other, especially newer applications.

 

One last thing, if you've adjusted the Virtual Memory (Swap Space) in Windows, I'd recommend you switch it back to allow the O/S to control this automatically. Windows will increase the amount of Virtual Memory as required based on optimal system conditions, it's a case of don't play here if you don't know what you are doing - inadvertently if an application did for whatever reason need more than 4GB, it would now crash since you've told Windows it can't use any more, whereas before it would just adjust (where possible).

I'm now running on patch 296.10, I downgraded it a lot but still no succes unfortunately. I tried  every setting in the SC4 Launcher as well.

I've put back the regular swapspace though, because that didn't do the trick as well.

Your original graphics problem looks like something that's endemic when (IIRC) using an nvidia card with drivers newer than version 3.20ish.  So if you are using an nvidia card, try grabbing a legacy driver from the 2.90-3.15 range and uninstalling your newer driver.

I'm running 296.10 now but the bug is still there. I really thought I solved the problem by downgrading my GPU driver to 314.22 but I was wrong. I downgraded it a couple of times now.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

About windows swap space.  There used to be a maximum of just under 4GB which I believe has now been lifted.  I run Linux which uses a partition for swap space and this can be of any size.  Mine is actually 22 GB, and I can't imagine processes needing more than that, but an additional swap partition is available.

 

Does anyone know if windows has any limit other than physical space available on swap/virtual space after XP?  Having the swap space as an NTFS file (*.swp) has always seemed to be a major goof when it would be easy just to use a partition.

[rsc204 21,866]

I'm now running on patch 296.10, I downgraded it a lot but still no succes unfortunately. I tried  every setting in the SC4 Launcher as well.

 

You could try as a last resort checking the general graphics options in the Nvidia control pannel for SC4, disable everything, test the results and then slowly go through the list of options until you get acceptable results, no guarantee it would fix it, still if the problem never messes with your game itself (region view isn't a deal breaker for me) perhaps there is a limit to the sensible amount of time to put into this.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

1.  Try it without the launcher.  Use manually placed command line options instead.

 

2.  Try setting all the 3D controls on your GPU control panel to either OFF, or 'application selected'.  SimCity 4 was released before the most elemental of hardware assisted 3D stuff existed.

[VermonsterMainEac 3]

 

 

I recommend moving up to Windows 7. Vista was really a trial balloon for W7, so a step up might fix this problem.

It happens in Windows 7 as well, I can attest to that. It's also sporadic. Sometimes it occurs, sometimes it doesn't.

Just that. I assume that you have experienced this problem as well or maybe you've seen the problem elsewhere, if so, have you been able to fix the problem?

 

Yesterday I launched SC4 after a cold boot and the glitch was present.  This morning I launched SC4 after a cold boot and it wasn't there.  It's a crapshoot it seems.

 

Edit:  I'm running under hardware with an Nvidia Geforce gtx 260m at high settings with latest driver.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

if you ever figure out which background task in windoze is causing this and report it, you'll be doing everyone a great favour.  It seems to me that it is a race condition in initiating tasks.

[blunder 1,080]

I'm running 296.10 now but the bug is still there. I really thought I solved the problem by downgrading my GPU driver to 314.22 but I was wrong. I downgraded it a couple of times now.

 

 

This may seem like a dense question but are you sure you did a clean driver install?  Did you completely uninstall the old driver first, then restart your pc (the display would have reset to absurdly small resolution, like 640x480), and only then install the legacy driver?  It only works if the old driver is completely uninstalled, not overwritten. 

 

I ask because i had this exact same thing happen and this fixed it  (only difference is im on windows 7).  I just want to check to make sure you've done it right before someone else sends you off on a wild goose chase.  If that doesn't fix it; since rsc has his working on the 340.xx driver perhaps you could upgrade to that one?