This System

[citycowboy 183]

According to Easy Info, when I click on Requirements, it says that I have Windows NT and it gives a big red circle. Also, my memory is at -255 MB. The other categories are way over and good. Is this a problem and why I can't get the Appalachian Mod to work?

[rsc204 21,805]

Appalachian mod contains HD textures, such texture cannot be rendered with SC4 on software rendering. This compatibility mode can only support at largest 256x256px textures, otherwise you will most typically get a CTD when attempting to run the game. Thus if you can't make your machine work with Direct X, you'll not be able to use such HD mods.

[citycowboy 183]

easy info says i have directx 9 and it gives me a green x for ok

when i go to 'view devices and printers' it shows nothing after the green bar goes all the way over. 

[citycowboy 183]

would it help if i ran it in compatibility mode as a different windows?

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

1.  Describe your computer please.  CPU, Memory (RAM), Virtual memory automatic or not?, GPU.

2.  Operating system and version level.

3.  Source of your game and its build version.

The problem with remote diagnosis of problems is we can't see your machine.

I believe the correct utility to see your machine is called sysinfo.

[citycowboy 183]

Windows 7 Home Premium
Service Pack 1 
HP 330-1025 with AMD Athlon II X2 240e Processor 2.80 GHz
4.00 GB RAM (3.75 GB Usable)
64 Bit Operating System
with touch input available

ACPI x64 based PC
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics
(2) AMD Athlon II X2 240 e processors

AverMedia A323 Minicard Hybrid ATSC
Soundmax Integrated Digital HD Audio

Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition from Amazon.com download for $19.99

HP Touchsmart 300 PC

 

1600x900 Screen Resolution

 

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Interesting.  You have the same box of tricks that I have except that I am running Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS.  If it is the exact same mother board it has an AMD RS780 chip set for the GPU which was also called Radion 3000 series.  I've already noted in another post for you that your GPU is no longer supported by AMD (who bought out ATI a while back).  If you want to stay on Windows, you need a new GPU as a minimum.

You could also dual boot Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS and use it to run older games such as SC4.  The default graphics driver in this version will run the RS780 using DirectX, software, and/or opengl rendering.  Dual booting is not difficult and the Ubuntu system will guide you through it.

To install the dual boot, proceed as follows:

1.  Go to the Ubuntu site.

2.  Download Ubuntu 14.04.LTS as offered.  This will download an ISO disk image.  Read on, and get the MD5 checksum.  If necessary pick up the MD5 program as well.

3.  Make the ISO into a DVD.

4.  Boot from the DVD.  This procedure will not affect the contents of your disks as it runs totally in memory unless you decide to set up a dual system.  You will find several choices.  If you choose any of the dual boots, you will also get the Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) which, when you boot your machine, will give you a choice of which O/S to use.

5.  After you have effectively booted into Ubuntu, you need to use the software centre to pick up wine (Windows Executive layer) to run Windows programs.  You can then use the winetricks script to populate your wine prefix (a folder) with directx 9.

6.  Install SC4 on your wine prefix by opening the autorun file with the Wine windows program loader.  The game will start.

7.  Make whatever changes you need to make with respect to command line options in the shortcut to get it working the way you like.  This will take a script which I'll describe below.

FYI: All the files in your Windows system are accessible from Ubuntu which will happily read and write NTFS files.

When you want to switch back to windows, use the menu to go to shutdown and choose the reboot symbol.  GRUB gives you a 10 second time-out to choose, but if you cursor down one, it turns off the timer, so you can then take your time about what you are doing.

Using scripts (a quick lesson):

Every operating system has a console that allows things to be done manually.  It is possible to create a script that can be called from the launcher or the dash to start up a program that requires some options to be set.  If you have a folder in /home/<yourid> named bin (/home/<yourid>/bin) when you boot, this folder is added to the search rules for finding programs that are called either from the GUI or a console.  This is a good place to store scripts.  Use the file system to set execute permission on scripts.  Open the folder, right click on the file and go to the permissions tab.

When you install SC4 on your Ubuntu system, it creates a desktop shortcut (link).  You can right click on this, choose properties, then pick off the command script that has been generated.  Sometimes the installer gets carried away and this can be simplified.  Here is a simple script to start SC4 from wine (remember wine emulates the windows file structure so sets up a fake c: drive).  You can create this script in the default editor (gedit) then save it in the /home/<yourid>/bin folder as SC4 (no extension) then set execute permission on it.  Linux doesn't use file extensions very often and usually only for visual purposes.

#!/bin/bash
env WINEPREFIX="/home/<yourid>/.wine" \
wine "C:/Program Files (x86)/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe" \
 -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -d:directx \
 -CPUCount:1 -f &>~/sc4.log
wine --version &>>~/sc4.log

Looks complicated but it's not. 

• The first line is a special kind of comment that tells the system what kind of command interpreter to use.
• The second line is one gigantic extended line.  Any line that ends with a backslash is really saying "continued on next line" and causes the end of line stuff to be ignored, so:
  • The first part tells the system where your wine prefix is.  This is the default.
  • The next part is the beginning of the command to wine to get the program and says where it is.
  • The next part contains command line options for SC4 and is continued to the next part as well
  • The other thing on the last part of the (second) line of this script is a bit of Linux foolery to get some diagnostics. &>~/sc4.log causes the output from wine (the working layer) to go to a file in your home folder (~) called sc4.log.  Sometime when you've nothing to do for a day or so, open a console and type cat bash.  This will give you, page by page, the manual for the Bourne Again Shell (long history could follow).
• The third line of the script echoes the version of wine you are using onto the sc4.log file at the end. [ > overwrites the file, >> appends ]

Not really all that hard, but you see how nicely a script can get things done.  This is an extract of my personal script, so the SC4 options may not be the ones you need.  Here is the reference to command line options for SC4.  This reference is for Windows, so use common sense if it doesn't always gibe.

Whew!  I really didn't intend to write so much, but them's the breaks.  Good luck.

Oh, one more thing.  Ubuntu is free to single users and 14.04.3 LTS is supported until April 2017.  I haven't run Windows since 2007.

[rsc204 21,805]

I warn you, if you install Linxux, you will likely curse the day you did. I'm sorry Nonny, but without trying to be disrespectful to @citycowboy - someone who can't easily work with files/scripts is going to have a bad time installing a dual boot system. I know you like Linux, but I really think you should be careful before advising people to make a huge change in how they use their computers. Suggest is one thing, but Linux is not a magical cure for all ills. Linux is an O/S for people who understand computers, not for the masses.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

18 hours ago, rsc204 said:

I warn you, if you install Linux, you will likely curse the day you did. I'm sorry Nonny, but without trying to be disrespectful to @citycowboy - someone who can't easily work with files/scripts is going to have a bad time installing a dual boot system. I know you like Linux, but I really think you should be careful before advising people to make a huge change in how they use their computers. Suggest is one thing, but Linux is not a magical cure for all ills. Linux is an O/S for people who understand computers, not for the masses.

Of course not.  I am an old experienced computer geek from the 1960s.  However, if @citycowboy  has the computer smarts necessary to read what I wrote, then all should be well.  The whole point about a Linux system is that it frees you from the tyranny of Microsoft's nannyism.  Perhaps in your case, you should look at it as an opportunity to grow instead of being so negative.  All the necessary information to upgrade yourself is on Wikipedia.

Ubuntu is my choice of several distributions (free with support for individuals) because it most nearly resembles Windows XP.  You don't really need to be a script writer, but it helps.  The main difference from a quick glance is that the program launcher is on the side of the window instead of at the bottom, and there is the nice dash at the head of this list which takes you into a rather good search.  Sure it is a stretch for most people because they are not really computer people at all but simply end users of something they understand no more than they understand their refrigerator.  It is treated as a home appliance.

One thing the computer industrial revolution, which is now at an end, has done is enable world wide communications.  What we have to do now is get over the flush of misuse and get it down to being generally useful instead of being both a boon and a curse.  The next upgrade to civilization was one of the topics at the recent Davos summit.  I think we can say that the computerization of civilization actually started in 1980 with the announcement of the IBM PC, and has come to full fruition with the smart phones we are seeing now.  So now, onwards and upwards, as the saying goes.  Next stop, interstellar space.

[rsc204 21,805]

But hasn't history shown, that armed with a user base the likes of Microsoft, Linux would just take over the role of Nanny?

I don't agree with a lot of what Microsoft is doing from a administration/power user point of view either. But from a user point of view, they are trying to remove the technical barriers to enable the most number of people to use computers. Linux does similar, hence the Windows look/feel, but it doesn't take much scratching under the surface to realise you are in an alien land.

Ask in a Linux forum and try to get step by step "in laymans terms" answers that beginners can follow. If you look at support sites for MS by comparison, things are explained in detail, utilities are provided to do routine tasks/fixes. Linux is a long way from being hassle free enough for the average user.

Hardware manufactures can't even be bothered to create drivers, that's a massive problem that never went away. For me Netbooks were the great lost opportunity for Linux, it was an ideal O/S for what can be a very useful form factor for many. Admittedly most of the issues were implementation based, but at one point a large UK retail chain reported 6-7/10 netbooks sold with Linux were returned/swapped for Windows machines. That's what you get when you sell Linux to someone who won't understand it, a user looking for any way to return to how things were.

I've nothing against Linux personally, open source is ideology a very good idea in principle. But even the government of Munich, one of the biggest public supporters of Linux, returned to Windows because the support costs were too high as a result of users ingrained with Windows. I'm not saying Bavaria would employ the dumbest Oktoberfest yokels to run their city, but one wonders if the usual, OMG it's a computer factor was invoked. But all the same, it was unworkable.

IMO Windows 7 is the best consumer desktop OS that exists, period. It's fast, stable and secure, assuming you don't play Russian Roulette on the Internet. But more to the point it does everything I ask of it. I have used my knowledge of this inter-connected system of software/hardware to automate tasks for SC4 modding. To the point where I was able to release mods (TGN, SEN) that were considered simply too much work many times before. Me and my computer are in Harmony, I don't intend to bring a bulldozer in and wreck my productivity, when I don't see any tangible benefits from so doing.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

I think you'll find that nannyism is not likely in the Linux community because anyone with a big enough machine can start his own distribution site simply by picking up the Linux base and going from there.  A lot of work, but some do it.  Others pick up an existing distribution and tools, and upgrade it, e.g. Debian -> Ubuntu -> Linux Mint.  And one can always start with Minix, which is where Linus Torvalds took his original stuff, found it wanting, and developed his own.

Development is not concentrated in a few shops the way it is with Apple and Microsoft.  With a world-wide set of developers, just co-ordinating things enough to get a distribution together is a big enough job without trying to wag the dog at the same time.  For example, the last time I did a hunt for a bug in Linux/wine, it turned out that there were over 1200 developers on that kernel module alone.  The wine developers work hard to keep up with Microsoft's latest Windows foibles so that the JIT compiler module continues to be able to run Windows executables and even, with the wine/mono package Windows programs with .NET.  Of course a pure C# program can be run using mono by itself since it contains the appropriate JIT system.  This is in line with the ECMA requirements.

Suppose that Linux users composed the majority of computer appliance users?  Maybe they do?  How many are using Android?  Android is derived from Linux, and so there is a large number of smart phones using ARM architecture and Android.  Oh, and there is an ARM version of Ubuntu as well, if you have a big enough ARM box and want to run Linux.

Linux and its distributions are user's choice and are not jammed up your wazoo by what comes on your hardware provided by someone I wouldn't trust across the street.  I have little or no respect for neither Apple nor Windows any more.  They are acting like banana republics.

At one point, one of the big manufacturers (Acer, I think) was offering to deliver laptops with either Windows or Ubuntu.  An interesting side note is the Acer pronounced Aee-sir happens to be the Latin name for the maple tree species.  But I've never seen a computer that produced anything sweet.

However, whatever floats your boat.  Every man is in charge of his own fate.  I used to be a dyed in the wool Windows user until it was clear that I could no longer afford all that bloatware.