Lack of Waves Causes Black Boxes Glitch in Region Map View?

[funkymonkey 0]

Hi all, new to Simtropolis here.

The game has been running fine except this graphical glitch with black boxes on the region map as shown here:

I'm using Windows 7 Home Premium x64.

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I’ve done some searching around and found these two posts both experiencing the same problem as I have been:

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/65403-strange-region-view-edge-glitch/

The op “fixed” the problem by switching from “hardware” to “software” in game settings, and then reloading and saving each tile that had the black boxes glitch. This also “fixed” it for me but I wanted to use an HD water mod in my game and the “software” setting will cause CTD. Also the “software” setting runs a lot slower than “hardware” on my computer.

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/62002-black-box-bug/

The op here fixed the problem by switching resolution from 1600x1200 to 800x600. I tried switching my resolution from 1366x768 to 800x600 and to 640x480, and ran the game and saved over the city tile with black boxes, but the black boxes remained.

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Then I noticed something very strange. Keeping the game set in “hardware” mode, I started messing around with the in-game graphics setting options, and for some unknown reason, whenever I checked the box that turns on waves, then saved and exited back to the region map, the black boxes disappeared.

Enabling waves:

 

Black boxes gone:

 

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And then I thought “well okay, I just keep the waves turned on and the glitch should be gone.” But whenever I start a tile that has no water or has water body too small to have any waves, the black boxes glitch would appear again regardless whether I checked the waves box or not:

 

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So this whole investigation got me thinking if there is something wrong with the appearance and disappearance of wave graphics in the game that causes this black box glitch in the region map. I’m not computer savvy enough to look deeper into this, so anyone willing to help look into it and maybe find a way to bypass or fix the glitch will be very much appreciated. Thanks!

[rsc204 21,804]

Well you certainly seem to have found an oddity. However, it would require anyone testing the problem to be able to replicate your results. Simply turning off waves does not introduce the problem on my system, although I can check a few others to be sure later. My first guess would be that since I never had any issues to begin with, it doesn't matter which way this setting is set.

2 hours ago, funkymonkey said:

The op “fixed” the problem by switching from “hardware” to “software” in game settings, and then reloading and saving each tile that had the black boxes glitch. This also “fixed” it for me but I wanted to use an HD water mod in my game and the “software” setting will cause CTD. Also the “software” setting runs a lot slower than “hardware” on my computer.

This is likely the real source of the problem. You see Hardware, or more accurately, DirectX rendering, requires a DX7 compatible videocard. Whilst most modern cards are given full backwards compatibility in theory, the reality is that any combination of O/S, Drivers and the actual hardware itself can cause issues. This is one of the problems of running 13 year old PC games. That's why Software Rendering exists, worst case scenario, it can take the GPU out of the equation, by offloading the GPUs work onto the CPU instead. That's why software rendering doesn't perform as well as DirectX, it also is limited to rendering max 256x256 textures, hence HD mods are out. Essentially it is a compatibility mode, which should be used only as a last resort.

I suspect that your results don't necessarily represent causality here, what you've found is simply a work-around that works for you. Without others with the same problem comfirming your results themselves, it's possible this behaviour is simply some quirk related to your specific setup. Ultimately, the real fix here is making the DirectX renderer work without problems. Sometimes using newer or older drivers for your GPU can affect things. You might also want to try a "third way", and see if OpenGL rendering works for you? Like DirectX, OpenGL will utilise the GPU hardware directly, although the implementation for SC4 isn't perfect, many players can't use HD mods with OpenGL either (some report otherwise).

Follow along the steps here, if you've not already for optimal setup of DirectX and SC4 on modern hardware. Sadly, due to the nature of PCs, not everybody will be able to run the game at its best. Should that prove the case, there are still ways around the problem. Installing a cheap card from a few years ago with older drivers is a great way round the problem. I would note too that Intel's drivers for on-chip GPUs have been woeful with SC4, except under Windows 10 where users have reported much more success.

[funkymonkey 0]

I tried running the game with OpenGL using the SC4 Launcher, and when I entered a city tile, I got this white cover on my terrain:

So I guess Open GL is a dead end for me too?

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I added the following to configure the game with my graphics card as per your suggestion:

 

For Graphics Rules.sgr:

stringMatch cardIdentity "GeForce*GTX*260M*"

stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*GeForce*GTX*260M*"

 

For Video Cards.sgr:

card 0x0618 "GeForce GTX 260M"

card 0x0618 "NVidia GeForce GTX 260M"

 

And the game config log from Apps returns this:

sglDriverName = Software

sglDriverVersion = 1.0

driverName = nvd3dum.dll

driverVersion = 9.18.13.4181, GUID: D7B71E3E-4558-11CF-F373-523A0DC2CD35

cardName = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M

cardVersion = Vendor: 10de, Device: 0618, Board: 1a521043, Chipset: 00a2

cardIdentity = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M

 

So it seems that the game is recognizing my graphics card correctly.

Unfortunately even with the changes in Graphics Rules.sgr and Video Cards.sgr, the black boxes glitch still persists.

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In the meantime, I think I will switch to “hardware” mode whenever I play in city tiles that have any HD water so the game won’t CTD, and switch to “software” mode whenever I play in tiles without any HD water so black boxes glitch won’t appear.

[Bombardiere 591]

As RSC204 said this most likely this has nothing to do with the waives. If you would keep playing, the black box would probably reappear. I have had this problem, and I tried all kinds settings and different ways to save the game and sometimes the black box dissapears, but usually sooner or later it comes back. Settings change may fool it, but I supect that it returns sooner or later.

 

I think it is the Geforce video card. I have an old Nvidia Geforce 9800 card. Couple years ago after a driver update the black box appear. I have solved this with keeping the old driver. I don't know it, but perhaps Nvidia has changed some settings and as RSC204 suggested, there is now a combination between the game, drivers and video card that causes the glitch.

 

You have different card, so I am not sure if an older driver will help you. For me last which works fine with the SC4 is 327.23. So I keep it as a backup and if I accidentally update the drivers and I can switch to old one.

[rsc204 21,804]

Thing is, the only way to find out is to test various drivers. My GTX 750ti runs on the 340.52 driver without trouble under Win7. However, different GPUs may need different drivers to ensure everything works. Trial and Error is really the only way here, but at least Nvidia will supply you with the legacy drivers.

[markussaage 762]

I use a 680GTX with a 361.43 driver. Runs without any problems on Windows 7.

Kind regards!