Trouble with getting mods to work.

[TheMegaMan 1]

So I've had a lot of trouble getting my mods to work. The only mod that has worked for me is the Network Addon Mod. (Probably because it had its own installation process) 

I operate on Windows 10 and playing SC4 deluxe. I've followed the usual processes i followed when I played on my old computer which ran windows 7. I downloaded the zip. File, put it in my plugins folder, and I would extract the files. Of course the difference here is on windows 7 I used winzip to extract but this time i used windows' own extraction. What am I doing wrong? (Just trying to download basic lots, bats, and maybe a money/demand Mod) 

[rsc204 21,836]

Well there shouldn't be anything special about most files, either you'll get an installer or a .zip file. If the latter, it doesn't make a different how you unzip it (extract) the files, you just need to ensure the extracted files are in the Documents\Sim City 4\Plugins directory and the game should pick them up. Perhaps if you could provide an example of a download you are having trouble with that would help decipher the problem?

[TorridTorri 3]

I am having the exact same problem.  I've tried various pollution mods such as the Genzeo Co. Air Filter, Jasoncw - Air Filter, AntiPollution Trees and Air Purification Plants.  NAM works just fine, but the others just dont seem to want to show up.

[rivit 3,391]

@TheMegaMan and @TorridTorri 

When you say "don't show up" what does this mean. Can you see them anywhere on a menu?   Anti-pollutors may be in Parks etc. or Utilities -I use at least two of those you name.  Can you post a high level WindowsExplorer view of your  Documents:\SC4\Plugins folder? so we can see something to be able to work with? What have you done to verify they are in the right place on disk?.  We need clues to (be able to) help.

SC4 works very well on WIn10 (once you have a version that doesn't rely on the old disks and their DRM) - I've been using it since Win10 first came out. 

[TorridTorri 3]

They do not show up in the menu.  I have checked in all of them and one even states its with the trees menu, but nothing shows up.  I even tested just to make sure the original trees werent changed instead.

 

Here is my plugins folder.  I have tried the files both in and out of the folders.  I have extracted right to the plugins folder and I have tried extracting to a different folder and move the files to the plugins, nothing worked.  The game itself works just fine (aside from any of the parks, playgrounds, etc showing up as just grass lots), I just cant get the pollution sorted out.

[CorinaMarie 29,774]

On 1/1/2017 at 3:55 PM, TorridTorri said:

Here is my plugins folder.

Maybe I'm confuzzled, but that appears to be in your Desktop folder. (Disclaimer: I don't know the first thing about Windoze 10, but some concepts persist throughout versions from XP onward.)

The part I've circled and labeled 1. would look like this in a hierarchy style:

• This PC
  • Desktop
    • SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition (Download)
      • Plugins

And you are wanting to be in:

• This PC
  • Documents
    • SimCity 4 Deluxe (or some such name)
      • Plugins

So, click on the Documens (I've labeled 2.)and see if you find a SimCity4ish looking folder.

(Or wait for the experts and they'll give you better information.)

[TorridTorri 3]

*slaps forehead*

There it is!  That was my issue!

Thank you very much!  Sometimes it just takes a second pair of eyes

[rsc204 21,836]

I would add, it's not that just that you have the plugins folder in the wrong place, the entrie game is installed on the Desktop. You see SimCity 4 uses two, one which is located in Documents, the other as part of the installation. Did you actually run the installer before you first started using the game? If so, did you tell it to install onto the desktop? That's really not advisable, programs are best located inside the Program Files (x86) directory. Note the part in red is only used by 64-bit versions of Windows.

[TorridTorri 3]

I'll reinstall it so its no longer on the desktop.

[Prophet42 1,503]

Also, keep in mind that if you have multiple accounts on your Windows 10 computer, SC4 will always point to an admin account for it's plugin source.  This means that if you run SC4 from a Standard account,  it will create a plugin and region folder in the Admin account and use those folders instead of the plugin and region folder under the Standard account.  This was a source of great frustration for me that lead me to revert back to Windows 7.

I did some later testing on my Windows 10 box and determined that I would have to create 3 accounts - Main Admin, used for computer maintenance and updates, Standard account - used for most computer activities like internet surfering, document creation, running most programs, Game Admin - running games (like SC4).  Eventually I will revert my Windows 7 laptop back to Windows 10 and use the 3 account model to run SC4.

[rsc204 21,836]

6 hours ago, Prophet42 said:

Eventually I will revert my Windows 7 laptop back to Windows 10 and use the 3 account model to run SC4.

Using either SYMLINKs or adjustment of the default file ownership rules should both be viable solutions. In fact there is also a switch to tell SC4 where to look for plugins/regions, not to mention a registry entry that handles it too. Somewhere there should be a solution to your troubles.

[Prophet42 1,503]

5 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Using either SYMLINKs or adjustment of the default file ownership rules should both be viable solutions. In fact there is also a switch to tell SC4 where to look for plugins/regions, not to mention a registry entry that handles it too. Somewhere there should be a solution to your troubles.

I recently found out about the switch, but I can't quite remeber the format (or where I saw it).  @rsc204 could you refresh my memory on the format of the switch.  Thanks.

Back in July, when I was having my SC4/Windows 10 battle, I did try editing the SC4 config file, but the game would always overwrite my default and revert back to the admin account.  I even tried setting up a scheduled task to run SC4 with Admin privliges and linking a shortcut to it, but that did not work.   I also tried changing the file ownership rules for the game, but the UAC would always seemed to interfer and SC4 would revert back to using the Admin account files (I really did not want to turn the UAC off either).  If I could find a solution that would allow me to use a Standard account, that would be fantastic!  I really don't like using an Admin account for my main computing endeavors.

Edit: I did a quick search through the registry and did not find an entry that set the plugin and region folder to an user account.  I did find an entry that pointed SC4 to the config file.  So it seems you cannot use the registry to force SC4 to use a specified plugin and region folder.  I will have to take a closer look into the registry to see if it can be used to set which user account SC4 looks at for the plugin and region folders..

[rsc204 21,836]

The switch is explained here:

Probably the easiest solution anyhow.