Moving SC4

[jschlegel48 10]

Hi guys,

   Did you miss me? I know it's been awhile since I had any problems that forced me to ask you experts what to do as once those previous issues were resolved I've been happily playing the game.........until!

I wanted a larger monitor (my poor old eyes aren't what they used to be), and due to other PC related hobbies I required multiple monitors (4 minimum). That's neither here nor there .....except.....

I upgraded my video card, installing a gigabyte Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. Lo and behold, there are no video drivers compatible for Windows 2003 (AKA XP).

I've been forced to revert to getting the game to run under Windows 7 which I dreaded due to the problems that forced me to XP in the first place. (Did I say I was lazy and tend to take the easiest way out?)  So before installing SC4 back onto the E:\ drive under Win 7 I did some more searching and ran across a note explaining the game handled most new windows problems if one used a digital downloaded copy (i.e., stream, GOG, etc.). I jumped on the suggestion and downloaded a copy from GOG. Imagine my surprise and delight when the game opened without any problems whatsoever.

 

Good to go, right?  Not so fast Kemosahbee. The obvious next step would be to install the latest NAM and move the plugins folder to the new drive. Reading the included "read-me" from NAM 3.5 (35?) downloaded games came pre-patched so there was no need to EA's patch files. The NAM installed without a hitch. I then created an identical My Documents folder on the E:\ drive and moved the plugins. However, the game won't point to the My Documents\plugins folder. I can load the plugins in the plugins folder under the game's installed directory (E:\program files (x86)\SimCity 4 deluxe edition (created when I installed to GOG game)\plugins and the game will recognize the files.

Well, gee, I told myself.....self, you need the launcher program you used before, SC4 Launcher! Installed same. Now, I don't know if this is the problem or it has something to do with the main game exe file but...

1.) I can't seem to get SC4L to save the plugins path. I manually changed the path in the LauncherPaths.dat file and SC4L will point to the proper path in the paths tab but no mods show in the mods path and the mods do not appear in the game.

2.) If I try to change the path under the path tab, SC4L will not save the path and keeps reverting back to the C:\ drive. My C:\ drive is a SSD and is for the operating system only.

Where do I go from here? Please, please don't tell me I need to reinstall all the plugins. They do work if I place them in the directory explained above but I always heard your external plugins belong in a "documents" folder, not the root SC4 folder.

Gracious gurus, do have a very Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc., and a great and happy New Year. Thanks so very much for your assistance you've given all these years.

John

P.S.  Operating System Windows 7 with all updates.

        PC  6 core AMD with 16GB RAM.

       Video card is described above and has 4GB memory.

       250 GB SSD for the operating system.

       2ea 1 TB hard drives internal and a 2 TB external drive.

       There is also a 250G internal hard drive running XP as the operating system with SC4 installed. That will come out, hopefully.

 

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

As I just learned here recently, Gog has introduced something called Gog Galaxy that is some sort of game startup manager which apparently doesn't play well with SimCity 4. More specifically, one can set command line switches in its startup shortcut and then it will promptly ignore them. So, are you running the shortcut that directly launches the game or the Galaxy thinger?

@That Retro Guy is currently our expert on this having found a way to bypass Galaxy and then get the game to recognize parameters passed such as -intro:off and -CPUCount:1.

[jschlegel48 10]

I run directly from the exe......same with SC4L. It runs the game direct. GOG galaxy is if you join and "rent" the game. I have the purchased version.

John

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Ok, so you know that if you add, say, -intro:off it does recognize that. Right? Then it seems to me you need to do the Change Path switch for what you want. I found that stuff in the Tutorial:Shortcut Parameters:

Quote

Change Path -UserDir:path

Specifies the directory where the users game directory is. If the default subdirectories of "Regions\", "Plugins\", and "HTTPCache\" arn't found, then it creates an instance of, (in the case of Regions, it copies the default set over). The default game data directory defaults to being the same directory as the game installation directory. Quotes are necessary if the path name has spaces. Make sure there is a "\" on the end of your path or it creates directories like "testPlugins\" and "testRegions\"

Maybe that'll do it.

[jschlegel48 10]

I kinda thought SCL did that but I'll read the link you sent and give it a try.... Thanks

 

[That Retro Guy 321]

12 minutes ago, CorinaMarie said:

@That Retro Guy is currently our expert on this having found a way to bypass Galaxy and then get the game to recognize parameters passed such as -intro:off and -CPUCount:1.

How exactly am I an expert on anything?  I asked questions and the gurus on this site answered the questions, not me.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

Just now, That Retro Guy said:

How exactly am I an expert on anything?  I asked questions and the gurus on this site answered the questions, not me.

You did the whatever-it-was-you-did-on-your-end that made the game work and recognize the passed parameters and so far you are the only one I know of who has done that after fighting with Galaxy.

[jschlegel48 10]

Well, heck.  Nothing has worked or I'm doing it all wrong.

My game folder is E:\program files(x86)\SimCity 4\

Using SC4 Launcher I set the Plugins and disabled plugins to E:\users\john\documents\simcity4\plugins\   (or disabled plugins)

                                                                                     I also tried     E:\users\john\documents\simcity4\     

The mods show up under the mods tab in SC4 Launcher but not in the game.

I tried making the same changes in the LauncherPaths.dat file

Game doesn't see the plugins.

I went to the Launch SimCity4 Deluxe edition shortcut and placed the following argument at the end of the target file.  -UserDir:E:\user\john\documents\simcity4

and also tried with -UserDir:"E:\user\john\documents\simcity4\"

Nothing gets the game to recognize the documents folder. Should I delete the plugins folder under the E:\program files(x86)|SimCity 4\?

Again, this is a standalone GOG downloaded game. No other program is necessary to run the game.

John

[rsc204 21,808]

Your basic problem is that the path SC4 looks for Plugins is set when you install the game, in the Windows registry. You can't alter this during installation, the default will always be in Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins. Note also that this is inside the default User directory, which in Windows 7 will always be on the C: drive. Unless you've set things up differently when installing Windows, by entering "Audit Mode" and configuring the OOBE. If you didn't do this, and that's by no means an obvious or user-friendly setup, then despite what locations you may have created, the default is still on the C: drive.

15 hours ago, jschlegel48 said:

I then created an identical My Documents folder on the E:\ drive and moved the plugins.

This may well be the problem. You can't just create a folder like My Documents and expect it to work. My Documents (actually just Documents in Win7), is a system folder. It's a system default and I suspect you've ran into the problem where using a multi-HDD setup means you don't want to use C:, your SSD, for installing Apps and Files.

15 hours ago, jschlegel48 said:

My C:\ drive is a SSD and is for the operating system only.

That really makes no sense. Your O/S will take up perhaps 20GB of space on a 250GB SSD. I have only a 256GB SSD, it contains Windows and all my installed Applications. Because Apps will load and run much more quickly on an SSD. If you fail to put anything but the O/S on this drive, you are literally wasting a huge part of the performance benefits of having one in the first place. I agree user files are better placed on a separate HDD, which is the setup I'm using, but Windows doesn't make it easy to set that up properly.

What you want and what Windows will do, aren't always the same thing, because Windows will always install all system folders on C:. Many installers will allow you to customise where applications will be installed, hence you could install the Game itself onto E:. But once more the system folders are in their default locations, meaning you'll still have Program Files and Program Files (x86) folders in C:. You'll even have applications installed there and other data and detritus. The point being, if you know you aren't going to use C: for such system folders, you should set Windows up to work that way from the outset. Because any other way of working will ultimately just make life harder for you. For example, I bet if you look in C:, you'll have the following path:

C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins

This is where SC4 is looking for those plugins. In my case I have Users on my D: drive, but as mentioned you can't simply move the folders there or create them in that location. I had to perform a special set of steps during Windows installation to force Users onto a drive other than C:. Worse still, having installed Windows, you can not now do this, the option is only available during the installation process. In-short, that process can be found here.

6 hours ago, jschlegel48 said:

I went to the Launch SimCity4 Deluxe edition shortcut and placed the following argument at the end of the target file.  -UserDir:E:\user\john\documents\simcity4

and also tried with -UserDir:"E:\user\john\documents\simcity4\"

Have you double-checked the actual system path? If you are missing a space or possibly a capital letter or such, it simply won't work. Why not start off by simplifying the process, move the folder containing your plugins to the root of E:, i.e. E:\Plugins, then try the command:

-UserDir:"E:\Plugins\"

Another good tip, if you aren't already doing so is to copy/paste the path, ensuring it is exact. Open the folder containing your plugins using My Computer / Explorer. Click in the top bar and the full path is revealed and highlighted automatically. You can then copy this path (CTRL + C), and paste it (CTRL + V) when entering it into the command.

[jschlegel48 10]

OK.....I give up......loaded the game AND 6GB of document files relating to SimCity4 onto my C:\  SSD. I think a larger SSD is in my future, I hope to heck I will me able to ghost the old to the larger new. I'm getting too old for this.

I'm beginning to wonder why have separate disks anyway. Seems 90% of software demands user files be located on the same drive as the program, then as rsc204 said, if it has to be the the "my documents" folder then it has to be on the root.

Oy Vey

John

[rsc204 21,808]

12 minutes ago, jschlegel48 said:

I'm beginning to wonder why have separate disks anyway. Seems 90% of software demands user files be located on the same drive as the program, then as rsc204 said, if it has to be the the "my documents" folder then it has to be on the root.

Windows 7 wasn't designed with SSDs in mind, hence it's an Admin-style option to enable it. I have it working on my copy just fine, but I had to do quite a bit of research at the time to know how best to set it up. SC4 doesn't require you to have the plugins in the root or C: drive, if the command line isn't working, something is wrong, because it should work. Usually that means the command entered has an error somewhere, if you copy/paste the entire Target field here, we can see if anything looks out of place.

However, SC4 is unique in many ways, having that 6GB folder on your SSD will make a big difference to game start-up times and responsiveness in game. Despite the similar dual drive setup, SC4 being a big deal for me, I keep everything on the SSD.

14 minutes ago, jschlegel48 said:

I think a larger SSD is in my future, I hope to heck I will me able to ghost the old to the larger new. I'm getting too old for this.

Well, I don't know what else you have on your SSD, but 250GB is more than sufficient for most uses, assuming you are not installing user files there. Few applications take up huge amounts of space, although games can be a different story, especially if you have many of them. But then the installers will allow you to install them elsewhere on another drive. In short, there really shouldn't be a need for upgrading the SSD unless you have some very large files/apps installed there. As for imaging the drive, usually that's very easy provided the new drive is larger or at least the same size as before. Intel's SSDs (what I have now), come with imaging software to do this when you install the drive. I can highly recommend an Intel SSD, they are a little more expensive, but very reliable compared to some brands.

[jschlegel48 10]

18 minutes ago, rsc204 said:

I don't know what else you have on your SSD, but 250GB is more than sufficient for most uses, assuming you are not installing user files there

I now have 62 GB free on the SSD. There are other programs that are just as picky as SC4. I need to do some house cleaning.

My problem is all this stuff I own is getting old (what they like to call legacy). I'm legacy and my software is legacy.  LOL

Thanks for your help.

John

[Handyman 765]

Just to throw another example out there, my main OS lives on a 37 GB partition of 120 GB ssd.