Full screen resolution

[elavery 1,013]

Hello, I have recently bought a new computer with a screen resolution of 1920x1080. Can someone remind me how I get the game to run in full-screen mode and not have the black bars either side of the screen?

Thanks!

[Terring 6,473]

No problem. You can do it by editing the properties of the shortcut and adding -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

Have fun with your new PC

[elavery 1,013]

4 hours ago, Terring said:

No problem. You can do it by editing the properties of the shortcut and adding -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

Have fun with your new PC

Quite possibly a dumb question, but how do I edit the properties of the shortcut? I don't see a target option when I right-click? I play SC4 through Origin, does this change anything?

[Terring 6,473]

I have a GOG version and I can see the target option with no problem. I know nothing about Origin, except for the fact that their version is both unpatched and unpatchable. But still not having the target option is very strange.

[elavery 1,013]

Ok so I figured it out. I had to edit the game in my origin library, not my desktop shortcut.

[Cyclone Boom 16,846]

1 hour ago, elavery said:

Quite possibly a dumb question, but how do I edit the properties of the shortcut? I don't see a target option when I right-click? I play SC4 through Origin, does this change anything?

For Origin I don't use it personally, but I believe you'll need to add any startup switches inside a Command line arguments field. A few answers for other games and it seems this is accessible when right clicking the game title, then clicking Properties and navigate to the "Advanced Launch Options" tab.

As an example I've edited the following image as such:

(I found the original image attached here.)

Then once saving the Origin version ought to recognise these as with adding them onto the Target field of a desktop shortcut.

You'll notice in the above preview I've added in 2 other commands. The first being -intro:off there is to always skip the intro loading sequence which you may prefer to. Then an option to set SC4 to use a single processor from -CPUcount:1 which is known to help with stability on modern multi-core CPUs. Speaking here from what I'm aware with the disc based version of SC4 Deluxe, it doesn't matter about the ordering nor are they case sensitive. So as long as there's a space between each with the correct syntax then the game can interpret each as a separate instruction. There's an overview posted here of additional commands which might be useful too.

Edit (while typing):
Glad to hear you've found it, and I'll keep this here in case it's useful to you or anyone reading this topic.

 

In terms of the game itself, it's a valid point @Terring raised about the Origin version being unpatched and unpatchable. There have been reports how if redeeming the game from one's original product key, they offer SC4 Deluxe as fully patched.

As explained by @Tarkus here:

On 13/09/2018 at 12:10 AM, Tarkus said:

Origin redemption copies have always been 1.1.641, so there's not really any change there.  It's the retail copies (the ones people are buying off Origin or getting via Origin Access subscriptions) that have been the issue.  There was actually a recent report from a user here at ST that Origin did switch the retail copy from 1.1.610 to 1.1.638, however.

-Tarkus

Although some have previously experienced getting reverted back to the unpatched version. Also this cannot be manually updated because the Origin version uses its own method of DRM protection which the patch isn't compatible with.

So it's probably worth checking the game's executable file (SimCity 4.exe) inside the installation folder to determine whether it's version 1.1.641.0 or lower. If it is this version then you'll be good to go, but just be wary how Origin may potentially try and update the game to essentially downgrade it. The NAM does require the EP1 update to be installed to ensure everything works as designed, and so this would fail unless having the minimum version it depends on.

[elavery 1,013]

My version is through Origin but it was redeemed with the original product key so I don't believe I have any issues. To the best of my knowledge I have full patched SC4 Deluxe.

[Miss Cuddly 52]

Looking at this article, I want to use the information to change the resolution on my machine, which is 1366 x 768. The third figure is a mystery to me does the 32 refer to the bits, in which case mine would be 64. Can you confirm this for me before I go and [censored] things up?

[Cyclone Boom 16,846]

On 08/03/2019 at 4:48 PM, Miss Cuddly said:

The third figure is a mystery to me does the 32 refer to the bits, in which case mine would be 64. Can you confirm this for me before I go and [censored] things up?

That value controls the colour bit depth the game will run at, with the two options being either 16 or 32.

The default is 32 which gets used without defining a custom resolution, and this can also be toggled via the internal Graphic Options menu. If setting to 16 this will make the display appear grainy due to a reduced number of total possible colours. (65,536 compared with 16,777,215 as this resource explains.)

So for your custom resolution, it'll be the choice of:

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x16

OR

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32

 

[Miss Cuddly 52]

1 hour ago, Cyclone Boom said:

That value controls the colour bit depth the game will run at, with the two options being either 16 or 32.

The default is 32 which gets used without defining a custom resolution, and this can also be toggled via the internal Graphics Options menu. If setting to 16 this will make the display appear grainy due to a reduced number of total possible colours. (65,536 compared with 16,777,215 as this resource explains.)

So for your custom resolution, it'll be the choice of:

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x16

OR

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32

 

That doesn't seem to have worked I noticed that in the start up menu it's listed as (windowed mode) Is there any way of changing that.?

[rsc204 21,805]

You'll probably find even if you set 32-bit colour depth (simply the number of colours your display can handle), that the game only runs in 16-bit regardless. Frankly I doubt you'll notice the difference in any case, it certainly doesn't cause any real problem.

As for Windowed mode vs Full Screen mode, you'll need to add another "command line switch" to change that.

-f
For Full Screen Mode

-w
For Windowed Mode

Each switch starts with a hyphen and there needs to be a space between them, but otherwise they are many to suit a bunch of different circumstances. I highly recommend adding the following switches too:

-Intro:off

-CPUCount:1

The first just speeds up the loading of the game, disabling the intro video. The second tells the game to only use one core of your CPU, which is important, since the game will suffer instability (crashing), if you've a multi-core CPU and do not add this. Since all modern PCs are multi-core, it's very likely you'll need it.

[Cyclone Boom 16,846]

I've run a test on this, and at least from my observations there appears to be a slight difference between the colour bit depths. However, this is more apparent on solid colours than actually in the game from a comparison. Omitting the value from the custom resolution command and the game continues with the last defined colour depth set, and seemingly runs in 32-bit unless toggled over. However, there are entries in the Graphics Rules.sgr file which may control depth depending on certain hardware configs.

When setting the custom resolution command, the toggle in Graphics Options represents the change:

   

(These I've both saved as lossless PNG images so there's no pixelization from JPG compression.)

Notice how the left image is more grainy compared with the smooth 32-bit quality? This is quite interesting, and I think it must be applying some form of dither effect in anticipation of there being more colours. Then so they blend better to even out multiple dissimilar pixels based on averaging.

This is also noticeable on the game's loading screen.

With 16-bit set:

 

With 32-bit set:

(Click to flick between both images.)

As @rsc204 said, there doesn't seem to be a noticeable difference viewing in city tiles themselves. But just something I thought I'd better share.

 

4 hours ago, Miss Cuddly said:

That doesn't seem to have worked

Should the custom resolution not be accepting, it's possible there's a syntax error in the command. Maybe try changing the colour depth value, then opening your game's Graphics Options to see whether it toggles from 32-bit to 16-bit or vice versa. That will confirm SC4 is interpreting it correctly.

If you can paste your full command line used here in reply (containing any other options), then we can double check everything is how it should be.

[Miss Cuddly 52]

30 minutes ago, Cyclone Boom said:

If you can paste your full command line used here in reply (containing any other options), then we can double check everything is how it should be.

Okay here it is:

"C:\GOG Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32 -f -Intro:off

[Cyclone Boom 16,846]

10 minutes ago, Miss Cuddly said:

"C:\GOG Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32 -f -Intro:off

I'm not sure whether this will make the difference or not, but I notice you've got two -f commands in there for setting full screen.

Try taking the first one out to make it:

"C:\GOG Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32 -f -Intro:off

 

[Miss Cuddly 52]

I've just tried that and the black bars are still at the sides of the screen.

Is this because it's a widescreen screen, and I have got it as wide as it will go.?

If so then I can live with it.

[Cyclone Boom 16,846]

33 minutes ago, Miss Cuddly said:

Is this because it's a widescreen screen, and I have got it as wide as it will go.?

With 1366x768 being the full resolution of your monitor (which is a 16:9 ratio), this should be showing as widescreen. What I'm wondering is if the graphics rules file might be overriding the custom resolution as set. Inside this I see there are rules defining the screen size and colour bit depth.

Like so:

option $ScreenSize      $Screen_800x600
option $ScreenDepth     $Depth_16

This is the Graphics Rules.sgr file located inside the game's installation folder. Basically it's a plain text file which can be opened using Notepad, and contains instructions for how various options are applied, depending on how the game classifies system hardware. What I'm wondering is whether your graphics card is being recognised as unknown, meaning SC4 is reverting to the standard 4:3 ratio such as an 800x600 resolution. That would explain black bars appearing on either side of the screen.

If checking the config-log.txt inside your "SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps" folder, this will contain info of what options have been set. This gets regenerated each time upon starting the game, and includes the screen width and height, along with the range of options enabled for your graphics card.

Perhaps it's worth following this guide in attempt to make SC4 recognise your card as "fast".

[Miss Cuddly 52]

2 minutes ago, Cyclone Boom said:

With 1366x768 being the full resolution of your monitor (which is a 16:9 ratio), this should be showing as widescreen. What I'm wondering is if the graphics rules file might be overriding the custom resolution as set. Inside this I see there are rules defining the screen size and colour bit depth.

Like so:

option $ScreenSize      $Screen_800x600
option $ScreenDepth     $Depth_16

This is the Graphics Rules.sgr file located inside the game's installation folder. Basically it's a plain text file which can be opened using Notepad, and contains instructions for how various options are applied, depending on how the game classifies system hardware. What I'm wondering is whether your graphics card is being recognised as unknown, meaning SC4 is reverting to the standard 4:3 ratio such as an 800x600 resolution. That would explain black bars appearing on either side of the screen.

If checking the config-log.txt inside your "SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps" folder, this will contain info of what options have been set. This gets regenerated each time upon starting the game, and includes the screen width and height, along with the range of options enabled for your graphics card.

Perhaps it's worth following this guide in attempt to make SC4 recognise your card as "fast".

Thanks, we'll take a look at it tomorrow as it's getting late here, and I'm not the tecnical whiz. That falls to my wife

Now if it's more to do with the mechanical side I'm the girl for that .

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

18 hours ago, Cyclone Boom said:

With 1366x768 being the full resolution of your monitor (which is a 16:9 ratio), this should be showing as widescreen.

My recollection is that SC4 is not actually flexible about "custom" resolutions. The -r argument must exactly match one of the "custom" resolutions predefined somewhere (perhaps in one of the SGR files). 1366x768 might not be one of them. Can your card and monitor do 1920x1080x32? I know that works.

[Cyclone Boom 16,846]

1 hour ago, jeffryfisher said:

My recollection is that SC4 is not actually flexible about "custom" resolutions. The -r argument must exactly match one of the "custom" resolutions predefined somewhere (perhaps in one of the SGR files).

I'm not too sure on its accuracy, but on this resource (Wayback Machine archived as the wiki site is down) it lists 1366x768 as a supported custom resolution along with 10 others also. Perhaps this list isn't extensive if there are others the game can have set, or some of these might not even be correct. It makes sense how there'd be internal code inside SC4 which determines what width and height values can be interpreted and used for a custom screen size.

Posting the list here for reference:
 

Possible SC4 Custom Resolutions
(According to the linked wiki article)

16:9 Aspect Ratio

• 1024 x 576
• 1024 x 600
• 1360 x 768
• 1366 x 768
• 1600 x 900
• 1920 x 1080
• 2048 x 1152
   

16:10 Aspect Ratio

• 1280 x 800
• 1440 x 900
• 1680 x 1050
• 1920 x 1200

 

[rsc204 21,805]

On 09/03/2019 at 8:00 PM, jeffryfisher said:

My recollection is that SC4 is not actually flexible about "custom" resolutions. The -r argument must exactly match one of the "custom" resolutions predefined somewhere (perhaps in one of the SGR files). 1366x768 might not be one of them. Can your card and monitor do 1920x1080x32? I know that works.

Indeed I can confirm that SC4 won't fit to every possible permutation. I've a machine with a 1600x800 display and black bars are a necessary evil there.

1366x768 is pretty standard for non HD displays these days, but certainly wasn't back when SC4 was created. You might have better luck trying 1280x768 instead, assuming your hardware can support it. If you check the desktop resolutions (in Windows, right click the desktop and select "Screen Resolution"), there you can see which options your hardware can handle. You don't need to alter this in the operating system, but try the highest setting you can make work with SC4 for the optimal experience.

[Bosch88 0]

On 7.02.2019 at 15:37, elavery said:

Ok, więc to rozgryzłem. Musiałem edytować grę w mojej bibliotece Origin, a nie w skrócie na pulpicie.

how did you do it?

[rsc204 21,805]

Not certain Origin are still offering this option. But there should be something in the App about redeeming CD Keys. Enter yours and see if it works. Otherwise you can try contacting Origin support about it. 

[Taz the Mystic 51]

I can't figure out why my SC4 game is not opening in full screen.  Here is my Target, SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off -CPUCount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1940x1080x32.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

[Ulisse Wolf 4,398]

28 minutes ago, Taz the Mystic said:

I can't figure out why my SC4 game is not opening in full screen.  Here is my Target, SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off -CPUCount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1940x1080x32.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Have you installed the Mod DLLs as SC4 Graphics Options?

[Taz the Mystic 51]

I went back and looked and I had everything installed except autosave.  When I installed it I got this message which is why I had removed it.

[Taz the Mystic 51]

I did not have voodoo dg set up properly.  I now have a full screen with the black bars on the side.  It is playable.  If anyone knows how to get rid of the black bars that would be great.

It is also running with auto save in the plugins folder so that issue has been fixed.

Thanks for all your help!

[Kel9509 1,357]

On 12/23/2025 at 4:39 PM, Taz the Mystic said:

If anyone knows how to get rid of the black bars that would be great.

Do you have the SC4 Graphics Options DLL mod? You need to configure it to run in your resolution, like1920x1080.

[Taz the Mystic 51]

I changed my settings to this which matches my computer video settings.  It didn''t work, still have the black bars.  I remember this working before like three months ago when I was trying to set it.  I think I'm getting close.  Thanks for your help.

[Kel9509 1,357]

1 hour ago, Taz the Mystic said:

I changed my settings to this which matches my computer video settings.  It didn''t work, still have the black bars.  I remember this working before like three months ago when I was trying to set it.  I think I'm getting close.  Thanks for your help.

I don't recognize those settings.  What is that from?  Are you using the SC4Graphics Options DLL mod?  Are you running the Windows version or something else?  The SC4GraphicsOptions.ini file looks different.  Here's what I have in mine, which I believe is the default:

Quote

; Lines starting with semicolons are comments.
[Admin]
; Setting this to false stops the game from loading the DLL.
Enabled=true
[GraphicsOptions]
; Controls whether the game's intro video will be played
; on startup, defaults to true. Setting this to false is
; equivalent to the -Intro:off command line argument.
EnableIntroVideo=false
; Controls whether the game will be paused when it looses focus, defaults
; to false. Setting this to true is equivalent to the -gp command line argument.
PauseGameOnFocusLoss=false
; The driver that SC4 uses for rendering, the supported values are:
;
; DirectX - SC4's default hardware renderer.
; Because this renderer targets DirectX 7, a DirectX wrapper (e.g. dgVoodo 2 or DxWrapper)
; is required for resolutions above 2048x2048.
;
; OpenGL - an unfinished hardware renderer. simmaster07's SCGL project aims to
; replace this renderer with an updated version based on OpenGL 3.0.
;
; SCGL - simmaster07's replacement for SC4's OpenGL renderer.
; This is an alias for the OpenGL value above.
;
; Software - the renderer SC4 uses when no supported hardware renderer
; is available.
Driver=DirectX
; The width of SC4's window when running in windowed mode.
; This is ignored for the full screen and borderless full screen modes.
; The minimum value is 800, values above 2048 with the DirectX driver
; require the use of a DirectX wrapper such as dgVoodoo 2 or DxWrapper.
WindowWidth=1920
; The height of SC4's window when running in windowed mode.
; This is ignored for the full screen and borderless full screen modes.
; The minimum value is 600, values above 2048 with the DirectX driver
; require the use of a DirectX wrapper such as dgVoodoo 2 or DxWrapper.
WindowHeight=1080
; The color depth that SC4 uses, in bits per pixel.
; The supported values are 16 and 32.
ColorDepth=32
; The window mode that SC4 uses, the possible values are:
;
; Windowed - runs the game in windowed mode, the window size is set by 
; the WindowWidth and WindowHeight values above. Equivalent to the -w
; command line parameter.
; 
; Two full screen modes are supported, standard and borderless.
;
; Note that screen resolutions higher than 1920x1080 with the DirectX driver
; require the use of a DirectX wrapper such as dgVoodoo 2 or DxWrapper.
; This limitation is caused by that fact that SC4 was built with DirectX 7,
; which is limited to resolutions of 2048x2048 or lower.
;
; FullScreen - runs the game in full screen mode. Equivalent to the -f
; command line parameter.
;
; BorderlessFullScreen - runs the game in a window that covers the entire screen.
;
; Borderless - an alias for the BorderlessFullScreen value above.
WindowMode=FullScreen

 

 

[Taz the Mystic 51]

They are from my SC4Graphics Options DLL mod.  I think I am running something else.  I downloaded using SC4 Pac.  I'm going to go back and not use 4 pac. I don't think I'm running the Windows version because mine is very different from what you have.  I'll keep you posted.