Graphics glitches while scrolling

[junspud 1,066]

When I run SC4 in hardware mode, I get some pretty serious graphics glitches whenever I scroll the camera across the map, in all zoom levels. It's difficult to describe exactly, but it's most noticeable on buildings under construction, the textures flicker in and out, disappearing and reappearing randomly and becoming 'garbled' as the map pans. When I stop scrolling, the graphics return to normal.

Also, autonoma will flicker in and out (disappearing and reappearing) on top of elevated networks if a network runs underneath it. For example, on an elevated highway with a road running underneath it, the vehicles traversing the road will flicker in and out on the highway as it traverses the section of road underneath it. The autonoma also occasionally do this while panning the map.

Shadows also tend to become 'corrupted' often, returning to normal after a zoom-change. For example, sometimes after I bulldoze something, the shadows will remain, sometimes just sections/parts of the shadow, on the map, until I zoom in/out at which time they disappear completely. It also tends to happen randomly without having to bulldoze anything, errant sections of shadow sometimes just show up.

I've included three images, the first one a building under construction with the camera stationary, and two more with the graphics bugging out as I'm panning the map.

Also included is a copy of the config file generated in the apps folder.

The specs are; Intel HD 3000, Windows 7 64bit, Intel I5 2.4ghz.

The control panel for the graphics card has very little options to change any settings, the latest drivers version has only the following options;

Anisotropic filtering, vertical sync, and an 'applications optimal mode' checkbox.

 

Thanks.

 

xxx-PC-config-log.txt

 

I don't know if it's related, but the game often crashes to desktop if I try bulldozing lots and even mmp/trees if I'm working on a saved city after adding or removing mods, I don't know which mods specifically, but it seems to happen regardless of any specific mods anyway. This doesn't happen if I start a new city instead of working on a previously saved one.

[junspud 1,066]

Here is another screenshot displaying the sort of graphical bugs I have;

 

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

How important are shadows to you? Try turning off shadows.

[rsc204 21,805]

Looking at the log file, I can determine a number of potential problems:

1. You are using an Intel HD3000 GPU.
   Whilst not the end of the world, the real issue here is driver support for legacy DX modes. Intel's support for this generation of iGPU's, potentially means you can't resolve these graphical anomalies without switching to Software Rendering.
2. SC4 only detects 64MB of Video Memory.
   Again, this is because of your iGPU. By default only 64MB of your system RAM is dedicated for use with the iGPU. Whilst it can and will use more, that happens dynamically and is handled between Windows (WDDM specifically), and the graphics drivers. The problem being that SC4 doesn't know this, because it was designed long before this method was a thing. So thinking your videocard isn't so hot, it goes into a mode that prevents better performance, which almost certainly your iGPU can handle.
3. SC4 is running in a standard hardware mode, "fast card" would be better.
   Much the same as the above really. Due to how SC4 detects your system, it's not running in Fast Card mode (i.e. optimally).

So what can be done to help here? In the first instance, you might look inside the BIOS of your computer and consider dedicating more RAM to the iGPU. The caveat being, if you are using a system from a major vendor, that option almost certainly won't be there. But if you have a regular PC/Motherboard, it should be. Setting this to 128MB or possibly 256MB may be enough to force the game into Fast Card mode / High Computer performance mode. If not, you can perhaps manually force this with a custom script for SC4, but that's much more complex so I'd put that to one side for now.

The second issue is something I mentioned previously, using a different version of the Intel drivers. Note that different doesn't necessarily mean newer or latest. Sadly, that's made harder by the fact that Intel don't make it easy for users to get older drivers for their hardware. Not to mention, even if you tried every one they ever released, there is still no guarantee you will fix the problem. Intel's legacy support is patchy compared with NVidia or ATI, it simply may never have been supported for your hardware. I had similar issues with a HD4600, which I believe is a generation or two newer than yours. For the first two years I owned this machine, SC4 was simply unplayable with DirectX on the Intel chip. Then in 2016, long after I'd bought an NVidia card, a driver update that worked with SC4 was finally released. Since then, the 4600 seems to have better DX Legacy support under Windows 7.

Depending on the type of computer you have, if it's a PC, this issue can be solved by adding a cheap and cheerful dedicated GPU. Second hand this wouldn't have to cost much at tall. But if you've a laptop, you are almost certainly stuck with whatever hardware you have.

Throwing another spanner into the works, is Windows 10. Love it or hate it, huge improvements were made to the WDDM system in Windows 10. That's Windows Display Driver Model in case you didn't know. Without getting into the technical parts, Windows 10 makes it easier to play old DirectX games, due to how the GPU drivers are implemented in the OS. There are caveats though, the main one being with Windows 10, you won't be able to play many CD/Disk games, including SC4. So you'll need to have a digital edition to run SC4 under Windows 10. Likewise, there is no absolute guarantee installing Windows 10 will work for you. However, you can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free, legitimately. Provided you do it within 30 days, you can also go back to Windows 7, if things don't work out. Note: Whilst this certainly was possible, I'd make a system image before such an upgrade, so I could restore Windows 7 manually. Either way, you need to understand how you would restore your system, in the event you needed too. Otherwise your Windows 7 install and data is at risk.

[junspud 1,066]

Based on the thing about running not running in Fast Mode, I did find this thread;

I attempted to find my adapter string, but unfortunately it's listed as just "Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000",  "Intel Corporation compatible", it lacks any "0x" designation, so I'm not sure it will actually work even if I add it into the config files, but I will try doing that.

Unfortunately I think the only other option is to try out Windows 10, which I will do at some point and edit this post in case anyone else has the same issues and it fixes it. I did get the game to run decently in hardware mode with shadows enabled by adding in something to the config files based on other reports I've read, which is something at least. It's a laptop, so the bios options are nonexistent.

As far as drivers, I've actually tried basically all of them at some point lol. A few of them do make some major changes, like vastly improved AA and a few more options in the control panel, but nothing relevant to SC4 and the graphics issues persist through all of them. I wish I could find the "0x" string for this Intel HD 3000, as forcing fast mode sounds promising, but it doesn't seem to be listed anywhere, might try cycling through some of the drivers to see if any of them include it.

As a side note, running the game in OpenGL mode simply reverts back to software mode and so will crash with HD terrain/textures installed. I think 'heavy artifacting' may be the description I was searching for to describe the issues.

[rsc204 21,805]

If you click on Start, type "System Information" into the search box, you should be able to open the dialog on the left here:

The line in Yellow has the vendor ID, for Intel this is VEN_8086, then it has the &DEV_0412, those last four numbers are the card ID for my HD4600. All GPU's must have a Vendor ID and a Device ID, in fact all hardware needs to have this for the drivers to interface with them. Are you saying this information is not present in this screen for you? Because, there will be other places you can find it, but this is by far the simplest.

On the right side of that screenshot, I've shown the Video Cards.SGR file from SC4. You may have noticed my machine has two graphics cards, both an NVidia and Intel one. We'll just focus on the Intel one rather than get into the complexities of a dual card setup. But in short, once you've the Device ID, the next thing to get right is the name. Here I've used the text from the "Adapter Description" in System Information, only I've omitted the Intel(R) part. If I understand this correctly, the string doesn't need to match, SC4 is only looking for the Device ID to work, the name doesn't really matter (it needs to match the one in Graphics Cards.SGR - see below).

There is one caveat here though...

Quote

Strings
-------
userName = xxx
appName = SimCity 4
version = 1.1.641.0
osVersion = Windows NT 5.1
computerName = DRLD-PC
CPU = GenuineIntel
sglDriverName = DirectX
sglDriverVersion = 2.0
driverName = igdumd32.dll
driverVersion = 9.17.10.4229, GUID: D7B78E66-4256-11CF-8C73-5B36A6C2CD35
cardName = Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000 (PHDGD Omega 5.0)
cardVersion = Vendor: 8086, Device: 0116, Board: 165b103c, Chipset: 0009
cardIdentity = Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000 (PHDGD Omega 5.0)
soundDriverName = 
soundCardName = Primary Sound Driver
buildType = Release

This info is taken from your xxx-config-log file. The lines in Blue tell me that SC4 already detects your GPU, it knows it's a HD 3000 (note the Device ID is 0116). In short, it means you don't need to force SC4 to detect your GPU, because it already is auto-detecting it correctly.

All the Video Cards.sgr file does is allow us to manually add cards into it that SC4 is unable to correctly detect. So that's not the problem here, we can therefore move onto the Graphics Rules.sgr file, which is a different beast altogether. This second GPU configuration file is actually a script, it works by reading the hardware information, then comparing that to a number of pre-set "rules", which determine what options are used when running the game. Editing this is not going to solve graphical/driver incompatibilities. But, we can use it to force the game to run in high-performance (Fast Card) mode. Of course if your hardware proves not to be up to the task, this won't help you. But when a card is incorrectly seen as a poor one, this will prevent SC4 from neutering it.

So here I've gone to the "Fast Card" section of Graphics Rules.sgr, the yellow box is taken from the cardIdentity name which SC4 has detected. Adding this should force Fast Card mode when using your GPU. Note that spaces are replaced with an asterisk (*), but otherwise this should be identical.

Having edited/saved these changes, they should be applied when you next run SC4. To check this, run the game, close it, then re-open the -config-log file. Scroll down to the "Rules" section and somewhere it should state that the "Fast Card" rule is being applied. If not, that cardIdentity string may need some trial and error to match up.

There are further edits we can make to the same file to force high-performance modes, but for now let's just try to get Fast Card working.

One other thing that occurs to me going through this, when I look at the cardIdentity, see the PHDGD Omega 5.0 part? That is not standard and suggests to me, the manufacturer of your laptop is not using the generic Intel drivers, but tweaked ones. Otherwise perhaps you've inadvertently installed custom "tweaked" drivers. From a compatibility perspective I wouldn't recommend this, better to use the generic Intel drivers from Intel.com instead. See the info from this post re: custom manufacturer drivers v.s. generic ones, the same may apply to you here.

[junspud 1,066]

Thanks for that, my adapter string wasn't in the place I originally looked, but it is in the same place as yours.

I think I got it to force fast card mode... Attached an updated config log. It says

"

applying Two stages
applying Poor color cursor
  option 7 = 0
applying Not Slow GeForce
applying Fast card
applying Fast card>
  option 12 = 1
applying Fast card>>
  option 1 = 3
applying Fast card>>>
  option 0 = 3
applying Fast card>>>>
  option 2 = 3
applying Fast card>>>>>
  option 4 = 1

"

xxx-PC-config-log - Copy.txt

[rsc204 21,805]

2 hours ago, junspud said:

I think I got it to force fast card mode...

Correct, when you see the following:

2 hours ago, junspud said:

applying Fast card

You know Fast Card is being set. That should go some way to helping in terms of performance.

There are two other potential options we could force:

Quote

applying medium computer power...

&

Quote

applying Poor color cursor

However, neither will really prevent SC4 running smoothly like not having the Fast Card profile and both are harder to get working. Also, neither will make a difference in terms of driver compatibility issues, as previously mentioned.

So the question at this point is has this at least helped in terms of running the game? If not, there are still a few little tweaks left to try. But the options are starting to get very thin at this point.

[junspud 1,066]

Could poor color cursor be the reason for this sort sort of thing?

 

I haven't gotten the chance to play enough to really tell yet, but I haven't noticed any negative effects from being in fast code mode either. I plan to datpack most of my plugins shortly, which has an appreciable effect on menu loading times IME.

[junspud 1,066]

I changed the color settings as well now, and I'm not sure which of the cursor setting or the fast card mode setting, but I no longer get the graphic glitch referenced in the earlier post, so that's cool.