Install folder for all SC4 content

[Toby66 155]

Now this is totally embarrassing, but i just have to ask since i´m about to install user made content for the first time in 13 (16 even!) years from this AWESOME SimCity page and the download probably wont show straight away if i actually put it in the right place.

So i´m almost positive that any installs go into the folder tree:

User\"Name"\My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins

And not the folder you chose to install the actual game in right?

Cheers

 

  Edited April 28, 2019 by Toby66  
I always make SOME typo mistake. I´m in a hurry? I WILL repent.

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

3 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

User\"Name"\My Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins

And not the folder you chose to install the actual game in right?

Yep.

Technically either will work, but it's almost always recommended to use the one in Documents. I do, however, place DLLs in the install folder's Plugins.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Just to add...

As you might be familiar with from the past, remember to extract (copy) out the contents of zip files when installing items. The actual archives cannot be read by the game, so must have the individual files copied out. Then for executables, these are installers commonly for prop and texture pack dependencies which need to be run. They'll default to your Documents Plugins in a predefined structure, but in most cases the actual subfolders can be organised how you prefer.

According to this post, the Program Files (installation) Plugins folder is loaded before the Documents one. Should you use a shared system and have multiple user accounts, this means they'd be used for each person. Whereas the Documents ones are individually loader per user. A word of caution is in the dramatic event of uninstalling SC4 (not that this is a smart idea), it would also wipe any Plugins stored in the installation folder. The user areas ones along with Regions are preserved.

Like @CorinaMarie does, I also include DLLs in my installation Plugins. This is because if I'm testing with different sets of custom content, I'll still want the Extra Cheats DLL and SC4Fix being loaded regardless of which specific items I'm testing. The same too for the plain vanilla game and no plugins. Not that these DLL files are special because they must be situated directly in the root. Adding them in any subfolders and they won't get loaded.

Additionally there's some good info about the loading order which @T Wrecks posted about here.

(As a quick note, I've reworded your topic title to switch "Simtropolis" to "SC4". The idea just to clarify how it's specifically for the game's content. )

[Toby66 155]

But i ran into problems with my first very little selected file, ouch.

Corina's tip about essential files i took note of and after extracting this file: IH_census_10_78_12_fixed 

After that my graphics gets constantly scrambled at certain zoom levels in game.

Produces this effect below and a lot of other scrambled graphics all over. I will try to move it out of the ordinary plugin folder and see what happens if i move it to the plugin folder in the install folder. 

Update: After removing the file from the folder, yes i checked it's not in any folder now, the graphic problem still continues?

This was also upon adding this file and with no graphic problem like this prior to adding it in. 

Sigh, first little 4 kb file i put in and all hell breaks lose.

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

1 hour ago, Toby66 said:

Update: After removing the file from the folder, yes i checked it´s not in any folder now, the graphic problem still continues?

It seems completely unlikely that the IH_census_10_78_12_fixed file would affect the graphics in any way.

As a separate note, this is one of the few that really needs to get DatPacked into the SimCity_1.dat file rather than just dropping in Plugins. See the Tutorial: Applying the I-HT Bug-Fix correctly.

 

Anyhow, did you by any chance Alt+Tab (or by other means) give focus to another program while the game was doing something? That can cause weird graphics glitches which won't resolve themselves until completely exiting the game. Here's an example that happened to me and yet there is actually nothing wrong with the game, my settings, or my plugins content:

[Toby66 155]

Corina, but why would the problem persist after several restarts of SC4 and happen straight after i put that file into the plugin folder?

And after removing it from the folder the graphic gets distorted like this on every reload of the game.

I´ve changed my graphics settings a bit to see if it would go away but now i´ll just have to reinstall it all since i have no clue how to get rid of this problem.

Yeah, i found it rather nutty that this file caused this problem. Got to be something else i guess.

Thanks

 

Edit: One more thing though. Could this problem derive from unpacking the file with Winrar and not Winzip?

My evaluation period etc. etc. ran out so that program i can´t use to unpack it with, not right now for obvious reasons. But now it becomes a bit far fetched.

I just want to know, "who let the BUG´s in!".

*bark, bark, bark bark BARK* the song...

 

  Edited April 29, 2019 by Toby66  

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

5 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

Corina, but why would the problem persist after several restarts of SC4 and happen straight after i put that file into the plugin folder?

I feel it's likely a coincidence, but I'll admit the hardware and graphics side of the game isn't my area of expertise.

I followed this guide: How to configure SC4 to work with your new hardware and got my own working, but even then I had to ask questions which @rsc204 quickly answered for me. (I could link to the topic I created, but since it really only applies to my comp and graphics card that thread wouldn't likely be much use for you.)

[Toby66 155]

I´can´t even uninstall the game now. Tried every place there´s to uninstall from and it must have gone corrupt.

What to do? I can´t install the game if i can´t uninstall it.

This have now reached the ridiculous level.

Edit:

In one SimCity Exception Report it identifies my system as being Windows NT 6.1 when it actually is Windows 7 pro.

Don´t know if that have any impact, probably not now.

Now i´m rather ticked off. This was so unnecessary.

  Edited April 29, 2019 by Toby66  

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

9 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

Tried every place there´s to uninstall from and it must have gone corrupt.

On my Win 7 Pro it's here under All Programs:

However, I seem to recall there is/was a bug with the Gog uninstaller such that it removes all of your Documents folder too. I've never uninstalled so I can say if that's true or not, but it might be a good idea to backup your entire Documents folder before proceeding.

[Toby66 155]

Yes yes

It´s not that simple now but thank you. I went into all folders to uninstall, looked on the CD disc and in the control panel. But what you show me there now Corina is actually ALL that the uninstall program now touched and removed, the startup section shortcuts.

I´ve now gone to just trying to physically throw away the folders so a new install can be done, but of course, it wont allow me to. I need to dig deep to remove this now, perhaps in the registry, since it seems determined on trashing my day and my patience with this....

The Administration "privileges" which the dumb fudges on Microsoft seemed to think would be a good idea to enforce on all installed PC´s can be doing it´s thing again.

A different sets of rights for users on Windows 7 PRO at least but just another source for problems i´ve noticed on my PC.

I wish some software developers could grow a brain for a change.

Sorry now, i need to let off some steam. Good day good people.

Edit: And Corina thank you. Backup the whole documents folder you say? OK.

I only saved my region folder but i will do that now as well, thank you.

  Edited April 29, 2019 by Toby66  

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

15 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

perhaps in the registry

For the disc version (at least on XP) here's where the relevant entry is:

 

I would presume you'd delete that entire key as well as the corresponding SimCity 4 folder in Program Files (x86), but I've never manually removed the game so that's just guessing on my part.

If you can hold off for a while, there's likely to be other techy peeps who can help when they find this topic.

[Toby66 155]

I got the uninstall solved. Was as simple as just rebooting the PC.

But i´ve got my EYE on that previously added file now.

For some reason that file doesnt agree with something in my hardware perhaps, the OS or something else. My graphic card which is a Nvidia GeForce GT 220 btw. Updated driver and such. I keep my rig nice and healthy otherwise. 

Edit: Oh, and the graphic problem gone as well as far as i saw. 

  Edited April 29, 2019 by Toby66  
I live to EDIT. If there´s a chance...i´ll do it

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

4 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

Edit: Oh, and the graphic problem gone as well as far as i saw. 

And was that because of rebooting? I really, really (really) can't imagine how that .dat file would have anything at all to do with the graphics glitch.

[Toby66 155]

I think that the USA sheep´ed a special set of hardware to SWEDEN.

Some practical joke PC´s for the silly Swedish market. I´m not sure, but i´ve got my EYE now on you silly Billy Americans as well.

Don´t...fudge..with good ol´  VIKINGS!

We might go on a rampage.

Can i joke here?

Sorry now. Well! Problem solved! Yaaaaay

[CorinaMarie 29,862]

3 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

I´m not sure, but i´ve got my EYE now on you silly Billy Americans as well.

Gotta watch us. Who knows what we might do.

 

3 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

Can i joke here?

Sure. It's a friendly forum.

 

4 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

Well! Problem solved! Yaaaaay

Woot!

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Just catching up on a few things here and answering where I can...
 

4 hours ago, Toby66 said:

Could this problem derive from unpacking the file with Winrar and not Winzip?

I wouldn't have thought the program for extraction would make a difference.

One thing for regular .zip files is Windows will open these by default, and so they don't actually need a file management program like those (and 7-Zip is another I personally use to handle non zip files). There should be options in the program to de-associate file types and allow Windows to do the job instead. Since the underlying data remains the same, using a 3rd party tool for this though shouldn't make any different to the file composition.

 

3 hours ago, Toby66 said:

In one SimCity Exception Report it identifies my system as being Windows NT 6.1 when it actually is Windows 7 pro.

Funnily enough, it stating Windows NT 6.1 there happens to be the correct identifier for Windows 7.

It's just the way Microsoft started versioning the system from NT 3.1 back in the days, and it's progressed up to NT 10.0 now when they decided to incrementally leap up for the release of Win 10. The marketed edition of the OS doesn't alter this either, so Windows 7 is always NT 6.1. Going back one major version and NT 5.1 is Windows XP.

 

3 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

I seem to recall there is/was a bug with the Gog uninstaller such that it removes all of your Documents folder too.

Yeah, I remember coming across this topic on their forums which documented it. GOG have released a hotfix update to the file package since (as listed here), so hopefully they patched it. Otherwise it's certainly something to be mindful of, and programs really ought to leave user Documents folders untouched.

 

2 hours ago, Toby66 said:

For some reason that file doesnt agree with something in my hardware perhaps, the OS or something else.

That is unusual how the I-HT Fix could possibly be causing such graphical issues.

Even if not installing it using the recommended DatPacking method into the internal SimCity_1.dat file, I'm not too sure how this would be conflicting with hardware in any way. It's just an Exemplar file which contains a modified data property for how high tech jobs function in SC4. It's strange if the issue was only replicable when adding the file, and didn't occur with an empty Plugins set (both folders), nor with any other tested mod. In this case it's even more peculiar.

Like it allowed the uninstall to complete, I'm inclined to believe restarting your computer might've helped here. It can be a good idea to periodically do a reboot as this clears memory (RAM) which can become cluttered after a while as programs consume more and more.

It's a simple step, but one which can sometimes be the solution to such unexplained problems.

Glad to hear the gremlins are all solved now anyway.

[Toby66 155]

Cyclone Boom

Yeah, my plugin folder is completely empty now.

Just a couple of official updates of the game so it´s now version 1.1.640.0, i know there´s a 641 version as well. Perhaps i should get that one as well. Usually is for the best.

And thanks for all the other input as well. 

Cheers mates.

  Edited April 29, 2019 by Toby66  
Edit R Us, cause i can i guess

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

3 minutes ago, Toby66 said:

Just a couple of official updates of the game so it´s now version 1.1.640.0, i know there´s a 641 version as well. Perhaps i should get that one as well.

Having version 1.1.640.0 reported is good news. This means you've successfully installed the EP1 Update and the one for night lighting on custom BATs. As a result you're fully patched and good to go. The 1.1.641.0 is functionally identical to this, but is only applicable and comes pre-patched on digital versions of SC4 Deluxe.