Incomplete CAM Installation?

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

Greetings, fellow SC4-ers. I was organizing stuff in my plugins folder just now, and I noticed a folder I didn't recognize named "CAM". The folder has one item in it: a folder named "SimCity_1". And that folder has 1 item: a file named "z_CAM_2.1.0_Stand_Permanent Merge.dat". On googling, I see this is related to "Colossus Add-on Mod", which explains the folder named "CAM". But I have no recollection of installing CAM! I don't even recall clearly what CAM is. (I need to read the manual to refresh my memory.) Maybe I installed CAM (or part of it) years ago and forgot all about it?

But I don't think this is a complete CAM install. What files are involved in a complete CAM install? I'm guessing it's more than just the "z_CAM_2.1.0_Stand_Permanent Merge.dat" file? Is having only that one file consistent with the "IR Fix Only" install type I see mentioned in the main ST CAM post by InvisiChem? (And, what does "IR" stand for? Industrial something?)

 

 

[rsc204 21,862]

This file is intended to be merged into the main SimCity_1.dat file using DATPacker. On it's own it wouldn't likely even work, but certainly this is not a complete CAM installation.

36 minutes ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

Is having only that one file consistent with the "IR Fix Only" install type I see mentioned in the main ST CAM post by InvisiChem?

IR = Industrial Rural or some such, which is really I-AG or Industrial Agriculture in games, most of us just say farming or farm zones. But no, as stated if you only have this file and did not merge it into SimCity_1.dat, it's useless. Because you can not override the particular exemplar contained within this file, it must load as part of the game's files. That said, I too tried to work out which file to use for this fix, but frankly the CAM installer doesn't seem to contain it. Since only one such "patch" exists, but there are many different CAM styles, it would appear that some files are missing, but I couldn't say for sure.

[twalsh102 1,601]

You did attempt to install CAM 2.1.0 at some point or you wouldn't have this folder/file in your Plugins folder. 

According to the CAM Manual, the IR Fix is the only thing that must be merged (datpacked) with SimCity_1.dat.  If the IR Fix Only install option is chosen, after datpacking completes successfully, the installer exits.

According to the CAM 2 thread over at SC4D, this file is meant to be merged with SimCity_1.dat  as part of a manual installation when the installer doesn't complete correctly. 

So two variations:

1.  You attempted to install CAM using the IR Fix Only option; the datpacking process (using SC4DatPacker) failed to complete (not an unusual occurrence).  You possibly weren't aware this folder was left behind, and never attempted the manual installation process (which may not have been worked out yet when you tried the installation).

2.  You attempted an install using any of the other install options; the first part of the installation process would have been the above patching process; if it failed, the results would have essentially been the same; the installer would not have continued with the rest of the installation process.

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

@rsc204 and @twalsh102 , thanks for the input; it helped me a lot in understanding what happened.

I did find two files ("SimCity 4.exe" and "simcity_1.dat") in a folder called "Original SimCity Files". But when I used WinDiff to compare those backups to the equivalents in "C:\Programs\Games\SimCity 4", they were identical; the originals were never altered as they should have been. And the version number of "SimCity 4.exe" is 1.1.640.0, whereas it should be 1.1.640.1 if CAM had done the IR update.

And I see why! I tried running CAM setup again, and it works fine until it tries to launch SC4DatPacker. SC4DatPacker never launches! CAM setup logs an error message and quits.

And I see why! SC4DatPacker is not installed on my Win-XP machine. So what happened was, I must have tried to install CAM on my XP machine about a year ago, and the installation failed (because DatPacker didn't exist), and I didn't have the time to troubleshoot the issue, then I forgot all about it.

Now, ironically, SC4 Devotion informs me that I downloaded DatPacker only once, on Sept 10, 2019 (about 20 days ago). I downloaded it for other reasons altogether, having nothing to do with CAM. (I was more interested in organizing my unruly plugins folder.) But the zip file doesn't exist on my Win-10 machine.

And I see why! I didn't download it there; I downloaded it on the Win-XP machine's E: drive. But about 1 day later, that hard disk crashed! About 500GB of data wiped out. No big deal, most of that data is backed up on my Win-10 machine. Except for the last week before the crash! And Sept 10 falls right in the middle of that "lost week". So the SC4DatPacker zip file got obliterated before it could be installed.

So I just installed DatPacker just now, then re-ran CAM install, IR-only mode. This time, DatPacker ran, and installation completed (but with one error msg saying "specified file not found" just before launching an empty Notepad window). My "SimCity_1.dat" file now has date 10/1/2019, and WinDiff tells me the new file is now NOT identical to the old, which is good. (The main exe file still has version # 1.1.640.1, though, so that part of the install failed. If it's just the version # that's wrong, though, I should imagine that's not really a problem.)

So the "IR Fix" part of CAM, at least, is now installed into my SimCity 4. What exactly does this do, anyway? Correct an error in which Ag demand wasn't properly affecting the Total Industrial Demand bar graph? That's the understanding I was getting from reading the manual, but I'm not sure I'm understanding it right.

[rsc204 21,862]

20 minutes ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

(The main exe file still has version # 1.1.640.1, though, so that part of the install failed. If it's just the version # that's wrong, though, I should imagine that's not really a problem.)

I don't think the .exe should be touched by this process, so if that's the only issue, I think you are fine. Perhaps you are confusing version 1.1.640.1 with 1.1.641.0? The later is the version number of pre-patched digital releases, so if you are using a disk-based install that's fully patched, it would acutualy be identical, only the version is 1.1.640.0.

23 minutes ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

So the "IR Fix" part of CAM, at least, is now installed into my SimCity 4. What exactly does this do, anyway?

Something like that, I'd refer to the documentation for more specific information.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

1 hour ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

I downloaded it on the Win-XP machine's E: drive. But about 1 day later, that hard disk crashed! About 500GB of data wiped out.

How do you know that the HD crashed? Have you tried mounting the disk in a computer with a known-good power supply? You might be surprised how many "bad" hard drives can be brought back to life by a power-supply upgrade.

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

4 hours ago, rsc204 said:

I don't think the .exe should be touched by this process, so if that's the only issue, I think you are fine. Perhaps you are confusing version 1.1.640.1 with 1.1.641.0? The later is the version number of pre-patched digital releases, so if you are using a disk-based install that's fully patched, it would acutualy be identical, only the version is 1.1.640.0.

This install was from a "SimCity 4 Deluxe" 2-CD set; it's not pre-patched, and the exe version # isn't 1.1.641.0, it's 1.1.640.0.

According to the CAM 2.1 Manual, "The IR Patch changes the EXE version to 1.1.xxx.1, so after the patch, setup will no longer ask you to patch the game. Also, if the forums ask what version you are running, it is obvious the patch has been applied."

However, the IR patch did not do that. I now have 3 copies of my exe file, one in "Original SimCity Files" (sibling of user plugins folder), and two in "C:\Programs\Games\SimCity 4\Apps". The file info on these 3 files are as follows:

"Original": Version = 1.1.640.0 ; Size = 8211KB ; Mod Date = 9/30/2017  2:06AM
"Modified": Version = 1.1.640.0 ; Size = 8211KB ; Mod Date = 9/30/2017  2:06AM
"Unpatched": Version = 1.1.640.0 ; Size = 8211KB ; Mod Date = 1/23/2004 10:34AM

So, the CAM installer saved a copy of the original, but never actually changed the original.

It did change "C:\Programs\Games\SimCity 4\SimCity_1.dat", and stored the original in "Original SimCity Files":

"Original": Mod Date = 1/22/2004
"Modified": Mod Date = 10/1/2019
(The two versions have very different content when viewed in a hex editor, especially at the beginning.)

Everything seems to be working, though, in spite of the two errors during install (failure to update ver#, and attempting to display a non-existent text file). I'm not seeing any obvious differences in game-play, but then none is expected, just a change in industrial demand to include Ag. To test that, I'd need to swap the two versions of SimCity_1.dat back and forth while playing a city with the ID, IM, and IT demands near 0 but with a high IA demand, and see the difference in the I bar in the RCI graph.

 

[twalsh102 1,601]

5 hours ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

So the "IR Fix" part of CAM, at least, is now installed into my SimCity 4. What exactly does this do, anyway? Correct an error in which Ag demand wasn't properly affecting the Total Industrial Demand bar graph? That's the understanding I was getting from reading the manual, but I'm not sure I'm understanding it right.

So, the IR Fix actually does fix several things.  Farming as originally implemented in SC4 by Maxis was essentially broken. 

1.  The RCI Census Exemplars determine the distribution of Jobs created (as a function of a fixed percentage of total capacity for each wealth level) for Buildings of each of the 12 Developer types.  Because of an error in the Maxis RCI I-R Census Exemplar, only low wealth jobs would be created, only 20 % of the building capacity would be filled.  CAM fixes that such that jobs are created at all wealth levels and to 100 $of the capacity of the building.

2.  The Maxis RCI Exemplars that support the creation of demand were also broken in that only demand for Low-wealth EQ1 Sims was created.  CAM creates demand for Sims of all wealth and EQ levels through R$$$ EQ2.

3.  I-R was not included in any of the Industrial job counts.  CAM fixes that as well.  This is the part that needed to be merged with SimCity _1.dat.  Without that all I-R statistics would be counted twice.

Hope that all makes sense.

 

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

3 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

How do you know that the HD crashed? Have you tried mounting the disk in a computer with a known-good power supply? You might be surprised how many "bad" hard drives can be brought back to life by a power-supply upgrade.

The first tell-tale sign of trouble was when one of the hard disks started making loud clicking noises. I had to start unplugging hard disks one at a time (there's 3 HDs in that machine, drives C:, D:, E:) to see which was the culprit. It turned out to be the E: drive. With that out of the circuit, the computer ran fine. But when I plugged E: back in and tried to restart, the system wouldn't even start. It was blocking C: from being recognized. So I took it out, and everything works fine.

However, you may be onto something. If the power supply is getting weak, it may no longer be able to handle multiple full-size internal HDs, and may cause a "brown-out" on the 12V or 5V lines. I should check that with a meter. And I should replace the power supply anyway, as the fan is getting very loud during the first half hour of operation, especially on cold days. (The PS fan is cranky and won't run right under about 75F.)

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

17 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

...known-good power supply...

Ok, I did a lot of work on my SC4 computer tonight; I tore it to shreds and put it back together several times, swapped power supplies, tested hard disks, cleaned fans, etc. Alas, the bad hard disk is completely bad. With any power supply, it makes clicking noises, blocks drive C:, and prevents the system from starting. So it's toast. Good idea, though.

I also found that the fan noises were not coming from my power supply, but from the fan on the PCIe video card. That fan was so stiff that when I turned it, it made grinding noises and an IC fell out! So I popped the blades off, and the rotor had welded itself to the little circular circuit board inside the fan body, and the power wires were all torn up. So I removed the fan so it wouldn't load down my power supply, and the board is now just convection cooled. Everything works great. It now just needs a new 500GB HD (or SSD) to mirror the data currently on my main computer. (Those are the only things I use the older computer for: SC4, and data mirror.)

[rsc204 21,862]

20 hours ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

The first tell-tale sign of trouble was when one of the hard disks started making loud clicking noises

It's not a PSU issue, that's a dying drive every time, but I think you've figured that one out already.

Honestly, if you suspect a PSU fault or are capable of testing one with a Multimeter to check, I'd replace it. A bad one won't necessarily just provide a power short, it could surge your system potentially taking out other components on the way. Thankfully modern motherboards have electrical protection circuitry, but that's just a safegaurd, it's not 100% effective.

5 hours ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

It now just needs a new 500GB HD (or SSD)

If it were my money, I'd go for an SSD, although if you don't have an SSD as your System Drive, I wouldn't waste one for a data-storage disk. Instead you're better off replacing the Boot/System drive with the SSD and using the old drive for E.

Generally speaking, SSDs will probably outlast HDDs reliability wise, but 500GB HDDs aren't that cheap compared to a 500/512GB SSD either.

@jeffryfisher: I've seen you mention PSU failures as a possible cause in quite a few threads for a variety of problems. Personally speaking, I'm always inclined to avoid implicating a PSU failure, unless there are clear signs that indicate it. The worry always being that someone assumes a problem they don't have and wastes money replacing something that isn't actually broken. PSUs are not cheap anymore and for those with serious power needs, hit 3 digits easily.

It's particularly rare that a failing PSU wouldn't cause either random system instability or simply prevent it from working/booting altogether. Honestly, every PSU failure I've ever had to deal with was a "pop" or some such and it was dead. If a power-failure due to overloading of a PSU caused a device to physically switch off, even very briefly, almost certainly that would result in a lockup of the system. Because that aforementioned electrical protection circuitry has to disable the workings of the motherboard to prevent damage. Like an electrical fuse, it "trips" the system and the OS simply can't pause for that moment, so you'll get a BSOD (or whatever that is now) or the machine will just reboot itself. Long and short, if there are no signs of system instability overall, it's almost certainly not the PSU.

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

@rsc204 : My SC4 computer currently has 3 HDs: 250, 250, 500(dead). I'm thinking of replacing them with two SSDs: one 250GB SSD for OS & programs (incl SC4), and one 1TB SSD for data (backups of data on other computers). That will have to wait til a future payday, though, as that's about $200.

Though, I may have to leave the 250GB boot HD in place, because I got this machine (circa-2010 Win-XP-Home desktop) used, and it has no Windows license sticker on it, so if Windows demands my "key" after migrating, I'm screwed. So I may very well end up with a boot HD and data SSD, backwards though that may seem.

[rsc204 21,862]

Firstly I'd re-check the prices, here in Europe where we pay in € the typical $ price, a 1TB SSD can be found for 100€, cheaper if you've an M.2 slot in your machine even. OK this is only a 960GB, but it's under $100:

https://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ssd/series/BX500

I'd also recommend a BX Series for a smaller drive, they are well priced and reliable drives.

As for the Windows Licence, usually a good brand SSD will allow you to download a free version of imaging software. This can automate a drive migration onto the SSD, Crucial definitely provide this and it can even migrate a larger drive to a small SSD, provided the actual data fits.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

3 hours ago, rsc204 said:

I've seen you mention PSU failures as a possible cause in quite a few threads for a variety of problems.

That's because of my personal experience (which may follow from buying desktops that come with crappy PSUs from the factory). As a crappy PSU ages, its voltages become unstable. As a PC is upgraded, its crappy PSU can become overloaded even before reaching its published wattage. Then something like a burst of graphics-card activity can cause an HD or MB or CPU (or the graphics card itself) to fault. I have experienced all of the above. I have even bought replacement parts before discovering that a PSU with a good reputation (even if used*) can make all of those other "failing" components come back to life.

So I guess "YMMV" is strongly at work here.

*I buy my parts used at Free Geek in Portland where I found a top-rated 2 year old 800w modular PSU for $55.

[CorinaMarie 29,861]

11 hours ago, zebulon_stonehenge said:

I got this machine (circa-2010 Win-XP-Home desktop) used, and it has no Windows license sticker on it, so if Windows demands my "key" after migrating, I'm screwed.

In my experience XP will only de-activate your license if you change out the Motherboard/CPU and even then you can re-activate by clicking the buttons in the popup. They key part here is when you clone the drive to the new one, you still have your original hard drive to fall back on should there be any problem.

For the cloning to a new hard drive you could check out the free version of Macrium Reflect. According to their knowledge base it will figure out that you'll need the 32 bit version if you connect with that computer. (I've only used the 64 bit version with my Windoze 7 and I love the program. I have migrated hard drives to larger hard drives and hard drives to SSDs with it.)

If you need a direct download via a 64 bit comp, I did find the 32 bit version on Filehorse, but I can't guarantee if that's a safe or reliable source.

 

10 hours ago, rsc204 said:

if you've an M.2 slot in your machine

For a comp acquired in 2010, I'm guessing this is quite unlikely.

[zebulon_stonehenge 135]

12 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

As a crappy PSU ages, its voltages become unstable.

Yes. Especially PSUs manufactured circa 2005, the era of "Capacitor Plague". (A huge Chinese manufacturer of cheap electrolytic caps stole a formula from a Japanese company, but they got it wrong, and didn't realize it. They made millions of faulty caps which died after 2 years (instead of 20 as would be more normal). Those caps ended up on motherboards, in PSUs, etc. Just about all of the electronics made on Earth in 2005 were trash; all in landfills now.

One example of that was my previous main desktop PC. Nice machine, until it started flaking out (crashed without warning, was hard to start, etc). I noticed that the some of the caps on the MB were bulging and leaking a crumbly brown substance. I replaced them, but the computer still wouldn't work, so I had to scrap that computer and build another one. That was around 2008.

I didn't find out why replacing the caps didn't fix the computer until last night (11 years later), when I opened up the case on the PSU from my old computer. At least 4 of the electrolytic capacitors were bulging and leaking a brown crumbly substance. And the PSU made an ultra-high-pitch squealing noise when powered up. That's a sign of insufficient filtration. In an old-style analog PSU, you'd get 60Hz hum. But in modern computer PSUs, you get an ultrasonic squeal instead, because they work at 10-60kHz instead of 60Hz. More trash-can fodder.

Amusingly the PSU in my current SC4 computer weighs about 2LB and is rated 580W (whereas the PSU from my old 2005 computer weighs about 8LB and is only rated 480W). The 580W PSU is freaky-Zen inside, almost nothing in it! One small circuit board, 4 TO-220 devices (MOSFETs?  IGBTs?) on a small heatsink, one small coil, several small electrolytic caps, a few smaller components. Very "sparse" design.

[rsc204 21,862]

On 01/10/2019 at 10:14 PM, twalsh102 said:

So, the IR Fix actually does fix several things.  Farming as originally implemented in SC4 by Maxis was essentially broken. 

1.  The RCI Census Exemplars determine the distribution of Jobs created (as a function of a fixed percentage of total capacity for each wealth level) for Buildings of each of the 12 Developer types.  Because of an error in the Maxis RCI I-R Census Exemplar, only low wealth jobs would be created, only 20 % of the building capacity would be filled.  CAM fixes that such that jobs are created at all wealth levels and to 100 $of the capacity of the building.

2.  The Maxis RCI Exemplars that support the creation of demand were also broken in that only demand for Low-wealth EQ1 Sims was created.  CAM creates demand for Sims of all wealth and EQ levels through R$$$ EQ2.

3.  I-R was not included in any of the Industrial job counts.  CAM fixes that as well.  This is the part that needed to be merged with SimCity _1.dat.  Without that all I-R statistics would be counted twice.

Just to follow up on this (I know, 3 years later), since I've been digging in this area a lot recently.

Whilst you might consider 1 to be a bug, 2 and 3 are not and in fact are quite intentional. I-R was added as an alternative path to get the R/C/I demand cycle up and running, but I-R was never intended to be something that stuck around in your region. Maxis quite deliberately only allowed for R$ EQ1 sims to work at farms and also made it so farms don't contribute in terms of taxes, hence not including them in the counts. Of course, part of making farming more viable is to amend these things and I certainly recommend the I-R Fix (patch would be more accurate). But I would seriously dispute the idea that farming was broken in the game as released, it works just as Maxis intended it too, even if many users would prefer it worked differently.