Anyone got Steam SC4 working with Proton in Linux yet?

[Leo_the_robot 67]

hey so I know back in the day I was able to get SC4 working, with mods, stably in linux with wine, I even did a presentation on it for a site I used to belong to.

so has anyone gotten the steam version of SimCity 4 deluxe working with proton in linux?

or is it still DVD version with wine for a stable working version outside windows/mac?

[catty-cb 4,412]

12 hours ago, Leo_the_robot said:

....so has anyone gotten the steam version of SimCity 4 deluxe working with proton in linux?...

Yes it works ok, the only issue I had was with the screen size as it didn't automatically recognize the 1600x900 resolution on the PC ... it took adding a -CustomResolution for it to work properly.

If I could have got Banished working OK via Steam and Proton I would have been using the Steam versions of my windows games, but while Banished installed OK it wasn't playable and after trying out PlayonLinux (using the GOG version of Banished) and not being able to install Banished Mods as the game crashed if I tried adding anything to the Mod folder,  I gave up trying to do it for free and bought Crossover Linux.

Banished is working really well so I'm

[Handyman 791]

On 2019-10-02 at 5:58 PM, Leo_the_robot said:

so has anyone gotten the steam version of SimCity 4 deluxe working with proton in linux?

or is it still DVD version with wine for a stable working version outside windows/mac?

Just wondering, are you forced to use the Steam client/Proton? My understanding is that Proton actually uses Wine to function, so why not eliminate the Steam client/Proton middleware. When I purchased the Gog version I opted not to use their client and rather downloaded the SC4D file directly to my computer and installed it with Wine, exactly as I would with the CD version. This works great on my system, Ubuntu 18.04.

[Leo_the_robot 67]

well I use wine for SC4, I have the SC4Deluxe  Discs and go that route and it works fine, however I was wondering for the sake of the digital route.

I've not tried the GOG version with wine however.

[Handyman 791]

5 hours ago, Leo_the_robot said:

I've not tried the GOG version with wine however.

I resisted giving up my discs but began to experience installation errors, so I listened to the advice I saw here and picked up the Gog version for $6.00 cdn. If you are already comfortable with using  the discs with wine, this will be a snap for you. And very fast!

[Leo_the_robot 67]

59 minutes ago, Handyman said:

I resisted giving up my discs but began to experience installation errors, so I listened to the advice I saw here and picked up the Gog version for $6.00 cdn. If you are already comfortable with using  the discs with wine, this will be a snap for you. And very fast!

I'll keep that in mind handyman.

I just hope they get the steam version working with no fuss using proton.

for general usage sake really, because SC4 users, though a small demographic these days, shouldn't have to go through hoops to run games because windows and mac no longer work properly.

[catty-cb 4,412]

9 hours ago, Leo_the_robot said:

.....I just hope they get the steam version working with no fuss using proton....

The only issue was screen size otherwise the whole thing was a breeze

1. go to top toolbar select STEAM go down to SETTINGS and select STEAM PLAY click on ENABLE STEAM PLAY FOR SUPPORTED TITLES and also ENABLE STEAM PLAY FOR ALL OTHER TITLES.

2. In Steam right-click on SimCity 4 Deluxe go to properties and select FORCE THE USE OF A SPECIFIC STEAM PLAY COMPATIBILITY TOOL

3. Install SimCity 4 Deluxe

4. Right-Click SimCity 4 Deluxe in Steam and go to Properties and then click SET LAUNCH OPTIONS and add

-CPUcount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -l:ukenglsh

or whatever your monitor resolution is set to, ignore the bit on the end unless you use left-hand drive, the only major problem after that is tracking down the Regions and Plugins folders on your computer

[CorinaMarie 29,894]

This might be relevant if you are using an NVidia graphics card. (If using an AMD card then no need to watch.)

 

[rsc204 21,866]

18 minutes ago, catty-cb said:

4. Right-Click SimCity 4 Deluxe in Steam and go to Properties and then click SET LAUNCH OPTIONS and add

-CPUcount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32 -l:ukenglsh

Maybe it's best not to include that last command? Since it's only useful if a) you want LHD play, which most users won't and b) the UK Locale file exists, which on Steam it won't. Likewise, the resolution used is probably not for everyone either.

[Handyman 791]

1 hour ago, CorinaMarie said:

This might be relevant if you are using an NVidia graphics card. (If using an AMD card then no need to watch.)

Interesting video, the gentleman seems to be knowledgeable on the topic. However, it does not align with my experience, when trying to get SC4D running on directx (which was not specifically addressed). My preference was  always Nvidia because they had regular updates to their drivers, they were so easy to install and directx support was solid. I do like AMD motherboards but have always paired that with an Nvidia graphics card. That changed about a year ago when I fell down on my pre-purchase fact finding and bought an AMD board that will not work with any Nvidia card. After spending $300 cdn on motherboard and apu I was stuck. This was a real problem because SC4D would not run properly in opengl or directx with the open source drivers. In fact the only way I found to fix this was with the AMDGpuPro driver. I have since downloaded many regular graphics related updates with no issues and the same with newer kernels.

He is absolutely correct that the open source drivers are all I have ever needed for anything (other than SC4D (directx)). My SC4D game system is the only place I ever install a graphics driver. I have in fact played a bit with 0AD (Zero AD, which is native Linux) with no drivers and no issues.

[Leo_the_robot 67]

16 hours ago, catty-cb said:

The only issue was screen size otherwise the whole thing was a breeze

1. go to top toolbar select STEAM go down to SETTINGS and select STEAM PLAY click on ENABLE STEAM PLAY FOR SUPPORTED TITLES and also ENABLE STEAM PLAY FOR ALL OTHER TITLES.

2. In Steam right-click on SimCity 4 Deluxe go to properties and select FORCE THE USE OF A SPECIFIC STEAM PLAY COMPATIBILITY TOOL

3. Install SimCity 4 Deluxe

4. Right-Click SimCity 4 Deluxe in Steam and go to Properties and then click SET LAUNCH OPTIONS and add

-CPUcount:1 -f -CustomResolution:enabled -r1600x900x32

or whatever your monitor resolution is set to, ignore the bit on the end unless you use left-hand drive, the only major problem after that is tracking down the Regions and Plugins folders on your computer

That's super helpful! thanks Catty-cb.

I'm going to go try this out myself, as this means that SC4 for linux is a breeze and easy for anyone to setup.

[catty-cb 4,412]

23 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Since it's only useful if a) you want LHD play, which most users won't and b) the UK Locale file exists, which on Steam it won't

and c) its the wrong command 

So adding -l:ukenglsh doesn't work as they all insist on driving on the wrong side of the road

But adding  -l:"UK English" does work who knows why cos you are right none of the language files are in the install folder

6 hours ago, Leo_the_robot said:

... I'm going to go try this out myself, as this means that SC4 for linux is a breeze and easy for anyone to setup.

A couple of other things ... I've find it works better in software mod, but I'm not using a desktop or laptop computer so that might just be me .... am using a All-in-One computer

Also Plugin and Regions folder locations you would think would be in the Install folder which is here

/home/catty/.steam/steam/steamapps/common/SimCity 4 Deluxe/...

but no I've had to add my regions and plugins into here

/home/catty/.steam/steam/steamapps/compatdata/24780/pfx/drive_c/users/steamuser/My Documents/SimCity 4/...

[rsc204 21,866]

1 hour ago, catty-cb said:

I've find it works better in software mod, but I'm not using a desktop or laptop computer so that might just be me .... am using a All-in-One comput

Likely because the drivers for Intel integrated GPUs don't support legacy DirectX well. But for the optimal experience, it would be more ideal to use DirectX (Hardware) rendering where possible.

[Leo_the_robot 67]

you know? funny thing is, last time I played SC4 from disk, I got all sorts of errors with transparencies and such, I'm not seeing them in your screenshots though catty.

that's with the software renderer?
 

 

hmm, that's weird, my copy seems to crash on bootup, it's a fresh install too.

edit: tried a few different configurations, including the last working proton version on the protondb page.

this is weird.

my specs btw.

CPU: AMD FX 8350 8 core CPU(Overclocked to 4.2ghz).
RAM: 32gb, DDR3, 2133mhz
GPU: EVGA Geforce 1060 GTX
Nvidia driver ver: 435.21
linux version: POP! os 19.04 64bit.
GNOME: 3.32.2

Proton ver: 4.2-9
4.11-6 didn't work either btw.

Launch options
PROTON_FORCE_LARGE_ADDRESS_AWARE=1 -intro:off -w -r1280x1024x32 -CustomResolution:enabled -CPUPriority:high -CPUCount:1

I also tried full screen to no avail.

something weird is going on because I was able to launch my disc version of SC4 in wine fine using winetricks.

edit2: so I'm messing about, this was a fresh install of POP!_OS, so I'm seeing if maybe they didn't include vulkan in the repositories and trying to include it instead.

could be related given it uses DXVK for rendering.

will let you know if that works.

still not working however I did find this

Vulkan API version: 1.1.109

so it's there... hmmh

I'm going to run debug on SC4, see what's preventing it from running.

Edit3: I think it may be an issue with how my steam library is setup, I use a shared win/lin drive, I'm going to try it from the main linux drive.

Spoiler

======================
Proton: 1569267010 proton-4.11-6
SteamGameId: 24780
Command: ['/mnt/Data Storage/Steam/steamapps/common/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/SimCity 4.exe', '-intro:off', '-w', '-r1280x1024x32', '-CustomResolution:enabled', '-CPUPriority:high', '-CPUCount:1']
Options: set()
======================
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/spookyzalost/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_32/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS32): ignored.
wine: /mnt/Data Storage/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/24780/pfx is not owned by you
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/spookyzalost/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64): ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/home/spookyzalost/.steam/debian-installation/ubuntu12_64/gameoverlayrenderer.so' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded (wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64): ignored.
wine: /mnt/Data Storage/Steam/steamapps/compatdata/24780/pfx is not owned by you

Edit4: yep that was it, working now 

edit5: almost... it's unplayably slow but I'm seeing if some config changes might fix it?

edit6: ok, removing the CPU count to 1 seemed to speed it up quite a bit and fix the problem, it's working perfectly now.

so here's what I've learned so far for stability reasons.

DO NOT RUN IT FROM AN NTFS DRIVE.
CPU count seems to slow it down to a crawl, I noticed other reports of this issue.
otherwise... it just works with less glitches than the winetricks setup... so go steam,?

[rsc204 21,866]

2 hours ago, Leo_the_robot said:

CPU count seems to slow it down to a crawl, I noticed other reports of this issue.

You might want to see how well the game works without it, because for Windows systems the game CTDs often without this command. Owing to the fact that SC4 doesn't support multiple cores and how the OS will try to offload its separate processes onto different cores to optimise the speed. Usually these CTDs occur when zooming in and out, especially in well-developed areas. Yes, the game is slower with the command, but at least until you've a high population, it's usually pretty responsive. Note if you use Software rendering, you CPU has to do the job of the GPU's processing too.

2 hours ago, Leo_the_robot said:

you know? funny thing is, last time I played SC4 from disk, I got all sorts of errors with transparencies and such, I'm not seeing them in your screenshots though catty.

Which is almost certainly just a graphics driver/hardware issue. Since there have been no code changes since the Deluxe Release and the digital versions simply come pre-patched, but are otherwise identical.

 

[Leo_the_robot 67]

can confirm, SC4 works better without that setting under proton, also graphical issues are nonexistant, I'm currently testing mods under it to make sure it's all stable.

used wine to install NAM, then selected the macOS install from pc version before copying the files to the directory indicated by catty

 

 

@Catty, have you created a shortcut to the proton SC4 my documents folder so it has easy access?

at least to make things easier mod install wise.

[catty-cb 4,412]

12 hours ago, Leo_the_robot said:

...@Catty, have you created a shortcut to the proton SC4 my documents folder so it has easy access?

Yes not that I tend to download a lot of Plugins these days in the last year I've only downloaded three of them so I could have the horses+carriages+riders

and I'm a couple of versions behind with the NAM ... I keep meaning to update it 

But anyway re links to folders ... I'm using Linux Mint with a Cinnamon Desktop so this might be different on POP

Select the folder you want to create a link to, go to EDIT at the top of the screen and select Make Link then move the created link to somewhere convenient.

-catty

 

[Leo_the_robot 67]

12 hours ago, catty-cb said:

But anyway re links to folders ... I'm using Linux Mint with a Cinnamon Desktop so this might be different on POP

Select the folder you want to create a link to, go to EDIT at the top of the screen and select Make Link then move the created link to somewhere convenient.

-catty

Pop actually has a favorites option like in windows 10 where you can put a shortcut on the folder sidebar.

it's what I ended up doing, click/drag to favorites.