SimCity 4 does not want to run on the GPU

[Wiotbilu 22]

I have SimCity 4 through steam, and I have SC4Laucher, I use SC4Launcher, I have a GTX 1050ti GPU, but even trying to start with both, I see that only the application called steamwebhelper.exe is using the GPU, not the game. Are there ways to resolve this? I believe that running the game on the GPU would make it run better.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

It sounds like you need this guide...

It is complicated, but worth it.

[Raymond7cn 6,775]

11 hours ago, Wiotbilu said:

I have a GTX 1050ti GPU, but even trying to start with both,

Hi Wiotbilu, As a spare tire you can have a look at my solution in this thread whats-the-cardidentity-string-for-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050,

We use the same GPU, whereas mine is GOG version, I succeed in running with 1050ti GPU with dgvoodoo which can map Directx7 to a higher version of Directx, But you'd better use the normal method which @Whte_rbt recommended first, I hope it helps.

Best Regards,

-- Raymond

[Wiotbilu 22]

5 hours ago, Raymond7cn said:

Hi Wiotbilu, As a spare tire you can have a look at my solution in this thread whats-the-cardidentity-string-for-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050,

We use the same GPU, whereas mine is GOG version, I succeed in running with 1050ti GPU with dgvoodoo which can map Directx7 to a higher version of Directx, But you'd better use the normal method which @Whte_rbt recommended first, I hope it helps.

Best Regards,

-- Raymond

I didn't understand what you did on the Nvidia panel, why is it in ... Mandarin? But I put Simcity4.exe to run in priority on the gtx 1050, and I did some of its steps (but I haven't tested it yet), but I put the dgvoodoo things in the right place, now when I see the things that are being run by the GPU it appears a gamebar.exe with the nvidia icon, could it be SC4?

 

EDIT: Unfortunately when I go to the task manager SC4 is using about 30% of GPU 0 instead of GPU 1 which is gtx1050
EDIT2: I think is because I use a laptop, so... pc is better, i do not have.

[Raymond7cn 6,775]

15 hours ago, Wiotbilu said:

I didn't understand what you did on the Nvidia panel, why is it in ... Mandarin? But I put Simcity4.exe to run in priority on the gtx 1050, and I did some of its steps (but I haven't tested it yet), but I put the dgvoodoo things in the right place, now when I see the things that are being run by the GPU it appears a gamebar.exe with the nvidia icon, could it be SC4?

 

EDIT: Unfortunately when I go to the task manager SC4 is using about 30% of GPU 0 instead of GPU 1 which is gtx1050
EDIT2: I think is because I use a laptop, so... pc is better, i do not have.

Hi Wiotbilu, I'm sorry I'm outside now, I will show you more details when I get home.

Frankly, I suggest you'd better try some normal method as other experts suggested in that thread or other threads which can show you how to tweak "Graphics Rules.sgr" and "Video Cards.sgr", and sorry about my Nvidia panel is chinese, But I remembered you could find out robin(rsc204)'s tip about that in that thread. and actually It's not very important with dgvoodoo, it's putting your dgvoodoo files into right folder and setting other parameters correctly, such as Graphics Rules.sgr" and "Video Cards.sgr" in this thread how-to-configure-SC4-to-work-with-your-new-hardware/, Anyways, I will show you what I did, however I still hope you can get helps from other experts with more formal method, I'm sure that @CorinaMarie and @Cyclone Boom will be able to give a much more coherent explanation for this. Thank you.

Best Regards,

-- Raymond

[Matrim Cauthon 344]

When using the SC4Launcher it's pointless to edit Graphics Rules.sgr, but Video Cards.sgr should be edited to add in your card. SC4Launcher writes it's own Graphics rules.sgr file on every launch.

 

When you are launching it with SC4Launcher, which Graphics option are you selecting? it should give the options for DX, Software and OpenGL.

[Raymond7cn 6,775]

Hi Wiotbilu, @Wiotbilu, Sorry for the late reply, Frankly, I almost forget what I did before due to too many tests there, and also I'm a pretty newbie when dig into the deepest theory of computer, Robin @rsc204 and other experts could acturally tell you why to do something, Nevertheless, I will try my best to show you what the final successful settings of mine, You could see them as a reference.

1.dgvoodoo 

You could download it from dege's website, I see there is a new version of version: 2.63.1, I used the 2.62.1, however I thought if you use the higher version than me, It's ok.  After you download and extract somewhere, you should found there are 4 files here: \dgvoodoo\dgVoodoo2_62_1\MS\x86\[DDraw.dll,D3DImm.dll,D3D8.dll,D3D9.dll], Copy all of them(4 Files) into your SimCity's directory folder: \Apps along with the SimCity 4.exe.   open the dgVoodooCpl.exe (\dgvoodoo\dgVoodoo2_62_1),  You could set the settings(General&DirectX Tab) as below:

        Press 'Apply' after you finished General setting

        Press 'OK' 

        Then you will find a file 'dgVoodoo.conf' from the folder which defined from Config folder / Running instance

(all your settings will be here, acturally you could add this file directlly into your simcity4's App folder),

Copy this file as well into your SimCity's directory folder: \Apps.

       2. VideoCards.sgr  and GraphicRules.sgr 

【VideoCards.sgr】

vendor "dgvoodoo" 0x0000

   card 0x0000 "DirectX Wrapper"

end

【GraphicRules.sgr】

partialRule "Fast card" -any

         # We run well on these cards, so up the defaults.

stringMatchcardIdentity "NVIDIA*GeForce*GTX*1050*"

stringMatchcardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*"

stringMatchcardIdentity "NVidia*Quadro*"

stringMatchcardIdentity "ATI*9700*"

stringMatchcardIdentity "ATI*8500*"

stringMatchcardIdentity "Matrox*Parhelia*"

stringMatchcardIdentity "dgVoodoo*DirectX*Wrapper*"

              stringMatchcardIdentity "AMD*"

These dgvoodoo and Nvidia infos were added follow by this post how-to-configure-SC4-to-work-with-your-new-hardware/,  You could confirm them again to make sure your settings is right, Just In case your environment is different with mine.

3. Nvidia Control Panel

 

This is Robin's setup, I changed some of them, But I thought the most important is Add you SimCity 4.exe(has the running authority of administrator) into this panel.

4. Running Parameters

If you are using the vanilla stratup (without SC4 Launcher), My setup is: "~\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -intro:off -d:DirectX -CPUCount:1

And also you can tweak some of them to make sure that works well for you. Here below is some information you can refer to:(I forgot where is the whole of them, I hope dear @Cyclone Boom can help me to check it out from the original link. )

-f Run in full-screen mode.
-w Run the game in a window
-AllowMultipleInstances - Allows the player to launch additional application instances after the first one. By default, an attempt to run a second instance of the app will merely call forth the first instance of the application.

-BackgroundLoader:on/off - Enables or disables the background model loading system. Normally, when you switch the view zoom or rotation the application loads only the visible objects first and makes a background task of loading the additional models. This allows the game to be more responsive during view changes, but it has the side effect of slowing down the game for the next few seconds or minutes.

-CPUCount:X - (Where X is the number of cpu's on the system) Specifies how many CPUs to take advantage of when there is more than one CPU present on the system. By default, the app takes advantage of all CPUs present on multiprocessor systems. However, some system drivers (sound in particular) are known to have problems when run in a multi-CPU environment. Thus it might be useful to specify -CPUCount:1 in order to prevent crashes with these faulty drivers.

-CPUCount:0 has no effect.

-CPUPriority:low - Specifies that the application set its base process priority to low instead of normal. This is useful for having the app run side-by-side with other applications and have it not take too much processing time away from the other applications. This is a more benign form of the -gp command line option.

-Cursors:disabled/bw/color16/color256/fullcolor - Sets the color depth of the game cursors. Some hardware doesn't like some cursor color depths.

-CustomCursors:disabled - Disables the use of application-supplied versions of standard system cursors such as the arrow or hand cursor. Normally, the customized application-supplied versions are used.

-CustomResolution:enabled - Allows the user to specify a non-standard resolution that isn't normally recognized or accepted by the app. This is Useful in conjunction with the -r command line option.
-AllowMultipleInstances - Allows the player to launch additional application instances after the first one. By default, an attempt to run a second instance of the app will merely call forth the first instance of the application.

-BackgroundLoader:on/off - Enables or disables the background model loading system. Normally, when you switch the view zoom or rotation the application loads only the visible objects first and makes a background task of loading the additional models. This allows the game to be more responsive during view changes, but it has the side effect of slowing down the game for the next few seconds or minutes.

-CPUCount:X - (Where X is the number of cpu's on the system) Specifies how many CPUs to take advantage of when there is more than one CPU present on the system. By default, the app takes advantage of all CPUs present on multiprocessor systems. However, some system drivers (sound in particular) are known to have problems when run in a multi-CPU environment. Thus it might be useful to specify -CPUCount:1 in order to prevent crashes with these faulty drivers.

-CPUCount:0 has no effect.

-CPUPriority:low - Specifies that the application set its base process priority to low instead of normal. This is useful for having the app run side-by-side with other applications and have it not take too much processing time away from the other applications. This is a more benign form of the -gp command line option.

-Cursors:disabled/bw/color16/color256/fullcolor - Sets the color depth of the game cursors. Some hardware doesn't like some cursor color depths.

-CustomCursors:disabled - Disables the use of application-supplied versions of standard system cursors such as the arrow or hand cursor. Normally, the customized application-supplied versions are used.

-CustomResolution:enabled - Allows the user to specify a non-standard resolution that isn't normally recognized or accepted by the app. This is Useful in conjunction with the -r command line option.

-d:DirectX/Software/OpenGL - Sets the graphics driver for the app to run under. Currently the DirectX and Software drivers are supported, while the OpenGL driver is currently experimental.

-ExceptionHandling:off - Disables application exception handling, which provides for safer shutdown of the app in case of a crash.
-d:DirectX/Software/OpenGL - Sets the graphics driver for the app to run under. Currently the DirectX and Software drivers are supported, while the OpenGL driver is currently experimental.

-ExceptionHandling:off - Disables application exception handling, which provides for safer shutdown of the app in case of a crash.
-d:Software -Run the game in Software Rendering Mode:
-sound:off -Run the game with no sound:
-music:off -Run the game with no music:
-audio:off -Run the game with no sound or music:

Finally, You could launch your SimCity.exe, And after you enter the game you will find out SimCity from your Nvidia GPU Monitor:

And also you could confirm it from your -config-log.txt, If succeed, you will find out Key words like "cardName = dgVoodoo DirectX Wrapper" or "applying Fast card>
  option 12 = 1" which are inside of that file.

BTW, After entered the game, you could get better effect though set render method from Software to Hardware.

Well, I hope that works out for you. As I mentioned earlier, I hope you just see my method as a reference, If you have no luck with my method, I'm sure the Real experts could offer you advise on how to proceed. Best Regards! 

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[rsc204 21,859]

On 12/03/2020 at 9:59 PM, Wiotbilu said:

EDIT: Unfortunately when I go to the task manager SC4 is using about 30% of GPU 0 instead of GPU 1 which is gtx1050
EDIT2: I think is because I use a laptop, so... pc is better, i do not have.

Laptops are generally where problems can occur, it sounds like the Graphics Card Windows is offering for playing SC4 is an integrated (Intel/AMD) chip, which all Laptops have had for a long time. Bear in mind here, any improvements from using the dedicated NVidia card would be down to better driver support for legacy games. Usually on a desktop or most laptops, you can tell your GPU software, NVidia Control Panel, to force using your dedicated GPU with SC4. Due to SC4's low graphics requirements, the system auto-detects that the integrated card is sufficient and uses it instead to save power. On some machines however, despite setting things correctly, the dedicated GPU does not get used. You should start by going through the steps here:

It's labelled as for Windows 8, but most of this applies to Windows 10, if not all. Just that some settings may be in different place.

If those steps don't force use of the NVidia GPU, there might not be a lot you can do about it, since some setups seem to be unable to force this setting. That's a driver issue, most likely the manufacturer of your laptop has used customised drivers that are the problem.

[Wiotbilu 22]

I tried everything I could and got it, unfortunately ... In fact, I saw that the SC4 does not use even 800mb of my RAM, so it is a frantic slowness, in addition to only using 40% of the integrated GPU.