SC4 won't start

[clibtardmario 4]

It's been a while since this happened but I decided to ask here since I'm already frustrated at this. Anyway, ever since I mis-installed a textures mod (which I ended up removing later, to no avail) my SC4 game won't start at all -- running it will open the game's tab, though it suddenly closes before the intro even begins -- even after removing and reinstalling it multiple times, checking for files integrity and deleting all and every content I could find that's related to SC4 in my computer. Sifting through the error logs I found this out but I can't make any sense of it, hope you can help 
 

Quote

Exception time: 05/07/2020, at 01:56:40.
Exception code: 0xC0000005 (-1073741819) ACCESS_VIOLATION.
Current thread ID: 13340 (0x0000341c).
Version information:
Application/module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe
Application/module version name: SimCity 4
Application/module version: 1.1.641.0
System version: Windows NT 6.2
System memory: 2048 Megabytes total, 2048 Megabytes free.

Exception module:  C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe.
Exception address: 0x00884fe1. Section:Offset: 0x01:0x0047dfe1.

Registers
   EAX: 00000000
   EBX: 03f68b14
   ECX: 00000000
   EDX: 00ac4660
   ESI: 03f80020
   EDI: 00000005
   CS:EIP: 0023:00884fe1
   SS:ESP: 002b:0019f1d4  EBP:0019f260
   DS:002b  ES:002b  FS:0053  GS:002b
   Flags: 00210246

In case you need more info, I'll be glad to provide. Thanks in advance!

[rsc204 21,805]

16 hours ago, clibtardmario said:

Anyway, ever since I mis-installed a textures mod (which I ended up removing later, to no avail) my SC4 game won't start at all

Nothing you describe here should bork SC4 in the manner you suggest. Ultimately, any mods you install that may cause problem, will always be solved when you remove the mod in question. The simplest test would be to rename your Plugins folder (to literally anything else, say Plugins_1), then try to run the game. When you do this, the game should automatically create a new folder Plugins which is empty upon starting. Mods literally can not effect the game, if the game doesn't load them on startup. This is not the same as problems loading existing cities, but if you can't get to the region view screen with an empty Plugins folder, something else must be wrong.

16 hours ago, clibtardmario said:

running it will open the game's tab, though it suddenly closes before the intro even begins

Now this sounds very familiar. Are you running Windows Vista, 7 or 8 per-chance along with disk-based copy of SC4? An update for these will disable SecDrv.sys, a driver needed to validate the copy protection on SC4's disks and that of thousands of other games/applications. It sounds like this update has been installed and when SC4 tries to run, it fails to verify a legitimate disk is present, so closes without error, all very quick and exactly as you describe.

The good news is, you can with a little effort create a script that briefly re-enables the driver, starts SC4, then disables it again. See the linked thread for how. Since it's only needed once when starting the game, this provides the best balance between making things work and security. Since MS removed the driver due to a bug in the code that presents a security risk, I wouldn't advise the solutions that involve re-enabling it permanently.

The other option is updating to a digital version of SC4, which no longer uses this kind of DRM check. Windows 10 for example removes the driver and there is no good option for re-enabling it, making this necessary.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

19 hours ago, clibtardmario said:

even after removing and reinstalling it multiple times,

It looks as if you ran into one problem and then re-installed yourself into another. Working around WIn-10 to use the disk version of the game is very difficult. If you have old games, then run a machine for them (e.g. Win-XP or Win7-pro). If you can't do that, then watch GoG for the next $4 fire-sale of SC4. It will come fully patched and DRM free, so you'll never need to dance around SECDRV again.

[rsc204 21,805]

5 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

It will come fully patched and DRM free, so you'll never need to dance around SECDRV again.

A good point, because if you buy from Steam or Origin, you'll just get a different type of DRM. As this episode proves, DRM means at some point you might have to re-buy all your games to keep playing. At least with GoG, it'll be the last time you ever need to buy SC4, there are other benefits too.

[clibtardmario 4]

On 5/7/2020 at 7:08 PM, rsc204 said:

Nothing you describe here should bork SC4 in the manner you suggest. Ultimately, any mods you install that may cause problem, will always be solved when you remove the mod in question. The simplest test would be to rename your Plugins folder (to literally anything else, say Plugins_1), then try to run the game. When you do this, the game should automatically create a new folder Plugins which is empty upon starting. Mods literally can not effect the game, if the game doesn't load them on startup. This is not the same as problems loading existing cities, but if you can't get to the region view screen with an empty Plugins folder, something else must be wrong.

Might the mod have screwed some of the starting configurations (such as graphic details, software/hardware processing) which weren't reversed later after reinstalling?
 

On 5/7/2020 at 7:08 PM, rsc204 said:

Now this sounds very familiar. Are you running Windows Vista, 7 or 8 per-chance along with disk-based copy of SC4? An update for these will disable SecDrv.sys, a driver needed to validate the copy protection on SC4's disks and that of thousands of other games/applications. It sounds like this update has been installed and when SC4 tries to run, it fails to verify a legitimate disk is present, so closes without error, all very quick and exactly as you describe.

The good news is, you can with a little effort create a script that briefly re-enables the driver, starts SC4, then disables it again. See the linked thread for how. Since it's only needed once when starting the game, this provides the best balance between making things work and security. Since MS removed the driver due to a bug in the code that presents a security risk, I wouldn't advise the solutions that involve re-enabling it permanently.

The other option is updating to a digital version of SC4, which no longer uses this kind of DRM check. Windows 10 for example removes the driver and there is no good option for re-enabling it, making this necessary.

Yeah well, the issue is that I don't fit any of the above :/ I'm running with win10 and using the digital version from steam.

[rsc204 21,805]

7 hours ago, clibtardmario said:

Yeah well, the issue is that I don't fit any of the above :/ I'm running with win10 and using the digital version from steam.

No you certainly don't, so you can ignore anything related to the SecDrv problem.

7 hours ago, clibtardmario said:

Might the mod have screwed some of the starting configurations

Mods don't work like this. SC4 simply loads all the content, but none of that has access to adjust anything like configuration settings. I suppose a .dll based mod might, but I can't imagine why anyone would create such a thing and am fairly certain no such thing exists.

If your game suddenly stopped working, your system probably updated something behind the scenes that's affected SC4. Most typically this will be a graphics driver but it could be a Windows update too. If you check your update history from the time the issue started, it may help to see where the problem is coming from.

Since you can't make it to the splash screen and we know it's not the DRM problem, that means when SC4 tries to initialise the graphics system, it is unable to do so and a CTD occurs. So this points to graphical issues somewhere, it could be an update removed or broke the legacy compatibility modes SC4 requires to work.

In the Steam library, find SC4, right click upon it and select Properties. Here should be an option "Set Launch Options". Here we can manually alter the renderer being used, to see if one of the three available options works for you:

• -d:DirectX
  This is the default renderer used and also the most ideal provided it works.
• -d:OpenGL
  The implementation of OpenGL for SC4 was seemingly not fully completed or lacks general compatibility. Still worth trying at least because some systems can play nice with it.
• -d:Software
  The software renderer is a when all else fails solution, giving maximum compatibility at the expense of having to run the GPU's workload on your CPU.

Try each of these commands, one at a time to see if SC4 can launch with any of them. If you have other commands already, make sure there is a space between commands, all of which begin with a hyphen.

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

IIRC, SC4 has a graphics-support problem in the splash screen itself, and "Access Violation" sounds eerily familiar. I think I recall at least one other case that was solved by adding -Intro:off to the command line options. Try that before giving up on DirectX.

Please show us your command line; perhaps your reinstall affected it.

[rsc204 21,805]

24 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

and "Access Violation" sounds eerily familiar.

It would, it's a very generic term for something unexpected occurring, i.e. a CTD.

25 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

I think I recall at least one other case that was solved by adding -Intro:off to the command line options

It couldn't hurt to try, not to mention it makes the game start a little quicker. A similar issue exists with Audio-related problems, but it's real rare and in the context of the problem, very unlikely to be the cause.

27 minutes ago, jeffryfisher said:

Try that before giving up on DirectX.

To be clear, trying the other options to see what works is a diagnostic thing. In the event DirectX compatibility is behind the problem, fixing that issue is better than switching to Software Rendering.

[CorinaMarie 29,562]

3 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

I think I recall at least one other case that was solved by adding -Intro:off to the command line options.

There was at least one case where adding -audio:off turned out to be the solution. It was a lengthy thread here on ST where everything else under the sun was tried and then from some Googling I'd found mention of this and suggested it. (The fellow was from Australia, but I don't recall who or which thread it was in for any additional details.)

[clibtardmario 4]

7 hours ago, rsc204 said:

No you certainly don't, so you can ignore anything related to the SecDrv problem.

Mods don't work like this. SC4 simply loads all the content, but none of that has access to adjust anything like configuration settings. I suppose a .dll based mod might, but I can't imagine why anyone would create such a thing and am fairly certain no such thing exists.

If your game suddenly stopped working, your system probably updated something behind the scenes that's affected SC4. Most typically this will be a graphics driver but it could be a Windows update too. If you check your update history from the time the issue started, it may help to see where the problem is coming from.

Since you can't make it to the splash screen and we know it's not the DRM problem, that means when SC4 tries to initialise the graphics system, it is unable to do so and a CTD occurs. So this points to graphical issues somewhere, it could be an update removed or broke the legacy compatibility modes SC4 requires to work.

In the Steam library, find SC4, right click upon it and select Properties. Here should be an option "Set Launch Options". Here we can manually alter the renderer being used, to see if one of the three available options works for you:

• -d:DirectX
  This is the default renderer used and also the most ideal provided it works.
• -d:OpenGL
  The implementation of OpenGL for SC4 was seemingly not fully completed or lacks general compatibility. Still worth trying at least because some systems can play nice with it.
• -d:Software
  The software renderer is a when all else fails solution, giving maximum compatibility at the expense of having to run the GPU's workload on your CPU.

Try each of these commands, one at a time to see if SC4 can launch with any of them. If you have other commands already, make sure there is a space between commands, all of which begin with a hyphen.

-d:Software worked just nicely! Thanks 

[jeffryfisher 2,176]

On 5/9/2020 at 1:17 PM, clibtardmario said:

-d:Software worked just nicely! Thanks 

Treat that as an interim work-around; enjoy the game for a while, but keep a note to self to diagnose the underlying problem and take another swing at it when you've regained energy for bug-busting. Did you try -Intro:off ? If that allows you to run with DirectX, then you'll gain both performance and quality (e.g. access to high def content)

The work-around itself is a clue: DirectX 9c wasn't performing right, which suggests that your graphics driver lacked support. That might mean that you need an earlier driver for your card. Depending what other work you do on this computer, that could be a non-starter.

But you never know what the future may bring. Someday you might decide to setup a purpose-built legacy gaming machine that runs an old copy of Win-XP SP3 or Win-7 Pro SP-whatever, and it could have a card that supports directX and can even play the intro.

[rsc204 21,805]

13 hours ago, jeffryfisher said:

The work-around itself is a clue: DirectX 9c wasn't performing right, which suggests that your graphics driver lacked support.

In context of the problem as described:

On 07/05/2020 at 7:10 AM, clibtardmario said:

Anyway, ever since I mis-installed a textures mod (which I ended up removing later, to no avail) my SC4 game won't start at all

Would mean a driver or system update from around the time this happened. It could be as simple as a driver roll-back, but we don't actually know at this point if the OP was using DirectX to start with. It's also possible they were using Software Rendering and somehow accidentally this got switched, hence the game refusing to start.

However, I'd be the first person to implore others to take the time to try and get DirectX working, software rendering is vastly inferior both graphically and in terms of performance. As such, I'd recommend taking a look at the instructions here.

[clibtardmario 4]

On 5/10/2020 at 5:56 PM, jeffryfisher said:

Treat that as an interim work-around; enjoy the game for a while, but keep a note to self to diagnose the underlying problem and take another swing at it when you've regained energy for bug-busting. Did you try -Intro:off ? If that allows you to run with DirectX, then you'll gain both performance and quality (e.g. access to high def content)

The work-around itself is a clue: DirectX 9c wasn't performing right, which suggests that your graphics driver lacked support. That might mean that you need an earlier driver for your card. Depending what other work you do on this computer, that could be a non-starter.

But you never know what the future may bring. Someday you might decide to setup a purpose-built legacy gaming machine that runs an old copy of Win-XP SP3 or Win-7 Pro SP-whatever, and it could have a card that supports directX and can even play the intro.

I tried disabling both the intro and the game's audio (together and separately for each) before and it didn't work in any of the cases. I do recall that my game was set to use software before this all began though -- and that I had changed it to hardware rendering minutes before the issue started -- yet I was thinking the newly installed mod was to blame

[clibtardmario 4]

On 5/11/2020 at 7:51 AM, rsc204 said:

In context of the problem as described:

Would mean a driver or system update from around the time this happened. It could be as simple as a driver roll-back, but we don't actually know at this point if the OP was using DirectX to start with. It's also possible they were using Software Rendering and somehow accidentally this got switched, hence the game refusing to start.

However, I'd be the first person to implore others to take the time to try and get DirectX working, software rendering is vastly inferior both graphically and in terms of performance. As such, I'd recommend taking a look at the instructions here.

I'll take a look at it later on, but is software rendering that bad? I'm oddly conformed with the quality of my game's graphics and performance seems fine

[CorinaMarie 29,562]

1 hour ago, clibtardmario said:

I'll take a look at it later on, but is software rendering that bad? I'm oddly conformed with the quality of my game's graphics and performance seems fine

As long as you are comfy with software rendering then it's just fine.

Other peeps will know more details of what you'll be missing, but I know for sure it will preclude you from using any HD content. So just know that installing anything (such as terrain related mods or BATs) that say they are High Definition will cause a CTD. Then also, the game might feel more sluggish than Hardware Rendering. Since you've been accustomed to Software Rendering all along you won't notice it as a slow down.

[rsc204 21,805]

19 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

As long as you are comfy with software rendering then it's just fine.

Yeah, I think this is probably the most important aspect, some of us are just graphical snobs .

The main issue with Software Rendering, is that it uses your CPU to handle the workload of the GPU. With today's CPUs, that's not actually such a big problem, but the overall graphical fidelity is also affected, since you can't use the bells and whistles dedicated hardware can.

The other limitation has to do with HD textures, used mostly for Terrain, Rock, Beach and Water mods. Software rendering will CTD if you try to display any texture larger than 256x256px in size.

19 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

(such as terrain related mods or BATs)

Actually it doesn't affect BATs, even though we call some HD, BATs are limited to 256x256px textures, thus do not require DirectX to use.

To be clear, some computer setups will simply never work with DirectX, so you may not have a choice. But if you can get it working, I'm sure you'd notice the visual differences.