.Backup files needed?

[Haljackey 17,304]

SC4 has been running poorly for me recently. While investigating I noticed a lot of backup files in the EXE install location.

I use the Origin version (but version 641)

Any idea if this is junk I can delete? I don't think I have encountered this before. Running on Windows 10.

 

 

My shortcut code looks like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -Intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -CPUPriority:high d:DirectX  -CPUCount:8

 

Config log if needed is attached

RYAN-PC-config-log.txt

 

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cyclone Boom 16,876]

Hi Haljackey,

Those files with .Backup as their extension would be created after patching the executable with the 4GB patch. As you'll know, this is included in the NAM nowadays to be applied to the game so it can utilise more system memory. Those files are the original copies, and it seems likely that it was run multiple times for how there's more than one. I'm not sure what the other files would be backed up by (and I personally don't have a serialize.log file), but the backup files can be safely moved out or deleted.

There's no harm in keeping them there either, but the game will only use the actual named copy it expects to see.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

Just to be clear, this replication issue has been caused by successive NAM install/upgrades since the 4Gb patch was rolled into it?

Have noticed them before and took policy of one backup is enough especially as they have identical file size. Think I'll just delete the last ones too now.

[rsc204 21,808]

2 hours ago, Whte_rbt said:

Just to be clear, this replication issue has been caused by successive NAM install/upgrades since the 4Gb patch was rolled into it?

That might explain backups for the main SimCity4.exe file, but NAM doesn't touch any other file and successive NAM installs do NOT continue to run the 4GB Patch. A mechanism exists in the installer code (until NAM36), that checks if the patch is needed or not and only runs it if the flag is not set in the .exe.

It seems far more likely these files are being created by Origin or some 3rd party software on the OP's machine. In any case, I'd be highly sceptical that removing them would have any benefit in terms of performance, after all, SC4 doesn't load anything not in the two Plugins folders on startup. Even if somehow it did, that only relates to the time taken to start the game, it would have no effect whatsoever on in-game performance.

More than likely any performance issues lie elsewhere, OS or GPU Driver updates and the like. You really need to look at what has changed on your system since it started feeling slower.

[Haljackey 17,304]

Thanks guys. I'll keep these here and continue investigating what's slowed my game to a crawl.

Could have been a recent software update yes... perhaps. Game freezes and unfreezes in play it's very unpleasant and virtually unplayable.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

On 6/9/2020 at 11:35 PM, Haljackey said:

-CPUPriority:high

I did some testing, and setting this to high does absolutely nothing useful.

 

The option the game will recognize is low. Leaving the switch out or setting to anything else yields normal. I checked in task manager with the high setting and here's what I see:

^ This is where you could set it manually after launching the game.

 

Ofc, since this is a computer, we want it to handle the priority from what we tell it one time. I created a batch file like so for mine:

Start "" /AboveNormal "C:\GOG Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -w -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1280x1024x32

^ Ofc, use your own screen resolution for the custom setting.

And that shows this in Task Manager:

 

And if you want to go for high, it's this:

Start "" /High "C:\GOG Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -w -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r1280x1024x32

 

 

Do not, under any circumstances, set it to Realtime. That would give the game more priority than even your keyboard and rodent.