Display issues

[Rott 2,351]

So I started playing SC4 again on my new PC but the taskbar in Win10 messes up the display, even when I try to have it hidden, is there anything in the startup launcher I need to add for that to stop? I currently have it like this: 

 

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x64 -Intro:off -CPUCount:1 -w

 

Also has anyone ever seen this bug: 

[Raymond7cn 6,772]

Hiya @Rott, Frankly, this is the first time i see this issue, i mean the advisor is a bit offset, Do you have the same problem when running the game with full screen? Besides, i have noticed this:

5 hours ago, Rott said:

CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x64 -Intro:off -CPUCount:1 -w

And from wiki:

Screen Resolution
-r[a]x[b]x[c]
Sets the screen resolution to [a] pixels wide by [b] pixels high, with a bit-depth of [c].

Note: Only 4:3 resolutions (1024x768 800x600 etc) are permissible, without using the custom resolution setting
Note: Bit-depths of 16 or 32 are allowed, and the default depends on your hardware

-----

So i thought is it possible the issue caused by '64'? how about change it to 32?

All of these are just wild speculation, I hope it helps.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

[rsc204 21,808]

6 hours ago, Rott said:

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x64 -Intro:off -CPUCount:1 -w

Change -w to -f and the problem will go away.

In Windowed mode SC4 must adapt to Window's taskbar, which is controlled by the OS not the game. Given the age of SC4, likely there is some compatibility problem causing this to display wrong. It could be an updated or different version of your graphics driver would help too. But if you play SC4 in Full Screen (-f) not Windowed (-w) mode, this problem simply can not occur.

[Rott 2,351]

@Raymond7cn I had it on 32 before and the resolution did not fit properly, 64 changed it to proper full screen. I believe this problem with the advisor happened because I moved task bar to the top of the screen since I could not use the menus at the bottom when task bar was at the bottom. There were a few other problems like this too where something wasn't aligned properly.

@rsc204 Yep, easy fix thanks. I guess I tried it before without using -w assuming it would default to fullscreen but that didn't seem to do what I wanted.

One more thing, wasn't there a way to make this game run a lot faster? It still feels like I'm using a PC from 2001 to play this, wasn't the CPUCount supposed to remedy that?

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

6 hours ago, Rott said:

One more thing, wasn't there a way to make this game run a lot faster?

I've heard how using a Solid State Drive (SSD) can provide a significant performance advantage.

To install the operating system on there and programs too is where even a cheap SSD is so much faster than standard platter drives (HDDs). Reliability is so much improved nowadays too, and so there's no concerns about them wearing out and more than a HDD would do under regular daily household usage.

For the first time I'll be using an SSD on my new computer, and to hopefully see a notable improvement to what I'm used to with loading times especially. In terms of making SC4 run supremely-super-fast though, it's really going to be limited given the architecture was designed for systems back in the early 2000s. If you've not already, it is highly recommended (and now required if using NAM 37) to apply the 4GB Patch which allows SC4 to use a higher amount of memory (RAM) than it can otherwise.

Also you may find it helps to give the game a higher priority level when running, as Cori explains in her post here. This involves starting the game using a batch (.bat) file, and it works as a command which tells the executable to be run under set conditions. Basically it's a fancy way to using a regular desktop shortcut.

 

6 hours ago, Rott said:

It still feels like I'm using a PC from 2001 to play this, wasn't the CPUCount supposed to remedy that?

Given the way that SC4 was programmed, it means that it's only able to reliably support running on a single processor core.

By setting -CPUcount:1 as a command line parameter, it limits the game to using just that only. While this won't make the game run faster, it does improve stability on modern multi-core systems, which prevents frequent random crashes (CTDs). Ideally the game could support multiple cores and then it'd have a greater processing capability, but it'd need pretty much a total re-write of everything. Something that as a community is beyond current modding practicalities.

Who knows what might be possible eventually though...

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

1 hour ago, Cyclone Boom said:

For the first time I'll be using an SSD on my new computer, and to hopefully see a notable improvement to what I'm used to with loading times especially.

God, are you gonna see an improvement. My old system boot time was in excess of 90 seconds, now its under 15.

Just out of curiosity, what sort of drive are you getting? NVMe or Sata3?

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

30 minutes ago, Whte_rbt said:

Just out of curiosity, what sort of drive are you getting? NVMe or Sata3?

To be precise it's a Samsung 860 EVO (500 GB).

I found the specifications page here.

It will be connected via SATA 3 indeed, and so I suppose it won't be the total optimal speed boost compared to other SSDs around today, but still very decent. Certainly I'm looking forward to the big benefit it brings compared to using a HDD as I have for every other computer I've used in my life so far. I just did some quick research and found that NVMe supported drives can go around 7x the speed of a SATA based SSD, so that really would be even faster. Maybe someday for that one, and the thing with technology is how by the time I'd be ready for one of those in however many years time, there'll probably be something about 42 times more powerful than that is!

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

Not bad man, it's at the top end of the Sata type speed wise, but yeah you're right, NVMe is a massive jump in performance.

My laptop is running on a 128Gb NVMe drive, when I did a side by side boot up in the shop with it's HDD equiped sister I was sold. The first boot before i started loading actual software onto it was 6-7 seconds. You should still be looking at 30-35 seconds boot time at most though.

[rsc204 21,808]

12 hours ago, Rott said:

@rsc204 Yep, easy fix thanks. I guess I tried it before without using -w assuming it would default to fullscreen but that didn't seem to do what I wanted.

The game "remembers" your last switches used, so removing them simply stops repeating the same commands.

12 hours ago, Rott said:

One more thing, wasn't there a way to make this game run a lot faster? It still feels like I'm using a PC from 2001 to play this, wasn't the CPUCount supposed to remedy that?

Sadly it does, it prevents SC4 from CTDing on modern OS's/Computers. Windows tries to spilt the two processes SC4 uses onto separate cores, but without the code to keep them in sync, it makes the game very unstable. This means in real terms a single core of your CPU is now having to do more work.

Don't fret though, performance woes in SC4 are almost always a result of other problems, usually compatibility ones. In order that SC4 can access all the data it needs as quickly as possible, an SSD will absolutely outperform normal HDDs. This is something that's especially good to have if you are going to have a large amount of Plugins, since it gives you the best loading times possible. But far more important I find is being able to run DirectX Hardware Rendering, which means your GPU, Drivers, OS must all together provide compatibility with legacy DirectX 9.0c functions. If your system can't work in DirectX or do so properly, you are going to have worse performance, period. The good news is that usually when these problems happen, it's only the result of SC4 failing to properly detect hardware it was never coded to work with. Typically after a few weeks, most users can get the best setup for SC4 possible. Note too RAM is an issue, but only if either of these scenarios is true:

• Your using a 32-bit OS
  Not much you can do easily, if your system/hardware supports it, you'd be better off with a 64-bit OS.
• Your system has less than 4GB RAM
  4GB is really a minimum for decent performance these days. SC4 doesn't need that much, but your OS and other overhead quickly eats into what SC4 can access. Do make sure you've patched the SC4 .exe (Application) with a "4GB" Patch, this allows SC4 (or other Apps) to get their full 2GB allocation under a 64-bit OS. This is mandatory for NAM 37+ users.
• Your system is using much of of the available RAM for other running apps.
  Got 50 tabs open in your Web Browser? Doing lots of other intensive stuff elsewhere with your PC? In this scenario use Task Manager to work out how much RAM is available and which apps you might close to free some up, where applicable.

For troubleshooting graphical (and other compatibility), issues, see this thread.

[Rott 2,351]

Guess it just needs a really fast PC then eh...

@Cyclone Boom This 4GB patch, where do I apply this? I tried it on the SC4 shortcut but it gave me a catastrophic error message... How would I use this if I'm running it off Steam?

[rsc204 21,808]

2 hours ago, Rott said:

Guess it just needs a really fast PC then eh...

Really not, it runs well on a Core2 machine or better. But compatibility is another kettle of fish altogether. A problem that is common to many older games and something that’s par for the course if you play older games on modern equipment. The good news here is that SC4 is usually not so hard to get working well. 

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

4 hours ago, Rott said:

Guess it just needs a really fast PC then eh...

Like rsc204 said not really but its easy to get silly spending £/$ on a rig just for SC4. If you do go customising a system for this the remember that what you need is single thread performance from the processor. This best balanced off against availibility of compatible hardware/drivers as mentioned above.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html

[Cyclone Boom 16,875]

5 hours ago, Rott said:

@Cyclone Boom This 4GB patch, where do I apply this? I tried it on the SC4 shortcut but it gave me a catastrophic error message... How would I use this if I'm running it off Steam?

The important part involves navigating to where SC4 is installed as the executable file.

For the Steam game, I've researched and believe this will be located at:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe

Double click to run 4gb_patch.exe file and then browse to where the SimCity 4.exe executable file is located. If correct for the above path, you can paste it into the location bar at the top of Windows file explorer, then press the Enter key. Next with this selected, click to Open this file using the 4GB Patch (in the window shown). It's like in a word processor when going to find a document to open, and the program needs to know what executable to apply the patch to.

It should only take a split second, and a confirmation dialog will appear once it's completed:

 

In technical terms, what this does is modifies a line of hex data internally, and sets a "flag" to allow more RAM to be used on 32-bit applications like SC4 is. There are merits to doing this on other programs like modding tools (or most executables in fact), especially where the extra allocated memory would help performance.

Upon applying the patch to the game, there are two easy ways to tell it's worked:

1. The executable will have a modified time updated at the precise point of running the 4GB Patch.
2. There'll be the original file named with a .Backup extension in the same folder, with an unmodified timestamp.

As the name goes, the backup is simply the original file renamed before the patch was applied. It can be moved to another location for safekeeping if preferring to do so, but it's fine to just keep it in the same folder as the patched executable (and it doesn't interfere). Renaming the .Backup extension to .exe would allow Windows to know it's an executable again for running, but there shouldn't be any need to do this since it's only advantageous running the patched file after it's patched.

For a step-by-step video guide, I recommend watching the very well explained tutorial @rsc204 created, starting from the 3:51 point.

Hope this helps!

[Rott 2,351]

@Cyclone Boom Got it, thanks for the explanation, I'm not the most patient with computers so it's appreciated