City tile shots with different definitions

[Edvarz 1,985]

Hi! I'm trying to update the regional view of my city tiles but they all save with different definition, you can see it by comparing the tiles to the north and southeast.

The tile in the bottom right corner is the worst offender. I've tried saving the city in all zoom levels, using the floppy disc icon. My graphic settings are all on high with the exception of cars and shadows, I run hardware rendering and a custom resolution. Any idea how I can harmonize all the tile overviews?

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

Are you referring to the difference in the color of the ground? If so, that'll be due to the terrain mod having seasonal variations. Run the city tile to the same month in each city tile, pause, zoom in or out and then back (to refresh the current view of the terrain), and then save. Which particular zoom you leave the city in when saving doesn't matter. Ofc, the shadows and detail settings need to be the same in each tile too as those'll have an effect as well.

[Edvarz 1,985]

I had noticed the terrain changes before, didn't know Maxis terrain could be seasonal too!

But I was actually referring to the way the tile to the south looks blurry compared to the others

[CorinaMarie 29,895]

5 minutes ago, Edvarz said:

But I was actually referring to the way the tile to the south looks blurry compared to the others

Oh. Hmm. Then I'm confuzzled too. Hopefully someone'll know.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

It's a game graphics issue. It's usually more pronounced with certain terrain mods, and more noticeable on large areas of water. You'll get tiles that appear to have gaps, or be a slightly different color. Sometimes, starting another tile shifts the problem somewhere else in the region. Consolidating tiles in-game seems to make it worse, so I do it in the Terraformer. 

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

It is unusual why this is happening, and I can see how some tiles are more blurry.

I wonder if it might help to try zooming to a specific zoom level before saving. For instance if pressing any of the 1-5 number keys to switch to any in particular, and then try saving those tiles with a certain zoom (Ctrl+S). Make sure to not switch focus from the game window while saving, or it can cause saving issues. Another thought is check that they're saved in the same game month, and if it might indeed be related to changes in the terrain between seasons.

The previews shown in region view are snapshot PNG images stored within each saved city file. The game renders a new one upon each save, and so it's seeing those different for some reason to cause the blurriness to occur in contrasting ways.

Another possibility is if it might help to try resetting the snapshot as I explained in this post. If attempting that though, be sure to make a backup beforehand.

[Edvarz 1,985]

1 hour ago, Cyclone Boom said:

I wonder if it might help to try zooming to a specific zoom level before saving. For instance if pressing any of the 1-5 number keys to switch to any in particular, and then try saving those tiles with a certain zoom (Ctrl+S). Make sure to not switch focus from the game window while saving, or it can cause saving issues. Another thought is check that they're saved in the same game month, and if it might indeed be related to changes in the terrain between seasons.

Already tried all that, to no avail, so it's not an issue of zoom level or seasonal changes.

3 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

It's a game graphics issue.

I think that is definitely correct, but is hard to find why it's happening, I'm not currently using a terrain mod and haven't made terrain changes in this particular region.

I used the SC4 savegame reader to check the stored PNG and as you can see, it's not blurry at all (click to see it in full resolution), it looks as it should, so it could be an issue with the game itself maybe?

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

1 hour ago, Cyclone Boom said:

The previews shown in region view are snapshot PNG images stored within each saved city file. The game renders a new one upon each save, and so it's seeing those different for some reason to cause the blurriness to occur in contrasting ways.

I remember once i was saving one big city tile, i switched out (alt + tab) to other program, then this tile became to flat in Region view, so as CB indicated, the issue probably happened during rendering snapshot, Then all i could think of about blurry rendering would be the Graphics driver or Resolution, so @Edvarz, May i ask that what your custom resolution is, and also do you have the same issue with software rendering?

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

 

Edit: Opps, Just see your post meantime,  Just a newbie's thought, I'm not sure if we could figure out it using the process of elimination. I mean upload your Region to see if others have the same issue? I could be helpful right now.

[Edvarz 1,985]

27 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

I remember once i was saving one big city tile, i switched out (alt + tab) to other program, then this tile became to flat in Region view, so as CB indicated, the issue probably happened during rendering snapshot, Then all i could think of about blurry rendering would be the Graphics driver or Resolution, so @Edvarz, May i ask that what your custom resolution is, and also do you have the same issue with software rendering?

Oh, yes, this happened to me once when my antivirus decided to minimize SC4 and the thumbnail didn't save properly. I'm using a custom resolution of 1366x768x32 with hardware rendering, but I don't think that is the issue, I was also playing another city tile and the thumbnail was ok, plus, I've been using that resolution since I installed the game in this computer.

35 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

Edit: Opps, Just see your post meantime,  Just a newbie's thought, I'm not sure if we could figure out it using the process of elimination. I mean upload your Region to see if others have the same issue? I could be helpful right now.

I don't think that would be possible, I would have to upload it without any of the city tiles, since I use A LOT of custom content and you would need to have my Plugins folder to run any of them. But you've given me an idea, maybe if I move the city tile to another region the thumbnail will update. I could also try @Cyclone Boom's method but the save file has the correct thumbnail when I open it on Reader v.093

[Raymond7cn 6,776]

1 minute ago, Edvarz said:

1366x768x32 with hardware rendering, but I don't think that is the issue

Yes @Edvarz, I agree with you, I asked this since i dimly remember that some Region view issues caused by the V Resolution bigger than 1200, but yours is 768, so as you said , not this case.

4 minutes ago, Edvarz said:

don't think that would be possible, I would have to upload it without any of the city tiles, since I use A LOT of custom content and you would need to have my Plugins folder to run any of them. But you've given me an idea, maybe if I move the city tile to another region the thumbnail will update. I could also try @Cyclone Boom's method but the save file has the correct thumbnail when I open it on Reader v.093

Sorry that maybe a bad idea, I just thought i may don't need Plugins folder if i just want to take a look at Region view. Anyway, Looking forward your good news!

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

This reminds me of something...

It doesn't apply to us here on the Windows based game, but a few weeks ago there was a Mac user who noticed how their old regions wouldn't display in the new 64-bit version of the Mac game. Then it was found how the snapshots could be viewed in the Save Game Explorer program you've run perfectly fine too. So I agree, it does point towards a possible issue with how the snapshots are displayed, and I wonder if the images in region view are being resized from their true aspect ratios perhaps. That may then explain the blurriness, and especially when a tile has lots of detail as with the urban density.

If so, it might be possible to export the PNGs from each tile, then edit them externally to resize properly (and possibly add some manual sharpening too). Then finally to re-import each of the PNG images into the saved file (using Reader 0.9.3), since it does allow editing files that way without causing corruption.

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

3 hours ago, Edvarz said:

 

,,, but is hard to find why it's happening,,,

 

2003 is why it's happening. This game was state-of-the-art then, but not so much now. I used to get this same problem when I played the game on disc, so it's nothing new. Some things you plop can do things to the terrain that you might not see in the tile. Some water utilities might affect the landscape too.

[Edvarz 1,985]

So, no dice. I imported the city tile to another region (something I planned to do anyway) and the issue still persisted. I also did the thing when you switch focus while saving to purposefully create the glitch where the city thumbnail disappears (I made a backup, ofc) I then saved again and it still looks blurry, whatever the season is. Only thing left is to manually remove the PNG to see if it resets and hope the save file doesn't corrupt in the process. If it doesn't work I might just let it be because I wouldn't know what else to do

[BartonThinks 3,416]

Kind of a shot in the dark, but have you checked Task Manager to see what other programs might be using memory when you attempt to save files? It might help to close as many other programs as possible so that the game isn't competing against other programs.

[Edvarz 1,985]

On 27/8/2020 at 9:14 AM, Cyclone Boom said:

Another possibility is if it might help to try resetting the snapshot as I explained in this post. If attempting that though, be sure to make a backup beforehand

I'm surprised to see Reader can open and write over a save file without anything bad happening! But... when I resaved the city, the thumbnail still looked blurry

 

2 hours ago, BartonThinks said:

Kind of a shot in the dark, but have you checked Task Manager to see what other programs might be using memory when you attempt to save files? It might help to close as many other programs as possible so that the game isn't competing against other programs.

Hey, that might be a good idea, maybe I have something running in the background, I usually open the game after I'm done working so it could be a lack of RAM

[SIM-ple Jack 17,450]

This is a "Don't raise the bridge, lower the water" solution I was forced into, a few weeks ago, that you might want to try. I was mid-way through a region when I went into a tile I had previously started. As soon as I did something, I got a CTD. Great!, I figured, as I found 3 more tiles I had started, doing the same thing. Thought I was going to have to ashcan the whole thing. I got the idea to make the region again with a different name, remake the offending tiles, and import them into the other map. I did a small one first, got interrupted by something and left the game. When I came back in, the new tile had imported itself without my help. OK, that was weird. Didn't have any problems with the region after that.

Long story short- why not just make that tile again on a dummy map. It only looks like you're about a third into it, so it's not too laborious. If the "blurs" happen again, you know something in that tile is tweaking it. If not, then you're good to go.

[Edvarz 1,985]

8 hours ago, SIM-ple Jack said:

Long story short- why not just make that tile again on a dummy map. It only looks like you're about a third into it, so it's not too laborious. If the "blurs" happen again, you know something in that tile is tweaking it. If not, then you're good to go.

I'll try that! It has to be the tile because when I opened and saved the adjacent one, that thumbnail didn't have any problem whatsoever