Cannot run game >10 seconds in Windows 10

[shafergaston 6]

sob story: after more than 10 years away from all things Sim I am having some nostalgia and so decided to get back into SimCity 4 (and other gaming).  I bought a used laptop at the start of the pandemic and have a Steam-bought copy of SimCity 4 that I probably purchased on my account for my son half a decade ago.  It does not work.

I have reviewed the CTD pinned post and Windows 10 pinned posts.  Steps Taken:

Initially, I could not get past the EA Intro Screen without CTD.  I turned off intro video in each case - this got me to the initial region.

Initially, the game would crash in under 6 seconds in the region mode, regardless of whether I clicked anything or not.  I turned off audio in each case - this got me to the ability to click on a city tile.

Now, clicking on a city tile (whether one of the tutorials or a new city), it will begin to load.  It will get to the second iteration of the 'cutesy text' that it says while loading (like 'SettingAdvisor Moods' or 'Debunching Unionized Commercial Services') and then freeze and then crash to desktop.

I have attempted this both with and without the SC4Fix.dll in the Steam SimCity Plugins folder and the User Documents SimCity Plugins folder.  There are no other plugins.

I have attempted starting up from Steam with the recommended Launch Options; I have attempted starting up from the .exe itself Run as Admin, I have attempted the solution of writing my own .bat file to launch from desktop, and I have used the SC4Launcher solution with the appropriate settings and in each case I get the same crash.  Launch options used include setting CPU to 1, audio off, with and without CustomResolution, with and without setting d:software

I am using an i5-7400 CPU, 64-bit, using Windows 10 v1903.  As far as I know I have the latest steam version.

Any help is greatly appreciated.  There may be a fix buried in the forums that I could not find, and I apologize if it was somewhere obvious that someone could point me to.

[CorinaMarie 29,574]

A note about my Like reaction: I like how thorough your post is with the troubleshooting you've done. (I don't like that the game is being cantankerous.)

Just to check: Did you try the -d:Software option? And, ofc, the -w or -f for windowed or full screen in case that might possibly make a difference.

[shafergaston 6]

I have tried both with and without d:software.

I think I used -w with Steam and with SC4Launcher but not the .bat file.  My PC is operating on some other work right now but I will try -w and -f with all 3 and see if that changes anything when I try again.

[APSMS 1,892]

What resolution are you running at?

I assume you're using the integrated graphics, but the CPU you listed is for a desktop; are you running the machine on a desktop or the laptop you mentioned earlier?

I think we're also assuming that this is a completely vanilla install?

[CorinaMarie 29,574]

Good luck. I don't really expect those to help, but you've already covered the biggies which we normally suggest. The -d:software is really the one that should work as a last resort.

[rsc204 21,806]

Inside the installation folder where the App for SC4 resides (somewhere inside the Steam install itself), will be a file YOURCOMPUTERNAME-Config-Log.txt. I think it's in the Apps subfolder from memory. If you could attach a copy of that file to a post, we would be able to see what hardware SC4 is detecting and how it's working.

Do also check you've added the command:

-CPUCount:1

to "Set Launch Options" under Properties for SC4 in your Steam Library. SC4 can't handle running on more than one-core, but modern versions of Windows try to force this behaviour by default. When the two processes running on separate cores get out of sync, no code exists in the game to wait for the other process to catch up, causing a quick CTD. So this is a pretty essential command for almost everyone.

Sans Plugins, it shouldn't be necessary to patch your game with the so-called 4GB Patch, which frees up more RAM for use with 32-Bit Apps (like SC4), on 64-Bit Operating Systems with sufficient RAM (4GB+) installed. But if you do decide to get into modding, you'll need to do this at some point. Note the tool for this is included with the Network Addon Mod and also available on the internet, it is a generic tool, not specific to SC4 and literally just sets a flag in the .exe to tell Windows to map memory differently.

Are you using an Integrated GPU?, does your system have an additional Dedicated GPU, usually this is an ATI or Nvidia card. Most problems with SC4 running on modern hardware come from your GPU being unable to properly support the legacy DirectX features SC4 needs to work. Usually though, with some tweaks it is possible to get SC4 running it's best on most machines. Using software rendering can sometimes work when all else fails, but ideally you want to run DirectX rendering, the 7th gen series Intel GPUs are probably OK for SC4, Driver support should be OK too. The biggest performance hit with such cards is because they have to share the system RAM, which is not only generally slower, but is also less efficient in practice. If you want to look at how to ensure your GPU is properly detected and can run optimally, see the following thread.

[shafergaston 6]

I would like to report the darndest thing.

I was going through the options presented, and on a lark, I decided to alt-tab out of the game, and then alt-tab back in, before doing anything.

When I did that, I was able to load a city.  I modified it and was able to save it and exit to region.  I then quit the game.

I loaded the game from Steam, again, using a -f option - now it works.  It is now working with and without alt-tabbing out at the start.  This kind of leads me to believe its a problem with Steam but I honestly do not know enough about how Steam verifies I 'own' a copy to make sense of it.

To answer other questions - this is a vanilla install (no plugins other than SC4Fix.dll) and there is no separate GPU (its the integrated GPU of the machine, Intel HD Graphics 630).  I am running on a PC.  I checked the config file and it appears to be reading my OS and Hardware specifications correctly.

 

Thank you to everyone.  I am now going to attempt to install some mods to optimize my playing experience and if you do NOT hear back from me it means everything worked; if I have continuing problems I will perform another search on troubleshooting tips for mods to see if that fixes whatever problems I experience and iff I can't find the solution I will start a new thread.

[rsc204 21,806]

32 minutes ago, shafergaston said:

I loaded the game from Steam, again, using a -f option - now it works.  It is now working with and without alt-tabbing out at the start.  This kind of leads me to believe its a problem with Steam but I honestly do not know enough about how Steam verifies I 'own' a copy to make sense of it.

-f sets the game to use Full Screen mode, which utilises a different system for displaying a game in Windowed Mode -w. Generally speaking Full Screen mode is compatible with more systems, I'm guessing your setup doesn't work well in windowed mode. This means SC4 runs in a Window, likely you'll still see the Start Menu and Task Bar, i.e. it runs like most normal applications. But that change can totally be why it's now working and is again graphics related.