guide How to run SimCity 4 Natively above 1920x1080 in Hardware Mode!!!

Durfsurn · September 28, 2020

So I recently bought a new computer screen with the jaw dropping resolution of 5120×1440 and was looking into getting SimCity 4 to run at something closer to native resolution.

It has been known to the community for some time that SimCity 4 is locked to resolutions under 2048ish pixels either wide or high in hardware mode, the source of this limit is DirectX 7 which cannot handle resolutions any higher. This could be circumnavigated by running SC4 in software rendering mode (CPU only) but this caused other issues and notably reduced the graphics.

However I have found a fantastic repository which can breathe new life into many games that use DirectX 9 or earlier called dxWrapper which includes a Legacy Hack for removing the resolution restriction, among other tricks.

Anyway, with the help of one of the fantastic developers (elishacloud), a configuration was found that enables resolutions such as 4k and beyond! You can follow the Github Issue here but I will provide a summary below;

IMPORTANT DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP: Make sure your game is patched with the NTCore 4GB patch!
Download the latest release of dxWrapper from this link: https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases
Open the .zip in 7zip or WinRar and separately navigate to your SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps folder.
Extract the following files from the .zip: dxwrapper.dll, dxwrapper.ini, Stub/ddraw.dll and copy them into your Apps folder (next to your SimCity 4.exe file).
Open the dxwrapper.ini file and paste the code below into it.
Use a SimCity 4 Launcher to select any resolution you like!

I am hoping to follow up this post with a guide on how to run the game at higher than native resolutions and scale it down to provide the greatest graphical fidelity.

- Billy

dxwrapper.ini:

>;; Config file for DirectX DLL Wrapper
[General]
RealDllPath                = AUTO
WrapperMode                = AUTO
LoadCustomDllPath          = 
ExcludeProcess             = 
IncludeProcess             = 
RunProcess                 = 
WaitForProcess             = 0
DisableLogging             = 0
	[Plugins]
LoadPlugins                = 0
LoadFromScriptsOnly        = 0
	[Compatibility]
Dd7to9                     = 0
D3d8to9                    = 0
DDrawCompat                = 0
Dinputto8                  = 0
DisableGameUX              = 0
DSoundCtrl                 = 0
DxWnd                      = 0
EnableDdrawWrapper         = 1
HandleExceptions           = 0
SingleProcAffinity         = 0
	[DDrawCompat]
DDrawCompat20              = 0
DDrawCompat21              = 0
DDrawCompatExperimental    = 0
DDrawCompatDisableGDIHook  = 0
DDrawCompatNoProcAffinity  = 0
	[ddraw]
ConvertToDirectDraw7       = 0
ConvertToDirect3D7         = 0
DdrawOverrideBitMode       = 0
	[Dd7to9]
AutoFrameSkip              = 0
DdrawEmulateSurface        = 0
DdrawLimitDisplayModeCount = 0
DdrawUseNativeResolution   = 0
DdrawClippedWidth          = 0
DdrawClippedHeight         = 0
DdrawOverrideWidth         = 0
DdrawOverrideHeight        = 0
DdrawOverrideRefreshRate   = 0
DdrawIntegerScalingClamp   = 0
DdrawMaintainAspectRatio   = 0
	[d3d9]
AntiAliasing               = 0
EnableVSync                = 0
EnableWindowMode           = 0
FullscreenWindowMode       = 0
WindowModeBorder           = 0
	[FullScreen]
FullScreen                 = 0
ForceWindowResize          = 0
WaitForWindowChanges       = 0
	[DSoundCtrl]
Num2DBuffers               = 0
Num3DBuffers               = 0
ForceCertification         = 0
ForceExclusiveMode         = 0
ForceSoftwareMixing        = 0
ForceHardwareMixing        = 0
PreventSpeakerSetup        = 0
ForceHQ3DSoftMixing        = 0
ForceNonStaticBuffers      = 0
ForceVoiceManagement       = 0
ForcePrimaryBufferFormat   = 0
PrimaryBufferBits          = 16
PrimaryBufferSamples       = 44100
PrimaryBufferChannels      = 2
ForceSpeakerConfig         = 0
SpeakerConfig              = 6

Cyclone Boom · September 28, 2020

@Durfsurn

This is an excellent technical finding which I'm sure will be useful to many players who wish to run SC4 on a higher resolution. I remember @chfzdn asked about this previously, and lots of others likely will find the method of benefit also. I've added the featured status so this will have greater visibility.

It is remarkable the technical accomplishments which can be achieved, and how this can apply to more than just SC4 also for those who are interested.

39 minutes ago, Durfsurn said:

I am hoping to follow up this post with a guide on how to run the game at higher than native resolutions and scale it down to provide the greatest graphical fidelity.

That would be great, and feel free to post in a new topic or reply in this if you'd like whenever.

Raymond7cn · September 28, 2020

Thank you @Durfsurn! I will give it a try too. I'm using dgvoodoo for a wrapper to ddraw, It's glad to have a comparison with them.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

Kloudkicker · September 28, 2020

Very interesting, yes in deed. 🤔

Whte_rbt · September 28, 2020

I'm gonna need a telescope to see the menu, but thanks man!

Kloudkicker · September 28, 2020

This has kept me think about, well, many things. And just want to get an expert opinion to maybe and hopefully shed some light on this thought of mine. So, after looking to figure out how to:

So I was reading the config_log from next to the SimCity4.exe file and noticed something that caught my eye. Only because of hearing that zoom level 5 is a common place for a CTD. Here's a copy of mine to show you. And while your at it if you notice something off in my settings, help is always much appreciated. In the highlighted area is what I am referring to.

Spoiler

Log generated on 9/28/2020, 02:42

Flags

-----

hardwareDriver = true

DXT = true

fullscreen = true

MMX = true

FPU = true

backingStore = true

forcedFSAA = false

Strings

-------

userName = Nicks

appName = SimCity 4

version = 1.1.641.0

osVersion = Windows NT 6.2

computerName = DESKTOP-EK0QDI6

CPU = GenuineIntel

sglDriverName = DirectX

sglDriverVersion = 2.0

driverName = nvldumd.dll

driverVersion = 0.0.0.0, GUID: D7B71E3E-58C1-11CF-F25B-73710EC2CD35

cardName = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

cardVersion = Vendor: 10de, Device: 1b81, Board: 51733842, Chipset: 00a1

cardIdentity = NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070

soundDriverName =

soundCardName = Primary Sound Driver

buildType = Release

Numbers

-------

cpuSpeed = 4200

memory = 4096

freeMemory = 4096

screenWidth = 1920

screenHeight = 1200

screenBPP = 16

videoMemory = 3072

textureMemory = 3072

textureStages = 8

bogoFPS = 0

bogoMPPS = 0

Rules

-----

applying Sound

applying high sound detail

applying City Detail and Day/Night Settings

applying low computer power>

applying high computer power

option 9 = 3

option 13 = 1

option 15 = 3

applying Texture Quality and Building Variety Settings

applying low memory>

applying high memory

option 3 = 3

option 14 = 3

applying Variable Speed Automata

applying default

option 10 = 1

applying Standard hardware

option 0 = 1

option 1 = 1

option 2 = 1

option 4 = 0

option 5 = 1

option 8 = 1

option 7 = 1

option 6 = 1

option 11 = 0

option 12 = 0

applying Standard hardware>

option 1 = 2

applying Standard hardware>>

option 0 = 2

applying Standard hardware>>>

option 2 = 2

applying Standard hardware>>>>

option 4 = 1

applying Standard hardware>>>>>

option 11 = 1

applying Two stages

applying Lotsa vidmem

Options

-------

Visual Effects current: 3 recommended: 2

Cars/Sims current: 3 recommended: 2

Shadows current: 1 recommended: 2

Atmospheric effects current: 0 recommended: 1

Water effects current: 1 recommended: 1

Software/Hardware current: 1 recommended: 1

Cursor current: 0 recommended: 1

VariableSpeedAutomata current: 0 recommended: 1

Translucent UI current: 1 recommended: 1

Graphic Detail current: 3 recommended: 3

Building Load Speed current: 3 recommended: 3

Texture Quality current: 3 recommended: 3

Properties

-------

forcesoftwaredriver = false

renderdynamicview = true

renderstaticview = true

renderwatereffects = true

rendercloudsandfog = true

forcepointsampling = false

forcebilinear = false

forcenoalphablend = false

forcenoalphatest = false

rendershadows = true

renderdecals = true

usesecondstage = true

forcedebugtexture = false

renderparticleeffects = true

renderflorashadows = true

renderterrain = true

showupdateregions = false

usecursoreffects = true

drawlottextures = true

drawlotfoundations = true

drawlotwalls = true

forcetexturerepeat = false

usescreenshake = true

renderui = true

useupdaterectclipping = true

usevertexbuffers = true

showboundingboxes = false

useoverlayculling = true

rendersnapshot = false

noaddsigned = false

nopartialbackingstorecopies = false

usescreenflash = true

renderautomata = true

preferopaque = false

displayalertborders = true

drawlotopaquetextures = true

useviewcleanup = false

doautozoomandrotationchanges = true

viewoffsety = 0

viewoffsetx = 0

texturebits = 32

lodoffset = 0

shadowdebug = 0

maxparticlestarget = 10000

particlelodoffset = 0

effectprioritylevel = 5

backingstoremaxzoomall = 5

backingstoremaxzoombuildingsprops = 5

backingstoremaxzoomterrain = 5

backingstoremaxzoomflora = 5

shadowquality = 2

minvehiclezoom = 3

minpedzoom = 4

cursortype = 1

depthoffset = 2

debugtexture = 0

dirtyrectmergeframes = 4

sounddetail = 2

buildingvariety = 2

buildingloaderspeed = 1

modellodoffset = 0

stringtexturecachesize = 1024

particleeffectslod = 5

splattexturescale = 50

texbindmaxfree = 8

particledensity = 1

particledamping = 0

particlescale = 1

lightingupdatedelta = 0.0001

shadowmodelthreshold = 12

demolishmodelthreshold = 12

rendermodelthreshold = 6

rendermodelthresholdscroll = 40

particlesizethreshold = 300

maxvehiclepct = 1

maxpedpct = 1

opaqueuialphavalue = 0.55

Ok sorry no pic but it's in bold and underlined. I hope

So question one is, what are these fields and what do they do. I notice all are at setting(? or zoom level?) #5. If this is zoom level 5, to me it is a lot of stuff(for lack of term) happing at that level. And that(if true) to me(at my programing skill level, which is low) is a lot at one zoom level.

Question two(if at zoom level 5 a lot is happing) can that be split up in any way or fashion to help???? IDK, maybe you do

Food for thought.

Kloudkicker · September 28, 2020

Sorry forgot the pic, lol, bear with me.

Haljackey · September 28, 2020

Wow what a finding! Do you have a screenshot from your resolution to share> I am very curious

I've been holding back getting a 4K monitor.

Maybe this Black Friday / Cyber Monday will be the time.

Raymond7cn · September 28, 2020

Hiya @Kloudkicker, I saw your post in this thread,

But i'm not sure if this log happens before or after you succeed in those two rule files, However i couldn't see the "applying Fast card" there, but, your NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 has been identified, i thought it's a little bit strange. Anyway, How is it going now, Can you play the game with a decent FPS in your dedicated Graphics?(from Nvidia panel) I plan to give it a shot tomorrow as well.

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

Kloudkicker · September 28, 2020

16 minutes ago, Raymond7cn said:

But i'm not sure if this log happens before or after you succeed in those two rule files, However i couldn't see the "applying Fast card" there, but, your NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 has been identified, i thought it's a little bit strange. Anyway, How is it going now, Can you play the game with a decent FPS in your dedicated Graphics?(from Nvidia panel)

Hay @Raymond7cn,

The log posted was before I was able to finish. And after all of that, it did not change any thing in the log, but the date and time stamp, lol. Luckily I posted the log to compare because I had a short cut on my desktop and it change that copy. It took a minute to realize that and looked back on here to compare. Just to find out that the card id was already there. It was the driver version at 0.0.0.0 that was bugging me. It could be that I have two card bought at separate times? All the logs I recently saw had those numbers filled in.

Now as far as testing goes(thankful for spell check, never get goes right, lol), I only tried for a few minutes, zooming in and out about a dozen times and all was well. I did the zoom test 2 separate times before about a few hours before that with the same result, no crash. Granted I did have it on pause, but with automation running. Which I only knew could happen from watching @rsc204 YouTube videos. I always hated the fast speed automation on cheetah. I've had to reset all NVidia settings as the first step in my quest for a better SC4 experience. Soon to follow was my path to this wonderful site. I've been reading threads here and playing with mods trying to get the right look and also working correctly. And download thing along the way. Haven't "played" in weeks much beside laying out 4 or 5 city tiles networks. Zoning will follow if I can pull myself away from here.😁 I spent too much time rearranging my plugin folder. Had 3 separate styles and did a limited amount testing on them. Checking Data Node along the way. Was thinking about posting it in the other thread, but man, I really need to build something you know. lol Not much to brag about 2 seconds speed up when there is a 2 second swing(don't ask what I mean, I couldn't explain well without the numbers and graphs. I've been gathering a lot of small notes along the way and was thinking of making something with all of that info. It could help others, so why not?

Blah Blah Blah Not the place for this, lol Sorry @Durfsurn, great discovery, BTW. Trying it out is my next task , or sleep. Ether way it really look promising.👍

Raymond7cn · September 28, 2020

@Kloudkicker Your post is really a test of my awful English, Lol, But reading your words between the lines, i could tell that you are enjoying the process that you have put efforts into. Anyway, Just keep it up, it looks promising too, I may consult you about this if i have no luck there. *:blush:

Sincerely,

-- Raymond

Kloudkicker · September 28, 2020

Yes @Raymond7cn I am have fun. About as much as playing. Your English is going great. Sorry I forget theirs more between us than a screen. I'll help how ever i can. I would of PM you to tell you this but I am have some weird issues with the site and PMing right now, but this is the first time trying.

Haljackey · September 28, 2020

Hmm I tried today but my game shrunk from 1980x1080 to 1600x1080.

Before:

After:

I currently have 2 1080p monitors so was hoping to see it at 3840x1080.

I also tried editing my shortcut to no luck

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CPUCount:1 -w -intro:off -CustomResolution:enabled -r3840x1080x32

Any idea what I am doing wrong?

Durfsurn · September 28, 2020

Try using the Windowed mode rather than the borderless one. dxWrapper does provide some tools for getting real borderless windowed working which I do intend on investigating. I suspect using it across two monitors means unless you use nVidia Surround or similar you won't be able to run real fullscreen. Personally I use the other SC4 Launcher but it shouldn't make a single difference.

Haljackey · September 28, 2020

Running in windowed or full screen modes do not do anything. My screen is getting squished a bit so I assume it is defaulting to the max in-game res of 1600x1200 (1200 being more than 1080).

I'll look into programs such as nVidia Surround - maybe that can do it?

-----

Also is there proof this will make it run with a proper 4K resolution? I would really, really like to see that.

My guess is that game performance would take hit but it would make for some sick screenshot grabs.

Durfsurn · September 28, 2020

94379077-ea649000-00e2-11eb-9b52-b1e98df

:P, linked it in the top post.

This is the launcher I use btw:

If you are still having issues can you post a screenshot of your Apps folder and of your dxWrapper.ini file? Or jump in the SC4D discord and I can lend a hand there :).

Haljackey · September 28, 2020

No luck with that launcher either- still seems to send me to 1600x1200

That 4k shot is ... noice.

I've never had a game span dual monitors before so not sure how to do it. I am planning to get dual 4K 27 inch monitors with one of those VESA mounting brackets. May need a new graphics card to support that however lol

The cheapest 4k here is a 28 inch surprisingly, but dual 28s don't fit on most mounting brackets.

https://www.asus.com/ca-en/Monitors/VP28UQG/

Think that might be a good one? Or is it worth investing in a more expensive one even if you don't need a crazy high refresh rate and other stats for hardcore gaming?

Durfsurn · September 29, 2020

Probably worth just going through some YouTube reviews of some 4k monitors - all I would say is find a reputable brand so in the off chance you get a dead pixel, you can RMA it easily.

Kloudkicker · September 29, 2020

23 hours ago, Durfsurn said:

Extract the following files from the .zip: dxwrapper.dll, dxwrapper.ini, Stub/ddraw.dll and copy them into your Apps folder (next to your SimCity 4.exe file).

I do not have the dxwrapper.ini file in the current download from the link. The closest one is dxwrapper.asi. Not sure what to do now.

I figured it out. Under properties on the dxwrapper file(no visible extension file type reads: Configuration settings (.ini). LO

Durfsurn · September 29, 2020

Did you download this zip file? https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper/releases/download/v1.0.6387.21/DxWrapper.zip

It should be in there. If not you can create an empty text file in Notepad and paste in my code from above - remember to save it with the ini extension.

Kloudkicker · September 29, 2020

I added or tried to and shows on my end but I did figure it out, It was the file with no visible extension I was after. Thank you though.

All three times I tried to PM someone today I get this message: "An error occurred accessing the requested page or resource". Any clue what that could be?

Update: It worked. 😁

It now is at my native res of 2560x1440 with no CTD on start up using

Thank you @Durfsurn

Opps that's not the launcher I'm using. I'm using Logic Bombs. sorry

Edited September 30, 2020 by Kloudkicker
Wrong info

Kloudkicker · September 29, 2020

Ok so this is truly amazing. Just got done playing around and noticed something worth mentioning. NO MORE RENERING!!!!! Never once did see anything render as I zoomed in and out 0-4, real fast too,15 or so times. No crash and it didn't have to catch up. And I was using a built up large city tile (see pic). Holy Sh.t bat man.

Thank you so much @Durfsurn

AsimPika3172 · September 29, 2020

Cool! *:ohyes:

Eggman121 · September 29, 2020

6 hours ago, Haljackey said:

Running in windowed or full screen modes do not do anything. My screen is getting squished a bit so I assume it is defaulting to the max in-game res of 1600x1200 (1200 being more than 1080).

I'll look into programs such as nVidia Surround - maybe that can do it?

Nvidia Surround worked on my machine but you need to change some things in the Nvidia control panel. You have to set the acceleration to GPU or if you zoom in and out in game you will get a CTD.

One other quirk is that the UI gets cut in between the monitors so some navigation there is needed.

This is really a nice find by @Durfsurn

-eggman121 (NAM team member)

Propfam · September 29, 2020

On 28/9/2020 at 8:04 AM, Cyclone Boom said:

@Durfsurn

This is an excellent technical finding which I'm sure will be useful to many players who wish to run SC4 on a higher resolution. I remember @chfzdn asked about this previously, and lots of others likely will find the method of benefit also. I've added the featured status so this will have greater visibility.

It is remarkable the technical accomplishments which can be achieved, and how this can apply to more than just SC4 also for those who are interested.

That would be great, and feel free to post in a new topic or reply in this if you'd like whenever.

You mean this:

Edit: More like this, though I'm not directly discuss the resolution issue:

Thanks.

rsc204 · September 29, 2020

Well, it’s a great find and especially good timing as I have been thinking about replacing my 1080p monitors with a pair of 1440p ones.

I am also wondering, since this can modify DirectX, is there some way we can stop the double click MMP problem in Win10 with a similar modification to DInput?

On 28/09/2020 at 10:43 AM, Kloudkicker said:

So I was reading the config_log from next to the SimCity4.exe file and noticed something that caught my eye. Only because of hearing that zoom level 5 is a common place for a CTD.

I don’t know where you heard this, but I’ve never found that to be the case. Likely this was someone misunderstanding the lack of multi-core support’s effect on zooming in/out causing CTDs. If anything, due to the lesser amount of objects that can be on screen at the same time, zoom 5 would have less problems than lower zooms which are more resource-intensive.

On 28/09/2020 at 10:43 AM, Kloudkicker said:

So question one is, what are these fields and what do they do. I notice all are at setting(? or zoom level?) #5. If this is zoom level 5, to me it is a lot of stuff(for lack of term) happing at that level. And that(if true) to me(at my programing skill level, which is low) is a lot at one zoom level.

Question two(if at zoom level 5 a lot is happing) can that be split up in any way or fashion to help???? IDK, maybe you do

Honestly technical stuff that trying to explain will more than likely complicate matters. They match what I'm seeing and I have had performance as good as it's possible to get on varying hardware over the years.

Once more, if you understand how SC4 utilises MipMaps, that is smaller textures which are used at lower resolution, you'd realise that zoom 5 is the least of your problems.

On 28/09/2020 at 5:58 PM, Kloudkicker said:

The log posted was before I was able to finish. And after all of that, it did not change any thing in the log, but the date and time stamp, lol. Luckily I posted the log to compare because I had a short cut on my desktop and it change that copy. It took a minute to realize that and looked back on here to compare. Just to find out that the card id was already there. It was the driver version at 0.0.0.0 that was bugging me. It could be that I have two card bought at separate times? All the logs I recently saw had those numbers filled in.

Note a log is not a config file, you don’t edit it, it get’s generated when SC4 is ran. It not picking up the Driver version is unlikely to be a big problem, just something it can't read from the system, but it doesn't affect how SC4 interacts with your GPU.

19 hours ago, Kloudkicker said:

Ok so this is truly amazing. Just got done playing around and noticed something worth mentioning. NO MORE RENERING!!!!! Never once did see anything render as I zoomed in and out 0-4, real fast too,15 or so times. No crash and it didn't have to catch up. And I was using a built up large city tile (see pic). Holy Sh.t bat man.

Sorry, but I really don't think simply using this modified DDraw setup is making that happen.

So time to explain those MipMaps, because it's a fundamental of how the game works. In order to preserve precious computer resources, SC4 utilises a number of clever techniques that optimise the amount of resources required based on the current situation. For most textures you see in-game there is a unique texture for each zoom level and additionally in the case of SC4 Models, each rotation they appear in. When you refresh the screen, by zooming in/out or rotating the view, SC4 must fetch the new set of textures and apply them, plus when zooming out it must add all the new things that are suddenly in view. Then it must regenerate shadows and start bringing back all the automata and sims. This includes a delay, because the textures behind all this must be moved around between RAM, Disk and V-RAM (Video RAM) on your system. We can be pretty sure this is how the game works, because in all the years GPUs have got better, SC4 still retains this bottleneck.

The only way this could conceivably work is if the modified DX Wrapper (hack), was somehow able to change the state of play, regarding how SC4's code interacts with DirectX, allowing one of the following improvements:

Keeping the entire cache of texture in VRAM - so it's instantly available.
Your GPU has 8GBs of the stuff, so it's theoretically possible.
It allows a system to transfer data from any combination of RAM <> Disk / RAM <> V-RAM / Disk <> V-RAM without bottlenecks

2 doesn't fit with my knowledge or experience, which generally shows SC4 can not be made faster by simple brute-force, i.e. throwing faster/better hardware at the problem. This very much includes SSDs v.s. NVMe drive and RAMDisks not really making the huge speed differences you might expect them too. Which is fairly indicative of a bottleneck within the code, preventing us from fully utilising better hardware.

1 doesn't fit either, based on some testing I've done today, if this modification enabled your GPU to somehow access these textures so much quicker, it doesn't make sense that I wouldn't have seen some improvement using it. Since there is no reason why my 4GB GPU couldn't do the same, given my test setup includes only 1.4GB of Plugins, the textures can't conceivably be more than 4GB for that content. This test system was an i7 4970k/8GB DDR 3 1833/M2 SSD/GTX 960 4GB DDR5/Win10. There is absolutely no noticeable difference between using the modified DDraw wrapper and not. What I am getting is a pretty consistent and obvious refresh of the screen, you can see it move like a wave. It's mighty quick, maybe only a second or so, but it's clearly there. You'll see it more clearly when you rotate the screen as opposed to zooming, likewise you'll notice switching between Zoom2 and Zoom1 to be the most obvious zoom change.

Seriously, if this really is achievable, I would be very interested in knowing how you did it, but I think there must be something more at play. It would be nice to know your full PC specs, just as a comparison. But the specific region makeup and set of Plugins could also make a huge impact on the results. For example, I was using a 3x3 Large Tile region with 350k sims, running its central city with 4 regional connections and 141k residents including much Com/Ind. I'm using HD everything, including trees which are liberally sprinkled around and using many bells and whistles, post-processing stuff like AA. It could be if you are using a much lighter set of Plugins/Regions, that might explain why your refresh is so fast even with a built-up city.

I can't explain things, but if this hack is somehow "unlocking" your hardware, why would that not apply to others with access to decent hardware too? More than likely it's helped relieve some sort of compatibility problem you were having, although that's still beneficial to know. I just think without more data, we can't assume this is something people can expect to benefit from.

20 hours ago, Haljackey said:

Think that might be a good one? Or is it worth investing in a more expensive one even if you don't need a crazy high refresh rate and other stats for hardcore gaming?

Asus is currently my go-to brand for monitors, they have a good range of inputs, very handy if you have as many computers/devices as I do. Plus good stable bases (stands), with a crazy cat and young child, I couldn’t think about one with the typical flimsy base that’s become so common. Not had any problems in 5 years with the last two either.

20 hours ago, Durfsurn said:

Probably worth just going through some YouTube reviews of some 4k monitors - all I would say is find a reputable brand so in the off chance you get a dead pixel, you can RMA it easily.

In Europe at least, such things are rarely covered by warranty and technically fall “within” product specifications. In other words, you are reliant on the retailers returns policy or using the Distance Selling Directive (for online purchases) to return it within 14 days. Asus offer a dead pixel warranty here, but it only covers always on pixels, not always off ones. My experience is if it is fine when you get it, rarely do they go wrong later, so long as you can return it if it's broken on arrival. Because let's face it, we all know even one faulty pixel is absolutely not normal and should be considered a fault.

Durfsurn · September 30, 2020

8 hours ago, rsc204 said:

I am also wondering, since this can modify DirectX, is there some way we can stop the double click MMP problem in Win10 with a similar modification to DInput?

Can you elaborate on this issue? dxWrapper does include some tools around Dinput that I would be happy to look into fixing. A video would be super helpful to understand what the problem is .

CorinaMarie · September 30, 2020

3 hours ago, Durfsurn said:

Can you elaborate on this issue?

Details are in the [Solved] SC4 double click issue on Windows 10 thread. Note that the [Solved] was added because @Terring found a workaround on 17 July, 2020 in that thread. (Basically the kludge is to hold down the right mouse button while simultaneously placing the props.) I believe the ideal fix is that just regular left clicking would handle the prop placement like it does on all previous versions of Windoze.

(And since I don't use Win 10, I might have some of this wrong. Other peeps will post the correct info if so.)

Kloudkicker · September 30, 2020

12 hours ago, rsc204 said:

Honestly technical stuff that trying to explain will more than likely complicate matters. They match what I'm seeing and I have had performance as good as it's possible to get on varying hardware over the years.

The only way this could conceivably work is if the modified DX Wrapper (hack), was somehow able to change the state of play, regarding how SC4's code interacts with DirectX, allowing one of the following improvements:

Keeping the entire cache of texture in VRAM - so it's instantly available.
Your GPU has 8GBs of the stuff, so it's theoretically possible.

It allows a system to transfer data from any combination of RAM <> Disk / RAM <> V-RAM / Disk <> V-RAM without bottlenecks

2 doesn't fit with my knowledge or experience, which generally shows SC4 can not be made faster by simple brute-force, i.e. throwing faster/better hardware at the problem. This very much includes SSDs v.s. NVMe drive and RAMDisks not really making the huge speed differences you might expect them too. Which is fairly indicative of a bottleneck within the code, preventing us from fully utilising better hardware.

1 doesn't fit either, based on some testing I've done today, if this modification enabled your GPU to somehow access these textures so much quicker, it doesn't make sense that I wouldn't have seen some improvement using it. Since there is no reason why my 4GB GPU couldn't do the same, given my test setup includes only 1.4GB of Plugins, the textures can't conceivably be more than 4GB for that content. This test system was an i7 4970k/8GB DDR 3 1833/M2 SSD/GTX 960 4GB DDR5/Win10. There is absolutely no noticeable difference between using the modified DDraw wrapper and not. What I am getting is a pretty consistent and obvious refresh of the screen, you can see it move like a wave. It's mighty quick, maybe only a second or so, but it's clearly there. You'll see it more clearly when you rotate the screen as opposed to zooming, likewise you'll notice switching between Zoom2 and Zoom1 to be the most obvious zoom change.

Seriously, if this really is achievable, I would be very interested in knowing how you did it, but I think there must be something more at play. It would be nice to know your full PC specs, just as a comparison. But the specific region makeup and set of Plugins could also make a huge impact on the results. For example, I was using a 3x3 Large Tile region with 350k sims, running its central city with 4 regional connections and 141k residents including much Com/Ind. I'm using HD everything, including trees which are liberally sprinkled around and using many bells and whistles, post-processing stuff like AA. It could be if you are using a much lighter set of Plugins/Regions, that might explain why your refresh is so fast even with a built-up city.

I can't explain things, but if this hack is somehow "unlocking" your hardware, why would that not apply to others with access to decent hardware too? More than likely it's helped relieve some sort of compatibility problem you were having, although that's still beneficial to know. I just think without more data, we can't assume this is something people can expect to benefit from.

Hello Everyone,

First off, I would like to say that I hope I didn't get anyone's hopes to high. It did really seem to help with the small test I did. And was too quick to jump on and report it. I've been downloading too much ever since I discovered CC. It was after just test the resolution and that worked, YES👍. I haven't had to do testing after installing something before and all this readme files and custom installs has reading these threads has been a big task. And I was up super late last night, lol. And by no means tech smart, just not dumb. Apart from using the data node, that is as far as I have gotten in modding. If you can call it that, lol. I've been fighting a few installs and finaly got a big one to work the first time.???

With that said, my test has been to zoom all the way in and out, on pause and automation on, as quick as I can. I now know that it was nowhere good enough of a test. Afterwards I did a few more tests and and didn't fair out as good. In doing said test, once every thing rendered into frame on far out zoom I would zoom in and out real fast. In doing that about 5 times, I noticed nothing would have to reload. I zoomed in and out 10 more times and I never saw the builds have to render and was clear( no pixelating). . At that point I was ecstatic and can on here to report it.

@rsc204

Now for the specs of my computer, I'll post that separately so this dose not that me an hour to write out. I have dyslexia, and all I can say if you don't laugh at it it will get the best of you, lol.

The city I was using was a lrg map with 893k pop and 650k com some indy and connected to 8 mediums 150k to 350k or so and the region pop at 2.55mil.

Not sure where or why I got the zoom 5 thing, and asking was just an idea. Rsc204 your right about complicating things some, lol. But I like complicated things as long as I win, lol. I'll end that now cause I could ramble on and on. Also I've been having issue on here not wanting to work for me, like the PM. tried 3 times yesterday and no go. once was a complete message and failed. Something are on my end, like having 19 tabs opened, lol all simtropolis and the LEX, 😁 OK bye, sorry not proof reading, as I should of some other ones.

I did "seem" to take longer to load up the game and map after I post the city pic above. Later I moved around in the city and it seemed to lag a little more than before. I had a CTD on a zoom once. But TBH, the game never really seems to be the same for one time to the next. I'll add some mod and test it and all is good until later. IDK, It may be me. Like when I though I did the graphics rules right and tested it, it seemed better, but It never work anyway. And still fighting it. Just got done uninstalling the launcher and still not able to get it right. O well, life goes on, lol. Sooner or later ill get it. At least it seems more hopeful I can figure things out now I am on here.😍

I know there's somewhere else to find the info I was after but I cant remember, but copied this from else where. Same thing.... once again if you notice something odd, I think I want to know, lol.

Spoiler

Version   10.0.19041 Build 19041
Other OS Description    Not Available
OS Manufacturer   Microsoft Corporation
System Name   DESKTOP-EK0QDI6
System Manufacturer   To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Model   To Be Filled By O.E.M.
System Type   x64-based PC
System SKU   To Be Filled By O.E.M.
Processor   Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz, 4201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date   American Megatrends Inc. P2.10, 5/10/2017
SMBIOS Version   3.0
Embedded Controller Version   255.255
BIOS Mode   UEFI
BaseBoard Manufacturer   ASRock
BaseBoard Product   Z270 Killer SLI/ac
BaseBoard Version
Platform Role   Desktop
Secure Boot State   Off
PCR7 Configuration   Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory   C:\WINDOWS
System Directory   C:\WINDOWS\system32
Boot Device   \Device\HarddiskVolume8
Locale   United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer   Version = "10.0.19041.488"
User Name   DESKTOP-EK0QDI6\Nicks
Time Zone   Eastern Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM)   32.0 GB
Total Physical Memory   32.0 GB
Available Physical Memory   27.8 GB
Total Virtual Memory   525 GB
Available Virtual Memory   518 GB
Page File Space   493 GB
Page File   C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection   Off
Virtualization-based security   Not enabled
Device Encryption Support   Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: TPM is not usable, PCR7 binding is not supported, Hardware Security Test Interface failed and device is not Modern Standby, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected, TPM is not usable
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions   Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions   Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware   Yes
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection   Yes

BallOpener · September 30, 2020

Great find @Durfsurn! It works quite well!

I hope that someone can find a fix for the region view glitch where if the game's resolution is over 1200 and you save the city, the game fails to render out the rest of the city (because of the game's limit) leaving you with a half or 2/3 finished rendering of the city in region view. Basically, to fix this I have to move to a lower resolution below 1200.

Here's an image if you don't know what it is:

5f741b00455b5_SimCity4.0Screenshot2020_09.28-20_19_46_05.jpg.e8a4717956307a9fe43e137ace31b2ff.jpg

guide How to run SimCity 4 Natively above 1920x1080 in Hardware Mode!!!

90 posts in this topic Last Reply November 11, 2025

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