Got a quick SC4 question?... Ask here!

[rsc204 21,808]

On 05/11/2025 at 9:23 AM, TheMurderousCricket said:

I heard somewhere that one cannot have high CO demand in SC4 without a significant industry sector. The reasoning was that offices and corporations need to sell products and goods in order to exist.

Is this true?

Yes and no. There is no direct mechanism where industrial goods are used or sold by commercial buildings. However you need to have demand to build commercial and building enough without any Industrial buildings is unlikely. For example, only Industrial creates freight, the only use for which is exporting said freight. In doing so you will increase demand/demand caps which in practise allow for higher population and jobs overall in your region.

That all said, provided you can keep commercial demand, you can prioritise it over Industrial. Cogeo for example was a great proponent of fulfilling commercial demand before Industrial. Because the unique lack of demand caps on CS$ and CS$$ means you can theoretically build bigger populations through this strategy. The key is that starting out you will need a good percentage of Industrial until the RCI demand cycle normalises. After that just work within the demand you have only zoning more industry when commercial demand is waining, although ideally not when used up, you want a buffer to avoid negative demand.

[Turnstyled 486]

I'm really trying to make sense of this load order. In 895-my-overrides, I have various automata, Diggis Streams PEG Replacement mod, my map theme (Sudden Valley) with AGC rocks, my beach and water themes, and Gobias Sidewalk and SCILT. In 900-overrides, I have RRW Reskin Lot Support, Uniform Street Lighting Mod, Stoplight Replacement Mod, and Terrain Grass NAM (Sudden Valley).

So, I have Jondor Railroad Crossing load at z00. Then, SENT loads before my RVT, MGB, and Scoty SENT-compatible SAM streets. Then, RUM for RRW loads with support files for my RVT, MGB, and Scoty SENT-compatible SAM streets. Am I making any grave mistakes? Thank you in advance.

Edit: I've included a screenshot of various intersections that I created using rail, RD-2, SAM2 Override - Grey HerringboneBrick, SAM4 Override - NZ Gravel, SAM5  Override - Rural Tarseal, WestWindStreets SAM 6 - Detroit, Cataylst's SAM7 Bikepaths Mod, WestWindStreets SAM 8 - Firenze, and WestWind Streets. Everything looks fine to me... Am I missing anything?

But that brings me to my next question...

I have WestWindStreets SAM 1 - Side Streets Bays installed. This override is not listed as compatible with SENT. Would these WestWindStreets SAM 1 streets be fine if I did not mix them with other networks? Thank you again.

Edit 2: I think that I'm going to remove WestWindStreets SAM 1 - Side Streets Bays. It comes with compatibility files for SAM 4 and SAM 5 by Rivit, as well as SAM 7 by MGB, but it's just too messy when it's not compatible with SENT.

Edit 3: If WestWindStreets SAM 1 - Side Streets Bays isn't compatible with SENT, then I shouldn't be using WestWindStreets SAM 1 - Side Streets Bays with SENT. That was a silly question of me to ask. I really like WestWindStreets SAM 1 - Side Streets Bays, so I think that I'm going to remove SENT instead. I love SENT, but the completely understandable limitations on what SENT supports are too limiting for me.

Edit 4: I hope this all wasn't a bother. Sometimes, "thinking out loud" typing out everything helps me gather my thoughts. It looks like I got everything resolved. I removed SENT from my plugins. WWS-SAM-01 remains in my plugins. Turned out that I had the Rivit's TSR compatibility files in my WWS-SAM-01, WWS-SAM-06, and WWS-SAM08 directories. I deleted those. Since I am using WestWind Streets over Maxis and TSR streets I am not using the equivalent files for Maxis streets, either. Since I was using the contents of "202506 RUM MGB - E5 HuguesAroux StreetX.zip", I am now also using MGB RRW ReSkin. In my Scoty texture pack, I also still had the SENT files for Transit Enabled junctions...so I fixed that. Everything looks good now. This did not equate to a short question...but I don't even have a question anymore! 

Edit 5: This should be my final edit...I've just been testing and fixing all my streets and rail.... It appears to me that Scoty's WWS-SAM-01 is not compatible with RUM for RealRailway.......while WestWind Streets are. But WWS-SAM-06 and WWS-SAM-08 ARE compatible with RUM for RRW, but they don't seem to be compatible with Jondor's crossings. I can live with that. Anyway, carry on. I apologize for creating this disturbance.

[Turnstyled 486]

Sorry for the extra ping. Regarding my lengthy previous post, I double-triple-quadruple checked to make certain that all my street, SAM, and RRW files were correct. Is there any way to make WWS-SAM-01 work with TGN? I really like WWS-SAM-01. You can see TGN and WWS-SAM-01 being wonky together here, but I honestly don't know if Uniform Lighting Mod is creating problems with various networks. Removing Uniform Lighting Mod will be the next thing that I'll troubleshoot.

Edit: Sooo...Having WWS-SAM-01 load AFTER TGN has gotten rid of the weird planter spots on the sides of the roads, but TGN still doesn't cover WWS-SAM-01. If that's how it has to be, I can live with that.

Edit 2: Actually, I just QUINTUPLE checked my files and load order didn't matter. It was just that I had the contents of the TGN "2 - SAM" folder, which I take it, is for NAM's SAM implementations, in my plugins. If WWS loads before TGN or WWS loads after TGN, I get those jarring grass textures using WWS. Since this is the "Got a quick SC4 question?", thread, my question now is: Is there any way that I can get WWS to work with TGN?

Edit 3: My mind is fried pudding...and I didn't even know you could fry pudding. So, I took the time to respect the load order created by the modders (MGB, Rivit, Scoty) in the folder structures of their mods. And I made Gobias Sidewalk and SCILT load after all the mods from those three authors. I tested RD-2, WWS, and every SAM add-on that I have to find that it's only WWS-SAM-01 that is not respecting TGN. I can't figure out why, though... I might remove Gobias sidewalk and SCILT to use WestWind SideWalk4 instead. Whenever I zone within WWS-SAM-01, all the props on the streets disappear and I get that garish Maxis grass surrounding the streets void of props.

[Kel9509 1,363]

I noticed while playing yesterday that some Maxis lots were growing in my city.  I was using the BSC No Maxis blockers, the older versions that make the lot to Stage 255 so that it doesn't grow.  And yet, it was growing:

The mod is "loaded" since the Maxis building is clearly showing Stage 255 there.  And yes, these are not manually plopped.  

I'm aware that the BSC No Maxis mod was updated so that it now blocks buildings by setting the minimum slope to 89.  I'm obviously using the older version of that mod, because I edited the exemplars to delete some blocked buildings so that they grow.  

Notwithstanding that, does anyone have any idea why the blocker no longer works?  I've been using it for a while now and it seemed fine.  I'm wondering if any of the DLL mods have something to do with it, like Allow More building Styles?  Or maybe I made a mistake and took the mod out of my Plugins once and some buildings grew before adding it back?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 hours ago, Kel9509 said:

Or maybe I made a mistake and took the mod out of my Plugins once and some buildings grew before adding it back?

This sounds the most plausible.

[Kel9509 1,363]

On 11/12/2025 at 1:00 AM, CorinaMarie said:

This sounds the most plausible.

That's exactly what it was.  I bulldozed them all and they were all replaced by custom lots.  

[Aka 412]

@Turnstyled

I'm just seeing your message now. Feel free to include the names of the mod authors you're having issues with so they can be notified and you can get a quicker response (like this: @Aka or @hugues aroux (for WWS mod).

I think I can already answer most of your question:

The problem you are experiencing is actually quite simple, and it is an error that I see sometimes with my SENT mod or those of others. There is a priority/reading direction issue. SENT is fully compatible with the mods you are using. Here is an image that sums it up very well (since the latest version of SENT, 2.1), which can be seen on the download page...

Spoiler

The “Read me” file included in the SENT specifies that this mod must be read after all other mods listed in these dependencies:

Spoiler

In fact, the explanation makes perfect sense once you understand how textures work in SimCity 4... I think there are two important points to understand.

The first:
Each texture has a unique code that identifies it, such as a straight road segment, a T-junction, an X-junction, etc. Maxis gave a unique identifier to all textures in the base game without mods. Then, the NAM team created new networks (NWM, SAM, RHW, etc.) or new types of segments for Maxis' networks, and they created new unique identifiers for the new textures.
Mods that replace existing textures, such as SENT, hugues aroux's mods, rsc204's mods or rivit's mods, do not create anything new, but use the same identifiers as those used by Maxis or the NAM team. These are mods that only allow you to “reskin” what already exists.

The second:
When SimCity 4 loads at game launch, it will first load the Maxis files (C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SimCity 4 Deluxe), then it will load your plugins (C:\Users\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins) (Windows). It will work with a certain reading order, from top to bottom of the Plugins folder, i.e. in alphabetical and numerical order:

For my plugins folder, I organized it using numbers. Among the mods that affect road networks, NAM is the first to be read, then all mods that modify NAM or Maxis networks are read next, such as WWS (located in folder 5.2). This is because, in order for WWS to work, it must overwrite the NAM and Maxis textures, since it does not add anything new, as mentioned above.
The problem is that the mods by hugues aroux, rsc204, rivit, and SENT do not create anything new; they only replace textures that already exist in the NAM or Maxis networks. For this reason, they must be read after the NAM in the Plugins folder in order to overwrite the latter's textures.
But the second problem is that SENT must also overwrite the mods by Hugues Aroux, rsc204, and Rivit. Each of their mods can work together because they all modify different textures (street, SAM 2, SAM4, etc.). But SENT uses textures that are already used by their mods, such as this transition:

Ideally, for all the mods you mention to work properly, you should put them in this order:

1 - NAM
2 - Rivit and rsc204 mods
3 - Hugues Aroux mods, why? Because Hugues Aroux offers transition parts in these mods that link his mods to those of Rivit and rsc204. This ensures that the correct textures appear (for example, a transition between Hugues Aroux's SAM 8 Firenze and Rivit's SAM 4 NZ Gravel).
4 - SENT, because this mod uses identifiers already used by other texture replacement mods. SENT must therefore overwrite them all in order for the correct texture to appear. The option must also be checked in the installer, as shown here, if, for example, you are using the Firenze :

Finally (yes, we have to!), SENT does not offer anything for SAM 1, as it is a texture game that does not require any transitions with networks other than those on the street. When you create an intersection between SAM 1 and the road, the intersection used will be Street-Road. It doesn't matter which mods you use. So you can play around with SENT and Hugues Aroux's excellent SAM 1 replacement mod!

It may be a little messy, but once you understand this, sorting the mods becomes very easy.

I sincerely hope I have been able to help you, as best I can, given that English is not my native language...

Best regards

Aka

[Dono 178]

I have been creating a lot of stuff for my sim nation and at some point will upload them if they are good enough. But in my travels looking for ideas and how to dos, I come across a lot of 3D creation sites that contain free downloads from some of their developers, all types of buildings and also other models that would be great props. All the sites have the same disclaimer that they are free to use, even commercially, as long as the downloader doesn't make revenue from the creators work and that the creator is credited and it is noted if the downloader has made any changes to the model. I read what I could find here in STEX and some of the things fell in the "Shades of Grey" area with being able to use these free downloads to be reworked into lots to share here. Are they OK to use?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

17 minutes ago, Dono said:

I read what I could find here in STEX and some of the things fell in the "Shades of Grey" area with being able to use these free downloads to be reworked into lots to share here. Are they OK to use?

Yep. That's fine to use them. It's good to both mention them in your file description when giving credit as well as on the STEX there is a field you can fill in with a URL linky to the Source Model.

[ncamferdam 1,490]

I'm currently in the market for a new gaming laptop, and I'm wondering if there are any performance characteristics to look out for if I want to run SC4. I will be following everything in this thread already:

I'm basically asking, with all of the above taken care of, is there any new laptop I could buy that would be outright incompatible with this game?

[Turnstyled 486]

@Aka Thank you so much! You provided an excellent explanation! It means a lot to me that you provided that much detail.

[Kel9509 1,363]

Here's a quick question: what happened with the domain expiration?  Is there anything we as a community can do to ensure that doesn't happen again?

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

2 minutes ago, Kel9509 said:

Here's a quick question: what happened with the domain expiration?  Is there anything we as a community can do to ensure that doesn't happen again?

Dirk said he managed to accidentally miss the expiration warning emails and then when the site went down, CB sent a priority message. Dirk then renewed the domain and we are up and running again.

[rsc204 21,808]

It’s not a big deal really. It’s not like the moment a domain expires someone can come and buy it. There is a grace period and we technically own the rights to the domain provided the renewal is done.

Nothing more than simply missing the reminders. Maybe they got stuck in a spam folder. Maybe someone is just really snowed under IRL. Either way such things can and do happen, there is nothing to safeguard, just a hiccup. 

[Max4k 721]

Can anyone tell me if this lot is corrupted ?  When I dat pack this among other things for the category I have it with, I get this error.  Should I just not data pack it and leave it alone ??

Thanks.

 

Connolly Hall\[IRL] Connolly Hall-0x6534284a-0xbbac92a7-0x9bad93bd.SC4Desc
0x27812810:{"Occupant Size"}=Float32:3:{Width: 15.5, Height: 20.02470016, Depth: 46.60509872}
*************************************************
********************* ERROR *********************
in examplar 0x6534284AL 0xBBAC92A7L 0x9BAD93BDL
located in C:\Users\zoso9\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\[IRL] Connolly Hall\[IRL] Connolly Hall\[IRL] Connolly Hall-0x6534284a-0xbbac92a7-0x9bad93bd.SC4Desc
0x27812851:{"Pollution at center"}=Sint32:4:{Air: 0x00000001, Water: 0x00000001, Garbage: 0x00000004, Radiation: 0x00000000}
*************************************************
********************* ERROR *********************
in examplar 0x6534284AL 0xBBAC92A7L 0x9BAD93BDL
located in C:\Users\zoso9\Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins\[IRL] Connolly Hall\[IRL] Connolly Hall\[IRL] Connolly Hall-0x6534284a-0xbbac92a7-0x9bad93bd.SC4Desc
0x68EE9764:{"Pollution radii"}=Float32:4:{Air: 5, Water: 6, Garbage: 0, Radiation: 0}
*************************************************

 

 

 

EDIT:   >>> Actually looking at reviews, I see 2 people from 2011 and 2013 mention crash to desktop

[monkeywater 910]

I've been out of the game a couple years and want to come back.

What happened with SC4D LEX?  Is everything there still available in some manner?

[brancra 1,114]

51 minutes ago, monkeywater said:

I've been out of the game a couple years and want to come back.

What happened with SC4D LEX?  Is everything there still available in some manner?

SC4D had issues with its webhost that made the website unrecoverable. Much of it has been rehosted on SC4Evermore:

https://www.sc4evermore.com/

Certain niche items yet to be reposted to SC4E are on SimcitySquare thanks to @pikachu_SQ

https://m.cafe.naver.com/ca-fe/web/cafes/11881236/menus/319

 

[matias93 7,535]

On 12/2/2025 at 2:48 PM, ncamferdam said:

I'm currently in the market for a new gaming laptop, and I'm wondering if there are any performance characteristics to look out for if I want to run SC4. I will be following everything in this thread already:

I'm basically asking, with all of the above taken care of, is there any new laptop I could buy that would be outright incompatible with this game?

Nothing that's able to run Windows or Linux will be incompatible with the game and the current mods. 

Being a 22-year old game, compiled to run on shoddy Pentium III computers, basically every hardware currently on sale has more than enough power to run the game at maximum settings. What can make your situation more complicated is finding drivers for that hardware that aren't designed to run software from two decades ago optimally: there are ways to circumvent this, like using a wrapper like DgVoodoo2, but another sure option at your reach is to simply run the game with integrated graphics instead of trying to use a dedicated GPU.

Now, on much more practical terms, you'll want an SSD drive to put your plugins in, as it makes loading them significantly faster, but at this point, that's almost a given in any new or even slightly used computer.

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

I think I used the "Fight the power" cheat in one of my cities when I prepared the infrastructure. Now I can't seem to turn it off.  Do you have any idea how to toggle it back off? Entering the cheat again does not seem to help...

[simmering 2,638]

33 minutes ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I think I used the "Fight the power" cheat in one of my cities when I prepared the infrastructure. Now I can't seem to turn it off.  Do you have any idea how to toggle it back off? Entering the cheat again does not seem to help...

The question has its own thread (below) but I am afraid there is no answer there. @APSMS explained that the cheat removes the power requirement from the Maxis buildings. Not sure if that helps.

 

[Null 45 3,041]

2 hours ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

I think I used the "Fight the power" cheat in one of my cities when I prepared the infrastructure. Now I can't seem to turn it off.  Do you have any idea how to toggle it back off? Entering the cheat again does not seem to help...

Fightthepower and howdryami (the ignore plumbing cheat) can't be turned off once active. Their state is persisted in the save game, but that subfile (TID 0x8990be7a) hasn't been decoded. The first 12 bytes use the same header with a checksum as other subfiles, e.g. the Lot Developer Subfile.

[rose 40]

does anyone know why some custom buildings don't have a transition for dusk/dawn, but go straight to blue maxis night as soon as the sun starts to set?

I don't have any night mods.  I wonder if it's a bug with the game, or something with the buildings.

[nos.17 5,120]

42 minutes ago, rose said:

does anyone know why some custom buildings don't have a transition for dusk/dawn, but go straight to blue maxis night as soon as the sun starts to set?

I don't have any night mods.  I wonder if it's a bug with the game, or something with the buildings.

Hi rose, this is due to how the custom buildings are rendered - night mode is either on or off, and there is no transition between the states. Many of the custom buildings are rendered with 3DS Max which does not support the transition that Maxis buildings have. You can read a bit more info here: https://www.sc4devotion.com/forums/index.php?topic=17194.0

[paulmc 391]

Hey y'all !  I was trying to create an account on SimCity china website, but that requires an invitation , does anybody can help me with that ? I would like to create an account if anybody can help that'd be much appreciated, xie xie !

[brancra 1,114]

1 hour ago, paulmc said:

Hey y'all !  I was trying to create an account on SimCity china website, but that requires an invitation , does anybody can help me with that ? I would like to create an account if anybody can help that'd be much appreciated, xie xie !

It is tremendously difficult to get an invitation. However, I believe one of our Korean members downloaded all the SimCity China uploads and hosted them on a publicly accessible server (I recall it had a cafe.naver link). @pikachu_SQ may know more.

[pikachu_SQ 949]

10 hours ago, brancra said:

It is tremendously difficult to get an invitation. However, I believe one of our Korean members downloaded all the SimCity China uploads and hosted them on a publicly accessible server (I recall it had a cafe.naver link). @pikachu_SQ may know more.

Yeah, Thank you for remerbering. The link is in the SC4Everemore discord.

I don't know whether I can share the link on Simtropolis. (And not all, some of them are not uploaded.)

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

1 hour ago, pikachu_SQ said:

I don't know whether I can share the link on Simtropolis.

Let's try it and see if anyone complains.

[pikachu_SQ 949]

On 2025. 12. 16. at 11:34 PM, CorinaMarie said:

Let's try it and see if anyone complains.

I posted it. Let’s see what happens.

 

[TheMurderousCricket 5,055]

Is there any mod, preferably a "magic" ploppable, that allows to artificially inflate demand for one developer type or another?

I'd like to be able to use it for just a couple of towns, rather than have it enabled everywhere anytime and anywhere I play.

[CorinaMarie 29,605]

40 minutes ago, TheMurderousCricket said:

Is there any mod, preferably a "magic" ploppable, that allows to artificially inflate demand for one developer type or another?

I've used The Plopmatic 9000 for that purpose. It increases all demands, but could be edited to be only specific ones.