survey Network Addon Mod & SimCity 4 - Hardware and Software Survey

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

Network Addon Mod & SimCity 4 - Hardware and Software Survey

 

With the arrival of Network Addon Mod (Version 44) and the start of development of version 45 we decided to do a survey to understand what actions we need to take in later versions of NAM. First we want to understand the hardware and operating system in which SimCity 4 is run and consequently Network Addon Mod. In addition we also want to understand some priorities in the development of NAM .  

 

Before answering this survey we provide you with tutorials on how to accurately answer questions

 

1 How do I see what kind of CPU and RAM I have?

-Windows (Method A)
 

Spoiler

 

Windows (Method B - Generic method for all versions of Windows)

Spoiler

 

-Linux (Versions other than Ubuntu the procedure may be different)

Spoiler

-MacOS (It is held in consideration from 2019 the MacOS are only compatible with 64 Bit processors)

Spoiler

 

2 Do I need to use a google account to respond to this survey?

No

3 How do I know which NAM version I have?

You have to go to the highways menu and select this icon

Spoiler

 

After you have read this short tutorial here is the link where you can answer this survey

 

Spoiler

Broken Link 

 

 

Feel free to ask more questions about this survey or comments related to this thread

 

[Simizen 1,098]

any reason why CPU's not on the list of things needed to know? Cause, I feel that would be beneficial. Unless it's primarily a RAM focused thing. Cause, if people are running off of laptops, the cheapest ones are running Celeron (p4's) but, desktops will be better off with i3+/r3+

[rsc204 21,808]

5 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

any reason why CPU's not on the list of things needed to know?

It doesn't affect your ability to run the game/NAM, although to a point a faster CPU (specifically single core performance), will make the experience better.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

Not just that. There's so many different  CPU models that it wouldn't be practical to ask players to list theirs, and a sizable share of players wouldn't even know how to find out theirs, unless they're more tech literate or got a custom-built PC.

[carlosmarcelo 975]

Hi! I thought it was cool that you guys did a survey like that, thank you. 
In the above image question, I missed a "Custom Installation" option, which is my case. As I use Low RAM / NO RHW as a starting point, I chose this option, but it doesn't exactly represent my reality and I believe that there may be other people in the same situation... Or not... 
That's exactly what the research could confirm.

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

3 minutes ago, carlosmarcelo said:

Hi! I thought it was cool that you guys did a survey like that, thank you.  In the above image question, I missed a "Custom Installation" option, which is my case. As I use Low RAM / NO RHW, I chose this option, but it doesn't exactly represent my reality.

We know there are custom installations but this survey focuses more on whether you use a controller that requires the 4 GB patch or the controller that does not require the 4GB patch. It serves us to understand the guideline we must take for subsequent NAM versions. But don't worry. Later there will be a specific survey on the various features and therefore the custom installations

 

15 hours ago, Ryuu Tenno said:

any reason why CPU's not on the list of things needed to know? Cause, I feel that would be beneficial. Unless it's primarily a RAM focused thing. Cause, if people are running off of laptops, the cheapest ones are running Celeron (p4's) but, desktops will be better off with i3+/r3+

The primary objective is to understand where SC4 is performed and consequently allows us to understand the path to take. 32-bit processors have a RAM limited to 4 GB while 64-bit processors have no limitations theoretically (Currently the limit is 64 GB related to bios and firmware of north and south bridge).  The NAM controller is always getting big with every NAM version coming out and we want to know what paths we need to take for later versions of NAM. Doing a survey on CPU models is superfluous for what we want to see. We only care if you run SC4 on a 64 Bit or 32 Bit system

[Gn_leugim 853]

Little issue here, I am running on 20Gb of RAM, no such option available, so I inserted the closest one, 16 Gb.  But other than that, all good!!

[Simizen 1,098]

gotcha. I kinda figured that it wasn't the main point, but, just wanted clarification for it. Thank you all for the replies!

[swlvit 1]

I put other for my OS because I like to use linux and wine but had some trouble getting damn to work right in past. but many other games i run in linux no problem. on one of my desktops I still have windows 7 and that usually works really good for sc4 as well but mostly I play it in windows 10. 

[Forsma7 1,325]

I would drop this here since I think I had a rare configuration here where I had LHD-Euro texture and have 2 different set of NAM installation, one is NAM 32 (old one ik) which used mostly for my older cities where T21 compatibility is real issue and NAM 43 for my newer cities that I made since 2019s.

[Lucario Boricua 7,028]

     Service communication by the NAM Team!     

We are about to close the NAM Hardware and Software survey. If you haven't filled it yet, please do so now! We're gonna close it in 4 hours after this post was made!

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

I can officially declare the survey Closed.  

 

We will inform you as soon as possible after analyzing the survey data

[Ulisse Wolf 4,412]

After a long time we can finally communicate the results of this survey that have already changed the development of NAM

RAM Memory  

RAM is critical to running the Full NAM Controller with RHW support. SimCity 4 is a 32 Bit application and the maximum usage it can handle is 4GB of RAM. In reality SC4 uses only 2GB of RAM and therefore we must use the 4GB Patch to allow SC4 to take advantage of all the RAM memory that the 32 Bit system can handle.

We noticed that the 4GB patch is not applied correctly causing CTD when the city load is completed. Since 94.7% of users use a 64-bit system then we are trying to find alternative methods to safely automate this procedure. Seeing this percentage allows us to continue the development of NAM and add other things until the controller is full. 5.3% of gamers who use systems that have a maximum of 4GB of RAM we are experimenting to get a light version with a very limited set of RHW but we still have to check if this thing is fine with the Light Controller / No RHW version.

Operating System

The composition of the operating system for the moment does not worry us much. 87.8% of gamers use modern Windows operating systems that are compatible with 64-bit and SC4 can work without problems obviously following preliminary procedures.  Users who only use Windows XP are only 1.5% and therefore we can assume that they are using SC4 in the native system but with a RAM limitation and therefore do not use the NAM Controller 4GB. Good news also for the Linux system where we can provide good support. A special case instead are MacOS players as the NAM installation and other mods require additional procedures and there are bugs that can never be solved. That 2.3% of players who use completely different systems gives us a lot of concern as the comments show different versions of MacOS and Linux with built-in wine

 

NAM Version

NAM is less fragmented as many people quickly switch from an old version to the latest NAM version. The presence of players using NAM 42 does not give problems but players who use NAM 37, 38, 40 must start considering updating NAM to get important bugfixes. Players who use NAM 36 instead need to update their version as already with NAM 36 you can experience problems with the installation and the controller. Obviously there is that part of players who do not remember the NAM version installed that does not give problems to us because we are human and we can not remember everything.

 

Texture and Drive Side

This part was fundamental as it allowed to define a new bugfix resolution system and prioritize bugfixes for LHD paths and European textures. 7.8% of gamers use LHD and numerous bugs have been discovered that have already been fixed for NAM 45. 32.2% of players use European Textures and so we have reorganized the texture system and improved support for EU textures. Of course there are numerous bugfixes that will be available with NAM 45. This reorganization also affects the US Textures and therefore some minor bugs have been fixed. 

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Final Thoughts

This survey was very helpful in defining NAM development guidelines and better bugfix resolution management for EU and LHD players. (You can see these implementations with NAM 45). The fragmentation of NAM is very little as many players quickly switch to the latest version. We know that we have to solve the problem that can occur when you apply the 4GB Patch and the current fragmentation of the operating systems is not a problem as the NAM Team can respond quickly for any operating system.

Soon there will be a survey for NAM Features that will allow us to understand even more the direction of development that NAM must take. For the moment we have decided to leave this Treahd open to comment on the results of this survey and in case of reuse this thread for future hardware - Software surveys