CTD Upon Startup

[Trolley 0]

Hello! I'm launching SC4 through the launcher but it crashes to desktop instantly, memory patch is applied, compatibility mode on and off, as well as trying all the different renderers :c 

Here's the exception report, maybe it'll help?

I'm at a loss for what to do, SC4 seems like a lot of fun and I'd hate to miss out on it because of this. 

SimCity Exception Report 2022.12.17 12.25.24.txt

[CaptCity 4,696]

Hi @Trolley

A couple things that might help address the issue... It sounds like this is a new installation of the game. Is that correct? Has this issue always been present or is this a new problem? Have you tried adding/changing anything to your Plugins (downloaded content)? If so, has the game worked since being added/changed?

[rsc204 21,807]

So looking at the exception report gives me a couple bits of useful information, namely that you are running a fully patched copy of SC4 and that you are using the Steam version. If SC4 is failing to run like this, it would still be helpful to get as much information about when the crashes are occurring as possible. For example are you getting a black screen appear briefly?, it helps to narrow down the possible causes by knowing when exactly it crashes.

I think it would be a good idea to test adding the following 'switches' in the launcher, Intros Off and Audio Off. Since the game appears to be crashing during initialisation, but it is happening even with Software Rendering, this would appear to be a more general problem than graphics compatibility. The old intro videos run at a very low resolution, in full screen mode some newer hardware isn't able to display them, which leads to a CTD when the game attempts to do so. Likewise with certain Audio Cards, especially if no device is plugged into the headphone / output jack, will cause a CTD upon trying to play sound for the first time. So just to ascertain if either is causing problems, best to disable them for now. I should also mention, given you are having problems just running SC4, until you've resolved that, you should not be installing any custom content.

You should also consider what resolution you have set for SC4 to use, likely the default values (if you don't override it) and even some custom resolutions may not work with your hardware. Ideally you want to set the same resolution for SC4 as Windows is using for your desktop, however if either the Horizontal or Vertical pixel count is higher than 2048, then you will need a special Wrapper before SC4 can work with it. A good baseline is 1920x1080, since most hardware supports Full HD and the game certainly does.