SimCity 4, Screenshots and You

[The Mayor of Hiversbridge 341]

Authors Note: Wasn’t sure exactly where to post this as the Omnibus tutorials seems a bit underutilized and obscure, and I could see a few tutorials have gone up in the General Discussion before. Please move or remove if needed. The need for this tutorial was sparked after a conversation with a builder who needed some clear, step by step instructions for their screenshots. For experienced users I don’t think this will offer anything new, but I’ve seen enough screenshots out there to realise that a comprehensive guide to simple processes is going to be helpful to a fair few (especially new) players. Feedback and critique is welcomed.

Ahhh yes! You’ve finally made an amazing looking city. Good for you! And now it is time to show it off to the world. And by world, I mean our ragtag community of holdout Sim Mayors. But how on earth do you get a nice big, ‘clean’ screenshot, free of menus and icons? Well wonder no more, for I am here to help.

Lets begin.

1:Resolution –

We want to make the resolution as big as possible to capture as much of your city as possible. This should also make your playing experience more enjoyable

              -Download the ‘SC4GraphicsOptions.dll’

-Open the downloaded zip.

-Copy SC4GraphicsOptions.dll and SC4GraphicsOptions.ini into the Plugins folder in the SimCity 4 installation directory

-Open SC4GraphicsOptions.ini in a text editor (e.g. Notepad).

-Change the very bottom line ‘WindowMode=********’ to ‘WindowMode=FullScreen’ (which should be default) or (what I personally use) ‘WindowMode=BorderlessFullScreen’.

Authors Note:I haven’t compared the differences but I imagine ‘BorderlessFullScreen’ leads to a fuller image.

-Save the document

If you start the game now it should run in it’s maximum resolution. Fantastic!

2:More Downloads!

We want to get rid of the yellow border that appears while a game is paused, as well as the minimize button in the bottom right corner. We want our screenshots to be as wide and as menu free as possible!

-Download the 'SMP Yellow Pause Thingy Remover'

-Drag the dat file into the Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder.

-Download the 'Minimize Button Remover'

-Drag the file into the Documents\SimCity 4\Plugins folder. (please note your minimize menu button will always be there down the bottom right corner. You just won’t be able to see it. You can always bring your menu back with NumLock)

Now lets hide some icons! Run the game and open the city of your choice.

This is mine... and boy, what a mess! Lets fix it.

3: Got those little ‘no cars’ ‘no water’ or ‘no suitcases’ signs above your buildings? Want them gone?

Press ‘Ctrl-X’ and type ‘tastyzots’. This will hide those icons (but not remove the problem that they are signalling). You can repeat the step above to bring them back.

 

4: Got those little annoying cars for the ‘U drive it’ missions?

Click on the ‘My Sim Mode’ menu

Click on the ‘U drive it’ menu

Click ‘Mission Indicators on/off’

Bam they’re gone!

5: Got the grid up? Press ‘G’ to get rid of the grid. Nobody needs to see that.

6:Want cars to show while paused?

Click on Graphics Options

Uncheck ‘Variable Speed Automata’ (or just… well… don’t pause the game)

5: Finally lets get rid of the menu

                -Press 'NumLock' or click here

Now we should have a lovely ‘clean’ screen to work with.

 

And we’re done! Press your ‘print screen’ button or use your snipping tool (windows+shift+S) and paste to your image editor of choice.

Happy posting Sim Mayors!

[CorinaMarie 29,899]

Well written and illustrated. I've added the Featured Star to your topic so it'll show up in the homepage lists, activity feed, and sidebars.

[Null 45 3,120]

On 5/9/2024 at 4:09 AM, EastChapel said:

Authors Note:I haven’t compared the differences but I imagine ‘BorderlessFullScreen’ leads to a fuller image.

There shouldn't be any visible difference when playing, both Fullscreen and BorderlessFullscreen use the take up the full display size. If you are switching between SC4 and other apps using Alt+Tab, BorderlessFullscreen should be faster and more stable. This Microsoft blog post goes into more detail about the technical differences between Fullscreen (a.k.a. Fullscreen Exclusive) and BorderlessFullscreen.

Also, if your Fullscreen resolution is above 2048x2048 you will need to use a DirectX wrapper such as DgVoodoo 2. This is already mentioned in the SC4GraphicsOptions settings description, but I thought it was worth calling out separately. Without a DirectX wrapper SC4 will crash on startup when trying to use a resolution above 2048x2048.