Going from App Store Version to Steam: now may not be necessary! (read second post)

[mizmayor 8]

hello!  I've been away from the game for a lot of years. Played SimCity, in one form or another, for a very long time on Windows (starting with Win3.1), In 2015 I switched to Mac, and although I did start playing SimCity 4/RushHour on it, I think I got discouraged by the plug-in file limit on the App Store/Aspyre version, and just sorta gave up, I guess. 

Got a new MBP, M4 last month, and have really enjoyed getting familiar with the game again. But am extremely frustrated with the plug-in file limit, and the means of getting around it. I tried JDatPacker. At first couldn't get it started, had to learn how to override the OS's cautions about not trusting the source/program. Finally got it to TRY and do something. But, it turns out, I had to now install Java8. ok. did that. and now that won't even work, it seems it has run up against a "CodeCache is full' error, and has disabled itself. I tried researching what that is and how to deal with it. But everything I've found is just too far over my head to even begin to understand. 

I just want to play what has been my favorite game for nearly 30 years. Not learn how to be a programmer.

It is my understanding that the Steam version does not have this limit.

So what are the pitfalls of the Steam version? 

Do I have to uninstall the AppStore/Aspyre version before installing?

I imagine I can just copy the plug-in folder contents I've been accumulating over the last few weeks into the new location for the Steam installation.

BTW, I've really enjoyed reading everything on Simtropolis, and playing catchup. I was sorry to see some of my favorite content creators are no longer with us. 

Thanks for any insight anyone can provide.

BTW, Steam has SC4 on sale until January 2. 

Ruth

  Edited December 24, 2024 by mizmayor  
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[mizmayor 8]

Update:

I continued browsing the Forums tonight, and think I found my real answer: how to make JDatPacker work. Considering moving to the Steam version was an act of desperation. 

This afternoon, JDatPacker had seemed to work, even after the 'CodeCache' warning. but there had been no output in the target folder. I assumed this was because of the Java. 

In browsing tonight I discovered a post that discussed in painstaking detail a troubleshooting effort for another unhappy customer. I discovered what I had been doing wrong: my Source folder had no subfolders. So, as a Hail Mary pass, created a subdirectory for the files in the source folder and ran the packer one more time. And to my amazement, it resulted in a packed dat file in the target folder! 

Thanks to the wonderful people who've kept Simtropolis up and running!

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

6 hours ago, mizmayor said:

And to my amazement, it resulted in a packed dat file in the target folder! 

Woot!

Not having a Mac myself, I didn't know what to suggest when I saw your post yesterday. (I was hoping our experts would have ideas.) It's so good you found the answer which worked.

[Girafarig 1,412]

JDatPacker is tricky to run, but it substantially speeds up the game. That's why I can get away with almost 9 GB of plugins.

[CorinaMarie 29,875]

23 minutes ago, Girafarig said:

That's why I can get away with almost 9 GB of plugins.

And you can do this on a Mac?

[mizmayor 8]

2 hours ago, CorinaMarie said:

Woot!

Not having a Mac myself, I didn't know what to suggest when I saw your post yesterday. (I was hoping our experts would have ideas.) It's so good you found the answer which worked.

Thank you! I was soooooo relieved! 

Now the fun begins. organizing the plugins, pack the ones I'm already using. Implement the ones requiring dependencies and find those. Install the NAM,  which I've really missed from my windows days. Not to mention all the plugins and downloads from my last Windows installation I have saved on an external drive!

[rsc204 21,865]

Honestly there is no difference between the AppStore and Steam versions, both are maintained and sold by Aspyr. 

Steam, as is its want, uses a different directory for handling Plugins. Because it creates a folder in Documents, it’s actually much easier to locate. The AppStore one puts this folder in a not obvious place.

Here is where your problems start with security/permissions too. You’ll need to give SC4 read/write access or it won’t work. It’s the exact same OS security that makes DATPacker fail. You have to put the App somewhere where it will be able to read and write files. Once you’ve done that you should have no problems using it.

Having a lot of Files/Folders in Plugins makes the game incredibly unstable. DATPacking is almost a must for Mac users.

However when all is said and done, the Mac version is still just not as good as under Windows. It’s missing vital official patches and never remains stable no matter what you do. A shame because only the Mac version has been coded to take full advantage of modern CPUs, probably with multi-core support. On an M1 Mini its performance is amazing. But there are bugs not present in Windows, inevitable instability (if using mods) and just a ton of extra hoops to jump through to use custom content.