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Miraculous News! This afternoon I've received an email from a friend Cori knows in real life from work (which I recall she told me about). They said how Cori "is out of the hospital and is doing okay". Also how it'll be some time before they're back online. There are no other details I'm aware of at this point. I've replied to say about such relief to hear they're alive. Also there's no pressure for Cori to return, but of course the door remains open to do so however they wish (and all in their own time). Thank you again all for the kind and heartfelt messages (inside the initial topic). We now know there's a good chance Cori is aware of our posts, or will be sometime. (As an aside, I'll be giving any rep received on this post directly to @CorinaMarie's profile. I'm only the messenger here passing forth this good news.) -CB

Hiya, Everyone! I'm back. I've re-read all of this thread and the prior one and I am so overwhelmed with grateful emotions to each and every one of you who have said kind things. Thank you ever so much! Please do understand it would take me forever to reply to each of you separately so I ask your forgiveness for not making my replies all personalized. However, I do feel very strongly to mention @RobertaME. I'm so sorry to hear about your brother's sudden passing. Please accept my heartfelt condolences. Loss of someone so close is very difficult to deal with. I'm glad to see you've come back and you've regained your passion for AMPS. That reminds me too about my words and actions in your thread long ago and I'm so terribly sorry how I misunderstood you and then lashed out at you. That was wrong of me and I hope you can forgive me for that. And back to all: Right now my living conditions are rather dismal, but adequate. I've been in touch with CB via Skype nearly every day and he's helped me keep my sanity. I don't have the game or any of the modding tools, but I hope to be around ST most days. It'll take a long while for me to catch up and I know there are so many exciting things going on to learn about. -Cori

Firstly, welcome back! As many of y'all know, ST went down on 16 April, 2026 due to a billing error 2 days prior to that. The pathetic host decided to not only suspend the server, but to immediately delete it entirely, including the live site and both daily backups. There was no forewarning or communication about this sent to Dirk. From initial correspondence with the old host, they claimed the server was merely suspended and data was kept for 6 months. It seemed like the billing issue only needed correcting. However, once Dirk heard back from a higher level support, to our complete shock and dismay it was confirmed the server had been wiped. They offered to restore it if we had backups. But what use were those when they were on the server?! Everything was gone. A full offline backup was about 187 GB last time CB downloaded it and he had to do it in pieces (due to a very slow internet connection in his teeny, tiny town) and it took several days. This contains all the objects (which are all the files and pictures anywhere on the site including attachments and within the STEX) as well as the board software and the forums. There was also a separate full account backup from 2020, but we didn't need that in the end. Now, separately, the database is all of the posts in the forums, STEX, omnibus, and so forth. That comes in around 6 GB and is backed up and downloaded more often. However, the offline download was just a fallback which should never be needed since we always had full backups run online every single day. (We never anticipated the host would fucking delete everything on the server!) Ofc, in hindsight we'd've kept separate online daily synced backups too, even if those come at a cost. Without any local backup, Simtropolis as we know it would be lost forever to the infinite voids of cyberspace. Thankfully this isn't the case, so it could've been much, much worse. Anyhow, what this means for us now is we have the forums and text of the STEX restored as it was on 28 February, 2026, but all files and pictures (both as forum attachments and in the STEX) are missing from 17 June, 2024 and after. We can recover! (But, we'll need a lot of help.) CB and Dirk have rebuilt the site on a new host. There are some nice positives as a result: Already an outpouring of support from people on Discord and Reddit. We appreciate the encouragement and support. Thank you! We've moved fully away from our old host. They will get nary a nickel from ST anymore ever again (from now till the end of the universe). The hardware is at least 10x more capable, and is no more expensive than our old host. (Depending on your internet connection, the site should be more responsive.) We've got a much more economical and cleaner home (way less server side clutter). We're in more control over the server to manage all aspects of it from the ground up. CB has separately purchased a 1 TB storage cloud for online, but offsite daily backups going forwards. Future potential to upgrade the IPS board software to a newer version, but we're not in a rush to do this. However, a few bad things will be immediately apparent when y'all start looking around: Any pictures or attached files after 17 June, 2024 are missing. Any STEX files added after 17 June, 2024 are gone. All avatar updates or changes after 17 June, 2024 are lost. --------------- All topics have lost any replies after 28 Feb, 2026. Any STEX entries added or updated after 28 Feb, 2026 are gone. Any STEX downloads history since 28 Feb, 2026 is lost. Any new sc4pac tokens since 28 Feb, 2026 are lost (and will need regenerating). Any PMs after 28 Feb, 2026 are missing. Any members who joined after 28 Feb, 2026 will need to re-join Simtropolis. Initial Recovery Efforts: Topic Divider Messages We've added a Topic Divider message to all forum threads which were active as of the last database backup. That's so when reading along now and in the future it'll explain why any given subject might seem disjointed and incoherent if the same peeps aren't able to re-reply. I know one topic in which I'm now the last to reply and my answer was only partially right. I remember at the time someone replied soon later with the real answer. That's lost, but they might re-state it when they have time. Or it could stay missing. (For that particular topic, I'll reply with what I remember of it.) So the divider message serves to explain why many topics might seem choppy for a little while. An example can be seen here. Original Image and File Names for Attachments Since the database info is way more recent than the objects (files and images), we'll often know the name and size of images and files because of their pointer entries in the database, but we won't have the item that points to. So, CB has worked his magic such that a missing pic will show the ST Logo as a placeholder while also showing the original file name for the image or attachment. This will make it easier for peeps to identify and re-upload them. Note: If your image name originally contained spaces, those will be stripped out in the file name which appears as the Original Pic Name. Sample for an image: ^ Original Pic Name: Cori'sWidget.jpg Sample for a file: Attachment Missing (Cori's Exemplar Viewer Output - 2026.02.17.09.37.zip) Additionally, you can go to your own list of attachments and find anything missing. CB plans to add a feature for clicking and re-uploading files directly from that page. STEX Files and Pics (Needs figured out...) We have a separate method for recovering STEX files. That'll be a new forum (or topic) or something where anyone can post a linky to the STEX entry and then also attach the missing files and/or pics. We want to be careful here to not duplicate each other's efforts so searching in there first is a good idea. Then staff (and other peeps recruited to help) will patch up the STEX entries and then move the topic for that item to a Done forum. Or such. We'll reveal more details once we've figured out a battle plan. Also we'll be opening a topic where anyone interested to assist can register as a volunteer to help. Your Own Files and Pics Ofc, any missing STEX entry that you created can be fixed (re-adding files and pics) or recreated (if totally missing) anytime you get a chance. Same for any missing attachments in your posts or elsewhere on the site. When you repair your own STEX entry there is one additional step needed and that is to delete the message banner. (There's some fancy code in it which hides the download button and displays the File Unavailable message.) See this topic to have staff remove the file message banner after you've restored the missing content. Other Notes: Restoration Priority (From CB in Chat) 1) STEX Files 2) STEX Screenshots 3) Attached Files 4) Attached Images 5) Gallery Images 6) Homepage Feature Images 7) Member Avatars 8) Anything Else This order we believe makes a suitable priority for what we'll look to restore first. STEX Screenshots are likely going to need uploading from in-game pics, but for some we might be able to salvage using the Internet Archive (but that depends on which files have been saved to there). Closing Words (for now) We're very glad to be back. We're also pleased to see y'all back. The past month (and a bit) have seemed like many months, and we've missed ST too. While this has been a setback for the community, the key thing is Simtropolis Has Returned. We're determined to rebuild our city stronger than ever before. Oh! One final thing: We might have to put the site in offline maintenance mode for brief periods as some of the tweaks CB is working on cannot be implemented while the site is live. -Cori & CB & Dirk

Hi everyone, For many, many years I visited Simtropolis regularly, always hoping for that one announcement: “SimCity 5 is coming!” Like many of you, I was deeply inspired by SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4 — and like some of you, I was also disappointed by the direction the franchise took afterward. For years, I dreamed of a game that could bring back that spark... and now, I'm trying to build it myself. I'm an architect by profession and a long-time fan of city-building games. Last year, I finally decided to take the leap and start creating my own game — CityArchitect. It’s a city-building game with a unique focus: not only do you design the layout of the city, but you also design the architecture of each individual building, using a powerful modular tool inspired by SimCity 3000’s Building Architect Tool — but far more flexible and easier to use. You can mix real architectural styles (from historical to modern), combine façade elements, roofs, terraces, and decorative pieces, and create highly customized buildings that still harmonize with the city’s overall aesthetic. The game is still in development, but I’ve just launched the Steam page and plan to release an early test version later this year. This first version will focus on the building creation tool and allow you to create small city blocks and place your custom buildings in them. The full city simulation is still in progress — but it's evolving every week. I’d love to hear your feedback, especially from people here who truly understand the legacy and magic of SimCity. You can also follow the development on Instagram at @play.cityarchitect . It would mean a lot if you could wishlist the game on Steam — it really helps spread the word! Thanks for reading — and thank you, Simtropolis, for being such an important part of my inspiration all these years. Let me know what you think!

Update 2018/01/21 SC4Fix has been updated with a stable build that fixes prop pox. Download on the STEX: --- I like a good challenge, so I decided to take this one up. Context Prop pox is a bug that causes decorative props in some cities to begin disappearing. The problem is exacerbated if the city continues to be played and saved, and persists even after adjusting graphics settings for prop detail or restarting the game. The prevailing hypothesis is bap's prop theory, which makes these main claims: In a normal game installation with absolutely no plugins, prop pox will never occur, even after updating. Prop pox is actually caused by plugins that redefine Maxis prop exemplars that add properties that were not originally in the exemplars. Prop pox will only manifest itself if one of these plugins is installed and the city's prop subfile* is sufficiently large. * bap refers to the prop subfile as the network subfile in his post, which seems to be a mistake. Testing this is pretty straightforward as all we need to do is clear our plugins, develop a city until the prop subfile is large enough (around 6MB, according to bap) and then use a plugin that causes pox by improperly redefining exemplars. For this I made a mostly flat large tile city with sprawling low-density developments to add as many props as possible in a short timeframe. When the prop subfile for the city was just under 6MB I made a copy of it and then allowed it to develop further until it crossed that limit. Why is this 6MB limit significant? The game determines whether a subfile should be compressed mainly by its filesize (along with a few other properties); subfiles smaller than 6MB can be compressed, but anything larger than that is saved decompressed in order to save time and computational resources when saving very large subfiles. Prop pox apparently begins most commonly when crossing this compression limit. With no plugins installed, the city was able to develop past the 6MB prop subfile limit without any pox or save corruption occurring, no matter how many times I saved or how long the simulation ran for, which I tested using wouanagaine's SC4 Savegame Explorer. If prop theory is correct, then pox should occur if we install a bad plugin and try to develop the city past that limit again. For this, bap used SimPEG's Beach Development Kit 1: In particular, you only need to extract PEG-OWW2_BDK_RESOURCE.dat as this contains the exemplar redefinitions. After installing this plugin, I loaded the test city, added some new zones to force new props to develop, ran the simulation for a bit and saved the city a couple of times. This immediately resulted in the city developing prop pox according to the savegame explorer. For your convenience for reproducing this, here are the savegame files I used: Test City, prop subfile under 6MB, no plugins and no pox Test City, prop subfile over 6MB, no plugins and no pox Test City, prop subfile under 6MB, BDK_RESOURCE installed and pox present Explaining the buffer corruption Since the savegame explorer reports buffer corruption at a particular location in the savegame, we should probably check out what's happening there to see if this improves our understanding of what causes prop pox. First we need to extract the prop subfile from the savegame using iLive's Reader: The pox-infected .sc4 save can be opened in the Reader. From there we need to extract the entry with type ID 0x2977aa47 (which is marked as Unknown, and that's fine). We also want to make sure we have the decompressed version of the subfile, so we'll save the decoded file and open it in an external hex editor since the one built into the Reader isn't great. I prefer using HxD. If we jump to the reported offset of corruption in the hex editor, we can read the bytes of the prop subfile as base-16 hex values, and the structure of the prop subfile is given in the SC4D wiki. (Note that DWORDs are four bytes large, WORDs are two bytes, and BYTEs are one.) Here's what the corrupted prop entry looks like in the hex editor: And here's what this looks like when filling it into the prop structure given on the SC4D wiki: DWORD Size: 0x00000058 DWORD CRC: 0x006C2462 DWORD Memory: 0x4CE00000 ??? : 0x59E6 ??? : 0xA084 ??? : 0x0F06 WORD Major: 0x0006 WORD Minor: 0x0004 WORD Zot: 0x0000 BYTE Unknown: 0x00 BYTE Appearance: 0x04 DWORD : 0xA823821E BYTE Min Tract X : 0x42 BYTE Min Tract Z : 0x6E BYTE Max Tract X: 0x42 BYTE Max Tract Z: 0x6E WORD X Tract Size: 0x0002 WORD Z Tract Size: 0x0002 DWORD Property Ct.: 0x00000001 SGPROP #1 DWORD Property Name: 0x89A1C16C DWORD Property Name: 0x89A1C16C DWORD : 0x00000000 BYTE Data Type: 0x03 BYTE Key Type: 0x00 WORD: 0x0000 DWORD Rep Count: 0x00000000 DWORD GID: 0xC977C536 DWORD TID: 0x6534284A DWORD IID Exemplar: 0x29000000 DWORD IID Given: 0x29000000 FLOAT32 Min X: 0x4308558C FLOAT32 Min Y: 0x43870000 FLOAT32 Min Z: 0x45386FA3 FLOAT32 Max X: 0x430A558C FLOAT32 Max Y: 0x43880000 FLOAT32 Max Z: 0x45389FA3 BYTE Orientation: 0x03 BYTE State: 0x00 BYTE Start Time: 0x00 BYTE Stop Time: 0x00 BYTE Count: 0x00 BYTE Rand. Chance: 0x64 BYTE Lot Type: 0x02 DWORD Object ID: 0x2A46EEFF BYTE Conditional: 0x00 Immediately something is wrong: there are six extra bytes after the first three pieces of data that don't correspond to anything in the prop file structure. Moreover, this entry gives its size as 0x58 (88) bytes but the hex editor says this is 0x72 (114) bytes in it. Where are the extra 26 bytes coming from? Well, first we can discount the seemingly random six bytes that appeared at the top. Next we can scrutinize the SGPROP since that's only an optional part of the prop subfile, and sure enough four DWORDs (16 bytes), a WORD (2 bytes) and two bytes add up to 20. And just out of curiosity, let's see what exemplar IID 0x29000000 maps to: Sure enough, it's a redefined residential beach umbrella exemplar from SimPEG's BDK resources. The main change in PEG's exemplar is that the Nighttime State Change entry (one byte large) in the Maxis exemplar was replaced by a Prop Time of Day entry (two Float32s, or eight bytes large). This is similar to what RippleJet observed when testing this. Because this prop entry is corrupted, closing this save and loading it will cause the game to believe that the entry really is only 88 bytes long, it will read several garbage values in the process, and after 88 bytes have been read it will attempt to read what it thinks is another prop entry. That prop entry will have a nonsensical size entry because it's being misinterpreted due to the corruption of the save, and that prop and all props that follow it in the savefile will not be present. As for why savefiles tend to continuously shrink on every save: When loading a file with corrupted props, incorrect size data and other malformed information will cause the corrupted prop and all props that follow it in the file to be misread. These misread props are discarded by the game, causing them to disappear from the city. Since the malformed props were discarded when loading, they will not appear when saving again, causing the filesize to shrink. On this new save, however, other malformed props could corrupt the savefile again, repeating the process. Towards a vaccine It's worth pointing out that bap originally speculated that prop pox was caused by a buffer overflow or some kind of memory error in the game that caused data for a modded prop to spill past the end of its buffer in memory. To test this, I installed the game on Fedora Linux 26 using WINE 3.0-rc6 and ran it under Valgrind, a memory debugging tool for Linux. However, I found no difference in the number of memory errors reported before and after installing PEG's beach resources. Since some reported instances of prop pox involve parts of the prop subfile being overwritten, we have to look at how the game actually writes data to disk. Since other prop poxxed cities appear to have prop definitions overwriting the middle of other prop definitions, it's possible that the game is incorrectly properly calculating where it should be writing when dealing with these overridden exemplars. Unfortunately this is where things go off the rails: in order to better determine what's going on in this process, I rewrote the function responsible for writing savegame objects, and this link shows what that looks like. Since the Mac version of the game contains the debugging symbols for this to work, I've only tested this on my Mac, and porting this to Windows is nontrivial. In another insane twist, I can't reproduce prop pox using my rewritten Mac serialization code, and can reproduce it immediately when not injecting that code, but I can't confidently say I fixed it since I can't demonstrate this to very many people without a usable Windows DLL, so that's my project for the time being. I also have no idea why my code doesn't cause prop pox to occur since I tried to recreate the original implementation of savegame serialization as closely as possible. For now, I'd speculate that prop pox is caused by a quirk in how the game saves records. Since the game may not know the size of all records in advance when saving a game, it has to resort to rewinding and fast-forwarding to arbitrary offsets in order to save data. For instance, when saving a prop record, the game will: Write the number 0 as a placeholder for the size in bytes. Write the number 0 as a placeholder for the CRC checksum. Write an identifier and the record itself. Rewind to the first zero. Calculate and rewrite the size based on how many more bytes there are in the file after writing the record. Fast-forward to the record itself and read the data in it back to a buffer. Rewind to the second zero and calculate and write the CRC checksum. Fast-forward to the end of the output stream to allow more data to be written. I think that miscalculated offsets when rewinding and fast-forwarding is causing previously written prop records to be overwritten by malformed props, corrupting the entire subfile in the process. How exactly does that relate to the redefinition of the prop exemplar? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm working on getting my serialization code ported to Windows ASAP to see what happens there. In the meantime, if you have a Mac and want to try it out and report if you're still seeing prop pox: Grab this dylib which was built from the source code linked above (and again here). Go to Utilities in Finder and open up a terminal. I used Steam, so I used these commands: cd "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/SimCity 4 Deluxe/SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition.app/Contents/MacOS" echo 24780 > steam_appid.txt DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES="$HOME/Downloads/libinjector.dylib" ./Sim\ City\ 4\ Deluxe\ Editionsub Your game should now be running with some output labeled COMSerialize, particularly when saving the game. And if you want to help me out, just send me PMs with prop poxxed savegames for me to download so I can look at them.

A SimCity 4 Tutorial Cloud Oriented Region Import Method Adding Painted Streams by CorinaMarie@Simtropolis In this guide I present a method to create a grayscale image from which to render a random rolling hills terrain map that has water streams and rivers added. Here's a random sample of a map I created using this method: Note: The following is merely an alternative method to create a semi-realistic, fictional region map for SC4. Before you waste any time reading this please be aware that the defacto standards for map making are: SC4 Mapper, SC4 Terraformer, and Landscape Designer. Use them if you want something better. Also, as mentioned by @RobertLM78 in a reply in this thread there is another one by Ordio called Simcity 4 Region and Config Creator. However, many peeps have said they cannot run those programs on later versions of Windoze or other OS's so what I'm presenting here is simply another method by which one can make a decent map with minimal time and effort. I'm using GIMP for this guide because it's free to anyone. Any good image editing program will have the same tools I use in this guide. The method is quick and easy. Initial Steps 1. Load your SimCity 4 Rush Hour or Deluxe game and create a new region. Name it whatever you want. For this tutorial I'll use Cloud Map. Exit the game, or at a minimum, exit the new region by opening a different region. This is so the existing config.bmp file is not in use. 2. Create a new config.bmp file. For this tutorial mine will be 12x12 pixels. See Config.bmp: How to Make it Yours if you are not already familiar with it. 3. Save that config.bmp into the new region folder you just made. (Overwrite the existing one.) 4. You should now have region.ini and your config.bmp in your new region folder. Making the Grayscale Image 1. Go outside and take a picture of some clouds. 2. Load the picture into a decent imaging program. 3. [Optional] Crop it if there are cloudless parts you don't want in the image. In Gimp it's the Rectangle Select Tool over in the upper left of the tools box. Or you can press R. Draw a box around the part you want to keep. Then go to the Image Menu and select Crop to Selection... 4. Scale the image to the appropriate size based on the config.bmp you will be using. As we learned in @Birdin's config.bmp guide we multiply the dimensions of config.bmp by 64 and add 1. So 12 * 64 = 768 + 1 = 769. The height and width are the same since my config.bmp is 12 x 12. Go to the Image Menu and select Scale Image... That brings up this Scale Image dialog box. First click the little linked chain to the right of the Width and Height boxes to break the chain. This tells the program that we are not concerned about keeping the cropped selection proportional to the original image. Type in the Width and Height dimensions that you calculated in the beginning of this step. For this tutorial I entered 769 in both boxes. Then click the Scale button. 5. Convert to grayscale. Go to the Image Menu and select Mode --> Grayscale. 6. Export the image as a .Bmp file. Go to the File Menu and select Export As ... When the export dialog box comes up, look in the lower left for the little bitty plus sign in a box by the Select File Type (By Extension) and click it. That will open up the File Type selection box. Scroll down and click Windows BMP image. In the upper left in the name box, type in Gray 1 in front of the .bmp. Note only the name portion is pre-highlighted in blue indicating what part to type over. (Brilliant programming imo.) Remember which folder you export (save) the file to. That's indicated by my arrow in this next pic. Mine is going into My Documents. Click the Export Button. The next dialog box has some options. I simply click the Export Button. (I believe one could select the Run-Length Encoded to reduce the file size. I haven't tested that, so I leave it unchecked.) And here's what I created: 8. Close all files. I personally do not let it save my original clouds with the cropping and changes so that way I still have my unaltered original. 9. Close your imaging program. (Or if your comp has plenty of memory, just minimize it.) First Render (These interim steps are what I did when learning. I skip them now I know what I'm doing.) 1. In SimCity 4, open the new region you created. Mine is called Cloud Map. 2. Press the magic key combination of Shift+Ctrl+Alt+r. This brings up the file selection box. 3. Drill down to where you saved your grayscale image file and select Gray 1.bmp then click Ok. 4. Now wait while the map is rendered. You will see Creating New City like this: And here's our first draft render. Note that it's way too choppy. We will fix that soon. The reason I did this preliminary render is to see what part is water. Tweaking the Grayscale Image 1. Reopen Gray 1.bmp in your image editor. We will paint in our rivers and streams before we smooth out the rough, choppy bumps. Select the Paintbrush tool and set it to Acrylic 05. Leave the size at 20 point for now. I selected Acrylic cause it adds a random pattern to the edges of what you paint. 2. Click the foreground color selection box. It's right under all the tools on the left. That brings up the Change Foreground Color choices. Type 40 in Red, Green, and Blue. Yes, I already hear peeps saying: Wait, that's too dark. Stay with me on this. 3. Now paint in streams / rivers. A twitchy hand actually improves the realism. 4. Now to smooth out the choppiness of the hills. From the Filters menu select Blur --> Gaussian Blur... This also blends the rivers and streams so that's why I picked color level 40 (which equates to 120 meters height after rendering but doesn't count the blur merging). This'll be an area to experiment on your own based on your original cloud picture. 5. In the next dialog box change the Blur Radius to 10.0. Or pick your own number. Higher numbers means more smoothing and lower ones give less. 6. Export the image as Gray 2.bmp. Here's my new grayscale: 7. And here it is rendered: The map is now ready to paint trees in game or load your favorite terrain and tree and other landscape related mods. Or, tweak it some more. Further Refinement 1. Let's say I want everything to be a little lower elevation to get a bit more water. From the Colors menu select Levels... 2. Then I adjust the Gamma Level to 0.85. (I derived this number thru trial and error for this particular cloud image.) 3. Here's the new Grayscale image I exported as Gray 3.Bmp: 4. Here it is rendered: 5. And then I painted Maxis trees in every tile: Edit 2016.11.02 I've discovered a couple new things. I started with this cloud picture: Then in GIMP I did the normal stuff outlined above and then I used the Burn Tool to lighten the banks of the rivers: And I blurred it after that. Here's the grayscale I created: Another new thing I noticed is having mods for terrain, rocks, water, and beaches already installed means the import rendering colors the region view with them so I don't have to go into each tile to do that. Here it is rendered: Then I did go in and paint Maxis trees as thick as the program would allow: ^ What I really like is the banks of the rivers seem more realistic to me inasmuch as they show the effect of previous flooding. Also my heavier use of Gaussian Blur means the map is much more friendly when using a slope mod to lay out the transportation network. Where to go from here 1. You can alter the gray shade of your paintbrush to a lighter one and paint along the sides of the streams to create gentler slopes if you like. It's best to do that before adding the blur cause the blur does a bunch of evening out. (See my edit above. Using the Burn Tool works even better for this.) 2. If your cloud picture has a much lighter blue sky you might want to play with brightness, contrast, or color levels to darken it before for you start any other part of the editing. Use the Color Picker Eyedropper to see what shade any given area in your grayscale is. Providing you have not installed a Height Mod with an alteration to the scale factor and/or sea level, grayscale 83 is slightly below sea level. Lower values are farther under water. Grayscale 84 is slightly above water. Higher values are then higher elevations up to a max of 255 (white). 3. Experiment with various options in the imaging program. Render and see what you get. Learning by doing is loads of fun. 4. Experiment with altering the moisture content as discussed here to change the ground texture appearance. 5. Extract the Terrain Properties exemplar from Simcity_1.dat and play around with the variables there like ImageImportScaleFactor and SeaLevel or the Erosion settings. And Lastly Feel free to post your map creations in this thread. Ideally, post both the final grayscale image and then a region screenshot. Reply with what you've discovered that might be useful to other peeps.

A few words from Cori: While she's not quite ready to return to ST immediately, @CorinaMarie has contacted me privately and asked me to post the following from her: In terms of being able, this relates to both Cori's ongoing house moving and limited internet access, and her current health and stamina. She has assured me she will be back to resume an active role on Simtropolis in time, but cannot give more than a guess of a few weeks. (Like for my OP in this thread since I'm only the messenger, I'll give any rep received to this post directly to Cori's profile.)

An Overdue Correction Site Reputation Scandal Summary My image (and to a lesser degree, CB's) has been tarnished here on Simtropolis for what we allowed to happen over the past few months. Before I go into the details, do note that no other member's name is mentioned here and they are not to be discussed anywhere on the public parts of Simtropolis even if you know who is who in the following. Beginning back in October last year, a member started a spree of adding numerous Like reactions and positive reviews to a small group of peeps' older posts and files including mine (later in December). Now, this wasn't against any established site rule as it never before needed to be stated. However, what we didn't notice is how each day that has been pushing the legitimate info off of the sidebar (which many peeps use to keep up with what is current). Worse yet, this completely skews the total reputation standings as well as the weekly, monthly, and yearly counts. It is also discouraging to other peeps who have not earned as many points in those time frames. In hindsight, we realize we should have been paying closer attention to what was occurring. Since we didn't, we are now doing our best to rectify our mistake as this sort of manipulation cannot be allowed. I must admit I enjoyed getting all that rep at the time and really didn't consider how it would be perceived by other members. So, part of the resolution was removing the 1,761 rep which they gave me that was not properly earned. Ofc, the rep four other peeps gained from this illegitimate method was also removed too. In the following graph you can see the extent of what happened. Only my name is listed here specifically. We realize we've let y'all down by not taking action sooner. We apologize and hope you'll understand we are not perfect. -Cori (& CB) P. S. Additionally, Rule 5 has been updated as follows with the new part being 5e and the explanation: 5. Prohibited Actions It is strictly and expressly prohibited to post or upload: a) Anything referring to CD keys or no CD cracks. b) Any content malicious to computer hardware or software, such as viruses. c) Any content that violates another person's privacy. d) Anything relating to the pirating, or copying, of any software game title. It is also strictly and expressly prohibited to: e) Abuse of any site feature, including manipulating the site's reputation or review system to unfairly escalate any other member's ranking. More specifically, there was a situation from October, 2020 to January, 2021 in which a particular member misused the system to elevate the reputation of several other members (and one admin) by doing something called deep liking. How this worked was they added a positive reaction to a large number of older posts over a period of time which then improperly skewed the leaderboard information for all time rep as well as for the weekly, monthly, and yearly totals. This was then corrected by removing all of the ill-gained rep and this rule is to enforce the same should it ever occur again. Invoking this rule will still fall under the common sense rule and will be our judgment call for whether or not it has occurred. In other words, it's not unusual in any given day for a member to discover someone's content and add a significant number of positive reactions or reviews on that particular day. This is still perfectly reasonable. Where the above will apply is when there is a sustained pattern such that it is obvious the reactions/reviews are intended to alter the overall standings in a significant way. ^ While this is a new rule addition, it only applies to a sustained effort to improperly alter the reputation counts on a large scale. Adding reactions is still highly encouraged. That can be multiple to one person in one day or even over a few days as you discover their content. What this rule applies to is a longer duration.

A new viaduct station on the works:

Statement on the Future of Simtropolis Statement on the Future of Simtropolis (This is good news) Thank you again everyone for all the support. From each of you replying in this topic big and small, along with those who've contacted me privately. I dearly appreciate every single message, and it's helped me unmeasurably ever since that shockingly awful day which was 16th July, 2022. We are heartbroken by Cori's absence. It has affected us in various ways, and we share the grief and loss of someone at the very heart of the Simtropolis we know. Me and many of us are still struggling coming to terms with things, and this past week has been a very turbulent time. Cori was (and still is) such a close friend. Our aim was to steer the SC4 community into calm and peaceful waters. To promote a friendly culture for how wherever we each are in the world, we can share a collective city-building interest within an inviting and welcoming environment. Aiming to make it more open for anyone joining, to feel like they have a new home and be included in our online family. Looking back and where ST is right now based on your replies, I believe we have achieved this. As such, these 5 years have been worthwhile and not wasted. Having said this, my initial thoughts over the first few days were questioning how I could possibly continue in my admin role. I was seriously doubting how I could find any motivation whatsoever, and felt so emotionally drained. Cori being my close companion, who we did everything on site together in all aspects, including with SC4 modding projects. I wasn't sure how I could possibly move forwards and remain strong in the same role, when CoriBoom had been instantly shrunk by 50% in size. I did not want to simply still wear a red badge and slip into the forlorn desolately dismal shadows. That would be against everything Cori and I stand for. However, thankfully I'm pleased to say over these past few days with being supported by you all... I've found the strength to say how I'm willing to continue as a Simtropolis Admin. My aim will be to keep going in the same style Cori and I led the site. Also with the realisation how Cori wouldn't want ST to collapse because of her seemingly indefinite absence. Cori will undoubtedly live on with the wide-ranging contributions she made, and it'll be my goal to maintain her legacy. In fact, I believe this can extend to our collective community objective. Any of us can be guided by the way Cori blessed ST with her endearing presence. And while no singular person can ever entirely replace the void Cori leaves, we're not even trying to replace the irreplaceable. Instead we can unite and make the future of ST in a similar bright light as it currently is. Every little helps for this goal. Some of you might decide to check the SC4 forums more often, and see what topics can be replied to. Or maybe even delve into custom content creation for the first time. We can all do something, with each of us like jigsaw pieces to form the overall picture. Quite likely in the time ahead, there'll be a staff reshuffle. This won't be rushed into, but I'll be looking to bring onboard a few new staff members (and possible promotions to be admins alongside me). For all current staff who are still active, I really appreciate how you're around and supporting too. We're not police officers, so it's all about the tone of how we conduct ourselves primarily as guides. I promise how in every step I take on site, I'll be inspired by how Cori would want ST to be run. From chatting with her almost every day for the past 5 years, I've got an excellent understanding of what she'd want me to do going forwards. There are also unfinished SC4 projects which we didn't get around to completing. This includes ModPacc Zero which will be my main focus to finish, as a bug fixing and enhancement package for the game's foundations. In time I hope to explore some other projects such as CARE which is an agricultural themed set, and there's an experimental method to implement more persistent automata. Cori often had grand ideas which were brilliant on paper, and so just need some time to accomplish. This is all what she'd want to be done, and so it gives me motivation to still learn, explore, and discover. Also as a few of you said, all the knowledge in her forum postings will remain visible for each of us to read whenever, along with new members getting into SC4 for the very first time. This is not lost. As long as Simtropolis is around (even if less active than the past), it'll always be here. Additionally I'll forever remain the other half of CoriBoom™ for everything I do on site. Also if there's even a small chance how Cori might still read this somehow, please know at any time in future, you'd be unconditionally welcomed back alongside me (and us all) with open arms. We love you Corina. -CB (Note: Any other replies to this topic are still very much welcomed now until eternity. This helps give additional strength to us all.)

Wiltern Theatre Stiles O. Clements & G.Albert Lansburgh Los Angeles, California 1931

Another request. This one is pretty special to the person who requested it. In 2016, 49 innocent people were massacred by a lunatic in the pulse nightclub in Orlando. A memorial was slated to be built next year (which will probably be delayed given the impending economic depression). The proposed memorial includes a tall, caged open air tower/museum on one city block and a semi-circular contemplation area around the actual nightclub several city blocks away. Because it spans several blocks, that makes it quite niche to broadly represent in SC4, so I have scaled the entire thing back and included it on one lot. Somber by day...... ....'Fabulous' by night.

The old SC3000 Fire-station on the Euro Tileset.... ....gets some new life in SC4:

First, thank you Maxis and EA for having us down there, our host and hostess were awesome. We had a great time, there just wasn't enough of it! We appreciate the opportunity to connect with you! Fellow Simtropolians, these impressions are for you (this is not a review). Sorry for the posting this a couple days later than intended, got distracted with some server stuff, and I also wanted to give it some more thought. If there's a topic I didn't cover, please feel free to ask and I'll try to get an answer for you. Do keep in mind, these are really early impressions, and I'm sure lots of things are going to change. Please share your thoughts, let me know where I'm wrong, or what you disagree with. ---- Oct 2012 Maxis Studios Visit, Thoughts and impressions In the hands of Maxis SimCity is back in the hands of Maxis. And last week, we were invited to visit their studio in Emeryville with an opportunity to interact with the team and to to get a detailed inside view of the development of the new game. I have a few thoughts and impressions to share with you guys, but I want to make it very clear that while we enjoyed lots of candid, insightful conversation, we simply did not have enough time to fit in an extended play session with the actual game. So it made writing this difficult because I wanted to be honest with what I saw, informative for you guys, but fair to Maxis, knowing that I didn’t really get a full experience with the game. What I did get was a brief exposure to a limited tutorial, and while I tried to take in as much as I could given the constraints, I just couldn’t get enough out of it without time to play freely. Again, this was just the unfortunate result of scheduling not conspiracy (I think). Anyway, even though our time there was condensed, it was packed with plenty of information, lots of demos were shown and plenty of discussion. I’ll share what I thought was interesting, but I’m not going into specific gameplay stuff that has already been shown or talked about. Before moving on, one caveat: given that what we saw was all based on early software, some behaviour we discussed was undemonstrated, and what in-game art we saw is not final, I may totally change my mind on any of these things as new information arises. The very limited tutorial I went through amounted to little more than click here, drag down this road, put down a zone and that’s about it. It’s a serviceable tutorial for a new player, but I didn’t get much out of it. I got a chance to draw a couple of roads; yes, it feels pretty good and intuitive. Painting down zones feels just as you might expect. I like how buildings sort of swing around as you drag them across the terrain before placing them. Yes, all pretty superficial. Sorry to disappoint, but if I get another chance to actually sink my teeth into the actual game, I’ll tell you something more meaningful. City sizes, repetition, and why Glassbox could play really differently But we did get to some talking about city-building, and city sizes. Yes, it’s 2x2, sorry, no change right now. I brought up the issue of building repetition. So from what I understand, to help mitigate this a little bit, the idea is that each building will have some slight variation, I’m assuming texture, colour, props, so that even a row of similar looking houses, should at least have a little variety between them. That’s good news. When I asked if it extended any further than just cosmetics, for example, will the simulator be able to recognize that 4 car washes are growing next to each other and, maybe, you know, not do that? The answer was no. It will still be possible to still get a bunch of similar stuff bunched together, like 4 gas stations all on the same street. It’s a small gripe for me, but maybe not for you. As long as the underlying simulator is fun, I can overlook that. About the simulator, I think Glassbox, based on the demos we saw, will really make the new game feel and play very differently form its predecessor. You already all about it, but I like the idea that every car, vehicle or sim is an agent with goals, that they will use whatever infrastructure you’ve laid down, to attempt to get to their destination. And if for some reason they can’t, you will see where things screwed up naturally as a result of your own boneheaded networks. I like that. It gives your city a sense of real physicality because you will see sims physically using your transportation network, and you will be able to see exactly what isn’t working and understand why. In SimCity 4 the simulator was purely statistical so trying to get the current state of your city meant staring at windows with rows of numbers, and looking at a value like “47%” and then trying to figure out what that means, what affected that, and what you should do to move that number up or down. There’s usually a lot of guessing, and then you just stop guessing, and just spam bus stops (or whatever) everywhere and moved on. For me, playing SC4 sometimes felt like balancing a spreadsheet. So with Glassbox, I like how the data is presented like a real-time animated info-graphic style, allowing you to see what’s going on right now. It’s nice to not have to comb through rows of data while playing the game to understand a situation. I do see some value for having charts though, perhaps more like a summary, or annual report, where you can see a nicely plotted graph of trends in crime, pollution, population, what improved, what’s declining, that sort of thing. It’s info fluff for sure, but it would give the city a growth history. The complexity of buildings, and modding As we walked around the studio, nearly every wall it seemed was covered with large format print-outs of concept artwork. I was impressed with the attention to detail that went into the design of every building. This stuff makes a SimCity geek happy. And looking at them, I started to appreciate just how much more there is to consider for each building now that they are in 3d, animated, and can be expandable with modules. That’s going to take modding and custom content to a new level. There are still a lot of questions with modding and custom content support. I can tell you that Maxis is very keen to support modding, but don’t expect any tools until well after launch. Right now, they just don’t have any solid answers or solutions on how modding could work in a persistent world with these online regions. How does a modded building affect that global economy? Would it? Should it? What about other players in your region? Maybe if you play with modded or custom content, you play in your own region, and you affect nothing else, including the global economy. But should you get to access the global economy? Does that not just isolate you, you know, just as if you were playing a single-player offline game? The other thing to consider is the leap in technology and tools just needed to create a building. In SimCity 4 the buildings were essentially static sprites. Buildings in the new SimCity are fully 3d objects. And I’m assuming with the Glassbox simulator there’s even more to account for: Building have animations to indicate their state, such as doors opening, or conveyor belts moving. Lighting is now volumetric, no longer simply baked onto the texture as in SC4. Buildings that provide services can be upgraded and expanded with snap-on modules; those snap-on areas must be considered in the over all design. All buildings require road access, so the artist must plan where road connections on the lot would be ideally placed. I’m certain there’s more that goes into creating a building. Additionally, all models are now built in Maya (along with some proprietary tools and palettes that Maxis developed to work in Maya for the project). So if all the above requirements are true for Maxis-made buildings, it seems reasonable to expect that custom content makers must follow the same standard. It’s a lot to consider, but I know it’s on their minds. When the time comes, content creators can expect a big leap in both complexity and creativity. While Maxis doesn’t have all the answers to modding yet, they are open to a dialogue with the community and to hear your feedback. Road geeks win with 3d The other great benefit of everything in true 3d, is roads. Because roads are now full 3d paths, Road Geeks will literally have a whole other dimension to play within. Ocean Quigley gave us a demo of the road tool and it was pretty sweet to see just how easy he was able to create a three level overpass by using the free-form tool and dragging out an elevated road, dragged another one beneath it, and one on top. Elevated roads create their own support pylons, and if there’s sufficient space beneath, you can run another road or rail under it. The road tool is smart enough to try to solve bumpy or hilly terrain for you. At times it will suggest a bridge as a solution to span a gap, other times it might draw a road down one incline and up another. But if you want finer control, you can still create your own solution by inching the road tool along and clicking to commit as you go along. There seemed to be endless possibilities, and unlike previous titles, making these complex configurations looked pretty effortless. Also, I loved the fact that as you draw your road, you’ll see a dotted line hinting the optimal space required for zoning. So if you wanted to carve a winding road down a hill, the zone hinting line will make sure you leave enough space to zone your hillside houses. Zoning, changes and omissions On the topic of zoning, you no longer specify density for your zones. The density of the building that will grow there will depend on the type of road its adjacent to. Busy roads with lots of traffic will result in high density, but low volume roads will create low density buildings. There will no longer be an agricultural zone. No farms. When asked, the team felt that farm zones offered no real gameplay value. Well, two things to say about that: they may not add much to gameplay, but it did allow players to design a city with that distinct agricultural look so it’s a shame it’s gone, we lose variety. Second thing, what about actually adding a gameplay element to farms? Make farms produce goods that would be sold on the global market. Now people have a choice to specialize even further if they want to export grown goods for income. There’s a built-in trade-off since farms take up a lot of space and there are risks such as pollution, disasters, drought. If you get a good yield one year, you might make a lot of money selling high wine (or whatever) sold to rich sims everywhere. But you may not always get a profitable year, so it's risk versus reward. It’s also a challenge to operate a purely agricultural based city; you’d need to support it with neighbouring cities and deals to ensure your other needs are met. If anything it’s just more interesting choices for the player. In other words, turn agriculture into a challenge. People might enjoy the challenge of trying to sustain a profitable agricultural city. It could add another dynamic to both the global market and multiplayer regions. Anyway, just an idea. Speaking of multiplayer, when I first heard that the new SimCity will be an “online multiplayer SimCity”, I probably had the same reaction as some of you. Honestly, the term “multiplayer SimCity” must, to a core fan, confuse as much as it offends. Multiplayer and always-online So far, we have no real idea how online multiplayer, global markets and global economies will play out. I’m guessing the Beta is where we’re going to discover all that. My initial resistance was based on the fear that I would be forced to play in a region with other people and I had no choice. For me, leaderboards and group challenges hold almost no appeal whatsoever, other players might dig that. I hope the online component offers some surprising dynamic that we haven't already seen before and that serve to engage more than to annoy. So we know now that you can still play an entire region by yourself - though you still have to be online. So that brings us to a burning point of contention which has been debated all over the forums here and abroad. I don’t think I can add much more to the conversation, but I did bring up the topic with Maxis at dinner the one night: “Ok, so hey, let’s say I had a long day at work, and I just want to go home, relax and load up SimCity. In fact, I can’t wait to get home and work on my city. I’ve been thinking about it all day. So I get home, I load it up, and the servers are down. I can’t play… so… now what?” The only answer I got was about the only answer I deserved for such a loaded question. Kip shrugged his shoulders and offered a “c’est la vie” face. Really, what else could he say? We are told that online play is asynchronous, so temporary outages will not disrupt your game. And yes, occasionally Origin servers may be down for maintenance, and you won’t be able to login or you may be kicked out of the game, but we can be assured that plenty of notice will always be given. While not new, I still reject the idea of “always online” but I am accepting that it will be the way many games will go. Still at the risk of being obnoxious on the topic, I wanted to press the point another way: “Ok, so you look at SimCity 4 released 10 years ago, and I can still load it up today and play it. I can load it up five years from now and still play it. I don’t need to sign in, I don’t need a server, I just load it up and play. How can this always online requirement be able to assure me that I can still play my game, say, a year or 10 from now just as I can with SimCity 4?” As an answer, Kip hunched over and waved his fingers: “Hmmm… let me look into my crystal ball…” There was laughter, it was kinda funny. And really, what did I expect? Still, however glib Kip’s response, within it contained about as much truth and assurance as I could have hoped to extract on the matter. The honest answer of course is that no one really knows for sure, and there really are no promises. There was no answer that could have satisfied. Not to paint Kip as completely glib and dismissive (he’s actually very patient, great to talk to and good humoured) he did address my concern as best as he was able to: Maxis values SimCity greatly, it’s one of their flagship titles, and that we have every good intention of making sure it has a long life. Something along that line. So there you go, that’s the best answer they can possibly give us, whether that affects your buying decision is up to you. Final musings Some final thoughts, I have noticed that the SimCity coming out in February has a disconcerting lack of version suffix. We’ve just been calling it the New SimCity. Is it possible that this is the Final SimCity? From what I’ve seen, and I have not seen it all, the concepts and the intents behind the ideas all support a distinct possibility for a great game. While I am mostly, cautiously, optimistic by what I have seen so far, and despite a few points on which I disagree with -- if I have any meaningful reservations to share with you it would be the overall visual style. I’m not warming to it yet. It could be that I just haven’t played the game enough, and that I’ve only really seen very early builds and demos, but the truth is right now, I’m not connecting with the visual style which feels to me overtly cute, bright and cartoony. SimCity 4 had a clean stylized realism to it that felt right, at least for me. In the new SimCity, there’s something about the scale of the city in general, the look of the buildings, the awkward spaces between buildings (ugh), the way all the cities we’ve seen look and feel sparse. I’m not looking for realistic, just believable. So for what it’s worth, there’s my big disconnect right now, perhaps real gameplay may cure that at some point. Overall, Maxis is doing a lot to move the game forward. And I believe them when they say that having a deep simulator is important, we’ll wait and see how deep it is, but it’s looking promising. It feels like they want to make SimCity more connected, socially engaging, encouraging you to partner up to build “great works” and complete challenges. There’s lots of evidence that Maxis wants to make the game more appealing and more accessible to bring in new players without, hopefully, alienating the dedicated fans (too much). I can see this effort in some of the design choices, super friendly interface, the way data is rendered in a more friendly way, the new music is friendly and relatable (unlike the electronic, abstract mix of SC4), and mostly in the art direction; the brighter palette, the sense of scale. The tilt-shift style makes it all look miniature, like a toy … like a doll-house city, maybe? At the Maxis Live broadcast event, one thing about the presentation format did not escape me. The SimCity portion of the live event was bracketed by two major The Sims 3 announcements. I mean even the “promotional” mystery box for SimCity, required owning some Sims 3 expansions. Now there’s nothing wrong with this. It was just an observation and I’m not suggesting anything more nefarious than just savvy marketing and PR. Whatever the intention, I think it was a good thing. Maxis is known for The Sims and SimCity (what’s Spore?). The difference, is that The Sims 3 has approximately nine thousand expansions. SimCity 4, has one. If there’s any hope for the title to be a commercial success (and more than just fan service) -- which means continued support, more expansions, servers remaining online -- it’s got to appeal to more players than just us core fans. So, core fans, in February what we’ll see will be the next generation of SimCity. I for one hope that the game has enough in it for me so I can include myself in this next generation, too. That’s all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading. Dirktator

Music is powerful. SimCity's music is no exception. That's why I decided to upload it. Each game's music is individually packaged, so you can pick and choose what you want. Simply unzip - I recommend 7zip for the task - and enjoy. If you really want to view my first attempt at a SimCity music collection over 15 years ago, you can see it here. What you're reading right now is the third major overhaul of this collection to date. Enjoy... ----- DOWNLOADS All music is sorted by date of release. All archives not hosted on Google Docs are ZIP format. More detailed information about the music itself can be found in the .txt files packaged with each game's music. ORIGINAL SimCity MUSIC SimCity for Windows, SimCity Classic for Windows, SimCity Enhanced 3 MIDI files, 1 MP3 file at 128 kbps, 611 kilobytes uncompressed (not including box art) SimCity (Amiga CDTV) 18 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 57 megabytes uncompressed SimCity (SNES) 24 MP3 files at 79-159 kbps, 50 megabytes uncompressed (including images) SimCity (NES) - link to the Internet Archive where you can download the music in MP3 and NSF formats, the game ROM itself, and other stuff The music for the SNES and Amiga CDTV ports, both of which came out in 1991, was never officially released. -- SimCity 2000 MUSIC MIDIs from 1994 original release and 1995 Special Edition release 19 MIDI files, 112 kilobytes uncompressed Original sound effects from original release & SE 30 WAV files, 455 kilobytes uncompressed MAC version, released 1994 15 MP3 files at 256-320 kbps, 54.7 megabytes uncompressed Assembled by trar; thanks to jjakucyk for originally uploading and researching additional information You can also find a recording of (slightly edited) SC2K MIDIs in a custom Mac OS soundfont here at the Internet Archive (released by dada78641 and uploaded by M Sikma) in MP3, M3U, and FLAC. IBM PC General MIDI recording (1994) 14 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 63 megabytes uncompressed General MIDI is a standardized specification for music synthesizers that respond to MIDI input. Likewise, the IBM Personal Computer was the personal computer that put IBM-like personal computers on the map, and its influence is felt to this day. This recording is from an IBM PC using General MIDI. Originally recorded by VengefulChip IBM PC Roland MT-32 recording (1994) 14 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 63.2 megabytes uncompressed The Roland MT-32, originally released in 1987, proved popular enough to set a de facto standard for game music up until the mid-90's. This recording is from an emulation. Originally recorded by VengefulChip Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth recording (1995) 19 MP3 files at 192-256 kbps, 56.7 megabytes uncompressed The Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth is the MIDI synthesizer that was bundled with Windows when SC2K Special Edition came out. It uses a sound set created by Roland in 1991, a superset of the General MIDI standard of the day. The samples were considered high quality when it was released. Recorded by trar SNES version, released 1995 10 OGG files at 128 kbps, 9.88 megabytes uncompressed (including images) Emulator rip by Felamine Sega Saturn version, released 1995 16 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 80 megabytes uncompressed (including images) Originally recorded by VengefulChip Sim-Melody from SimCity 2000 (1995) 20 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 64.1 megabytes uncompressed (including images) Alternative download from Internet Archive in MP3, M3U and FLAC (uploaded by mrpenguinb) VGMdb lists Ryuichi Katsumata as the arranger and the following people as performers: E. & A. Guitar: Toshinori Numata E. Bass: Hiroki Takeda Keyboards: Ryuichi Katsumata Sax: Hiroshi Yamazaki This is an arranged instrumental recording produced by Toshinori Numata that was released on CD in Japan in late 1995. It's easily the best version of the soundtrack out there, and also one of the most obscure. Special thanks to Haljackey and YouTube user hgb7 for bringing this to my attention! PlayStation version, released 1996 Music - 18 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 76 megabytes uncompressed Sound effects - 34 WAV files at 88 kbps, 496 kilobytes uncompressed Soundfont instruments - 22 WAV files at 352-705 kbps, 916 kilobytes uncompressed 79.2 megabytes total (including images) Sound effects ripped by Nero1024 at vg-resource.com, music ripped by wzg45 Sound Blaster AWE64 recording (1996) 14 MP3 files at 256 kbps, 52.4 megabytes uncompressed The Sound Blaster Advanced Wave Effects 64 ISA sound card from Creative Technology was released in 1996, and was generally considered the best sound card of the '90s. Recorded by AndrosynthNuclear, assembled by trar Nintendo 64 version (Japanese exclusive released in 1998) 38 MP3 files at 85-198 kbps, 53 megabytes uncompressed (including images) Original USF files provided by Josh W. & converted/made up by wzg45 SimCity 2000 Special Edition WillTV Thanks to the Internet Archive for hosting this all along so I don't have to -- SIMCOPTER MUSIC Soundtrack 27 MP3 files at 128 kbps (320 kbps for menu/hangar music), 132 megabytes uncompressed Advertisements & DJs 95 WAV files at 88 kbps, ~14 megabytes uncompressed 148 megabytes total (including images) Note that the music was originally encoded at a low bitrate, hence the quality (and a certain self-aware radio identifier). There is no known commercial release for this music. Thanks to shoptroll for helping me acquire this -- STREETS OF SimCity MUSIC Soundtrack 16 MP3 files at 204-232 kbps, 1 WAV file (at 176 kbps, 621 KB) 124 megabytes uncompressed Advertisements/DJs 145 WAV files at 176 kbps, ~41 megabytes uncompressed Additional radio music 7 WAV files at 352 kbps, 80 megabytes uncompressed 250 megabytes total (including images) Included are both the high quality soundtrack and the additional radio music, because there are some radio tracks that aren't in the soundtrack. Thanks to Cool_Z for helping me acquire this -- SimCity 3000/UNLIMITED MUSIC SimCity 3000 Soundtrack 16 MP3 files at 128 kbps (except 2000 Theme which is 160), 1 WAV file (705 kbps), 80 megabytes uncompressed SimCity 3000 Unlimited Soundtrack 5 MP3 files at 101-128 kbps, 2 WAV files at 705 kbps, 25 megabytes uncompressed 21 MP3 files, 3 WAV files, 238 megabytes total (including images) Game sounds 798 WAV & MP3 files, 125 megabytes uncompressed The SimCity 3000/Unlimited music is stored in the game's files in a proprietary file format. Sound effects were converted with the Switch Sound File Converter. -- SimCity 64 MUSIC 17 FLAC files at 434-507 kbps, 206 megabytes uncompressed Ripped and hosted by LuigiBlood / Yakumono -- SimCity 4/RUSH HOUR MUSIC SimCity 4 Soundtrack 24 MP3 files at 128-320 kbps, 178 megabytes uncompressed Rush Hour Soundtrack 13 MP3 files at 128-320 kbps, 60 megabytes uncompressed 35 MP3 files, 247 megabytes total (including images) All of the SimCity 4/Rush Hour music is available in the game's directory, in the Radio folder. -- SimCity SOCIETIES/DESTINATIONS MUSIC SimCity Societies Soundtrack 15 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 100 megabytes uncompressed 14 additional OGG files 43 megabytes uncompressed Rockstar & Street Performer tracks ripped by wzg45 Destinations music 7 OGG files, 17 megabytes uncompressed 36 files, 166 megabytes total (including images) The official soundtrack consists of only 15 tracks from the base game, which are in MP3 format. All but one of the rest are in Ogg Vorbis format. The soundtrack was only released in digital format. -- SimCity DS MUSIC SimCity DS 32 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 218 megabytes uncompressed Ripped by Knurek at http://hcs64.com; uses Legacy of Ys: Book II driver hacked by Caitsith2; acquired from Zophar's Music Domain. SimCity DS features a number of MIDI-fied songs from SimCity 3000 under different titles. SimCity Creator Wii 57 MP3 files at 320 kbps, 60 megabytes Ripper unknown, music provided by wzg45. SimCity DS 2 AKA SimCity Creator DS 13 OGG files, 47 megabytes Ripped by wizzario007, music provided by wzg45. 112 megabytes total (including images) SimCity Creator was released for the Nintendo Wii in September 2008, and SimCity DS 2 (also known as SimCity Creator in Europe, North America, and Australia) was released in March 2008. The music for either was never officially released. -- SimCity BUILDIT & SOCIAL MUSIC 8 MP3 files at 128 kbps, 16 megabytes uncompressed -- And just for kicks SimMars Soundtrack (direct download link) 22 MP3 files at 128-224 kbps, 103 megabytes uncompressed This is from a SimCity 4 mod and not part of the collection, but I want to provide a direct link anyway. A bit more convenient than downloading a text file containing the link to the download, no? ----- If you want to support Jerry Martin and the other composers & musicians, I suggest you purchase any and/or all available albums of this music from Amazon or iTunes. The music from Streets, SC3K, SC4 and SC Societies - as well as the 2013 reboot and its expansion, not included here for copyright reasons - are available from both services. However, the Societies and 4 selections are sadly incomplete, and the music from SC3K Unlimited & Societies Destinations is missing entirely. To play this music (or any other music for that matter) in SimCity 4, find your SC4 application folder and go to Radio\Stations. There should be two folders, Mayor and Region. Inside each of these folders is another folder named Music. Only MP3 files will play in the game, so place whichever MP3 files you want into the folder you want. For previous SimCity games, muting the in-game music and playing this collection with an external music player will suffice. Compressed size of version 2.5 (last version before V3 update): 923 megabytes Uncompressed size of version 2.5: 956 megabytes Compressed total size of version 3: 1.94 gigabytes Uncompressed total size of version 3: 2.05 gigabytes Thanks to: http://alerante.net & http://simsoundtracks.com/ for SimCity 3000/4 track information, trivia & quotes shoptroll, Cool_Z, CaptCity, HackDown, cromabianca (he's remixed some of SC2K's music here if you're interested), Haljackey & A Nonny Moose Will Wright, Jeff Braun & Maxis The Videogame Music Preservation Foundation VengefulChip (YouTube channel) Squakenet (YouTube channel) jjakucyk (YouTube channel) AndrosynthNuclear (YouTube channel) Builder4563 (YouTube channel) TheSims3EAmusic (YouTube channel) banaan442 (YouTube channel) hgb7 (YouTube channel) LuigiBlood (YouTube channel) wzg45 Every composer and musician listed elsewhere in the collection YOU for downloading or even reading any of this -- Update history: SimCity Music Collection V. 1 released August 3rd, 2009 SimCity Music Collection V. 2 released March 20th, 2012 SimCity Music Collection V. 2.1 changes (September 14th, 2012): Updated SimCity SNES music SimCity Music Collection V. 2.2 changes (May 29th, 2013): Updated readme & SimCity 3000 Unlimited music/sound effects, Readme updated (again) on June 9th, 2013 with references to other parts (SimCopter) SimCity Music Collection V. 2.3 changes (October 21st, 2013): added SimCity Classic Deluxe music, updated Readme SimCity Music Collection V. 2.4 changes (January 30th, 2014): added Streets of SimCity music, updated Readme SimCity Music Collection V. 2.5 changes (April 15th, 2014): transferred all files to Google Drive, reuploaded uncorrupted Part 4, removed 'alternate' music which was just MIDI files run through a faulty converter, updated Readme SimCity Music Collection V. 3 (4:15 AM, September 3rd, 2015: almost completely rewrote Readme, added metadata to and properly organized all tracks possible, added box/disc/album art where available, added text files with more detailed album/track/artist data where available, added SimCity Creator (Wii/DS) music, reconverted SimCity Societies music, added more Streets of SimCity music/radio files, added SimCopter radio files, added SimCity DS/DS 2 music, revamped and added to SimCity 2000 music February 1st, 2017: Swapped out Streets of SimCity track #14 for a version with proper audio channels thanks to Prisoner416 July 9, 2019: Updated SimCity DS music titles to be accurate, from a better source SimCity Music Collection V. 3.1 (February 2, 2021): Added Sim-Melody from SimCity 2000. I think that's worth a version upgrade. 4/7/2022: Corrected SimCity 2000 artist metadata and added soundfont instruments for the PlayStation version. SimCity Music Collection V. 3.2 (February 26th, 2025): Cleaned up OP formatting, added Internet Archive links for Sim-Melody from SimCity 2000, added download link for SimCity 64 music -- Disclaimer: SOUNDTRACKS, SOUNDS, LOGOS, ART AND OTHER MATERIAL FROM Streets of SimCity, SimCity 3000, SimCity 4, SimCity 4 Rush Hour & SimCity Societies ARE COPYRIGHT (©) ELECTRONIC ARTS. NO INFRINGEMENT IS INTENDED FROM THIS COLLECTION. NO PROFIT IS INTENDED TO BE MADE FROM THIS COLLECTION. NO AFFILIATION WITH EA/MAXIS IS CLAIMED. ALL THIRD PARTIES CREDITED WHERE POSSIBLE. Beware reading my posts beyond this point, at least up to around page 6 - I was but a neophyte then!

.BOC 0.98o (Thanks DamienMB)-

Cori's Terrain Shoppe by CorinaMarie@Simtropolis A picture catalogue of every known Terrain Mod for SimCity 4 Note: I did not create any of these mods. This thread is simply to display each terrain mod using the same city tile for easy comparison. If you find this useful feel free to use your browser's Save As function and do a Save Complete Web Page. This will give you an offline copy with all the pictures. My content is freely available for use by anyone. You can even make a duplicate thread on any other site if you like. Please, just be sure to give me credit for the original creation. The first three Terrain Mods are hosted on both the LEX and the STEX and have slightly different names, but are the same mods. So, you only need the left hand side or the right hand side as separated by the slash. Ofc, the ones on LEX require a separate login. If you haven't signed up there I highly advise it. They've got great content too. (And a side note, the registration for the LEX is separate from the SC4Devotion forums.) The linkys that are indented in a bullet list (like this) are the dependencies. You'll notice a lot of duplication of the those deps. If you get the CPT No3 & No4 once, you do not need to re-get them for other terrain mods that require them. For peeps with 16:9 (or other wide screen) monitors you could open this thread in two separate windows side by side. This would allow you to have independent scroll bars to compare specific mods. It would also work if you have dual monitors tho there may be some slight color difference between the two. Other Threads in Cori's Shoppe Series: Cori's Rock Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Rock Mod) Cori's Water Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Water Mod) Cori's Side Water Shoppe NEW! – March 2022 (Pictures and in topic Downloads of the Water's Edge for every Water Mod) Cori's Beach Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Beach Mod) Cori's Jolteon's Ferrians's Tree Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of almost every Tree Mod) And see: C.O.R.I.M.A.P.S. - A Tutorial for SimCity 4 (Quick alternative realistic map making method) Note: I have the Beach Extend Mod 1.0 installed for more beachiness. Otherwise, it's all vanilla. So, what you see is what the complete mod does. Some have Cliff (rock), Beach, and Water. Or some combination. Or only the terrain itself. If you download a mod and have any difficulty with it and when all else fails, read the ReadMe instructions that comes with it. Note 2: The following images were shot on my low end system at 1280 x 1024 resolution. See @rsc204's post later in this thread for comments on how you can improve the look on your system and for a linky there to a tutorial on how to do that. Ok, so let's start out with plain vanilla so we have that as a basis from which to compare: CPT Painted Desert Terrain Mod1 (v1.0) / CPT Painted Desert Terrain Mod CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures CPT OlympicTerrain Mod1 (v1.0) / CPT Olympic Terrain Mod 1 CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures CPT Missouri Breaks Terrain Mod (v1.0) / CPT Missouri Breaks Terrain Mod CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures CPT Italia Terrain Mod (v1.0) CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures CPT Canyonlands Terrain Mod (v1.0) CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures CPT Grand Canyon Terrain Mod (v1.0) CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures Columbus Textures for jeronijs mod aka Columbus Terrain Mod v1.0 Columbus Terrain Mod von Cycledogg aka Columbus Terrain Mod v2.0 CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures Meadowshire Terrain Mod (v1.0) CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures LBT Bajio Terrain Mod 2 LBT Cumbres Terrain Mod 2 LBT Yucatan Terrain Mod 2 LBT Chihuahuan Terrain Mod 2 HBS Californian Terrain Mod 1 Terrain Mod Pack contains 16 total (there is a zip within the zip for the 2nd eight) Dark Rock: Dirt: Dry Grass: Grass: Grass and Flowers: Ice and Grass: Savannah: Snow and Grass: Now in Alien Terrain Pack of Terrain Mod Pack Blue #2: Blue: Circuit: Green: Lava: Moon: Space: Web: Terrain Mod Pack 2 contains 4 Blue Moon: Green #2: Lava Rock: Red: Alien Terrain Grass Lands Terrain Mod Socorro Terrain Mod 1 CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures Socorro Terrain Mod [V. 2] contains 2 CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures Dry Coasts: Regular Coasts: PEG MTP Terrain Modd 1 ^ No, it's not plain vanilla. It's rearranged vanilla. (See ReadMe in download.) THL Terrain Pack 2.3 contains 5 Grassland: Sandy Desert: Scrubby Desert: Scrubby Red Desert: Wet Tropical: TRK Wasco Terrain Mod (v1.0) CPT No3 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No3 TerrainTextures CPT No4 Terrain Textures (v1.0) / CPT No4 TerrainTextures The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. PyreneanTerrainMod v 1.0 Pyrenean Texture Pack One Pyrenean Texture Pack Two Pyrenean Texture Pack Three ^ This site is in French. Click the Télécharger Button to download. (Special thanks to @rathefalcon for getting the dependency linkys.) The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. Sudden Valley Terrain Mod (v1.0) Sudden Valley Texture Pack A (v1.0) The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. Berner Oberland Terrain Mod (v1.0) The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. LK Appalachian Terrain Mod - WINDOWS (v1.0) LK Terrain Textures 01 (v1.0) Ok. So, here's the above Terrain Mod with the full LK_StarterSet (v1.0) installed too: Antarctic Terrain Mod v1.0 The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. Runamuck's HD Terrain MOD v1 NHP Palm Springs California (v1.0) ^ This one is really a Map File, but there is a separate terrain mod with it. NHP San Faraway ^ This one is really a Map File, but there is a separate terrain mod with it. Sahara Terrain Mod 1.0.0 The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. VIP Terrain Mod by Cédric. (Attached to this post on Devotion.) Note: In addition to the Terrain Mod there are also Beach, Rock, and Water mods. The following pic shows all 4 installed: ^ Thanks to @Indiana Joe for mentioning this one. Special thanks to @RandyE for checking that all the linkys go where they are supposed to go. Again, if you know of any Terrain Mods I've missed please post linkys. So, when peeps ask: Which terrain mod should I get?, show them this thread so they can compare and decide. Attached is the medium size city tile I've used for these pics that way you can make your own with the exact same layout. City - Terrain Mods.sc4 Return to SimCity 4 Ultimate Guide: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762954-SimCity-4-ultimate-guide/

Cori's Rock Shoppe by CorinaMarie@Simtropolis A picture catalogue of every known Rock Mod for SimCity 4 Note: I did not create any of these mods. This thread is simply to display each rock mod using the same city tile for easy comparison. If you find this useful feel free to use your browser's Save As function and do a Save Complete Web Page. This will give you an offline copy with all the pictures. My content is freely available for use by anyone. You can even make a duplicate thread on any other site if you like. Please, just be sure to give me credit for the original creation. For peeps with 16:9 (or other wide screen) monitors you could open this thread in two separate windows side by side. This would allow you to have independent scroll bars to compare specific mods. It would also work if you have dual monitors tho there may be some slight color difference between the two. Other Threads in Cori's Shoppe Series: Cori's Water Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Water Mod) Cori's Side Water Shoppe NEW! – March 2022 (Pictures and in topic Downloads of the Water's Edge for every Water Mod) Cori's Beach Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Beach Mod) Cori's Terrain Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of every Terrain Mod) Cori's Jolteon's Ferrians's Tree Shoppe (Linkys to and Pictures of almost every Tree Mod) And see: C.O.R.I.M.A.P.S. - A Tutorial for SimCity 4 (Quick alternative realistic map making method) Note: If you download a mod and have any difficulty with it and when all else fails, read the ReadMe instructions that comes with it. The rest of my game is vanilla atm so the only difference between the pics is which rocks are installed. First off, here's the vanilla Maxis texture: dogfight Rock Mods (v1.0) contains 3 Calm Limestone: Dark Igneous: Dark Limestone: ENN Rock Mod Set 1 SD contains 8 Brown Granite1: Dark Granite2: Dark Granite3: Dark Granite4: Granite9: Red Igneous: Sandstone1 Brown: Sandstone1 Gray: Tropical Mossy Rock Mod: Sandy Rock Mod: Mossy Rock Mod: Grassy Rock Mod: Jeronij Maxis Rock Mod: JRJ PEG Limestone Rock Mod: Mossy Rock Mod: Grassy Rock Mod: Granite Rock Mod: Sphinx Rock mod: PEG PPOND Rock Mod: PEG ROCK MOD II Weathered Granite: PEG ROCK MOD II Eroded Sandstone: PEG ROCK MOD II Golden Sandstone: PEG ROCK MOD II Dark Basalt: PEG ROCK MOD contains 6 Craggy Sandstone: Gray Granite: Gray Rock: Limestone: Red Craggy: Sandstone: The following are HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. ENN Rock Mod Set 2 HD (v1.0) contains 3 Granite9: Sandstone1 Brown: Sandstone1 Grey: The following are HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. ENN Rock Mod Set 3 HD (v1.0) contains 3 Dark Granite2: Dark Granite3: Dark Granite4: The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. LK_StarterSet (v1.0): The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. Sudden Valley Terrain Mod (v1.0) SV Rock.dat only: The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. Berner Oberland Terrain Mod (v1.0) BO Rock Mod.dat only: SMP Gray Marble Rock Mod: VIP Orange Snowy rock mod (v1.0): Les Roches de l'Aubrac v 1: CPT Painted Desert Terrain Mod1 (v1.0) / CPT Painted Desert Terrain Mod CPT_C_MoabCliff.dat only: CPT OlympicTerrain Mod1 (v1.0) / CPT Olympic Terrain Mod 1 CPT_C_OlympicCliff_Optional.dat only: Columbus Terrain Mod von Cycledogg CPT_C_ColumbusCliff_Optional.dat only: Meadowshire Terrain Mod (v1.0) CPT_C_MeadowshireCliff.dat only: The following are HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. SHK HD Rock Mods contains 5. SHK_HDRockMod_01.dat: SHK_HDRockMod_02.dat: SHK_HDRockMod_03.dat: SHK_HDRockMod_04.dat: SHK_HDRockMod_05.dat: The following is HD so you will need to have Hardware Rendering or you will get CTD. Rock Mod contained in VIP Terrain Mod by Cédric. (Attached to this post on Devotion.) Note: In addition to the Rock Mod there are also Beach, Terrain, and Water mods. The following pic has all 4 installed: ^ Thanks to @Indiana Joe for mentioning this one. So, when peeps ask: Which rock mod should I get?, show them this thread so they can compare and decide. Attached is the medium size city tile I've used for these pics that way you can make your own with the exact same mountain. City - Rock Mods.sc4 Return to SimCity 4 Ultimate Guide: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762954-SimCity-4-ultimate-guide/

Alrite, alrite, alrite...! Since one year I now finally have replaced my gaming laptop from 2008 with a beefy PC rig, meaning working in 3ds Max is now much faster and rendering much less of an endless waiting thing. My PC is able to easily handle this big baby (despite low poly methods used we are at 16 million polygons now). So I always promised I would finish this project and I hold on to that promise. Now that I took this year to set up my new business in RL and that is settling I'm having more time for this also. So, as for the status of the project: currently works are being done to finish the base atm working on beefing up all the flora details left to do are all the decals for the roads, reworks of some plaza areas like the fountains at the roundabout, addition of vehicles, signs and other small details, a café area and some coach bus parking and entrance area in the back after the base is done work continues at tower, reworks of tower details and overhaul of all the balcony details, rework of windows after tower is completed then night scene with lights (kind of dreading that stage) then finalisation like error eliminations and color corrections etc., afterwards all the steps for creating lot and release Have a look at the current work-in-progress: (direct link to fullsize image: http://s1.bild.me/bilder/060112/48891232016-10-12_base.jpg

New message from Cori: I've been communicating with Cori a bit over the past few days, and here's an update from her this morning: Both Cori and I greatly appreciate all your love and support. It truly is helping. Even though she is moving house, we can assure her how ST still remains her home. (As previously since I'm only the messenger, I'll give any rep received to this post directly to Cori's profile.)

Inmark residential tower...(lots of grid breaking angles): ...will be available soon.

Progress on Nice International Terminal (click image for actual z5 size) This thing is pretty large (11x16 tiles), should be rendered soon and then onto nightlights + lotting a full airport (which is something I've never done before, lol)

Created using: Simtropolis Sign by Ceafus 88, and MYOS Make Your Own Sign by jbizzle. Hey everyone, Following the New Year, and the multi-million § construction of the Simtropolis Staff Sign, we're delighted to formally announce the newest arrivals to the Site Moderating Team! They are as follows (in alphabetical order): Hover over "Forums" to view the list of sections they'll be looking after. APSMS 4 Forums Avanya 3 Forums CorinaMarie 6 Forums JP Schriefer 3 Forums STEX matias93 3 Forums _Michael 5 Forums Mr_Maison 2 Forums STEX MushyMushy 5 Forums rsc204 6 Forums Toothless Stitch 5 Forums Yarahi 3 Forums STEX So if you need some assistance, there's now a few other kind & helpful staffers to turn to. Please offer your words of condolence congratulations as they begin their important site duties! Thanks! -The Admins

Rest in peace. No one had a constant and familiar presence here like John for so many years. A part of Simtropolis has gone as well.

This is a highly experimental fix I developed to attempt to fix the crash that occurs when hovering a puzzle piece over a transit-enabled lot. I'm not sure what practical purpose this serves for regular users but I hope this is a valuable resource for modders and other community members nonetheless. How it works This mod can now be downloaded from the STEX. The files for this fix can be located on GitHub and is just a DLL which is unzipped to the Plugins folder. The DLL first overwrites code in SC4 that would normally unload the DLL for being nonstandard. The DLL then overwrites other parts of SC4's code to take control of potentially broken portions and catch and resolve issues that would normally cause crashes. Source code can be found on the release page, and the GitHub repository as well. Visual Studio 2013 is needed for compiling. Limitations Originally, this mod only worked with DRM-removed copies of retail SC4. However, as of recent updates, this mod will now work on any fully-patched copy of retail SimCity 4 (i.e. update 640) and on the Steam version of the game (update 641). Presumably, GOG and Origin will work as well as they also use 641. It should be safe to use this mod on unsupported versions as it'll give you a nag message and just not do anything. For retail SC4, testing was done on SKU 1, but I have no reason to believe that SKU 2 (European) EXEs are actually different. Demonstration This video shows the normal CTD behavior of hovering a puzzle piece over a transit-enabled lot: This video demonstrates how hovering behaves with the fix in place: More technical details The puzzle piece CTD is caused by a null dereference, though I haven't reverse-engineered the game enough to figure out what exactly it's trying to access. The fix acts like the Detours library in Windows and relies heavily on modifying the x86 assembly instructions of the game on-the-fly. The DLL overwrites the crashy code with a jump to one of the DLL's own functions. These functions first execute whatever instructions were overwritten by the new jump instruction. For the puzzle piece issue, the fix checks to see if certain pointers (stored in x86 registers) are null, and if they are, executes the proper instructions to resolve the issue. To reference the three functions in the source code: Hook_Sub96D8E9 — if the pointer in question is null, it skips an instruction that would try to increase whatever would normally be there. Hook_Sub65EBA0 — if the pointer in question is null, it jumps directly to a piece of code which cleans up the function being called and returns out. Hook_Sub65EBA0_Pt2 — if the pointer in question is null, it sets another pointer (which would normally dereference the bad pointer) to null as well, which is handled properly by the game. I wasn't aware of other CTD issues that would be as simple to replicate, though I have heard of issues with plugin conflicts and excessive plugins causing CTDs. However, this requires significantly more time to test, catch, and resolve. A couple of minidumps posted in technical issue threads didn't indicate much, and other posts in technical issue threads were capped to 20-ish lines since it had been thought that without debugging info, these crashes couldn't be solved. It'd be useful to have more of these. With crashdumps, the EIP address can be used for finding the address of the crash, and provided it occurs within the SimCity 4.exe module (you'll have to refer to the crashdump to see if this address is between the base address and upper limit address for the game), the registers, stack frames and instruction dump can be used to try to deduce what went wrong. What now? The code for disabling SC4's DLL unloading allows modders to create DLLs which can remain in memory for as long as SC4 is open, and while it's not as versatile as a DLL with a proper framework that SC4 recognizes, it's the next best thing. This fix also provides a good basis for further excursions into the game's internals, and could be more widely distributed and used to fix more issues in the game once the problems regarding digital copies are resolved.

The ubiquitous american style apartments/shops that are in every US city, but surprisingly nothing like it exists in game The lot design allows these to all be clustered together ...will be available soon.

The Mayan: Hotel & Residences. An original Design by Diego Del Llano.

Eastern Columbia Building, Los Angeles, CA.

Hello everyone, a few days ago, @Tyberius06 dropped me a line at Simforum.de, asking if I'd find some time to dig into my archives for retrieving files that might have been lost due to the demise of our German SFBT homebase SimCityKurier. Unfortunately, our admin and site owner, Matthias "spocky" Ludwig suddenly passed away last year at the age of 63, so the webspace account got cancelled and the site vanished. Last Christmas, I was able to provide the entire SFBT content and sent it over to @Tyberius06 , and he was slowly uploading the stuff under my name both here and at SC4Evermore. I was knocked down with a bad flu (probably covid) soon after, and that concluded my return to the game for yet another year, sending me into hiatus once more. Now that the year is almost over, I decided to check my archives, found out that I couldn't log into my EA account anymore to retrieve the digital copy of SC4 since my e-mail address from SimCityKurier doesn't work anymore either, and EA doesn't have any other recovery method than sending an e-mail to the registered address. Fortunately, the game was on discount at GOG for just 9 bucks, so I got another copy and installed it on my current computer, copying all the data, and finally logged into Simtropolis in order to see what's going on these days, getting a recent version of the NAM and such, checking if there were some more bugfixes and whatnot. It's amazing to see that our beloved SC4 is still going strong, and I was really blown away when I saw what modders were able to achieve within the last few months. I remember the good old SC4Fix DLL that repairs a few nasty bugs, but then I discovered all the other DLL mods, such as the "Water View Bug" transparent texture fix, loading speed fixes, custom building styles finally made available, and probably the best off all things: custom submenus! Back in the old days, such a thing was deemed impossible, and now the impossible has been made available for the game after all that time. That's really a glorious development, more than 20 years after the game was released. I spent the last 12 hour or so browsing the DLL mods section of the STEX, tried a number of DLLs, installed a DirectX wrapper so the game would support my UHD monitor, installed all the modding tools, and even made some new custom submenus for the good old BSC and SFBT stuff with @smf_16's command line tool. I'm glad that I still remember most of the modding knowledge, so it wasn't all too hard to get a grasp of everything again. Over all those years, I always wanted to play SC4 again now and then, but never really found the time, but now that most, if not all those annoying bugs that were remaining like forever got fixed, I really wonder if I'll find some time eventually. Naturally, RL was interfering all the time over the past few years, and I doubt I'll become a regular here again, but I still remember the good old times and the endless amount of fun that I had with the game. Fortunately, the game seems to run fine on my current PC, I need to make some more extensive tests with my old plugins folder and all the old regions that I was playing ages ago. Back then, it was such a heavy toll on the system, but nowadays, the hardware is finally able to run smoothly even with loads of custom content, and I was hugely surprised, that after the first start, booting up the game again after some modding was really fast, since everything was still in the cache, I presume. So now I'm facing the same problem that I had back then: Lots of things need to be modded and adapted to the current state, I see bugs and errors in the custom content again, there's the urge to translate everything into German, make new menu icons and all that - I guess I've been doing that for way too long, and it always stopped me from actually playing the game. Well, we'll see about that, now that so many time has passed, I guess I'll have another 20 years or so until I retire once and for all. It would be nice to give the custom content yet another polishing, and maybe I can dig up some stuff that people are still looking for after all that time... Best regards, Andreas

Another hotel (inspired by the C:S "Beach Hotel") ...will be available soon

A smaller (non-box) high rise from Sydney's 2nd CBD area ...will be available shortly....

Some smaller apartments to compete with 2x2 & 3x2 medium density and give some variety: ...will be available soon.

Dear Friends; It is with great sadness that we inform you of the permanent loss of the simpeg website. Pegasus has confirmed that the site has been critically damaged beyond the point of recovery. This is a huge blow for the simcity4 community as the vast majority of the simpeg knowledge-base and documentation has been lost as well. Many of you have expressed concerns over what happens to the content that was hosted on the PLEX. The good news is that Pegasus was never a believer in exclusivity and simultaneously released his content to both the PLEX and STEX as a failsafe, and the simpeg staff has followed this model over the years. This means the vast majority of simpeg content is already here on simtropolis and has been preserved. With Pegasus' blessing and Dirktator's kind help we will be creating a PLEX Legacy section here on the STEX, re-uploading and updating content as needed, as well as organizing it all into an more structured and easy to navigate whole to mirror the PLEX of old. This will be a long and tedious process, but we anticipate that 99% of the content that was on the PLEX will be maintained. We will also be attempting to update the omnibus here with what articles we've managed to save from the simposium. However, that is currently only a bare handful of what was lost. The greatest loss of all, though, is one that can not simply be re-uploaded. For many of us the Simpeg community was our electronic home. It was a tight-knit group whose interests and discussions transcended a simple game to encompass many aspects of our lives. Simpeg was a special place, not because of mere content and knowledge, but because of the people who made it greater than the sum of it's parts. So while we thank Pegasus for giving us a house all these years, it is with deep appreciation that we thank each and every one of you members of simpeg for making that house a home. What we had will well and truly be missed. It is our sincere wish that you will all find a new home, either here in the rest of the simcity community or elsewhere, and that it brings you happiness. Once again, thank YOU for making simpeg the place it was. Best Wishes, The Simpeg Staff

In a major milestone for Simtropolis, the STEX has now reached a grand total of 100 million downloads! (As of 17:35 GMT, 13 Feb 2015) Over the past 12 years, members of this community have shared and continue to share content of dazzling and diverse quality. From buildings to mods, the games we play continue to be improved and expanded. 18,848 files later, reaching this figure is really a testament to how strong the member base is, and how influential custom content is for a game’s longevity. Also, special thanks must go to our Dirktator for providing this website -- the foundations which have made this landmark a reality. Join us in celebrating this remarkable achievement! There may be a few surprises in store over the next few weeks (all will be revealed)... Interviews #01: MandelSoft - Transit modder & member of the NAM Team #02: Heblem - Content creator & founder of the LBT Team #03: Glenni - Tower block & ghetto BATter #04: madhatter106 - Commercial building BATter #05: paeng - Lotter & founder of NightOwl Productions #06: mrbisonm - Content creator & founder of Nexis #07: rivit - Transportation & automata modder #08: Aaron Graham - New York apartment BATter & member of the NYBT #09: Seraf - BATter & member of the NYBT #10: Tarkus - Transit modder & member of the NAM Team & NHP #11: T Wrecks - Industrial / residential lotter & modder #12: Sabretooth78 - Buffalo New York building BATter #13: nofunk - Midwest USA BATter & member of mipro (originally the BSP) #14: bixel - Hong Kong BATter & original member of the HKABT #15: Jasoncw - BATter & member of mipro (originally the BSP) Celebration Uploads [View List Here] Thanks to all interview participants, and SimCoug & NMUSpidey for organising them.

Hello SimCity 4 modders, After a hiatus of a year or two, I picked up SimCity again a few weeks ago and decided to start fresh with an entire new region and try to build it as realistic as possible. One thing that always bugged me is that this always involves a lot of clicking "Make Historical". After all, if you've finally managed to grow the building you wanted, you don't want to see it disappear by some R§§§ mansions. Most of the time I spent 15 minutes zoning, and then 3 hours clicking "Make Historical" until I couldn't feel my wrist anymore. Given that I have some programming capabilities, back in the days I've always played with the idea to create a script that would mark all buildings within a city historical. I did some research on this topic, but all resources I could find told me that it was possible to read savegames, but impossible to modify .sc4 savegames. This was due to the CRC checksum that is added in .sc4 files, whose algorithm was apparently unknown. Seems like this discussion was closed. However, by picking SC4 up again I also noticed the work that @simmaster07 did with the Prop Pox fix. Although I never suffered from Prop Pox myself, it is without a doubt one of the most important modding achievements ever. The importance and brilliance of his work cannot be underestimated. Being a programmer myself, I got interested in the technical details behind this masterpiece and I stumbled upon this piece of code. It basically is an override of how entries in the Prop Subfile are saved. I noticed the presence of a function called xcrc32 which carried out the CRC checksum of the entry. I don't know how @simmaster07 did it, but this turned out to be the "missing CRC checksum" algorithm. I immediately hacked some stuff together and noticed that it was indeed this CRC checksum function that was also used in the Lot Subfile. I was shaking. This couldn't mean that it would make modifying savegames possible, right? Well turns out it does! I put some code together and managed to read in an .sc4 savegame, parse all entries of the Lot Subfile and turned on the bit mask that identifies a lot as historical. I saved the file again, re-calculating the CRC checksums for each lot and opened up the file in SC4. I couldn't believe my eyes. I was expecting crashes, but all lots in my entire city were marked as historical and I could continue playing the game as normal. I then did some cycles of growing new lots and running my script aftewards and everything still worked. While having limited my test case to flipping 1 bit per lot subfile, I think this shows that it is possible to modify .sc4 savegames. Another result of @simmaster07's magnificent work. I'm already thinking of what could be possible. I'm thinking for instance of plopping residential lots using the LotPlop extra cheat and then running a script that modifies them as if they were grown so that the pathfinder could work on these lots. This would be a great help for CJ builders! The options are endless, you could basically program your entire city! In order to show that this worked, I've created a small command-line utility that can be used to make all buildings within a city historical. It is available on github here: https://github.com/sebamarynissen/sc4 where I also added installation instructions. It requires some effort to set up, however if you're familiar with node.js everything should be quite straightforward. I'm also willing to offer some help with those having troubles to install. Once you've installed the tool, you should be able to run the command sc4 historical path/to/your/city.sc4 from a command prompt. By default this will not override the input city, but create another city named HISTORICAL-[city name].sc4. If you want to override, run sc4 historical --force path/to/your/city.sc4 but MAKE SURE TO ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP. Note that this tool is merely a proof of concept that it is actually possible to modify .sc4 savegames. This tool is not meant for public use, so I can't stress enough TO ALWAYS HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR ENTIRE REGION. I AM NOT LIABLE FOR ANY OF THE CONSEQUENCES IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG. Anyway, it would really help me if some people were able to test this and report any issues if they found one - preferrably in the Github Repository. Let me know what you guys think. I hope that this opens up new possibilities for SimCity 4 and how we can build more amazing cities than ever! - Seba EDIT: I've published a version with prebuilt C++ libraries on npm. You should be able to install it using npm install -g sc4 if you have node 12 or higher without the need to compile the C++ libraries.

You might have come across our guest article about SimCity 4 and the Network Addon Mod over on GOG.com a few days ago. Due to format restrictions, we couldn't include a full compliment of screenshots to really show off the NAM. For posterity and for the benefit of those who didn't see it, we're including the full article here with all the screenshots that were intended in the original. - Dirktator SimCity 4 and the NAM – How to best enjoy this city-building masterpiece today. Despite being released in 2003, SimCity 4 continues to offer an unmatched city-building and story-telling experience, while also being supported by an active game community. And you can be a part of it! Developed by the once venerated, now defunct game studio, Maxis, SimCity 4 has managed to withstand the test of time remarkably well, unlike many of its contemporaries. Turning a “good old game” into something great! Not only has SimCity 4 survived, it has thrived with new creations offered daily by content-makers, and has even evolved with substantial player-developed modifications like the Network Addon Mod. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Network Addon Mod, but you’ve never tried it out. Or maybe you’ve never played SimCity 4 at all and wonder how a game from 2003 can still hold up? Read on to see just how one addon can add so much! Fixes original bugs, but it’s more than just fixes! The Network Addon Mod (NAM) is actually a collection of many addons, fixes and improvements to SimCity 4’s transportation network system, pathfinding accuracy and performance; all made to work and play seamlessly together for a vastly improved simulator experience. Originally, the Network Addon Mod (NAM) had a very simple goal: to fix a number of transportation-related issues that still remained in the game after the release of the Rush Hour Expansion and SimCity 4 Deluxe in September 2003. But as development of the mod went on, many contributors began adding new features to the transportation system. In some cases, to expand what already existed, and in others, to create entirely new systems altogether. Since 2004, work has spiraled out such that there are several expansion packs’ worth of new content, all contained in this single, free, player-created mod! The NAM brings new possibilities to the game that are simply impossible to do with the “vanilla” game. Unlock the Maxis simulator – Run it the way it was originally designed When you install the NAM, not only will you get all the fixes and tweaks that have been refined over years of playtesting and feedback, but you’ll also be playing the simulator as it was originally designed! The thing is, Maxis had programmed a very sophisticated and robust traffic simulation engine that most people have never experienced! This is because of the hardware limitations at the time, Maxis had to significantly tune down the simulation parameters in order to allow the game to run on 500Mhz Pentiums, prevalent specs for that era. The result of that down-tuning is that the traffic patterns in the base game often simply follow the shortest distance, and fail to take into account the speed and capacity differences of the different networks. Basically, this prevented the game from working the way it was intended. For instance, with that down-tuned simulator, one could spend the money to build the faster, higher-capacity road-types, or a rail transit system, but the residents would completely ignore it and instead clog up tiny residential streets as they tried to get to work. If you’ve played the vanilla SimCity 4 for long enough, you will have likely seen this happen. Fixing this key part of the simulator allows the NAM and its numerous new and improved systems, to provide a rich and engaging simulating experience that you’ll never get with the vanilla SimCity 4. Several Expansion Packs’ worth of content – all in one place, for free! But more than just fixes and improvements, the NAM brings several new transport options unavailable in “vanilla” SimCity 4 such as a slew of enhancements to the road system, including diagonal streets, more bridge options, specialized lanes and roundabouts. You’ll get elevated viaducts for a number of normally ground-level transportation networks, such as Roads, One-Way Roads, Avenues, and Railroads. Industrial/office park district, with RealHighways, Network Widening Mod features, and One-Way Road Roundabouts on display. Avenue Roundabout and Wide-Radius Curves near an office park. Prefer things on the ground instead? Use the Ground Light Rail (GLR), a ground variant of the Elevated (Light) Rail network, which comes in draggable form. Or maybe you want a mix of ground and elevated that can run in, on or over other surfaces? You can do that, too, with the NAM’s “Dual Networking” options. Fractional Angle RealRailway and Network Widening Mod (Narrow 4-Lane Road) in action. Fractional Angle Roads and Diagonal Streets in a suburban residential setting. It includes the Network Widening Mod (NWM) which provides wider (and narrower) draggable variants (many with capacity boosts) to the game’s core Road and One-Way Road networks. More road options to play with like expanded Avenues with 6 lanes, or expand One-Way Roads up to 5 lanes. Get even finer control by adding continuous turn lanes, or adding a turn lane to your One-Way Roads. Lakeside business/resort district, with 4-Lane One-Way Roads and Narrow 4-Lane Road from the Network Widening Mod. 6-lane Avenue from the Network Widening Mod in a suburban setting. New FLEX Turn Lanes and Signalized One-Way Road Intersections in a business district. Tired of grid-like cities? The NAM offers myriad grid-busting options, including wider radius curves and fractional angles to many different networks types. If you love roundabouts these are improved with many enhancements, from smaller Street Roundabouts to multi-lane Avenue and Dutch Turbo Roundabouts. One-Way Road Roundabouts, Ground Light Rail, and Ground Light Rail-in Road Dual-Networking in an office district. Suburban residential area, with Wide-Radius Curves and Fractional Angle Networking. Farms and factories, featuring RealRailways, Elevated Road Viaducts, and Road Wide-Radius Curves. The entire railway system has been overhauled with multiple height levels and modular interchange capabilities. Everyone loves building highways. Here, the NAM doesn’t disappoint by offering an entirely new Highway System with several width variants, up to 5 lanes per direction, multiple height levels and modular interchange capabilities. If you love interchanges, the NAM’s intersection capabilities let you design that monster 8-way Avenue intersection you really wanted. Mammoth arterial intersection, featuring the upcoming FLEX Turn Lanes and Network Widening Mod (7-Lane Turning Lane Avenue). Partial cloverleaf interchange, built using the RealHighway (RHW) system and One-Way Road Roundabouts, plus Road Wide-Radius Curves. Busy suburban junction, built using the RealHighway (RHW) system, Network Widening Mod (5-lane Turning Lane Avenue), Street Wide-Radius Curves, and turn lane functionality. If you still wish to use the game’s base “Maxis” Highways, a number of interchange options, plus a full-on reskin are available. The NAM also includes Euro/international road and highway textures. And the Street Addon Mod (SAM) will provide 10 (soon to be 11) texture variants for the base Street network! Railways get a complete overhaul with the RealRailway (RRW) system, which offers a more realistic version of the game’s base Rail network, plus a number of new options for switches, curve radii and fractional angles, plus – coming in Version 36 – draggable viaducts. RealRailway FlexTrack and Single-Track Rail in a dirty industrial area. New FLEX Turn Lanes (coming to the upcoming Version 36 release) and Signalized One-Way Road Intersections. Four-level stack interchange, built using the RealHighway (RHW) system's modular components. Bustling office district, with Ground Light Rail-on-Road Dual Networking, Network Widening Mod (5-Lane Turning Lane Avenue), and Street Addon Mod Parking Lots on display. If you’re a glutton for even more control, you’ll love the Traffic Simulator Configuration Tool (TSCT), a handy program that allows one to customize some parameters of the NAM's “tuned-up” traffic simulator, including different capacity levels (ranging from extremely low to ultra high) and mass transit usage SimCity 4 is arguably the best city-simulation game ever produced by Maxis. Nearly 15 years old, the game has proven its longevity in large part due to a legion of highly devoted fans and communities like Simtropolis.com. The Network Addon Mod brings so much to your city-building game that it’s a crime to play without it! What you need to get started You'll need SimCity 4 Deluxe with Rush Hour Expansion, get it here from GOG.COM The NAM is available for both PC and MAC versions of the game, get them from Simtropolis. If you want even more, we've collected some of the best buildings and lots for SimCity 4 in our Simtropolis Exchange (STEX) Collector's Edition discs, given as a gift when you Donate!

When I was asked for some height variations on apartments that I showed recently, it got me thinking about all of the folks who rely on batters for new content and how they are basically at the whim of those batters....and it prompted me to test something out, which didn't turn out too shabby. Modular, D.I.Y. skyscrapers. It's something that I don't believe has been done before. I made 3 separate building pieces of a fictional, international style skyscraper: a 5-floor base, a 5-floor middle and a 5-floor top piece...all shown here in an expanded form in the lot editor. From these three pieces, a user can assemble their own skyscraper: feasibly anywhere from 10 floors to 100+ floors. The height variation is achieved by stacking multiple middle sections together. So the above picture becomes these: Now of course, because it uses just three pieces, one of which is repeated ad infinitum, there will be repetition and it isn't absolutely seamless - but do remember some of the misalignment you see in the pictures is due to the way SC4 chops up images and displays them and this phenomenon also happens on regular buildings - but if people like this sort of thing, I can translate it to other types of skyscrapers rather than the bland, ubiquitous, internationalist style box.....

Functional Cul de Sacs Three lots 5x8 and identical stats which are restricted only to grow on low density. Elm Place: Maple Court: and Oak Grove: The cars drive around the cul de sac correctly: With just these three growable lots and the NAM wide curves, you can start to get huge areas of boring suburbia really quickly:

It's been a while since I did a mega-lot project. The former IBM campus in Stuttgart is a 16x14 lot.... Some close-ups: All the campus streets are network enabled and the 3 and 5 story pavilions have custom lods to allow different prop placements. Plus, I've made the underground garages/loading docks in such a way as to receive game shadows. It is a reward and will be available soon.

The old TRW building from Los Angeles (Star Trek fans will recognise it from one of the very first Star Trek movies). The sort of building that has a decorative external concrete skeleton, but these mid-century buildings are still somewhat rare in SC4. When released it will also be a diagonal overhanging ploppable building to place along diagonal roads:

@20huskies, the skyscraper is coming along nicely. A quick update on Simfox's JR Freight building:

Often I go into the 'Ones that never made it to the STEX' thread as there are images of some real gems that have lain abandoned by their often long absent creators. Once sufficient time has passed and a fair chance exists that the creator will no longer return, then I usually whip up my own version of their model. The original version of this next set of apartments was by Simfox. I have decided to make my own variant as you can make huge medium density mid-rise sprawl. There are a number of lot variants: They can be quite modular: the 4x4 and 6x6 lots have central gardens; all lots have shaded seasonal prop families to give maximum variety when grown. Will be released soon.....

I can't really see a comparison here... If you're thinking SC4 has the same features SC13 has you're going to be disappointed. -On the contrary, if you're thinking SC13 has the same features SC4 has you're going to be disappointed. They're two different games. SC13 is a reboot, not a successor to SC4. Also remember 10 years have passed...

These photos are over 10 years old. This was the very beginning of my journey. I was deeply inspired by the game. Of course, I no longer have those buildings — they’ve been gone for a long time I'm sure many of you will recognize some of the buildings from the game in these photos.

Random Night light.

Edificio López Serrano Havana, Cuba. Ricardo Mira. 1929. A hypothetical restoration.

Daiwa House is now in game. I've made a couple of stylistic changes to the original (the real life building, that is) ...most notably shortening the helipad tower section and filling in the roof garden space with more plants as well as reducing the side ground space so that this building fits into a 4x4 space, which is one of the most common lot sizes for CO$$$

Working on Reynolds Building, Winston-Salem. thanks to @gutterclub, for roof textures.

Another Wilshire Blvd building. SAKS Fifth Avenue (Beverly Hills) Store

For the Eager, Yet Overwhelmed Newcomer New to SimCity, Simtropolis, or been out of touch for a few years? Wondering what the heck a NAM or a BAT is? And just what the heck is up with those brown boxes?! This article will take you through the basics of registering your game, whether from a hard copy of the disc or from Steam, the essentials of Simtropolis, and a jumpstart into the world of Custom Content, to bring your game to a level beyond what you could imagine is possible. I would like to thank A Nonny Moose for his contributions and influences on the creation of this article. Rush Hours, Deluxe Editions, SimCity Boxes, Oh my! Before starting on registration information, we should make a clarification on just what the differences in these versions are. The short answer is nothing. When Maxis released Rush Hour, the expansion pack to the original SimCity 4 game, they released two versions: one simply the expansion (SimCity 4: Rush Hour); the other, a version that included both the original game and the expansion pack (SimCity 4: Deluxe Edition). It makes absolutely no difference to the game whether you own the Deluxe Edition, or Rush Hour. Now, just what is the SimCity Box? After the release of SimCity Societies in 2008, EA released this version which contains SimCity 4, SimCity 4: Rush Hour, SimCity Societies, SimCity Societies: Destinations, and The Sims Carnival: SnapCity. The story here is the same with Rush Hour and the Deluxe Edition: it makes absolutely no difference. In the event that you happen to be a long time player who does not own Rush Hour or the Deluxe Edition, it should be noted that the expansion pack is required to make use of 99% of the custom content available on this site. I will explain that further later on. Registering and Updating the Game Before playing, you need to pick up the two (2) necessary EA-released patches to your game for it to work correctly. In recent months, it has been noted that the official EA SimCity 4 Deluxe site has been taken down. So as not to leave these players hanging, some mirrors have been set up containing the assorted official updates. Important note: If you purchased your game from an authorized download source, you may not need any further updates. Check the properties of the game's .exe file. If it indicates you have version 1.1.641.0 or if you already have version 1.1.640.0, you will not need further updates. For the standard, PC version updates, check out here: SC4Devotion Own the Mac edition and can't open .exe's? Check out this thread: Bought your copy off Steam? Steam comes pre-patched! Yay! You should apply the two updates to the game in this order: EP1 to fix bugs, and the BATupdate to allow nightlights. When you are finished, you should check to see that the version number of the .exe file for the game in Program files/Maxis/Apps has been updated to 1,1,640,0. This is proof that your updates worked. Optional Upgrades and Tools You may notice on the mirror sites, a number of other downloads available. Among these are new landmarks, new rewards, the Lot Editor, and Building Architect Tool (BAT). These are all optional, and are not necessary for the games function or the addition of but do add content, and functionality. So, just what do these BAT and Lot Editor things do? The Lot Editor allows you to construct new lots, using the buildings, textures, and assorted prop pieces included within the game. The Building Architect Tool (BAT) allows you to construct new 3D models, and is what is used to create new buildings, trees, seawalls, spaceships, and everything inbetween. Using the Lot Editor and the BAT in tandem, the world is yours to create. It should be noted that both these tools have a sizeable learning curve. We do have a number of tutorials here to get you started, the most notable of these being the BAT Essentials Tutorial in the Omnibus. Unleashing the Game At this point, your game is ready to go! The appropriate patches are in place, and the game is as optimized as Maxis and EA could make it. So where to now? Many players are happy to play the game without any custom content, relying simply on what Maxis has provided. It is indeed very possible to create beautiful cities using only what content Maxis provided. But, many would also point out that the game can be so much more. In the 8 years since the release of the game, the amount of custom content available brings the game to an entirely new level. Players can recreate their hometowns with stunning accuracy, watching roads twist and curve, with even the correct corner market in place. Players can build in the desert, in futuristic settings, or on Mars. The custom content community has taken a finite game and given it infinite possibilities. And the question I'm sure you're asking by this point is, where do I begin? There are a number of exchanges available for you to browse. Here on Simtropolis, the STEX is perhaps the largest, and one of the oldest exchanges devoted to SimCity 4. The other primary English exchanges are SC4Devotion LEX and the PLEX (now on the STEX). You could say that SC4Devotiion is the high-tech site, and that Pegasus is the theme site, and you wouldn't be far wrong. Most community exchanges both require free registration in order to download, as Simtropolis does. The SimCity community expands far beyond English speakers, however - other communities include German and Japanese sites. Growable? Ploppable? What? As you browse the exchanges, you'll notice these phrases on assorted files throughout. The answer to this could not be simpler. A growable lot means that it will grow on its own with the appropriate zoning, as if it were any building created by Maxis. Ploppable lots allow you to plop the building as if it were a landmark. Some ploppables retain their commercial/industrial nature and provide jobs as though they were grown. It should be noted that at early points in the exchange, you may run across residential ploppables. These do not work, and will abandon some time after plopping. So, I've Downloaded Some Stuff. Now what? Installation of downloads really is simple. This article by our fearless Dirktator outlines the process of installation. Some downloads now come with .exe installers, which simplifies the process even more - the installer does all the work for you. The next question you may have is where the heck do I find my ploppable items in the game? Some items will be pretty intuitive as to where they are located - Educational facilities are located in the Schools menu, policing facilities in the Police menu, etc. But what about that great skyscraper advertised as a ploppable? Those will generally be located in the Landmarks menu. Nearly everything else (parks, churches, etc.) will be located in either Parks or Rewards. And if you just can't find it anywhere, consult the ReadMe that should have been included with the download. It should state where it is located in the menu system in game. Brown Boxes, Everywhere! Uh oh! This may look tragic, but it doesn't mean your game is wrecked. You just missed downloading some dependencies. Wait, what? Dependewho? Dependencies are separate files that a lot uses to complete itself. If Download A cannot find the appropriate dependency, it reverts to the lovely boxes you can see in the picture above. It may not look like it, but each lot is actually filled with bits and pieces of other files to make the bigger picture. The trees, the benches, the garbage cans, the swimming pools you see on assorted lots are all individual pieces, that come together to create a house, a park, or a shopping complex. All downloads on the SimTropolis EXchange are required to list all dependencies needed to work properly. If you've looked everywhere and just can't find that dependency, or if the dependency package is locked, please make a post here, and one of our friendly members will help you out. You may have further questions in regards to dependencies. As with installation, I would like to refer you to another article that goes into much further detail. The Dependency Debate by north_country_dude goes into great detail about the pros and cons of dependencies, and answers a few of the common questions you may have about them. So what should I download? Building tastes vary from person to person. Personally, I prefer the drab, 1970's concrete buildings, while many prefer the sleek, glass modern skyscrapers. Because of this, I'm not going to recommend any particular buildings - but I can recommend some mods that are considered the best and the greatest. Network Addon Mod, or the NAM. This mod was first conceived with the discovery of an unfinished road network Maxis left in the game. The talented modding community has taken this and turned it into entirely new road networks, gave us roundabouts, and allows us to create true metropolitan cities with roads to match. This can be found here on the STEX, or at SC4Devotion. If you're interested, here is the "official" NAM FAQ Thread with links to the different parts used with NAM & answers to common queries. If any issues come up while using NAM, there's also a support thread here. Various NAM Team members including Tarkus frequent the thread and gladly help out. A terrain and water mod. When you first launch the game, the grass and water seems realistic enough. A bit off perhaps, but hey nothing can be perfect. Not true - modders have been able to create new textures for the terrain and the water, which makes the Maxis textures look like off-coloured drawings. Cycledogg has made a number of varying terrain mods, and there are assorted water textures on the STEX, each varying for the kind of water your city needs. SimMars. Certainly this mod is not for everyone, but this article would be deficient if it weren't mentioned. SimMars transforms SimCity to Mars, complete with textures, buildings, road networks and music to match. The work done on this is exceptional, and it sits with the NAM as the greatest projects to improve the game that SimCity has seen. Everything else listed here. Livin in Sim has created this top ten list of great mod's that should be essential. A few other members have listed their contributions as well, and I would highly recommend them all! From there you could look through the CJ section to get ideas or run through the STEX and other exchanges to see if anything "jumps" out at you. As I mentioned before, if you can't seem to find something, make a post here and someone is bound to help you out. How do I win? SimCity is different from most games, as there is no set end point. Your success is based on goals you set. For many, a balanced budget and proper governance of a successful city without "godly" intervention (ie. cheats) makes a successful game. For many, the accurate recreation of a real life city is the goal, generally with the assistance of assorted budget cheats. For others still, it's simply to create the best city they can. Set your own goals and adjust as you achieve them. For all flavours of player, however, we do have an assortment of tutorials here on Simtropolis to help you on the Omnibus. The sections that will interest you most are SimCity 4 Reference and SimCity 4 Tutorials. Check back from time to time, as we do continue to add articles! Hopefully, this article has helped you get started. If you have any further questions that this article didn't answer, the folk in the forums and the chatroom are always eager to help, and any member of the Simtropolis Help Squad would be more than happy to give you some tips to the right direction.