Fixing dialog box flicker with Riva TNT and others in SimCity 3000

Contributor/author(s): Rhett Sutphin, Habman

With some cards based on the nVidia RivaTNT chipset (such as the Diamond Viper 550, STB Velocity 4400, Creative Graphics Blaster RivaTNT, or Canopus Spectra 2500/3200), SC3000's dialog boxes exhibit a high-frequency flicker. To eliminate this, enable the "Wait for VSYNC" option in your card's control panel. Since drivers vary, this setting may be in different places. With the Creative version, you access it through the "Blaster Control" tab of the Display control panel. Just click on "Advanced..." at the bottom of the panel and you'll find the "Wait for VSYNC" check box in the "More D3D" tab of the dialog which pops up.

For other cards such as the Matrox G200 that may have any 3D acceleration capabilities, the problem might be fixed by disabling hardware acceleration (in Windows, go to Control Panel...System...Graphics and disable hardware acceleration). Disabling 3D capabilities for the card directly might also work by modifying the card's properties (Control Panel...Display...[graphics card tab]). In either case, you may want to change the settings back when finished playing SimCity 3000.