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  • catty-cb
    catty-cb

    By catty-cb •

    SC4 Command Line Options

    To access in Steam

    1. Right-click on the game title under the Library in Steam and select Properties.
    2. Under the General tab click the Set launch options... button.
    3. Enter the launch options you wish to apply (be sure to separate each code with a space) and click OK.
    4. Close the game's Properties window and launch the game.

    otherwise rightclick on the SC4 icon on your desktop and add into the "Target" field

    "C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe"

    add a space after the last quote and add in the command line option, like so

    "C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -intro:off -r800x600x16

    in steam you only have to enter the command line itself.

    add these different properties for different effects each with a space in between it and its predecessor:

    Code: (Window Mode) 
    -w

    To change back to full use -f (or this -r like so -r800x600x32)

    Code: (Software Rendering mode) 
    -d:Software
     
    Code: (No Sounds or Music) 
    -audio:off

    Turns all the audio output off

    Code: (Resolution Change) 
    -r[W]x[Y]x[Z]

    Where:
    WxY is a resolution (without using -CustomResolution:enable  the screen resolution has to be either: 800x600, 1024x768, or 1280x1024)
    Z is colour depth (32 or 16)

    Code: (No Intro Videos) 
    -Intro:off

    Turns the introductory splash screen and video off, instead taking you straight to the game

    Code: (Custom Resolution) 
    -CustomResolution:enabled

    Enables custom resolutions including the 16:9 ratio

    Code: (Rendering Mode) 
    -d:DirectX/Software/OpenGL

    Change the rendering mode of the game, either using DirectX or OpenGL libraries or software rendering

    Code: (Processor Options) 
    -CPUPriority:low
-CPUCount:X

    Where x is the number of the processors your computer has.
    CPUPriority lets other processes (programs) use the processor more when the game isnt in use.

    Code: (Brown Box Removal) 
    -IgnoreMissingModelDataBugs:on/off

    Off (default) shows all missing models as brown boxes.
    On just doesn't show anything for them at all.

    Code: (Background Loading) 
    -BackgroundLoader:on/off

    On (default) loads all the none visible models in the background, whereas Off doesnt

    Code: (Language) 
    -l:english
     
    Code: 
    -AllowMultipleInstances
     
    Code: (cursor magic) 
    -Cursors:disabled/bw/color16/color256/fullcolor
-CustomCursors:disabled

    Sets the color depth of the game cursors. Some hardware doesn't like some cursor color depths.
    Disables the use of application-supplied versions of standard system cursors such as the arrow or hand cursor. Normally, the customized application-supplied versions are used.

    Code: 
    -ExceptionHandling:off

    Disables application exception handling, which provides for safer shutdown of the app in case of a crash.

    Code: 
    -gp

    Enables game pausing when you switch to another application. This is useful for if you go away from the game and you want it to sleep while it is in the background. This is a stronger form of the -CPUPriority command line option.

    Code: 
    -IgnoreMissingModelDataBugs:on/off

    If enabled, then the system does nothing when requested to display an object for which there is no graphical representation. By default this option is disabled and objects that are missing a graphical representation are drawn as a large "package" that suggests you can download the graphics for this object from the SimCity web site or similar.

    Code: 
    -IME:enabled/disabled

    Enables application-supplied IME (input method editing) for Asian systems. If disabled, then the default operating system IME will take control. By default, IME is enabled. If it is disabled via this command line option, you'll probably want to run the app in windowed mode (-w) in order to take advantage of the OS-supplied IME GUI.

    Code: 
    -RenderProp:,value -RenderProp:" value"

    Forces a render property to be set. See documentation on render properties for a discussion of them. You can use this command line multiple times on a single command line.

    Code: 
    -Restart

    This is an internal command line used to indicate that a prior instance of the app launched the current instance while it was shutting down. This causes the current instance to wait for the previous instance to fully exit before proceeding. This is useful for automatic app restarting during certain operations.

    Code: (Change Path) 
    -UserDir:path

    Specifies the directory where the users game directory is. If the default subdirectories of "Regions\", "Plugins\", and "HTTPCache\" arn't found, then it creates an instance of, (in the case of Regions, it copies the default set over). The default game data directory defaults to being the same directory as the game installation directory. Quotes are necessary if the path name has spaces. Make sure there is a "\" on the end of your path or it creates directories like "testPlugins\" and "testRegions\"

    Code: 
    -WriteLog:on/off

    If On, this causes the app to write a log file that describes the user's system configuration. The file is named "computer-config-log.txt" and is placed in the same directory as the program executable.

    Code: 
    -CodePage:id

    Sets the code page portion of the locale for the C runtime library. Normally, the code page is determined by the language the application runs in (see the -l command line option)

    Code: 
    -ConfigLog:server | off

    Sets the destination of where to write the computer configuration log specified by the -WriteLog command line option. By default, the server is "studiotech.max.ad.ea.com".

    • Like 10
    • Thanks 5

    Go to articles SC4 Reference

    User Feedback


    rsc204

    I thought it might be helpful to copy over a part of one of my other tutorials, showing how to add these commands to the various editions of SC4.

    Add Command Line Argument for versions of SC4 run from a Windows Shortcut (clicking on SC4 icon):

    1. Navigate to the icon, Right Click upon it
    2. Select Properties
    3. At the end of the "Target" line, you should add the command, then click OK
      (don't forget that there must be a space after the current text before your first command)

    CMA_Shortcut.jpg.b0c5dcd4e4d4f28363c80164673abf85.jpg

    Add Command Line Argument for Steam Users:

    1. Open the Library, then Right Click on SimCity 4 and select Properties
    2. Add the command into the text field Launch Options.

    CMA_Steam_02.jpg

    Add Command Line Argument for Gog Galaxy Users:

    1. Right Click on the game's title and select Settings
    2. Fill the checkbox next to Add command line arguments
    3. Add the command into the text box

    CMA_GOGGalaxy.jpg.26d70fdee77d346aad600f8078fe8506.jpg

    Add Command Line Argument for Origin Users:

    1. Open the Library, then Right Click on SimCity 4's box art and select Game Properties
    2. Select Advanced Launch Options
    3. Add your command into the field box, then click Save

    CMA_Origin.jpg.81890e25cb43ac7d38f347268d0e390a.jpg

    • Thanks 2

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