Morofry

Original Thread: How to configure SC4 to work with your new hardware By now many of you have brand new computers and are wondering why SC4 won't run worth a hoot on it. That reason is due to the limitations imposed by the current graphics hardware during the time of the games inception. This means the graphics rules for the game are fairly static to say the least and won't play nice with mismatched pieces per say. The good thing is that we can change that to fit our mismatched pieces. Here's how I was able to work it. For the sake of consistancy (you may skip if you already did these steps): First install the game. (oh well thanks captian obvious..) Be quiet, were not done here. Second step is to run the latest update. (why are you doing this?) I said be quiet. Third step is to follow JoeST's instructions on customizing your gameplay experience (you may have to login). 4.) Now the fun part. If you are still running Windows XP, then you may skip this. If you are running Windows Vista or 7, then follow this step please. Go to your games directory (eg. C:\Program Files\Maxis\Sim City 4 (deluxe)\ you get the idea) Copy "Graphics Rules.sgr" and "Video Cards.sgr" (without quotes) to your desktop (or an easily accessible directory in which you have full read/write permission) A pretty picture is provided below. 5.) Right click anywhere on your desktop and select properties (XP) or Change Resolution (Vista or 7). Under the screen resolution tab, select advanced. You will then be met with your adapter information. Take careful note of that. Two pretty pictures are provided. The first one is largely irrelevant except to those who know how to get there. You may ignore it. 6.) Once you have done that, open up Graphics Rules.sgr (with notepad) and drill down until you find this: partialRule "Fast card" -any # We run well on these cards, so up the defaults. stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*" stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Quadro*" stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*9700*" stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*8500*" stringMatch cardIdentity "Matrox*Parhelia*" Include your graphics cards string to it so It will look something like this: partialRule "Fast card" -any # We run well on these cards, so up the defaults. stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*" stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Quadro*" stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*9700*" stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*8500*" stringMatch cardIdentity "ATI*HD 4800 Series*" stringMatch cardIdentity "Matrox*Parhelia*" (different video cards mean different strings, so take this with a grain of salt) Now save and exit. 7.) Now that you have done all that, open up your Video Cards.sgr (with notepad or whatever). You will be met with a long list of video cards. Most usually you will be looking for either "vendor "ATI" 0x1002" or "vendor "NVidia" 0x10b4 0x12d2 0x10de" (without the outermost quotes). Other brands are in there too. In the appropriate list add your video card. Example is as follows: card 0x4E69 "Radeon 9800" card 0x4148 "Radeon 9800" card 0x4168 "Radeon 9800" card 0x9442 "Radeon HD 4800 Series" card 0x5041 "Rage 128 Pro" card 0x5042 "Rage 128 Pro" card 0x5043 "Rage 128 Pro" Now save and exit. 8.) For vista/7 users, you must navigate back to your game directory and move the edited files there, replacing the unedited ones. Yes you want to continue when your computer asks you if you want to continue. That's it your done. Enjoy playing Sim City 4. It should run very much faster now. Many make these modifications without ever editing the Video cards.sgr file, and that works too; but with an unmatched string, the game could potentially become unstable and be prone to crashes a lot more often than not. A performance deficit has also been observed. Original Thread: How to configure SC4 to work with your new hardware Return to Top

In the beginning the RHW (Rural/Real Highway) was released (sort of (as far as I can understand it)) as an extension to the MHW (maxis highway). Since then it has developed to the point such so as to be more or less completely independent of the MHW. You can combine the two, but depending upon the level of realism your shooting for; you'll probably be dissapointed at how poorly they actually combine.

Thanks very much. I wouldn't have known.

To dig up an old post... It seems Gizmo's site is no longer available, which puts us at a loss here. Is there anywhere else I can find his files?

We will find ways around the resource problem. Today's electronic devices contain more of those resources than tomorrows devices. We may end up scouring every last landfill for those resources, but we will find it nonetheless. The TRON universe may become a reality.

I like the super silo modifications. Sometimes I truly do wonder how the devs come up with these numbers and what not. Good job.

Wally world is selling the vanilla version for 10 bucks here. Hardly surprised that no one buys it.