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    Maxis Files for SimCity 4

    A repository for SC4's official content downloads, including buildings, game patches & tools.

  •  Game Patches, Tools & Other Files

    Download patches for SC4 Deluxe (and vanilla), custom content tools including the BAT, Lot Editor, and Plugin Manager. Also featuring extra files such as sample regions and the game manual.

     

    EP1 Update
    The main patch for SimCity 4 Rush Hour / Deluxe.

    This update is required as a minimum for most custom content including the NAM. Upon installation, your game will be updated to Version 1.1.638.0 from where the Nightlights Update can then be applied.

    Note: Digital versions of SC4 do not require this, providing they are fully patched (1.1.641.0). A notable exception is the Origin edition which is both unpatched and unpatchable, and therefore not recommended.

    To install, download the appropriate version depending on your game's geographical region, then run the executable and follow the on-screen prompts.
     

      UPDATE_SKU1_TO_P1_B638.exe
    Regions: North America, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, South Africa.
    (16.7 MB)

      UPDATE_SKU2_TO_P1_B638.exe
    Regions: South America, Central America, Mexico, Europe, Russia, Central Africa, North Africa.
    (17.0 MB)

      UPDATE_SKU3_TO_P1_B638.exe
    Regions: Korea, Thailand, Tawain, Hong Kong.
    (16.7 MB)

      UPDATE_SKU4_TO_P1_B638.exe
    Region: China
    (9.46 MB)

      UPDATE_SKU5_TO_P1_B638.exe
    Region: Japan
    (16.8 MB)
     

      Patch Notes
    Update: 1.1.638.0
    Release: November 14, 2003
    Performance Improvements
    • Adjusted foam spray effect for firefighters fighting toxic spills.
    • Addressed issues related to U-Drive it mode while volcano disaster is active.
    • Fix for random issues that may arise when dragging a diagonal power line across zones in specific manner that creates a connected orphan pole in a segment.
    • Renderer updates to avoid memory corruption when model instance has an invalid position.
    • Updates to paths to improve clipper that was transforming stop points into single-point paths.
    • Video card improvements for the following: Intel i830/845/865: Fixed graphics rules to allow hardware and to disable color cursor.
    • Addressed issues related to burning tree stump.
    • Fix for airplane sometimes taxiing above the airfield.
    • Implemented safety code for query.
    • Fix for relatively obscure problems that occur when moving vans are created on a tile with a complex paths.
    • Implemented a general-purpose fix for any remaining yet-to-be-discovered cases of a bad orientation vector.
    • Fix for issue where networks loaded from a saved city would not properly re-initialize their connection bitmap.
    • Updated Localized strings.
    • Updates for My Sim messaging. The issues would arise when moving a My Sim out of a city at just the right time.
    • Fix for reported location of sky diving mission.
    • Fix for query incorrectly reporting trip length after abandonment.
    • Fix for incorrectly reported commute time during inter-city travel.
    • Path fixes for various networks and intersections.
    • Texture fixes for several one-way/avenue intersections.
    • Fix for several network intersection resolves.
    • Improved usage of parking lots and transit stations.
    • Improved synching of foundation vs. building height.
    • Improved variety of industry building development.
    • Fix for intercity commute where bus traffic was periodically being treated as car traffic.
    • Fix for being able to drop highway ramps over buildings.
    • Adjusted toll booth capacities for 2-tile wide toll booths.
    • Fix for prevention of pedestrians from using neighbor connections.
    • Fix for elevated train volume not being reported in the traffic volume graph.
    • Fix for commercial traffic and road noise map calculations to accommodate multi-tile morning and evening commutes.
    • Added left turn lanes to avenue/highway overpass onramps.
    • Fix for priorities of props and textures in lot templates used in city detail.
    • Fix for variety of path bugs related to roads, rails, highways, avenues and elevated rail.

     

     
    Nightlights Update
    Allows lighting effects to work on custom-created buildings.

    This update must be installed after the above EP1 Update. Upon installation, your game will be updated to Version 1.1.640.0 and will be fully patched.

    To install, simply download and run the executable following the on-screen prompts.

      SC4Update4BAT.exe
    (14.0 MB)
     

     
    Mac Patch v1.1 Rev A
    An update for the Aspyr Mac release of SimCity 4. Windows users do not require this file.

    To install, download and run the file following the on-screen prompts.

      SC4RHMac_v11RevA.dmg
    (12.7 MB)
     

     
    SC4 Rush Hour / Deluxe Manual
    The official user manual guide in PDF format.

      SC4rh_deluxe_manual.pdf   OR download here as a ZIP archive.  (Some browsers open PDFs directly.)
    (2.29 MB)
     

     
    SC4 Building Architect Tool (BAT)
    The Gamepack for Gmax allowing the creation of custom models for SC4.

      SC4BATInstaller.exe
    (9.50 MB)
     

     
    BAT Texture Problem Fix
    A script file for users of the Building Architect Tool.

    To install, copy the files into your Gmax scripts folder (C:\gmax\gamepack\BAT\scripts\), overwriting the existing ones if prompted.

      BAT_Texture_Problem_Fix.zip
    (5.08 KB)
     

     
    SC4 Plugin Manager
    A tool allowing custom models to be assigned a lot for use in the game.

      SC4PluginMan.exe
    (1.09 MB)
     

     
    SC4 Lot Editor
    A tool for visually editing the layout of lots in SimCity 4, including custom props & textures.

      LotEditorInstaller.exe
    (2.87 MB)
     

     
    Optimized U-Drive-It City Map
    A city tile specially crafted by the evil genius Dr Vu, designed for UDI playability in mind.

      udrive_opt.sc4
    (3.17 MB)
     

     
    Maxis Region
    A 3x3 region with 3 pre-built sample cities: Centropolis, Commercial Venture, & Industrial Wasteland.

      Maxis_Region.zip
    (6.11 MB)
     

     
    Kanto Tokai Region
    A map based on the Kanto region in Honshu, Japan.

      Kanto_Tokai_Region.zip
    (10.0 MB)
     

     
    Update for SimCity 4 (Vanilla)
    A patch for the original version of SC4, without Rush Hour / Deluxe.

    This update is only for those with the base game, and is not required nor compatible for those using Rush Hour / Deluxe, where these improvements are also included in the expansion. Upon installation, your game will be updated to Version 1.0.272.0.

    To install, download the appropriate version depending on your game's geographical region, then run the executable and follow the on-screen prompts.
     

      UPDATE-SKU1-TO-P2.exe
    Regions: North America, Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, South Africa.
    (9.43 MB)

      UPDATE-SKU2-TO-P2.exe
    Regions: South America, Central America, Mexico, Europe, Russia, Central Africa, North Africa.
    (8.95 MB)

      UPDATE-SKU3-TO-P2.exe
    Regions: Korea, Thailand, Tawain, Hong Kong.
    (8.85 MB)

      UPDATE-SKU4-TO-P2.exe
    Region: China
    (9.41 MB)

      UPDATE-SKU5-TO-P2.exe
    Region: Japan
    (8.91 MB)
     

      Patch Notes
    Update: 1.0.272.0
    Release: April 7, 2003
    Performance Improvements
    • Zoom and rotation switching is faster in all cases, due to changes that made building graphics loading more conservative.
    • AutoZoomChange:off
    • Simulation and Frame rates in general are faster for many cities, due to bug fixes and performance improvements related to the traffic simulation and neighbor deals.
    • The application's memory cache is more aggressively reduced at runtime, so that memory will be freed for other uses, resulting in less paging on systems with less memory.
    • Control-Shift-Alt-S (or holding down Alt while clicking on the city save button) saves the city without updating the region thumbnail and should significantly improve the game save time, especially on memory-strapped systems.
    • Game default detail options have been made more conservative with respect to memory and processor speed. Because of the additions to the graphics options, your previous settings will be lost and reset with new default settings.
    • The game no longer forces itself into the underground view unless you have explicitly picked an underground tool.
    • Three new graphics options have been added under in-game graphics settings.
      They are: building detail, texture quality and building load speed. These options are initially set at conservative defaults and can be altered for your specific machine needs.
      • Building detail will enable you to load one building style set per rank.
        (1 set=low, 2 sets=medium, all 3 sets=high).
      • Texture quality will alter the textures based on the zoom level.
      • Building load speed will enable tuning options for the rate at which buildings are loaded in memory. For example, at the low setting buildings will appear at a slower rate but there will be greater responsiveness to the mouse and scroll movements.

    Caveats
    • Very large and dense cities with complex road and underground networks will continue to be a problem with computers that have less than 256MB of RAM unless the user turns graphics options down via the options dialogs and turns down day/night transitions via the God menu.
    • It wouldn't hurt to turn down audio options via the options dialog as well in these cases. The immense scope of SimCity makes it difficult for it to run quickly at full breadth on machines with lower RAM, particularly when running complex operating systems such as Windows XP.
    • In our efforts to increase the speed and responsiveness of zoom changes and scrolling we had to make some trade offs. You will notice quicker response when changing zooms but one trade off is that the back ground loader will take more time loading in buildings. The result is that when loading there may be black boxes in view.
    • This issue can be controlled to some degree by adjusting the new graphics option, "building load speed", to better suit the performance of your specific machine.

    Additional Update Fixes
    • Addressed Life Expectancy issue in how averages were calculated. This solves problems with sudden drops and oddly low values.
    • Addressed commuting issues related to highways and double counting on subways.
    • Addressed twitching for left hand turning vehicles.
    • Addressed graph (jobs & population) with multiple occupant types to toggle each type or with hover query.
    • Improved art for the heavy truck (industrial prop). It was previously rendered with 8 bit alpha instead of 1 bit giving it a large blocky black background.
    • Addressed neighbor deal status on rail query.
    • Streamlined garbage graph to display just the current capacity of landfills and garbage produced by the city.
    • Addressed several issues in highway connections to neighboring cities.
    • Addressed issue for airports and seaports initially showing up distressed.
    • Alphabetized region names in the UI.
    • Addressed issue regarding incorrect lot texture on a high wealth residential building and a texture with a high wealth commercial building.
    • Update for a connection-related neighbor deal problem associated with water.
    • Change neighbor deal to allow deals to continue for a short period of time even if the buying city runs out of money. This addresses the "neighbor deal cancelled too quickly" issue.
    • Added a desirability threshold to prevent abandonment if lots have high desirability.
    • Increased RCI demand max (allowing the largest structures to build easier). This is better known as the Stage 8 issue.
    • Addressed airport queries to report efficiency.
    • Addressed landfills to combine easier if drawn adjacent to each other. Still problematical if drawn between two landfills, so try adding them one at a time.
    • Lowered the alpha on distressed and abandoned so cities don't look so devastated.
    • Addressed Neighbor deal issues (escalating rates, canceling during suspension and canceling during obliteration).
    • Addressed issue of fires starting with missile silo while game was paused, Also helps stop fires starting from other special effects while game is paused.
    • Addressed issues related to power line occupant leaks that were causing some problems with saved games.
    • Tax fields in budget can now be entered directly in addition to using the spinners.
    • Addressed incorrect links to budget in multi-neighbor deal messages.
    • Addressed cost escalation to network tiles after drawing bridges/tunnels.
    • Addressed updates for automata (less getting stuck in intersections, better synching of lights, better stopping for trains).
    • Addressed issue for "go to disaster" link if auto go to disasters is turned off in options.
    • Addressed some network draw problems related to drawing highways over other networks diagonally.
    • Added support for crash report generator. This enables the creation of a log file if the game happens to shut down unexpectedly.
    • Addressed issue for flipped network piece (two diagonal roads against orthogonal T intersection).
    • Improved support for cities built with plugins opened by users who do not have those plugins.
    • Control-Alt-Shift-X will bring up cheat panel as stated in the strategy guide.
    • Lowered 'hotspot' effect for fires. This results in less fires breaking out.
    • Lowered frequency of busses (visual automata only) in large cities.

    Included Fixes (Update 1)
    • Addressed issue related to conflict between MySim and Transportation Pack.
    • Addressed issue related to SIS video chipsets.
    • Addressed several incorrect links in advisor messages.
    • Updated car zots to display properly.
    • Addressed issue where the catalog was showing the incorrect capacity for the Recycling Center.
    • Addressed issue where industry development would occur even when commuters could not reach the zone.
    • Added support for ATI Radeon R300 series that add backing store capability.
    • Added option to turn off auto-road when zoning behavior by holding the shift-key while zoning.
    • Added option to change orientation of lots when zoning by holding the alt-key while zoning.
    • Added whales to the game.
    • Retuned pollution values for airports and seaports.
    • Port efficiency is now displayed correctly.
    • Airport upgrading now works correctly.
    • Freight trains can now drop cargo at ports.
    • Updated new zone graphics to better indicate the front of lots.

     

  • Please Note

    All official files remain the intellectual property of Maxis / Electronic Arts (EA). They have been made available for the benefit of the SimCity 4 community, following the closure of the official SC4 website (simcity.ea.com) where these files were originally hosted. By downloading, you hereby agree to the terms set forth in the Maxis End User License Agreement (EULA).

    This site is not endorsed by or affiliated with Electronic Arts, or its licensors. Trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Game content and materials copyright Electronic Arts Inc. and its licensors. All Rights Reserved.

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