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SimCity seriesSimCity 4 - Tips for running on modern Windows(18 posts)(18 posts)
(18 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 29, 2014
high rated
Hello fellow GOGers:
We all know this game has issues running on modern iterations of Windows so here are a few tips to perhaps make it better :

Right-click on the "SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition" icon on your Desktop, and go to the end of the "Target" textbox to add new command-line parameters.

- Since the game doesn't handle threading properly on multi-core CPUs, GOG already adds the notorious -CPUCount:1 command line parameter (which is pretty much mandatory since Windows XP).

- The game only supports very few resolutions (which are 4:3) and usually aren't suited for modern displays (which have, for the most part, 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios). To remedy this, add (don't forget to leave 1 space between options) :
-CustomResolution:enabled -rWWWWxHHHxBB
where WWWW is screen width, HHH is screen height, and BB is color depth (16 or 32)
example: for a 1280x720 resolution : -CustomResolution:enabled -r1280x720x32

- If you wish to skip the EAGames/Maxis intro, add :
-intro:off

- Some people have issues with the game crashing without even getting to the menu, it is possible that the game doesn't support Hardware rendering on your machine, try adding this to the parameters and see if that does it for you :
-d:Software

- If hardware mode (default) works for you, great! But I find DirectX (the default hardware renderer) to be a bit choppy, at least on my machine (i7+nVidia), so instead of lowering stuff in the graphic options (ingame), try switching to the OpenGL renderer by adding :
-d:OpenGL
(nVidia cards usually seem to run OpenGL games a bit better, but it just might be a rumor. Then again it can also make the game run smoother on AMD/ATI's Radeon, if anyone wants to try it out and post results)

Hope I've been of some help.
Post edited May 29, 2014 by sylvain-p
Posted May 29, 2014
Somebody also made a launcher with all of these options and a couple other things which can be found here

I might also note that with a nVidia GTX 660M both DirectX and software renderers had choppy performance. The OpenGL renderer appeared to perform more smoothly in the region view, but I had massive graphical issues when playing a city.
PCGamingWiki has a suggested solution which involves manually adding your graphics card to the list of recognised cards, but adding both my integrated and dedicated graphics didn't work.
Post edited May 30, 2014 by TheEddevilish
Posted May 29, 2014
avatar
TheEddevilish: Somebody also made a launcher with all of these options and a couple other things which can be found here
@TheEddevilish,

Thanks a lot. The SC4 launcher mod worked great. Once you have used it once, you can start the game directly without having to use again (unless you want to make other changes).
Posted May 29, 2014
I'll see if a bluetext wants to sticky this thread. :)

Here's a widescreen tip posted in the release thread:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/release_simcity_4_deluxe_edition/post134

"Hey guys, if you want to play this game in widescreen resolutions, go to properties of the shortcut on your desktop and add "-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080 -introff" to the end of the target line (without the quotation marks). Change the "r1920x1080" part to to whatever you resolution you want."
Post edited May 29, 2014 by tfishell
Posted May 29, 2014
Awesome post sylvain-p, +1. I've bought the game as a gift because I'm undecided but with all the good posts I've seen about the game today I'll probably redeem it myself.
Posted May 30, 2014
Thank you!

Those tips help me a lot :)
Posted May 30, 2014
Awesome, all I needed was changing the renderer to OpenGL. DirectX was glitching the heck out, even with everything turned down and in low res. I can play 1920x1080 with everything turned up now. :)
Posted May 30, 2014
Here Direct X is fine, the loading screens flicker with my desktop items but the game itself is ok. Unplayable under OpenGL, The screen res switch works great. The music is very choppy so silenced it - kept the sounds on which seem okay.
Posted May 31, 2014
Hmm... launcher is able to get game to run on 1920x1080 for me, but game is choppy using either DirectX or software, and broken with OpenGL

I have an nVidia Geforce GTX 560M

Not sure what to do... was looking forward to playing this too :(
Posted May 31, 2014
avatar
edwardocracy: Hmm... launcher is able to get game to run on 1920x1080 for me, but game is choppy using either DirectX or software, and broken with OpenGL

I have an nVidia Geforce GTX 560M

Not sure what to do... was looking forward to playing this too :(
Someone in another thread recommended running in windowed mode and I can confirm that improves my performance a lot. Another thing you could try is opening 'Graphics Rules.sgr' in the installation folder and add the following bold line to this section:

rule "Standard hardware"

option $VisualEffects $Low
...
...
property TextureBits 32 # mostly just for preview -- everything else
# should be DXT
property usevertexbuffers false
Posted May 31, 2014
Thanks. Window mode and your other suggestion helped too.

Also, I found that turning off cloud/fog and turning off shadows helps immensely.
Posted September 15, 2018
avatar
sylvain-p: Hello fellow GOGers:
We all know this game has issues running on modern iterations of Windows so here are a few tips to perhaps make it better :

Right-click on the "SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition" icon on your Desktop, and go to the end of the "Target" textbox to add new command-line parameters.

- Since the game doesn't handle threading properly on multi-core CPUs, GOG already adds the notorious -CPUCount:1 command line parameter (which is pretty much mandatory since Windows XP).

- The game only supports very few resolutions (which are 4:3) and usually aren't suited for modern displays (which have, for the most part, 16:9 and 16:10 aspect ratios). To remedy this, add (don't forget to leave 1 space between options) :
-CustomResolution:enabled -rWWWWxHHHxBB
where WWWW is screen width, HHH is screen height, and BB is color depth (16 or 32)
example: for a 1280x720 resolution : -CustomResolution:enabled -r1280x720x32

- If you wish to skip the EAGames/Maxis intro, add :
-intro:off

- Some people have issues with the game crashing without even getting to the menu, it is possible that the game doesn't support Hardware rendering on your machine, try adding this to the parameters and see if that does it for you :
-d:Software

- If hardware mode (default) works for you, great! But I find DirectX (the default hardware renderer) to be a bit choppy, at least on my machine (i7+nVidia), so instead of lowering stuff in the graphic options (ingame), try switching to the OpenGL renderer by adding :
-d:OpenGL
(nVidia cards usually seem to run OpenGL games a bit better, but it just might be a rumor. Then again it can also make the game run smoother on AMD/ATI's Radeon, if anyone wants to try it out and post results)

Hope I've been of some help.
Excellent, worked perfect for Windows 10, thanks. I just used 1920x1080 for the resolution, for my particular monitor.
Posted September 22, 2018
Thanks it works!

Is there any command to lock or cap fps?
Posted December 15, 2018
I tried adding all of the mentioned command lines, and it looks like it works.... for about 3 seconds... then the game crashes again.
Also when I try opening the game in windowed mode, it still opens in fullscreen.
Posted December 15, 2018
avatar
dmunk05: I tried adding all of the mentioned command lines, and it looks like it works.... for about 3 seconds... then the game crashes again.
Also when I try opening the game in windowed mode, it still opens in fullscreen.
Try some of the suggestions here.
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This is my favourite topic
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SimCity seriesSimCity 4 - Tips for running on modern Windows(18 posts)(18 posts)
(18 posts)