SimCity 4 deluxe crashes on startup (windows 11)

[tenaciousone68]

I played this decades ago and had so much fun. I'm not sure why it crashes. Can anyone assist or offer suggestions or other resources so I can play?
Thank you!


Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H 2.30 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable)
Product ID 00342-21012-44342-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎2/‎11/‎2023
OS build 22621.3155
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22684.1000.0

[Enterprofilenamehere]

Right click on the game in your library, click "properties" and in the window that pops up, paste this line into the box under where it says "launch options":
-intro:off

This turns off the intro video, which seems to solve startup crashes for some users.

You could also add this along with -intro:off to force the game to run in windowed mode, which makes the game more stable for some:
-w

If that doesn't solve the issue, try adding this:
-d:Software

This sacrifices a little graphical quality but makes the game stable on more PCs. I recommend this as a last resort.

If any of this works for you, I also recommend adding:
-CPUCount:1

This fixes an unrelated issue that causes the game to randomly crash every now-and-then on modern PCs while in-game.

Also to run the game at widescreen resolution you can add this:
-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

You can probably do this with any resolution you want, just replace 1920x1080 with the resolution you wish to run it at.

Make sure that there's a space between each of these commands and that the dash is included. So if you entered all of this into the launch options box it would read:
-intro:off -w -d:Software -CPUCount:1 -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

[Ulisse Wolf]

Actually those launch options have been deprecated by the community as they have been replaced by the mod DLL. Follow this guide on how to corectly configure SC4

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762953-performance-and-graphics-list-index-of-all-critical-mods-to-install/

[Enterprofilenamehere]

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Actually those launch options have been deprecated by the community as they have been replaced by the mod DLL. Follow this guide on how to corectly configure SC4

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762953-performance-and-graphics-list-index-of-all-critical-mods-to-install/

Not everyone wants to deal with mods, but they are also an option. Just using launch options is pretty easy too.

[Ulisse Wolf]

Originally posted by Enterprofilenamehere:

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Actually those launch options have been deprecated by the community as they have been replaced by the mod DLL. Follow this guide on how to corectly configure SC4

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762953-performance-and-graphics-list-index-of-all-critical-mods-to-install/

Not everyone wants to deal with mods, but they are also an option. Just using launch options is pretty easy too.

Too bad we discovered bugs its launch paramenters causing a malfunction in the settings. Therefore that we deprecated the launch paramenters and replaced with Mod DLLs that allow to fix these bugs and extend the configuration options. The only safe paramenter to use is -intro:off

[Enterprofilenamehere]

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Originally posted by Enterprofilenamehere:

Not everyone wants to deal with mods, but they are also an option. Just using launch options is pretty easy too.

Too bad we discovered bugs its launch paramenters causing a malfunction in the settings. Therefore that we deprecated the launch paramenters and replaced with Mod DLLs that allow to fix these bugs and extend the configuration options. The only safe paramenter to use is -intro:off

They haven't caused any issue with me in several hundred hours of gameplay. It must be related to specific setups or something.

[WhatWillTheNextDowndateBring?]

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Originally posted by Enterprofilenamehere:

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Actually those launch options have been deprecated by the community as they have been replaced by the mod DLL. Follow this guide on how to corectly configure SC4

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762953-performance-and-graphics-list-index-of-all-critical-mods-to-install/

Not everyone wants to deal with mods, but they are also an option. Just using launch options is pretty easy too.

Too bad we discovered bugs its launch paramenters causing a malfunction in the settings. Therefore that we deprecated the launch paramenters and replaced with Mod DLLs that allow to fix these bugs and extend the configuration options. The only safe paramenter to use is -intro:off

Anything you can link to backing that up? Or is that just more of you yiffing for the sake of it similar perhaps to back when it looked like you may never stfu about a "theoretical OpenSC4".

[Ulisse Wolf]

Originally posted by richnathaniel9419:

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Too bad we discovered bugs its launch paramenters causing a malfunction in the settings. Therefore that we deprecated the launch paramenters and replaced with Mod DLLs that allow to fix these bugs and extend the configuration options. The only safe paramenter to use is -intro:off

Anything you can link to backing that up? Or is that just more of you yiffing for the sake of it similar perhaps to back when it looked like you may never stfu about a "theoretical OpenSC4".

Originally posted by richnathaniel9419:

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Too bad we discovered bugs its launch paramenters causing a malfunction in the settings. Therefore that we deprecated the launch paramenters and replaced with Mod DLLs that allow to fix these bugs and extend the configuration options. The only safe paramenter to use is -intro:off

Anything you can link to backing that up? Or is that just more of you yiffing for the sake of it similar perhaps to back when it looked like you may never stfu about a "theoretical OpenSC4".

There is a big discussion about the new discoveries being made in the SC4Evermore Discord Server or just see the development of the DLL mods

In fact the CPU Priority command is broken in that SC4 will always run at low priority despite you putting the high priority

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/36048-sc4cpupriority/

Or we found out that the -r1920x1080x32 command is broken because SC4 will never work with a 32 bit coloring and also we found out that DirectX 7 does not fully support 1920x1080 resolution leading to the famous black stripe bug that players who play at resolutions like 2K or 4K are subject to

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/36095-sc4-full-screen-32-bit-color/

[tenaciousone68]

Originally posted by Enterprofilenamehere:

Right click on the game in your library, click "properties" and in the window that pops up, paste this line into the box under where it says "launch options":
-intro:off

This turns off the intro video, which seems to solve startup crashes for some users.

You could also add this along with -intro:off to force the game to run in windowed mode, which makes the game more stable for some:
-w

If that doesn't solve the issue, try adding this:
-d:Software

This sacrifices a little graphical quality but makes the game stable on more PCs. I recommend this as a last resort.

If any of this works for you, I also recommend adding:
-CPUCount:1

This fixes an unrelated issue that causes the game to randomly crash every now-and-then on modern PCs while in-game.

Also to run the game at widescreen resolution you can add this:
-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

You can probably do this with any resolution you want, just replace 1920x1080 with the resolution you wish to run it at.

Make sure that there's a space between each of these commands and that the dash is included. So if you entered all of this into the launch options box it would read:
-intro:off -w -d:Software -CPUCount:1 -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

Thank you! I tried each step without success until adding the full final string. It opened and that's a great start!
Regarding mods, to your point, some games yes, some no. I'll look more at them later.

For now, I'm giddy the game is up and running. Nostalgia is abundant! Thank you so much for the help. This really made my day.

[tenaciousone68]

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Actually those launch options have been deprecated by the community as they have been replaced by the mod DLL. Follow this guide on how to corectly configure SC4

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762953-performance-and-graphics-list-index-of-all-critical-mods-to-install/

Thank you! I will check you link and information out. I appreciate your response and willingness to help. It's really special to see folks have passion for such a pioneering game for it's time all these years later. That's really cool!

[WhatWillTheNextDowndateBring?]

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

There is a big discussion about the new discoveries being made in the SC4Evermore Discord Server or just see the development of the DLL mods

In fact the CPU Priority command is broken in that SC4 will always run at low priority despite you putting the high priority

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/36048-sc4cpupriority/

Or we found out that the -r1920x1080x32 command is broken because SC4 will never work with a 32 bit coloring and also we found out that DirectX 7 does not fully support 1920x1080 resolution leading to the famous black stripe bug that players who play at resolutions like 2K or 4K are subject to

https://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/36095-sc4-full-screen-32-bit-color/

Not sure what's up with the double quote spam, but okay! Thanks for providing some links so hopefully someone more tech literate than me (which wouldn't be saying much admittedly) like maybe Enterprofilenamehere can confirm how true your claims are by looking at them.

[PrimusNephilim]

Originally posted by Enterprofilenamehere:

Right click on the game in your library, click "properties" and in the window that pops up, paste this line into the box under where it says "launch options":
-intro:off

This turns off the intro video, which seems to solve startup crashes for some users.

You could also add this along with -intro:off to force the game to run in windowed mode, which makes the game more stable for some:
-w

If that doesn't solve the issue, try adding this:
-d:Software

This sacrifices a little graphical quality but makes the game stable on more PCs. I recommend this as a last resort.

If any of this works for you, I also recommend adding:
-CPUCount:1

This fixes an unrelated issue that causes the game to randomly crash every now-and-then on modern PCs while in-game.

Also to run the game at widescreen resolution you can add this:
-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

You can probably do this with any resolution you want, just replace 1920x1080 with the resolution you wish to run it at.

Make sure that there's a space between each of these commands and that the dash is included. So if you entered all of this into the launch options box it would read:
-intro:off -w -d:Software -CPUCount:1 -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

This also worked for me, Thank you for posting this!!!

[VictorHLB2001]

Originally posted by tenaciousone68:

I played this decades ago and had so much fun. I'm not sure why it crashes. Can anyone assist or offer suggestions or other resources so I can play?
Thank you!


Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700H 2.30 GHz
Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.7 GB usable)
Product ID 00342-21012-44342-AAOEM
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Edition Windows 11 Home
Version 22H2
Installed on ‎2/‎11/‎2023
OS build 22621.3155
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22684.1000.0

It's been a year since I bought the game, and even using these codes, it still doesn't work

[Hitori]

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Actually those launch options have been deprecated by the community as they have been replaced by the mod DLL. Follow this guide on how to corectly configure SC4

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762953-performance-and-graphics-list-index-of-all-critical-mods-to-install/

done all that and still wont launch

[oneatimeaonly]

Originally posted by Hitori:

Originally posted by Ulisse Wolf:

Actually those launch options have been deprecated by the community as they have been replaced by the mod DLL. Follow this guide on how to corectly configure SC4

https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/762953-performance-and-graphics-list-index-of-all-critical-mods-to-install/

done all that and still wont launch

Hitori, I know it was mentioned that the options were deprecated. However I was able to get it to run using these: -intro:off -d:Software

Once it started, I removed the software option (only had the intro off) and, in the program, told it to use hardware rendering and it would crash. Threw the software option back on and it appears to work. And has been on the main screen for about 10 minutes now.