Fix for Simcity 4: Crashed to Desktop and Graphic Cards Recognitions

Simcity 4 is a 10 years old game. Yes, its launched in 2003, on Steam since 2010. It is the best of Simcity series to date (compared with Simcity 2013). But it was... 10 years old.

Simcity 4 was optimized for Windows XP and Windows 98, okay, Windows Me too. Stepping into Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 is painful only to get your games crashes to desktop, or even does not load at all. Current graphic card power were too powerful with Simcity, it gives glitches, false render, black spot, transparent spot. you named it.

But, all of the problem are easily fixed, with command line switches, or a launcher.

EDIT 2022: Apparently this still works... and I still get notification from time to time. Just remember that the game will be TWENTY years old next year. So... things would tend to broke over time, with newer OS and things.

Using a Launcher

For easy resolve on crash, you need a launcher. It even do auto-save if configure it. You can get the launcher here[community.simtropolis.com] or here[community.simtropolis.com]. Both of them are nealy identical in functions, and works perfectly.

Configure a Launcher

Have you download one of it? Good, open it, and go to Graphic tab.

Modern game run the graphic on OpenGL (or RTX or whatever jargon they use in 2022, i don't remember...), but sometime many time, it will crash in minutes, or few hours into game. Even touching some NAM piece can CTD. If it happened to you, then you need to switch the game to DirectX, it means that now Windows processing the graphic.

Still crashing or glitching? Change it to Software. Your hardware should powerful enough to run the rendering on DirectX or Software.


Put a screen resolution you want, HD1080 is ok, but sometimes you need t lower it to 768p or 720p, window mode. Leave color on "Full Color" and you're basically good to go.

Now, switch to Processor tab. When Simcity 4 launched on 2003, the world was still mostly run on 32 bit, single core processor. So, the game was optimized to run on single core. The game might will crash more often if more core are used, because it can't utilise multicore and newer instruction set. Go to "Core" on CPU, it may varies on each launcher. You need to tie your core to ONE core only, with HIGH priority.


If you want to config anything else, like turning off intros, or else you can do it too.

Using Command Line Switches

Now, you think you don't want a launcher, and going to use the CLI method.

Did you know how to insert additional parameter when running a Steam game? If you don't know yet read here.

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

Display Command Line Switches

This part are taken from Widescreen Gaming Forum[www.widescreengamingforum.com]

-CustomResolution:enabled
Enables Custom Resolutions

-rWWWWxHHHxBB
Edit to match the resolution you want; where WWWW is screen width, HHH is screen height, and BB is color depth (16 or 32)

-f or -w
Enables full screen or windowed mode

-intro:off
turns off the intro video. Apparently necessary if you have a widescreen monitor since the intro is streched and eww.

Here's an example you would add to the launch options:
-CustomResolution:enabled -r1680x1050x32 -f -intro:off

Game Engine CLIs

-CPUCount:1
Use only 1 CPU Core

-d:Software or -d:DirectX
Rendering Mode - Use if launching in hardware mode fails

-CPUPriority:high
CPUPriority lets other processes (programs) use the processor more when the game isnt in use.

And this is what i put on the switches:
-CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32 -f -d:DirectX -Cursors:fullcolor -Intro:off -UserDir:"D:\Data\SimCity 4" -CPUPriority:high -CPUCount:1

If you want to make this process easier, you can use launcher, then copy the "Parameter" part to your options


Of course, if you're using the launcher you can have Autosave turned on, while not recording your gametime. :)

	LAUNCHER	STEAM
Game Time	Not recorded	Recorded
Autosave	Available	Not available

Make The Game Recognize Your Card

This part of guide was taken from SIMTROPOLIS. If you need pictures, they provide it there[community.simtropolis.com]

If you are running Windows NT6 (Vista through 8.1) and NT10 (Windows 10/11/12/13 and on and on...), then follow this step:

1. Go to your games directory (eg. C:\Program Files\Maxis\Sim City 4 (deluxe)\, or wherever you put the game when installing it)

2. Copy Graphics Rules.sgr and Video Cards.sgr to your desktop or anywhere accessible directory in which you have full read/write permission

3. On desktop, press WIN+S or go to Settings or Control Panel, search for Device Manager, expand Display Adapters, right click on your graphic card then properties, then details.

4. Take notes of TWO things:

• The FULL Device Description
  
• The 4 digit Strings after DEV on Hardware IDs

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*"
     ...

and add your card, like this:

  partialRule "Fast card" -any
     # We run well on these cards, so up the defaults.
     stringMatch cardIdentity "AMD*Radeon(TM)*R2*Graphics"
     stringMatch cardIdentity "NVidia*Geforce*"
     ...

different video cards mean different strings, Save twice. We know you should save twice.

Done? Then, open Video Cards.sgr. 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 0x98E4 "AMD Radeon(TM) R2 Graphics"
       card 0x5043 "Rage 128 Pro"

Save twice, and exit.

Put back both files onto game directory, replacing the original one. Done.

Conclusion

Does applying all this stuff makes my game won't crash? Unfortunately, NO. This is just reducing your downtime only. Without this switches, especially Cores setting, my game would crash in 20-30 minutes. But, when it's tied it to one core, I can play on 4 hours without crashing (typical single session for me).

Simcity 4 is a classic. This game requires planning right from the start. If you succeed, you'll feel rewarded with hours of fun, toying with your cities. In the end you'll achieve the ultimate goal of a simulation, simulate your game, perfectly, your way.

If you want a more modern city builder, buy Cities: Skylines. It has many many many many DLC (Paradox, duh), bu if you want pretty 3D city builder, that's the only good things right now.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/255710/Cities_Skylines/

Also, remember that Transport Tycoon opensource clone OpenTTD are available on Steam.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1536610/OpenTTD/

[DanTheStar]

The launcher link is not working but the mods to fix is working.

[76561199810420254]

Using the command line -d:software worked for me. Thanks.

[Transmental Me]

Does not setting CPU Count to 1 cause bugs?

The game performs immensely better for me when core count is set to anything higher than 1.

[roahader]

to anyone that wants the game to recognize ur card - google 'graphicrulesmaker' (simsnetwork/com) this program is used for both sims 2 and simcity 4, it does the same thing as this guide says but u dont need to tear ur hair out

[Hitori]

Launcher been removed from both links

[Pizzaguy]

over 20 years still enjoying minus the frequent crashes

[hoppy857]

Doesn't work, it can't even find the game on my laptop which it clearly is downloaded!

[White Sheep]

For me, in addition to "CPUCount:1" I also had to change "d:OpenGL" because DirectX would crash when loading city (already installed DirectX runtime)

- Windows 11 22H2
- Intel i5-1235U
- Intel Xe iGFX
- no Mods / no patch

[Moo G60]

What is the correct path to install this launcher please?

[Mardoin69]

@Xep
That Nvidia modern card id's link IS now updated showing even the RTX series all way up to 4k's.
Just pointing it out in case anyone wasn't sure.