• Welcome to SC4 Devotion Forum Archives.

Unlock FPS during simulation

Started by CasperVg, August 11, 2016, 12:19:13 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

CasperVg

Figured I would mentioned a small trick that could help improve your experience when playing SimCity 4. For (unknown?) reasons, the game limits the FPS (frames per second) while it is simulating (days are ticking along). The framerate is always unlocked if the simulation is paused (for example because you are scrolling)

By default, while simulating at the following speeds, the framerate will be locked at:
- Turtle (slowest) simulation speed: 30 FPS
- Rhino (medium) simulation speed: 20 FPS
- Cheetah (heighest) simulation speed: 15 FPS

However, these limits can be increased if you are using the fps cheat Extra Cheats DLL, for example:
"fps 100" will set the limit at 100 FPS.
"fps 1" will set the limit to 1 FPS (one new frame every second - slideshows woo)
"fps -1" will unlock the framerate entirely
"fps somerandomtext" will crash the game  $%Grinno$%

Of course, in general the actual achieved framerate will be lower than the number you set it at, as it is still dependent on the actual speed your processor can simulate your tile. On my computer, for example, I'll get approximately 45-50fps while simulating at cheetah speed.

Note that the "cheat" needs to be re-applied every time you open a tile, change the simulation speed or change any game options.

Thanks to Jonathan for the initial tip back in 2009. I felt like this trick deserved a separate  thread so it can help improve the game experience for more people, as it seems to be very scarcely documented.

Also, perhaps it would be possible for someone to write a DLL plugin that would automatically apply this cheat when the game loads?

Hope it's helpful to some :)
Follow my SimCity 4 Let's play on YouTube

art128

I tried using fps 300 while playing a medium city tile and I didn't notice a big difference. Through sometimes the game took a bit longer to make stuff appear, like when you rotate the view. No idea if it was related or not though.
I'll take a quiet life... A handshake of carbon monoxide.

Props & Texture Catalog

gn_leugim

Hmm I have to try this out! thanks for sharing! :)

Mero90

#3
Getting more fps doesn't mean a better gaming experience.

Each game has the best fps range.
That range is between 60 to 144 for "fast motion" games like MOBAs and FPSs; between 30 to 60 for RPG games and MMOs; between 15 to 30 for turn based games, city builders and other "slow motion" games.

Getting more then 200 fps may cause "screen lags" and massive fps drops, making worse your game experience.

If your hardware can handle the game on its maximum graphics settings, getting also a lot of fps, you should cap them on a value between your monitor refresh rate and its double (i.e. 60 to 120 for a 60Hz monitor), for example I use the 80 fps cap option on League of Legends.

So, SimCity 4 can be played without fps "hacks", however getting more fps may be useful for everyone who desire to stream/record videos with some streaming software. Videos can be recorded at 30 or 60 fps, and streaming services (Twitch.tv) force to set 30 fps. In this case setting an fps cap on 80 or 100 fps can improve your recording/streaming quality.

p.s. Do not cap at 60 fps on a 60Hz monitor, or you will experience a terrible screen tearing!