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Region view screwed up....

Started by FrankU, May 29, 2015, 11:43:09 PM

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FrankU

Hi friends,

Since a while I have this problem. Yesterday I decided it is annoying me bad enought that I ask for help.

After I save a city there is something that looks like a problem with the transparency. Look a the image below.

Sometimes the black appears and sometimes it does not.... Why? I don't know.
Can it be something SC4 is doing? I have this computer already for several years. Last year I added an SSD. Maybe that could be the base of the trouble?

People who know me know that I hardly ever play the game, but mostly do lotting. But this week I decided to open a city grid that I started two or three years ago. I wanted to go on with it. So I opened the region and opened soem of the cities. Some cities I changed, but some I just openend and saved in order to get the same (Meadowshire) green grass look... Then the black tings appeared.
You can see that the upper cities are Meadowshire green, and some of them have the black things. The lower cities are not yet opened by me.
So the black does not always appear...

Does anyone have a clue?


Durfsurn

I get the same problem. The only solution I have found is to load and re-save the city tiles in Software mode to reset the region view. If you save in hardware mode again it will break the region view unfortunately.

-Billy

FrankU

Hi Billy,

Thanks for the quick reply.

It seems to work, but maybe someone knows the reason and if there is something else to do? Hardware mode has its advantages...

vortext

Maybe try a different resolution. Or it could be a (driver) update screwed things over along the way. What graphics card do you have? There's probably an options menu somewhere you can play around with.
time flies like a bird
fruit flies like a banana

mgb204

Are you using software rendering or hardware rendering.

In theory Software rendering is the most compatible, it should just work regardless of your hardware, although there are drawbacks to performance and graphical fidelity.

Check the log in C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps, it should be named YOURCOMPUTERNAME-config-log.txt. Under the second section Strings, can you post what you have in these three lines:

cardName =
cardVersion =
cardIdentity =

This will show if you GPU is recognised properly, if not then you may need to manually add it for optimal graphics performance.

If all this is working, then it's most likely one of the custom 3D settings applied by your GPU software like ATI Cataylst or NVidia Control Pannel, for a quick test turn all enhanced 3D settings off when running SC4.

mrbisonm

I am not a specialist in these computer things, as a matter of fact, I only know how to start the computer and play simcity and others, but.....I had this (or a similar) problem and my son fixed it with changing the video card. It was a fatigue of that card that created the problem.(the beginning of its "death")

That's all I can help with....
Good luck.

Fred


....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)

FrankU

Thanks mgb204, vortext and mrbisonm,

(first time I observed the "t" at the end of your alias, Erik!)

I did check the MYCOMPUTERNAME-config-log.txt.
The setting shows indeed my graphics card. So that is OK.

I played a bit with the settings and when I changed the global setting from optimal 3D quality to balanced 3D quality the problem seems to be gone!
I admit now: I could have tried first and then post my question....

But as far as I can tell now it's over and it is not a dying graphics card (I hope).

mrbisonm

Quote from: FrankU on May 30, 2015, 11:37:24 AM
Thanks mgb204, vortext and mrbisonm,

(first time I observed the "t" at the end of your alias, Erik!)

I did check the MYCOMPUTERNAME-config-log.txt.
The setting shows indeed my graphics card. So that is OK.

I played a bit with the settings and when I changed the global setting from optimal 3D quality to balanced 3D quality the problem seems to be gone!
I admit now: I could have tried first and then post my question....

But as far as I can tell now it's over and it is not a dying graphics card (I hope).

Glad it's fine now, hope it'll stay that way. ;)

Fred


....Uploading the MFP 1.... (.........Finishing the MFP1)

mgb204

The default 3D settings are fine, I had to do so playing around to get optimal results, some of the options (depending on card/drivers etc) can be quite beneficial if you care about graphics, so it might be worth some trial and error here to find the best setup for your machine.

It doesn't sound like a dying card to me, this problem is pretty common and if it's now fixed your hardware is pretty unlikely to be faulty.

scoty

Hi,
&apls
Great  !
I quit playing in 2014 because of this "bug" with my new computer.
What a pleasure to have cities without black backgrounds. Yoopi* !
Thanks a lot FrankU for pointing out the problem, and all for bringing the solution.

(sorry don't speak english ... google translate)
(* en français dans le texte)
... that's my pixel, click away!