does anyone know how to get SC 4 exe moved out of the apps directory and into the Sim City 4 directory?
I've tried to move it but when I do it won't run.
The reason is that I want to run the Damn menu but it won't run if SC4 is in the apps folder. I've edited the shortcut to match it wants to load but crashes to black screen after a few seconds.
I don't know enough about DAMN to comment on that side.
But the main SimCity 4.exe has always been located in the Apps folder, that's the default location. I've never thought to move it, but I'm guessing the game needs it to remain in that place to work. As such, are you sure you can't use DAMN with the file in it's usual place?
I don't know about the DRM-free versions of SC4, but I can say that, generally speaking, newer versions of Windows require that you run the DAMN-updater.BAT under admin mode; I'd also advise that you make that file able to access elevated privileges (I think this can be done under file properties).
If all else fails, you can update the DAMN txt file (that tells it which menu files to load) by hand. I did this before I figured out the Run as Administrator trick; you can either update the DAMN using the batch file outside of the restricted location (move the files somewhere like "My Documents") and then manually editing the filepaths by hand (using a copy-paste method), or you can write in all the filepaths if you are adept at typing. The first method can get a little tedious once you delve into submenus because of how often you might have to change the clipboard copy, or how much extra you may need to type in.
Again, the manual method is a last resort. I usually don't have with a problem with the DAMN when I use Run as Admin on the BAT file (DAMN-index.BAT or something like that?).
Also remember that DAMN must be located in the Program Files (x86) (if you have 64-bit OS) plugins folder to work properly. I forget why this is the case, but it's true.
Quote from: Brad Feuerhelm on August 31, 2016, 09:12:52 PM
does anyone know how to get SC 4 exe moved out of the apps directory and into the Sim City 4 directory?
I've tried to move it but when I do it won't run.
The reason is that I want to run the Damn menu but it won't run if SC4 is in the apps folder. I've edited the shortcut to match it wants to load but crashes to black screen after a few seconds.
According to what I have been told it won't work unless SC4 is in a different folder. I have tried several times to run damn but always have problems. This last one I did have it running pretty good until just all of a sudden quite. No matter what I did it wouldn't run any more. That's when I checked and found it won't run when SC4 is under apps folder. I've tried moving it and updating paths but no luck.
I will try what APSMS mentioned and see if that works. I do love DAMN sure is nice when it works.
I think I'm getting what the problem is: DAMN requires to refer to the executable to recurr separately to both plugins folders, it seems, so that makes more difficult to compatibilize that with a command line call (which is used to avoid the game to use more than one processor core, thus being prone to CTDs.
long story short, I managed to start the game adequately with DAMN using this command:
"Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32 -Intro:off -CPUPriority:low -CPUCount:1 -f
Which has to be put on a batch file (.bat) on the root SimCity 4 Deluxe folder (the one where the uninstaller executables and SimCity_#.dat files are). The custom resolution, of course, should be adjusted to your screen.
Tell us if that works
Quote from: matias93 on September 01, 2016, 10:21:42 AM
I think I'm getting what the problem is: DAMN requires to refer to the executable to recurr separately to both plugins folders, it seems, so that makes more difficult to compatibilize that with a command line call (which is used to avoid the game to use more than one processor core, thus being prone to CTDs.
long story short, I managed to start the game adequately with DAMN using this command:
"Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -CustomResolution:enabled -r1366x768x32 -Intro:off -CPUPriority:low -CPUCount:1 -f
Which has to be put on a batch file (.bat) on the root SimCity 4 Deluxe folder (the one where the uninstaller executables and SimCity_#.dat files are). The custom resolution, of course, should be adjusted to your screen.
Tell us if that works
I assume the quotes stay, will the batch file run automatically or do I need to point to it in the shortcut for SC4? I tried it as you wrote it except change the res. other than that left everything as is and didn't do a thing.
One other question does Damn have a folder/sub folder limit? I know 100 lots per menu but how many menus and how deep? Have about so far 25 and a few go about 5 deep. I got the menus set up the way I wanted but never got damn to work so far as is anyway. With no menus except for default and it runs.
For the first, you have to run the batch instead of the exe file, it is an executable, not a configuration file. For the second question, I have to recognise i haven't go farther than you: starting the game with the DAMN running, but on a basically unusable form.
Quote from: matias93 on September 01, 2016, 12:52:34 PM
For the first, you have to run the batch instead of the exe file, it is an executable, not a configuration file. For the second question, I have to recognise i haven't go farther than you: starting the game with the DAMN running, but on a basically unusable form.
It's been awhile since my last batch file, I looked again at the syntax and had a V8 moment! SO I ran it Everything went fine but damn still refuses to run. I'm getting to think maybe I broke it. So I may start Damn over from scratch and reinstall it along with SSPtools and see if that doesn't work. If not and we can't figure out what's going on then I will have to go with ILIVE reader.
Quote from: Brad Feuerhelm on September 01, 2016, 01:49:48 PM
Quote from: matias93 on September 01, 2016, 12:52:34 PM
For the first, you have to run the batch instead of the exe file, it is an executable, not a configuration file. For the second question, I have to recognise i haven't go farther than you: starting the game with the DAMN running, but on a basically unusable form.
It's been awhile since my last batch file, I looked again at the syntax and had a V8 moment! SO I ran it Everything went fine but damn still refuses to run. I'm getting to think maybe I broke it. So I may start Damn over from scratch and reinstall it along with SSPtools and see if that doesn't work. If not and we can't figure out what's going on then I will have to go with ILIVE reader.
Hey
Well I backed up my menus and then reinstalled SSpTools and Damn. But it didn't work, but I used the Sim Cty exe. So I went and started with the bat file and presto. It's working again. So Far so good! At least now I won't be spending half my time scrolling to find on lot. We shall see how long it works. But I think I'm going to go ahead and start working with ILive reader and get the menu organized that way also. Even with the damn I still have messy SC4 menus.
Thanks!