Need assistance with props/dependancies (I think)

[Mbolism]

Ok, found and removed the file for the school, as well as the Tahvontorni folders.  I was able to navigate the game just fine for quite some time, zooming in and out, turning night on and off, and watching things grow.  Then, when I destroyed and replaced the powerplant (Hydrogen) and upped my Transportation funding, then tried to zoom out, it crashed.  Those are the only 2 things that I did.

When destroying the power plant, the game bogs down for a few seconds, and the same when building the new one.  It also bogs down just a bit after the funding increase for the airport (stock airport, not a new one).  Not sure if this helps, but figured it couldn't hurt to post.

[jestarr]

The Tahvontorni is a building by Krio on the STEX.  It's a plopable CO$$ Diagonal that's considerably larger that the lot it's on.  The footprint has been reduced, so it'll fit on a 1x2 lot, instead of a 5x5, and though the stats seem a little screwy for a building of that size, I didn't see anything that would cause a CTD.  The ms car prop files change the default Maxis vehicles to those more common in Europe.  That's all they do and I've never heard of them causing any problems, as they're props that have been used for years.

[Mbolism]

Hmmm.  well, I got rid of that stuff just the same (except the cars).  I'll probably try a few more things then just start over from scratch.

BTW, one thing I was wanting to ask, unrelated to this, is the game itself, and how slow it seems to run with large cities.  My system is FAR above what is reccommended, and things always go slow, even with graphics turned down a bit and with automata stuff off except for closer zooms.  I remember talking to someone at some point about the game and that it's just plain too big for it's britches, and the game engine just isn't good enough to handle everything.  Is this correct, or is there something that can be done to improve game performance.  (needless to say, all this extra stuff slows things down even more).

My system basics:

P4 2.6ghz (all HT tech)
1gb Ram
ATI Radeon 9800 pro
277 GB HD (Western Digital I think)

Game options:
Visual Effects: med
# of Cars/sims: low
Shadows: low
BD Speed: med
Textures: med
Detail: Med

16 bit color
no clouds
no waves
no UI translucency
no color cursor
no variable speed automata
1024x768

Graphics card is set at default settings (middle of the scale)
Based on that, my system shouldn't have a bit of trouble, especially without any add-ons. 

I have Oblivion, which is a very big resource hog, and I run that NO problem (not with max graphics of course, but with higher than average)

[jestarr]

Your specs look fine, except for possibly the video card.  I've read about some very weird things happening with the Radeon 9xxx series.  Apparently, some pc configurations, using ATI cards, don't play nice with SimCity.  I can't verify this, as I've never owned one.  Another thing I've read is that turning all sound off can stop the CTDs.  Again, this isn't something I'm able to verify, as I've never had the problem.

[threestooges]

Sorry I have been away from here for a bit, but it looks like your questions have been getting answered by some of the best in the community. I cannot confirm Jestarr's statements just above, but I have an old ATI Radeon 7500C. I know there are potential issues (but nothing I have encountered) and as far as the CTD sound thing goes, I can't think of a correlation between the two, but I play without sound and I haven't had a CTD outside of the GLR hovering thing. I will try to do some research into the ATI thing (I remember reading something around here or ST I think) and will let you know if I find anything. I'm sure this will work out soon enough.

[wouanagaine]

Crashing while zooming in/out rapidly is quite common, experience with DatPacker tends to prove that the amount of files or how SC4 have to read tons of files when display change can highly be the cause. As Datpacker will pack files, SC4 will get less files to go thru and this alleviate the problem

If you crash while plopping the item, the best guess is that item is badly modded or you miss a vital file for it

[Mbolism]

No, no crashes while plopping.  This datapacker thing seems to be my best bet right now, based off your answers to my questions.  I'll go look this up and try it.


edit:  didn't really know where to get the datapacker.  tried a search for it but no luck.

[jestarr]

You can get it here.

[threestooges]

One thing that I recall hearing about the Datpacker, is that you should not dat pack the folder tthat contains the NAM if you have it. I don't remember why, but I believe I recall that causing some issues.

[wouanagaine]

You can read that thread about DatPacker even if it was made with not the same version as yours

[Mbolism]

Excellent.  I'll give this a try and see where we get.   Thanks again guys!  Just wanted to say again how great it is to have such speedy and friendly support!

[threestooges]

It's not a problem at all. I think we've all been there at some point or another. I hope you'll take advantage of the other things our site has to offer (and to share some pics when you get everything working right).

[Mbolism]

I think that datapacker did the trick!  I played both the cities I had previously had problems with, and did everything I could to bog them down trying to get them to CTD, but they never did (yet).  Anyway, all I have now are just a couple of models/lots to find to take care of a couple of brown boxes, but that should be a snap now.

BTW, where is the best place to host a picture for free?  I've got small city up and going and was going to post that.  It's nothing compared to a lot of your guy's stuff, but it definitely looks nice.

My next project is to get stuff to make the terrain and water, etc. more realistic like I've seen in your guy's cities.  I'm amazed at the realism of that stuff!

BTW, some of the night lighting on those building you guys have made are absolutely astounding!  Very impressive work.  You put the game creators to shame.

[threestooges]

There are two image hosting sites that come to mind: imageshack and photobucket. I have personally seen fewer issues with imageshack files and it is what I use (I don't have an account, I just upload as a guest).

There are a few water mods out there. I use one by Pegasus (aka PEG). He has a fine selection of them on his site (simpeg.com) but there are others that have been in recent development. One thing that I think I should mention here is that, for terrain mods and the like, order of them in your plugins folder is important. Since they all tend to modify one aspect or another of the terrain file, the last one loaded (the last one listed in your plugins) will affect that property.

This community has some fine creative talent. I've just gotten into the BATting side of things myself, and I hope I can meet the bar they have set (that will come with time and practice though). Plenty of stuff out there too, on other sites, as well as here on the LEX.

[Mbolism]

Ok, lets see if this works, if it does, more pictures will follow.

edit:  Cool.  I'm not as dumb as I look!  Ok, this is my city fully zoned before things started taking off.  You can see a few of your guys buildings there, and obviously I've found my new favorite trees.    Birch and Poplars really add so much to the city like the stock trees never could!



I love playing on small maps because of the challenge of getting tall buildings.  At some point, things just click, and then everything takes off.  I honestly have no idea what does it....




And of course, I always find enjoyment in the little things...




Nothing says more about my feelings for our healthcare system here in the US.

[Mbolism]

Traffic is getting to be a problem, and I have no forms of mass transit as yet.  My new city next door is even worse as far as traffic goes.  What do you think is the best route to go for relieving this?  I'm in favor of subways, as they don't take up much real-estate (a key part of small/medium maps).   Anyway, just picking your brains.  What thread should questions like this REALLY be posted in?

[wouanagaine]

Very nice city, a bit to griddy for my taste, but you keep the green in it

As for traffic, I think you may find answers in the NAM Board, or here or here

I'll personaly go for buses, then subway if buses can't handle traffic

[Mbolism]

Yeah, I kept it a bit griddy mostly because I was just testing out the new content, and wanted to be able to pack it in and zone for the buildings I wanted to see.  Also, since I haven't played SC4 that much really (mostly when I just got it and on and off since then), I never really got into being too creative, as it was frankly difficult to do so.  Very time consuming to terraform, and difficult to work within the limits of the game to get the look I wanted, so I just oped for a grid like playing style, with some minimal variations just so that I could play with ease in the little spare time I had.

I still don't have a lot of spare time, but with all this stuff I never knew existed, it's a whole new game, worth spending some extra time on.

Anyway, I started a new city next-door to that one, using the high commercial/industrial demand from the above city to spark quick growth in this one.  I'm still relatively inept at using neighboring cites to work together, via neighbor deals and RCI demand, but I'm slowly learning how to do it.  I just learned last week how to do exclusive cities!  (residential, indust., etc)

Ok, so this one I'm trying out zoning bigger for some of the bigger/better stuff, and trying to work with the roundabouts, etc., as well as using this city to power the previous one, mostly to get to 25k for energy demand so I could get nuclear plants, and partly of course to save space in the previous city (small). 



I'm going to build around the shoreline, between it and the high ground, then turn my attention to developing the hill, which I would like to do correctly, instead of just plopping and growing and it looking very unnatural.  I read some of the terraforming stuff, but to be honest it kinda scared me away as being pretty complicated, in that it seemed to require a lot of extra things like different programs and lots of other mods.

Any pointers would help, and I'm eager to hear any and all criticisms and/or suggestions/ideas on how it looks so far and for what you think I should do as I develop it.

a couple more shots:

The roads - still a bit griddy yeah, but getting better yes?




and something that gave me flashbacks of an old Sierra game...  the first to guess it right is a true nerd.




And btw, if anyone can tell me how to get said old Sierra game working on XP, and/or has a copy, PLEASE let me know.  I got rid of mine because it didn't work no matter what I tried.  I figured the only way was to piece together and old system and put Win95 on it, which didn't really interest me at the time.

[threestooges]

It looks like you're getting things going pretty well. As far as terraforming goes, I recommend downloading smoncrie's hole digging lots. They help quite a bit for certain things (wall lots, sunken highways, making tunnel antrances, etc). Also, keep in mind that you can get back to the full 'God Mode' terraforming tools after having started your city by opening the nature menu (or whatever the one with the sun is called) while holding down crtl+alt+shift. It does take a bit of time to get the land looking just as you want it, but it can be well worth the effort. Also, the road-plop leveling trick is useful for smoothing out roads and areas in general.

As far as your development goes, I would highly recommend considering creating a MD. It's a great way to get feedback and it would let more people get a view of your works. Also, in regard to plebs and the game, it sounds like either Civilization (which I don't think was Sierra) or Caesar or something like that. Also, for XP did you try running it in compatability mode? Right click on the exe for the file, go to properties, compatability mode, and select windows 95, 98 or whatever you need.

I like your start, I hope to see more, and I hope you will consider a MD to share this stuff. Good work.

[wouanagaine]

It's starting really good, less griddy, still lot of green open spaces which I like and nice selection of custom content

As for terraforming, follow ThreeStooges's advices, and also you may download some slope mods which will change how the terran react when you lay transits.
Ennedi made great experiments and release some of his mods in his MD However I can't remember in which update. But you can find the slope mod on the Lex