Terrain Troubles - What is the Name of this Terrain Mod?

[Themistokles]

I have been rebuilding my plugins folder (since, following a slight misunderstanding between the NAM installer and myself everything got deleted ). Anyway, I'm almost through and have finally imposed a little order among those rumbustious files. One problem remains, though; I have the wrong terrain mod.

The terrain mod I am intending to have (and indeed did have before the aforementioned calamity) is the TSC Pyrenean Terrain Mod. I have installed it and have all dependencies (main file: zzz_TSC_Orange_PyreneanTerrainHightSnow.dat; dependencies: TSC_Or_TextureTM01.dat, TSC_Or_TextureTM02.dat, TSC_Or_TextureTM03.dat). Yet another terrain altogether appears (see attached picture). It looks like one of Cycledogg's terrain mods (am I right?) and the game indeed crashes upon zooming in (that's why the picture is so small), presumably because it misses the two dependencies (CPT_No8_TreeModelsPartOne.dat, CPT_No9_TreeModelsPartTwo.dat).

I have tried to remove all other terrain mods from my plugins folder, still I don't even get the Maxis default terrain mod, but the one on the picture. But, since I don't know exactly which terrain mod it is, I don't know the name of the .dat file I should remove and consequently can't search for the file. That's why I've come here (and to make a long story short): What is the file name of this terrain mod and how do I get rid of it?

Thanks in advance!

[vortext]

Well, no matter the exact name of the terrain mod it's obviously CPs textures so the best thing to do is to search your plugins folder for CP_TerrainTextures_No1, CPT_No3_TerrainTextures_Essential & CPT_No4_TerrainTextures_Essential. This will most likely also lead you to the actual terrain controller, so you can take everything out at once. 

Also, iirc a number of Orange's terrain textures have the same IID as CP's, hence the latter will interfere when present.

[Themistokles]

Many thanks for your reply! I indeed found CPT_No3_TerrainTextures_Essential and CPT_No4_TerrainTextures_Essential and now that I've removed them the Pyrenean terrain is really showing up.

The problem of the game crashing when I zoom in remains though. I think I read in some read me somewhere that there were some files that were needed for all custom terrain mods and that lacking these would cause a CTD, but why that would occur only when zooming in closely (or rather closely) I don't understand (and I don't remember what read me or files it was).

[vortext]

The problem of the game crashing when I zoom in remains though. I think I read in some read me somewhere that there were some files that were needed for all custom terrain mods and that lacking these would cause a CTD, but why that would occur only when zooming in closely (or rather closely) I don't understand (and I don't remember what read me or files it was).

That's a little stranger and frankly I don't know of any files which would be needed for custom terrain mods. A few things which come to mind: maybe it's a software vs. hardware rendering issue since Orange's terrain is in HD? You could try switching that under the graphics options. Also, is this a new city tile or did it already see developments of some sort in the past? And if it's the latter, did it perhaps had flora on it?

[Indiana Joe]

Based on the fuzzy appearance of your screenshot, you're either using software rendering or you have a low-end integrated graphics card.

Both could cause crashes with HD terrain mods.

[Themistokles]

A few things which come to mind: maybe it's a software vs. hardware rendering issue since Orange's terrain is in HD? You could try switching that under the graphics options. Also, is this a new city tile or did it already see developments of some sort in the past? And if it's the latter, did it perhaps had flora on it?

Thanks for taking your time to help me! The settings are as they were when the HD terrain worked fine before I lost my plugins folder, in hardware mode; and the crashing issue does appear on both new and developed city tiles.

Based on the fuzzy appearance of your screenshot, you're either using software rendering or you have a low-end integrated graphics card.

Both could cause crashes with HD terrain mods.

Thank you too for replying! The fuzziness I assume is due to two things: I had to take the screenshot from a high height in order for the game not to crash, and I had to shrink the image quite dramatically for it to fit file size limitations before I could upload it. As for the graphics card, I assume the whole computer is fairly low-end (and a quite old laptop to add to that) but it did work fine, albeit inherently slow to load, with the somewhat larger plugins folder I had before.

As far as I've been able to elucidate, the only thing that has been changed since everything worked fine before I lost my plugins folder is the composition of this folder, which leads me to believe that it's there that the problem resides. Perhaps it could be that certain dependencies are only needed on the lower zoom levels, and that these are missing or conflicting with some other files? I do remember it was quite a bit of trouble to install the Pyrenean terrain mod in the first place.

[vortext]

Given it worked before it seems to me you're either still missing a texture dependency or have a strange conflict going on somehow. . Maybe not with Pyrenean terrain but with rock/water/beach perhaps?

Also, iirc Pyrenean comes with multiple controllers for different snow heights and such, so make sure you've got only one controller in the plugins.

[Jmouse]

I can't help with the terrain, but to prevent CTDs, try this. Open SC4, and in the region view hit CTRL+ALT+Delete then open the Task Manager. Click on the Processes tab (or the Details tab in Win 8.x). Right click on SC4 and select "Set Affinity." Uncheck all but the CPU 0 box and return to the game.

SC4 was designed to run on a single-core processor, and our multi-core processors seem to confuse it sometimes, especially when changing zoom levels for some reason. The downside is that you have to do this every time you open the game, but it isn't nearly as inconvenient as losing several hours of work.

[Indiana Joe]

A much more reliable way of doing that is of course to add the -CPUCount:1 tag to the target command line:

- Right click on SC4 desktop icon
- "Properties"
- "Target" box: it says "C:\Pro.....SimCity 4.exe"
- Add a space to the end and type -CPUCount:1

Automatically sets the affinity whenever you start the game.

[Jmouse]

I use the Steam version of the game now so I don't have a desktop icon. But I've used my method of preventing CTDs for a long time, and it has never failed me.

[Durfsurn]

You can right click it in steam and click add shortcut to desktop I'm pretty sure , at least I can with other games.

-Billy

[Jmouse]

I already have a Steam shortcut on my desktop which I use to open the game. Right now, I'm dealing with some severe terrain issues I've not been able to fix, though.

[Themistokles]

Wow, that's a lot of replies! Thank you all for taking interest in helping me!

I have however found the problematic file and the game works as intended again. Yay!

The error I did was to assume that the first problem, that of the terrain mod, was somehow connected with the second, the crashing issue. When the terrain mod issue was solved, thanks to vortext, I was still searching for another dependency or conflicting file. To find any such file I decided to take all content in the plugins folder out, and place it back subfolder by subfolder until the problem reappeared. That led me to Willis' long train mod (a pity, because it had been a good mod if it had only worked) which I have now removed and the game works perfectly again. I assume it conflicted with the newer NAM versions, but I have no idea whatsoever of why it appeared only when zooming.

And by the way, this old computer is single-cored in and by itself (and now I have a reason to be happy for it ).