Invisible Mods files

[Momo.kimchii]

Hi guys,
I'm not sure entirely if this is the right place to post this topic, but I'm having an extremely unusual weird problem. Recently, I've somewhat encountered a problem where there are invisible mod files where I don't know where the game is reading from. What I mean is, Simcity 4 seems to read mods files I had previously, even when both my plugin folders are empty! I
I'm trying to figure out where else the game is reading all the .model, .lot etc files you would find in a plugins folder, and the directories its reading them from.

I've done some testing and reinstalled the game several times which doesn't seem to help, as the first start up of the game after running the installation is normal with no mods. However, upon the second start up, the mods, etc reappear again, even when I ensured that the plugin folders were empty (both my documents and in the program files).
Anyway, I'm wondering if you guys have encoutered this odd situation before and could help,
Any help is very much appreciated 

[catty]

Can you tell us what the mod files are that keep coming back, it might help to give you an answer

[Reform]

We would also like to know if you are running a digital copy or CD version of the game. If answer is a digital copy, does your provider (Steam/Origin) automatically backup your content and/or saves?

- I

[Momo.kimchii]

I'm running the disk version of Simcity 4 Deluxe Edition and I've got both the EP1 and BAT patches in handy.
Sure, here's a brief list of mods,
but well there is alot of plugins, I think probably approximately 1.5GB of them...
But I'll try to go through them:
The NAM 31.2
Taipei 101 by Kd5rax
Pause thingy remover and Minimize button remover mods
Some HKABT Buildings
Some of Moonlgihts Mods
Alot of Japanese buildings and misc mods by Asama, Foxers and Badgers, Moonlight, SOMY, Neko Cat Punch, APTX, Mozukuss, uki, KS, Kei, Yuhisa and Gurray (Theres probably more but you get the idea)
AC Airport buildings, planes and their RMIP
Scag team planes
Dmscopio buildings
LK Appalachian Terrain Mod by Lowkee33
Drunk Apples Water Mod
Day'n nite mod by Simfox
Functional Landmarks mod (Only the Taipei arts museum and Living Mall)
LRM v4 mega pack by Mandelsoft - (Dependency for Japanese Sidewalk Mod V2)
Some of Girafes trees
BSC texture packs - (BSC Mega textures vol 01, BSC Texture pack Cycledegg Vol 01, BSC Mega Props JES vol 03, BSC Mega Props JES Vol 02,
BSC MEGA Props Misc Vol 02, BSC Mega Props jestarr Vol 02.

I might add more along the way because I think I have missed some.

I don't think its the mod itself though, but these are the mods that seem to be existence according to the game, for which I cannot locate the core files.

[catty]

On my computer my two games plugins folder I use as a "master" and keep everything in it, but I don't use it, as the game will allow you to have a third plugin folder which is what I have, the third is what I using in-game

Its a switch that you add to your shortcut -UserDir and then you just add the path to the new plugin location

Code Select Expand

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Maxis\SimCity 4 Deluxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -UserDir:"C:\Users\CATTY-HOME\SimCity 4 Compressed\"

could you have done something similiar?

-catty

[Momo.kimchii]

Nope, not at all. I Never ever read doing anything like that, so I definitely haven't done that. However, I did try out as a solution ,but didn't seem to work as it created another plguins folder, which i put my backup plugins in but the results were, simply duplicates of the same custom icons of the same mods. I tried re-installing it again, but it didn't work. Its almost as if the mods are part of the Vanilla game itself.

Is there a program out there that reads what files are being used by the program and displays the file directories its reading from?

[catty]

...Is there a program out there that reads what files are being used by the program and displays the file directories its reading from?

Try the SC4DataNode by rivit

http://community.simtropolis.com/files/file/27675-sc4datanode/

its designed to

The program supports four main Tasks
1. Audit/Review of Loading Sequence, file redundancies and Overrides
2. Dependency verification (as many as possible)
3. Audit/Review of
a. SC4 file integrity (.dat etc) and
b. TGI file content integrity (Exemplars etc) to the Property Level
4. Exploration - a really good informative display of Exemplar Property Values and file contents so that one can learn something of how SC4 works.

Sorry I should have suggested that early

-catty

[APSMS]

I suppose it would also help to make sure that hidden files and folders are viewable (an option in Folder Preferences, if you're running Windows, which is what it sounds like). Although it doesn't explain the reappearance of the mods after reinstallation, it can help make sure that you aren't missing something simply because you can't see it.

Also, I had backed up my plugins folder through Dropbox, and had incorrectly set the priority level on the backup, so that it updated my computer instead of the online version of my files, which caused duplicates and the reappearance of files I had long since deleted. If the plugins folders are currently empty, though, I am at a loss. SC4Datanode is your best bet at this point to try and identify the cause.

[Momo.kimchii]

Hmm, the SC4DataNode doesn't seem to pick up any of the invisible plugins in the SC4 Enviroment. I left both plugin folders empty and rescanned several times. I guess this problem seems to be located somewhere much deeper into the windows system files itself. My guess would probably be that it musth ave cache'd all that data somewhere in a restore point or windows backup system thing, or a bug/glitch that I got from using the Datpack on all my plugins, including the NAM etc (lol I know I was an idiot) to see what would happen  .
Either way, I'm not that great of a computer genius, so I'm probably not really looking into there is a simple write up tutorial thing for beginners.

I guess, the only solution seems to be doing a full operating system reinstall, however its on a family computer and I probably won't do that at the moment. However I think I'll move to my laptop and play it from there.

Thanks so much for the suggestion guys, really appreciated. 

[Reform]

Before doing that, check your User\AppData\Local for Simcity 4 files. This is a bit of a long shot, but those mods might have been registered there. It wouldn't be the first time when something odd happens in that section of Windows.

- I

[Momo.kimchii]

Well, there was nothing inside the Apps/local folder related to simcity 4, so I reinstalled my windows 7 and it seems to have killed and solved it. Lets hope something like this won't happen again, thanks for the help guys.

[mrbisonm]

Well, you're not the only one that has that mystery, since I have something very familiar, but I jusdt live with it and really don't feel like re-installing windows again.

My problem is that I have an unknown mod that makes my regiontraffic view kinda unique and strange, although I also have NO files (trafficview mod) in both of my plugins........

I followed this thread, in hope that someone would find a solution, but I guess there ain't any, well.....except the total "Window and all" re-install.
Nah, foget it, I donT really need a neat looking regionview anyways, and I kind of got used to it after all these years.....

Fred

[Momo.kimchii]

Hmm, its a shame that there isn't a known solution out there  but I needed to get rid of those mysterious reappearing mods cause one of them was acutually conflicting each other. I'm glad I knew that i'm not the only one that had to go through it though. I wish you look on getting the problem resolved though, I know how annoying it can be 

[Reform]

One more shot into dark, good friends.
Fred, do you have CCleaner and have you checked Tools/Startup/Scheduled Tasks with it? This might be a problem related to installation junk. We discussed about it at Simpeg 4 last year.

- I

[Momo.kimchii]

Perhaps you could also describe or give us a screenshot on how the region view transport maps look like so we could help you identify what mod it is, so we know what to search and destroy  .

[mrbisonm]

Well, I have the CCleaner and I use it every 20 to 30 days or so with every option, that doesn't changed anything, nor does the re-installing of the game or leaving all Plugins empty.
I have SC4 Deluxe with the latest updates and it is a CD I bought in 2003.

Before, I tried several Region traffic view mods, but didn't like any, so I got rid of them one by one, but when I returned to any regions after, it had a different look.

This is taken with Region Census from one of my regions and it is what the Region Traffic view should look like.....right? Strange how the Region Census is not influenced with the invisible mod.....



Now, this is what the region traffic view looks like at the moment. All roads, rails etc are black and all zones are white.....The picture was taken ingame with a terrainmod only, but it is the same without any files at all in both Plugins.



May I mention that it is the same with every region, old and freshly installed and also with other region trafficview mods installed, even when renamed to zzz_ (to overide other files )etc....

Also I would like to mention (which happened at around the same time) that the info and the pop-up windows don't show the complete messages, sometimes only numbers, as if there's files missing for the game to read.





I mentioned that before in a thread some years ago, couldn't find it again, but I am used to it now and I can easily live with it. It is just "kinda strange" though, because I do simply not understand why it is like this and what causes it. 

Fred

[catty]

Someone else had the same problem and this is the answer they got given

I can't help you with the sound...

However, the texts might be missing if your SimCityLocale.DAT file is corrupt or truncated.
Can you check the size of that file, located in the folder C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\English ?
The one I've got is 939 kB. That's the size of the Rush Hour version.

If yours is smaller, you will probably have to reinstall Rush Hour to get it back.

[Reform]

Well, I have the CCleaner and I use it every 20 to 30 days or so with every option, that doesn't changed anything, nor does the re-installing of the game or leaving all Plugins empty.

As a general note, running CCleaner does not fix the installation junk, it only makes it visible. Junk has to be removed manually. This is why I asked.
What comes to this traffic view, uh, I don't have a clue right now. 

- l

[mrbisonm]

Someone else had the same problem and this is the answer they got given

I can't help you with the sound...

However, the texts might be missing if your SimCityLocale.DAT file is corrupt or truncated.
Can you check the size of that file, located in the folder C:\Program Files\Maxis\SimCity 4\English ?
The one I've got is 939 kB. That's the size of the Rush Hour version.

If yours is smaller, you will probably have to reinstall Rush Hour to get it back.

Like I said, re-installing the game (as many times as I want to) DOES NOT the problem. Thanks for the info.

Well, I have the CCleaner and I use it every 20 to 30 days or so with every option, that doesn't changed anything, nor does the re-installing of the game or leaving all Plugins empty.

As a general note, running CCleaner does not fix the installation junk, it only makes it visible. Junk has to be removed manually. This is why I asked.
What comes to this traffic view, uh, I don't have a clue right now. 

- l

Even when manually deleting all that SC4 junk found by running the CCleaner, it doesn't repair the map neither the missing "text". Thanks.

Fred

[catty]

...Like I said, re-installing the game (as many times as I want to) DOES NOT the problem. Thanks for the info....

Unless or course the file is corrupted in the install files themselves