[gkorsgard]

Has anyone heard when this will start shipping for OS X?

[-Q-]

Heh. Depends on what store you visit. Amazon lists 6/16 as the ship date. MacZone lists 6/10. Another store lists 6/25. So my guess is last half of June.

[gkorsgard]

Thanks for your information!

[derekn]

CompUSA listed this past Tuesday and is now listed as the 10th. It'll be whenever it's ready which will hopefully be by mid month. It's in the Final Candidate stage so we are close, I go by Aspyr.com everyday now. LOL

[derekn]

Woohoo! Start the drumroll.

http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/...6/12/simcity4/

It's in duplication now. Hopefully by the week after next we can start to pick them up in stores. Waiting for this one has been one difficult wait, I tried running 3000 in Classic and it is NOT something I wish to do again. Got my fingers crossed 4 is a great release.

[7Macfreak]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!
YES! finally a game!
i hope its as fun as SC2000

[MilkmanDan]

Its been a while sense I actually bougth a Game (warcraft II I believe), so I'd love to hear how well it runs in 10.2 and if this port is actually any good.

I lost so much time on our old IIvx to simcity 2000. Its still a great game.

[calamar1]

Oh, happy day! Anyone know how long it typically takes Aspyr to ship pre-orders?

i can't wait!!!!

[derekn]

Originally posted by calamar1:
Oh, happy day! Anyone know how long it typically takes Aspyr to ship pre-orders?

i can't wait!!!!

I think they ship those about the same time the orders to retail stores go out. That happened with Spearhead I think, not sure exactly when it will arrive though. I think that is kind of the luck of the draw.

[SOLIDAge]

7-10 days on Apple's online store

[Eug]

My guess it's gonna want something like 1.5 GB RAM, preferably dual channel DDR on a 970 PowerMac.

[derekn]

Originally posted by Eug:
My guess it's gonna want something like 1.5 GB RAM, preferably dual channel DDR on a 970 PowerMac.

That's something I was thinking about. The 970 is a 64 bit chip, it'd be interesting to see how big of a performance jump would be seen updating games to use it 100%. Whenever those 970s come out, it's gonna be interesting.

[perderepaesi]

the System Requirements look really high !
can anybody help me to find out if I can update my ibook (march 2002) in a way I can play simcity4?
from 8MB VRAM to 32MB VRAM ?
from ATI RAGE Mobility (2x AGP) 3D accelerator card to an ATI Radeon or NVidia GeForce card?

I tremble at the idea I will not play the game !!!

thanks from the hot (very hot) Rome

my ibook has
CPU: PowerPC 750cx, 600 Mhz
BUS: 100 Mhz
RAM: PC-100 SO-DIMM; 133 Mhz
RAM: 256 MB
RAM Slots: 1
Max RAM: 640 MB
Scheda video: ATI RAGE Mobility (2x AGP)
VRAM: 8 MB
max resolution: 24 bit 1024x768
Unità ottica: 24x/6x/4x/4x CD-RW/DVD-ROM
HD: 40 GB

[Maneki Neko]

Originally posted by perderepaesi:
can anybody help me to find out if I can update my ibook (march 2002) in a way I can play simcity4?
from 8MB VRAM to 32MB VRAM ?
from ATI RAGE Mobility (2x AGP) 3D accelerator card to an ATI Radeon or NVidia GeForce card?

You can't upgrade the VRAM or the graphics chip in your ibook.

[rm199]

Why are the requirements so high? Doesn't this run on a palm

RM

[derekn]

Originally posted by rm199:
Why are the requirements so high? Doesn't this run on a palm

RM

Yeeeah... SC 4 on a Palm... and Photoshop running off a floppy. LOL Well okay, Photoshop USED to be able to be run off a floppy. LOL

Was doing some more checking around an GoGamer had SC4 listed as shipping next Tuesday but that has been changed to just "6/2003" now. I had my hopes up we'd see it next week but looks like it'll be just a bit longer. At least it's in duplication, that means it's close.

[mgl]

Originally posted by perderepaesi:
the System Requirements look really high !
can anybody help me to find out if I can update my ibook (march 2002) in a way I can play simcity4?

Sorry, it won't run on your iBook. Mine is the same. However, I have a recent iMac so I can play on it.

[mac freak]

Just to warn y'all, the game slows down when cities get large even on my gaming PC... a 3.06GHz P4/Radeon 9700 Pro/512MB PC2700.

I don't want to imagine how it'll run on an iMac .

Maybe on Monday's dual 2GHz G5's, eh?

[Footy]

This really depends on the port. I have a PC friend that runs NASCAR 03 on his well built and fast PC who gets much slower frame rates then I do on my Mac with the Mac version.

-Footy

Originally posted by mac freak:
Just to warn y'all, the game slows down when cities get large even on my gaming PC... a 3.06GHz P4/Radeon 9700 Pro/512MB PC2700.

I don't want to imagine how it'll run on an iMac .

Maybe on Monday's dual 2GHz G5's, eh?

[derekn]

Originally posted by Footy:
This really depends on the port. I have a PC friend that runs NASCAR 03 on his well built and fast PC who gets much slower frame rates then I do on my Mac with the Mac version.

-Footy

I hope that's true. i5works ported SC4 and they did Ghost Recon which is kick ass. I've played that game a lot and never had a single crash and the game ran pretty damn well on my GeForce 4 MX with 32 megs of VRAM. Upgraded to the Radeon 9000 and the game is just PERFECT now.

So I'm hopeful they can pull a similar feat with SC4. I've never heard of them before and don't know their history but first impressions count for a lot and they've done a fantastic job so far.

Get to find out later this week or next week hopefully.

[javabeans]

I've been waiting for this game to come out to buy...but I guess I will have to wait more. Its almost end of June already....I mean can't they just start shipping stuff out once one batch of duplication is done?

[dencamp]

In case no one saw, it's shipping.

[derekn]

You beat me to it dencamp. LOL I just saw it on Maccentral:
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/...6/27/simcity4/

I believe they ship the pre-orders and orders to retailers at the same time. So if anyone gets it, please let us know how it runs!

[javabeans]

I want to pickup one from a retails store...can't wait!

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by mac freak:
Just to warn y'all, the game slows down when cities get large even on my gaming PC... a 3.06GHz P4/Radeon 9700 Pro/512MB PC2700.

I don't want to imagine how it'll run on an iMac .

Maybe on Monday's dual 2GHz G5's, eh?

I betcha it would run faster on a 1.5 GB P4 with 800 MHz bus and PC3200, and possibly even faster on a dual 2.0 G5.

[Frumpy]

So now that this App is shipping......does anyone have any first impressions compared to 3000? Please list the system you're using it on and what's fast/slow for you. Thanks!

[derekn]

For anyone who's interested, the contest at extremesims.com has been extended until midnight tonight EDT.

http://www.extremesims.com/modules.p...0&thold=-1

They have 3 copies they're giving away, you need to register at their forums and post your answers in there to be elgible.

[cgmpowers]

Have you checked the system requirements for Unreal Tournament 2003 and Elite Force II..

If I am not mistaken, both had min. requirements of G4s and not G3s. I'm not sure what others but I think I have a 3rd game that says G4 too..Maybe Spyhunter??

[calamar1]

woo-hoo! my pre-order will be here tomorrow!!!!

[calamar1]

Okay, i just got it installed at lunch, now i'm back at 'work' (No one's doing any work here today; why should i?).

It's literally the worst-case scenario on my PowerBook. Unplayable. Graphics bugs left and right, including
--frames of graphics chunking up into unrefreshed bits overlapped on each other.
--32bit mode is in neon colors with some portions completely opaque
--occasionally works okay, although scrolling is less than smooth
--region mode is glassy smooth
--startup with dock on the side failed utterly, outputting junk about dock into console (that's how i thought to put it on the bottom)
--ran in all kinds of settings, 8x6, 1024x768, etc. No difference.

i don't think this is a performance issue, is the thing--it sometimes works very smoothly; i think this is it barfing on the graphics card or something like that. this was on a powerbook G4/867 with ATI graphics; i'll be testing on my Quicksilver 867 with GF2MX later on...

If it works the same way there, this will be a front-runner for the worst product i've ever bought. otherwise, it will just have some real bad stuff to patch for ATI.

And the preview was so encouraging, too--they said it worked well at 16x12 on a G4/933 with a GeForce 3. The Radeon 9000 in my PowerBook ought to be a match for that, at least...

WTF?

[i5works]

Originally posted by calamar1:

It's literally the worst-case scenario on my PowerBook. Unplayable. Graphics bugs left and right, including
--frames of graphics chunking up into unrefreshed bits overlapped on each other.
--32bit mode is in neon colors with some portions completely opaque
--occasionally works okay, although scrolling is less than smooth
--region mode is glassy smooth
--startup with dock on the side failed utterly, outputting junk about dock into console (that's how i thought to put it on the bottom)
--ran in all kinds of settings, 8x6, 1024x768, etc. No difference.

calamar1,

I'm sorry to read that you're having such severe problems. Please contact Aspyr's technical support so that we can track down and fix these problems. When contacting Aspyr, it would be very helpful if you included an Apple System Profile report, the config-log.txt file from the SimCity 4 folder in your Documents folder, and a screen shot illustrating the problem. Thank you.

[calamar1]

Glad to see that you guys are patrolling here, too; that's a very stand-up thing to do. i probably shouldn't have ranted so fiercely so soon--i'm still testing it further after having returned from work. One thing that occurred to me is to quit apps like iPhoto and Photoshop Elements, as those have known to be less than polite in the background. i'm testing it out on my tower now, and will see what happens.

thanks for the response!

[iamnotmad]

Thanks for the info - keep us posted!

[calamar1]

As an update, i tried quitting everything on my PowerBook, and it still runs the same way; i'll try to get some screenshots. On my single-867 tower, though, it's absolutely splendid. i'm going to try restarting the powerbook and see if that makes a difference. i'll try to distract myself from playing long enough to maybe help troubleshoot what's going on with people who have similar machines to mine...

[iamnotmad]

Thanks calamar1.

Hey i5works, does this game care about dual procs? I have a dual 800, with GF3. I assume it should run just fine that config, even using 1 proc. But will it use the second at all?

[Astronaut Jones]

Has anyone found SimCity 4 at a retail outlet yet? Specifically, has anyone been able to find the Mac version at CompUSA? I can't find it on their website, but last week the Apple guy in the store said that they would have it soon, he just wasn't sure exactly when. I've been looking forward to this game for a long time and can't wait to try it out. Don't have an Apple Store 'round here, so CompUSA is my only retail option. I suppose I could just break down and buy it online...

[calamar1]

Well, after some further research, there seems to be no combination of options that makes SimCity 4 happy on my PowerBook. Which is very strange, and the reason i am assuming it is not a performance issue is that my TiBook whups my desktop at UT2k3.

i looked through the files in the SimCity 4 folder to see if i found anything interesting.
SimCity 4.ini has nothing interesting. Graphics Rules.sgr, however, is much more interesting.

"
# The Radeon series has a very slow path for partial
# depth buffer copies. This has apparently been
# fixed for 9700 (nope) and later models in the latest drivers,
# but cannot be fixed on previous Radeons because of
# hardware limitations.
# NOTE: disabling this rule unnecessarily may lead to
# very poor graphics performance."

But since they thought of this, i'll go ahead and assume it's accounted for and not the cause. Bear in mind here that i know absolutely nothing about any of this, and i'm just poking around. There's all kinds of other junk in there, which i assume basically looks at your system and defaults the settings accordingly. Not sure if it does anything beyond that.

Now, then the settings you made are put in the config-log.txt file (it's actually machinename-config-log.txt). This, too, has a whole bunch of stuff that appears to correspond to the settings dialogs, but what's more interesting is all the stuff that seems to be above and beyond that. Scores of options, but i have no idea what they do. Might a toggle of one of these help out? Who knows?

i'll check the IMG forums later on, and see if the other guy in the same boat had had any luck, and otherwise check with Aspyr.

(BTW, the game rocks!)

[i5works]

Originally posted by iamnotmad:
Hey i5works, does this game care about dual procs? I have a dual 800, with GF3. I assume it should run just fine that config, even using 1 proc. But will it use the second at all?

In some cases, yes. Some game data loading, and sound and music, are potentially using the second processor.

[i5works]

Originally posted by calamar1:
i'll check the IMG forums later on, and see if the other guy in the same boat had had any luck, and otherwise check with Aspyr.

Your choice, but the sooner you contact Aspyr with the information I previously recommended, the quicker we can investigate the problem.

[calamar1]

Originally posted by i5works:
Your choice, but the sooner you contact Aspyr with the information I previously recommended, the quicker we can investigate the problem.

Thanks...
I sent it in to Aspyr last night, actually. Had to tear myself away from the game, you know... There was no spot on their form to attach a file, and i didn't think it wise to paste it in, so i presume i'll send them the config-log file on monday.

[iamnotmad]

Originally posted by i5works:
Your choice, but the sooner you contact Aspyr with the information I previously recommended, the quicker we can investigate the problem.

Thanks for the response. I can't wait to get this! Hopefully I can find a copy locally tomorrow!

[cgmpowers]

Originally posted by Footy:
This really depends on the port. I have a PC friend that runs NASCAR 03 on his well built and fast PC who gets much slower frame rates then I do on my Mac with the Mac version.

-Footy

Nascar 03 runs poorly on my iMac G4 1ghz w/ 1gig ram. I'm not sure why. The speed is fine but graphicaly theres something screwy. The road doesn't draw completely (and I have the settings to max). I even tried lowering res. and bumping up the redraw and it made NO DIFFERENCE..

I'm back to playing 02 until I figure it out..which looked FANTASTIC on the same machine..

Christopher

p.s. I can play UT2003 on both this iMac and the 17" Powerbook with no problem. I haven't tried the Nascar 03 on the powerbook..yet.

[calamar1]

Someone else, i think on the IMG forums was lamenting poor performance with his dual-1GHz PowerMac, which also, coincidentally enough, was running a Radeon 9000. i spent some time toggling the settings on my PowerBook today, and managed to get it to run playably on a brand new city with no trees, which is to say, it scrolled without any chunking of the graphics. by chunking of the graphics, i meanthis . but anyway, like i said, since UT 2003 runs a lot better on the TiBook, i kinda assumed the same would be the case with SimCity. Whether or not that's the case, something, i'd certainly expected a little better than a slide show...

on the bright side, i'm utterly addicted to it, even though my other computer's in a room that's like 95 degrees and humid right now...

[NYK Ace]

went to the apple store but nothing as of today

i have a 1ghz TiBook with Radeon, i just wanna be able to play sim city with no problems!

[calamar1]

You're not going to believe, this, but i think i solved the problem. My job is 50% software QA, so a: i like to dig around in the guts of stuff when they're broke and b: i can't rest until i've got it figured out.

So, i learned a few things here. First, looking in ~/Library/Preferences/com.aspyr.simcity4.plist, i was able to find flags for running it in windowed mode. This was a big help, because it showed me that the CPU was pegging when i scrolled. Seemed kinda strange. Perhaps i5works can clarify, but is there a software graphics mode for this?

Then i looked further in config-log.txt, and noted that the Radeon 9000 Pro in my Powerbook came up as:
cardName = ATY,RV250M9
cardVersion = Vendor: 1002, Device: 4c66, Board: 0000, Chipset: 0000
cardIdentity = ATI, Radeon 9000 Pro

i had been wasting time comparing the name, identity, and crap like that. What turned out to be more important was the Device readout. It looks like that device is what Video Cards.sgr compares against.

The line for the Radeon 9000 Pro reads:
card 0x4966 "Radeon 9000 Pro"

Well, that 4966 looked almost right, so i tried changing it to:
card 0x4c66 "Radeon 9000 Pro"

And that has worked so far...

So, TiBook users, with the same frustrations as me, try it out... See if it works for you.

Yay, now i can sit and play in the air conditioned room!!!!

[Frumpy]

Holy God, this forum just got WAY too technical for me!!!

[derekn]

I should be getting my copy today. I'll be running it on a dual 867 with a Radeon 9000 so I'll report back on how it runs. I hope it'll run flawlessly. *fingers crossed*

[Astronaut Jones]

I picked it up at CompUSA on Saturday and played it all weekend on my 1GHz 17" iMac with the stock 256MB of RAM and 64MB GeForce4MX. It's about what I expected: playable but not blazingly fast.

I have not really tried changing any of the default graphics settings. But it's fairly smooth in most cases. Zooming in and out is pretty slow but scrolling isn't too bad. Of course I have not gotten any of my cities very large yet (only a few thousand), and I know it's going to be worse when/if I ever get any cities of substantial population.

If I had any complaints about this game it's that it is much more difficult to grow a city than it was in previous versions of Sim City, which I suppose makes it more realistic, but also takes a little of the fun out of it. It's still a fun game though, and I expect the more I play it the better feel I get for how it works.

[i5works]

Originally posted by calamar1:
The line for the Radeon 9000 Pro reads:
card 0x4966 "Radeon 9000 Pro"

Well, that 4966 looked almost right, so i tried changing it to:
card 0x4c66 "Radeon 9000 Pro"

And that has worked so far...

Yes, the game has a complex set of rules to determine which features are supported on different cards. In your case, clearly the rules were failing. I'm glad to see that you were able to solve your particular problem youself. Certainly we hope to provide an official solution at some point.

[Scotttheking]

i5works, I just want to say that it's great you are posting here.
Developers posting, even in an unofficial capacity, are great. It gives us info, and tells us we are being listened to.
That said, I plan on ordering soon. Can I expect the game to be usable on a G4 500 with a radeon 8500?