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nspeds · Jul 28, 2003, 09:10 AM

My mac runs SC4 really well, and I have all the options turned up to the max. He has better specs than me, so why not?

I'm running the PC version of SC4 on my 1.3ghz computer with 512mb ram and 128mb geforce, and its slower than my mac.

superfula · Jul 28, 2003, 02:14 PM

Yeah right. There's no way you can run SC4 on your Mac...especially with all the settings maxed out. I call BS.

nspeds · Jul 28, 2003, 02:16 PM

Call all the BS you want, yes I do get a stutter at about 107k population, but isn't that expected? I get better performance on my 17inch al than on my pc?

If i was BSing, what would be my incentive?

Eug Wanker · Jul 28, 2003, 11:34 PM

Well, too late. I bought the PC version. $20 (US$14.50) was just too good a deal to pass up. Last copy in three different www.FutureShop.ca stores I tried. I'll tell you how it goes.

squish · Jul 29, 2003, 01:47 PM

I applied the Video Cards.sgr file change (4c66 etc.) and it still runs like ****. I have a 12,000 population in the city. Scrolling is abysmal. Underground is horrendous, and zooming is a nightmare.

fortepianissimo · Jul 29, 2003, 05:25 PM

Originally posted by squish:
I applied the Video Cards.sgr file change (4c66 etc.) and it still runs like ****. I have a 12,000 population in the city. Scrolling is abysmal. Underground is horrendous, and zooming is a nightmare.

Good choice of adjectives.

juanpacolopez · Jul 30, 2003, 05:05 PM

Originally posted by squish:
I applied the Video Cards.sgr file change (4c66 etc.) and it still runs like ****. I have a 12,000 population in the city. Scrolling is abysmal. Underground is horrendous, and zooming is a nightmare.

I'm with you...

Even with the fix it still runs like ass on my 1ghz TiSD.

Everything else seems to run pretty well, no excuse for the poor performance IMO.

dfiler · Jul 31, 2003, 08:57 AM

1.5 gigs of ram on a dual 450 with radeon 8500.

SimCity4 is so pathetically slow after reaching a population of about 15,000 that I stopped playing it after the novelty wore off. The game would be fun if it ran at a playable speed. Taking 6 seconds to respond to each click and 10 seconds of jerky unresponsiveness after hitting an arrow key to scroll is simply unplayable. Placing buildings is next to impossible since the placement outline lags up to 10 seconds behind each mouse move.

This is with ALL settings set to minimum.
Bummer

Adam Betts · Jul 31, 2003, 12:05 PM

IMO, I think Maxis have went all the way down after EA purchased them.

Shame because they used to be a GREAT company.

juanpacolopez · Jul 31, 2003, 01:43 PM

Originally posted by dfiler:
1.5 gigs of ram on a dual 450 with radeon 8500.

SimCity4 is so pathetically slow after reaching a population of about 15,000 that I stopped playing it after the novelty wore off. The game would be fun if it ran at a playable speed. Taking 6 seconds to respond to each click and 10 seconds of jerky unresponsiveness after hitting an arrow key to scroll is simply unplayable. Placing buildings is next to impossible since the placement outline lags up to 10 seconds behind each mouse move.

This is with ALL settings set to minimum.
Bummer

According to Aspyr:

Mac OS X, version 10.2 or later
Power Mac G3/G4, iMac G4/eMac, PowerBook G4 (DVI model or better), iBook (32MB VRAM model only)
Processor speed 500 MHz or faster
256 MB RAM

Your machine doesn't meet the minimum specs. Even if it IS a DP machine, I can't imagine that SC4 is even remotely optimized for duals... since it's a port of a windows game that couldn't possibly care less whether or not your have two processors. If the core application code isn't properly threaded (which I'm betting it's not) to make use of SMP, then your other processor will sit there taking up space while the other one churns away.

In your case the poor performance at least has SOME explanation...

My machine more than DOUBLES (and in the case of RAM QUADRUPLES) the system requirements (1ghz as opposed to 500Mhz, 64Mb VRAM as opposed to 32, etc) and it still runs like ass at the default settings.

Actually, as long as I don't scroll/zoom it's "ok", but not great.

My point is, something is up with this game. If my machine has TWICE the performance of the required, you would think it would run it well at default settings.

juanpacolopez · Jul 31, 2003, 03:21 PM

Originally posted by juanpacolopez:
I'm with you...

Even with the fix it still runs like ass on my 1ghz TiSD.

Everything else seems to run pretty well, no excuse for the poor performance IMO.

I'm answering my own post sort of...

I found a lead that is promising. Someone mentioned using zoom 2-5 for best performance. Let me add to that and say, use zoom 2 for best performance, zoom 3 for the best compromise of performance/viewing area.

For some reason scrolling (at least on my machine) is like 5x faster when on zoom 3 as opposed to 4 or 5. I guess it's because there's less physically on the screen at once... but whatever the reason this might help some people.

I found it frustrating to not get a full-overview of my city all the time at first... but I later found that the speed up is so immense, it's MUCH faster to just scroll around in 2 or 3 zoom to where you need to be (or use the minimap) rather than having an overview and zooming in for "work".

SOLIDAge · 01:06 AM

SC4 runs MUCH faster under panther...so hang in there...

but my Q is, one of my Macs is running Jaguar and it can save fine, the other running Panther i get a save error. Any ideas?

EDIT: I FOUND THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM FROM Insidemacgaming.com

[QUOTE] Here's what you need to do:
1. If SimCity 4 is installed on your OS X System Partition, SKIP TO STEP 5
2. If your do not have SimCity 4 installed in the OS X System partition (like me) you need to create a folder on the system partition and copy "SimCity 4" (application) and "SimCity 4.ini" (.ini file) into this directory.
3. You must now create an ALIAS for "SimCity 4 Data" in the new directory (you may optionally COPY the entire folder as well, in which case you may delete the original SimCity 4 game folder and SKIP TO STEP 5).
4. You must edit the SimCity 4.ini file to fix the paths for "Data=" and "PlugIn=" to point to the original directories (relative to the .ini file, or using absolute paths - no change to .ini is necessary if you copied the entire directory in STEP 4) TextEdit should work fine.
5. Now you must prevent SimCity 4 from creating the save directory in your user Documents directory (~/Documents/SimCity 4)... The easiest way to do this is to create a file named "SimCity 4" in the Documents directory (NOTE: It must be a file and not a folder). Of course this means deleting or relocating your existing "~/Documents/SimCity 4" save-file directory (if you have one).
6. Launch the copy of SimCity 4 located on your OS X System partition, you should see that after quitting, the SimCity 4 save-file directory and config file have been created in the same directory as the SimCity 4 application. You should be able to save successfully, and if you used an alias in STEP 3, you will be using around 140MB in your OS X System partition, leaving the rest of the 1GB where the SimCity 4 Data files are.
[/Quote}

now can someone help me and explain to me what the Data= and Plugin= SHOULD look like? becuase call me stupid...but i just can't figure it out.

My Sim City game folder is on /Volumes/User/alasar1/Apps/SimCity4

the alias i made on the system partition is /Volumes/alasar1system/apps/Simcity4

mo · Aug 7, 2003, 10:21 AM

Originally posted by javabeans:
Does anybody know if I can play SimCity4 in windowed mode as apposed to full-screen? I want to be able to chat with Friends while balancing the budget...

thanks...

Originally posted by calamar1:
You can set it up to do so by holding down Option when you start it. A typical dialog box comes up, and that's one of the checkboxes in it (if it isn't option, try Cmd, Shift, and Ctrl in assorted combinations, too, but i think it's Option).

You know, I've tried this, with several key combinations, and haven't been able to get that choice. I get several options in a dialogue box when I use the option key, but not anything about windowed mode. Am I missing something?

AKcrab · Aug 8, 2003, 05:24 AM

Originally posted by mo:
You know, I've tried this, with several key combinations, and haven't been able to get that choice. I get several options in a dialogue box when I use the option key, but not anything about windowed mode. Am I missing something?

Ditto. No windowed mode option.

DBvader · Aug 8, 2003, 01:43 PM

actually, i think there is one, i remember something about one of the files saying you can window it if you need to read your mail or something like that. Im not at home, so i cant find it right now...maybe someone else with some free time can. it was probably in the help file

dfiler · Aug 8, 2003, 02:47 PM

I think one of the text config files has a WindowedMode flag...

jtbowden · Aug 13, 2003, 01:25 PM

I'm running mine in windowed mode. I had to change a couple of flags in one of the files. If I recall correctly, there were two options I had to change to get it to work. And when you run in winowed mode, there is no auto-scrolling. You have to click and drag or use the arrow keys.

Forseti · Aug 16, 2003, 10:35 PM

Does anyone know how Powerbook users with no HOME or END keys can rotate the buildings? I find it extremely annoying that they didn't provide an option for custom key configs, or at least an alternative key.

Anyone?

chrisutley · Aug 18, 2003, 10:38 PM

Average shmuck that buys this game is going to have a horrible experience. Amazing all the hoops you have to jump through to make it play decent and that's just decent not well.

calamar1 · Aug 19, 2003, 03:13 PM

Originally posted by Forseti:
Does anyone know how Powerbook users with no HOME or END keys can rotate the buildings? I find it extremely annoying that they didn't provide an option for custom key configs, or at least an alternative key.

Anyone?

On a TiBook, it should be the FN key + the left or right arrow. Works fine for me.