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SimCity 4

Sim City 4 - Rush Hour expansion

Application Details:

Version: CD - Rush Hour
License: Retail
URL: http://simcity.ea.com/
Votes: 0
Latest Rating: Gold
Latest Wine Version Tested: 1.6-rc2

Maintainers: About Maintainership

Test Results

Old test results
The test results you have selected are very old and may not represent the current state of Wine.
Selected Test Results

What works

Everything up to a point.

What does not

After a city population reaches around 40,000 with a fairly large industrial plaza, placing a Car and Passenger Ferry near the industrial area crashes the game to the desktop.

 It is not the lot, per se, but some kind of graphics overload.  I have two others of these lots in the same tile, both working as specified.

 In other tiles in the same region I have more of these lots, without problem.

Because this is an active transportation lot, I suspect adding its tables at this point steps on something critical or causes a bad page fault of some kind.  The sc4 exception report shows only the usual (bogus) ACCESS VIOLATION reason.  Paging wasn't around when this program was created and the dumps and reports are largely useless.

 My system has 6GB of swap space so I don't expect memory dearth, as I could run this on XP with only 4GB of swap.

Linux acts funny sometimes going down in a restart after the crash in that the go down screen becomes transparent and the terminal output can be seen.

 The game remains playable up to the point where the graphics go haywire.


Workarounds

What was not tested

Nothing.

Hardware tested

Graphics:

  • GPU:
  • Driver:

Additional Comments

I'll continue to play and report other glitches as I find them.

selected in Test Results table below
Operating systemTest dateWine versionInstalls?Runs?Used
Workaround?
RatingSubmitter
ShowUbuntu 13.04 "Raring" i386 (+ variants like Kubuntu)Jun 22 20131.6-rc2Yes Yes NoGoldan anonymous user 
ShowLinux Mint DebianJun 30 20111.3.23N/A No NoGarbagean anonymous user 
ShowPinguy OS 10.10Feb 19 20111.3.13Yes Yes NoGarbageJohn 
ShowUbuntu 10.04 "Lucid" amd64 (+ variants like Kubuntu)Nov 14 20101.3.7Yes No NoGarbageandrew 
CurrentUbuntu 10.04 "Lucid" i386 (+ variants like Kubuntu)Jul 17 20101.2Yes Yes NoSilverJohn Winterton 

Known Bugs

Bug # Description Status Resolution Other apps affected

Show all bugs

HowTo / Notes

Note

Enhancement in two steps

Step 1:

If you have a good computer but still have lag (sound & game), you should set a real value using regedit.


REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]
"VideoMemorySize"="256"

By default wine guess you have only 64.

Step 2:

Also you can use nice command to rise execution priority:

WINEDEBUG=-all env WINEPREFIX="/home/${USER}/.wine" nice -20 wine "C:\games\SimCity4\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -intro:off


Registry tweaks:


[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wine\Direct3D]
"DirectDrawRenderer"=""

gdi - Use GDI to draw on the screen (slow but reliable) (default) 
opengl - Use OpenGL (fast but not all programs work correctly)]


"OffscreenRenderingMode"=""

backbuffer: the rendering is done in the backbuffer (default)
pbuffer: uses PixelBuffers
fbo: uses Framebuffer object


"PixelShaderMode"=""


"RenderTargetLockMode"=""

auto:     same as readdraw at the moment, will do benchmarks and use best method later(default)
disabled: effectively disables render target locking
readdraw: uses glReadPixels for reading, glDrawPixels for drawing
readtex: reading with glReadPixels, drawing by drawing a textured quad
texdraw: readback using a texture, drawing with glDrawPixels
textex: readback using a texture, drawing with a textured quad]


"UseGLSL"=""

[When set to "enabled", this enables the use of GL Shading Language for vertex
and pixel shaders, as long as the hardware supports it. This is experimental
at the moment, and not fully implemented.]


"VertexShaderMode"=""


"VideoMemorySize"=""

[Sets the amount of emulated video memory. Default is 64 (that results in 64MB),
in the future some automatic ways to obtain the real value should be added.]

More informations here

Stuff helpful

Since most user do not have a clue about debugging wine, you can set the following variable:

WINEDEBUG=-all

wine will have no verbosity and will not display any debugging information.


How to use custom resulutions

By default, SimCity 4 only allows you to use resolutions up to 1280x1024, but it's very easy to use any resolution you want, just add this to your launcher/start script:

-CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32

Replace 1920x1080 with your desired resolution.

Comments

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. WineHQ is not responsible for what they say.

What did I do wrong?
by Jason Rice on Friday December 20th 2013, 17:31
Okay I can now hear it but can't see it, all i get is sound and the circular mouse, and I know, it it letting me select things I just don't see what it is I am doing,lol... help?
What did I do wrong?
by Jason Rice on Friday December 20th 2013, 15:34
i had successfully installed a no cd simcity 4 rush hour, played it twice for a long time (meaning everything worked on my end after including appropriate overrides and installs). But after trying to get the resolution from just being 800x600 to 1280x800 on the emulated desktop, hold on I'm missing something here, when the game first successfully played, it went into the desktop emulator right, then the error message could not intialize direct draw(from hardware?) appeared but (and this is just guessing) it used software rendering instead, and it was epic for me being a noob on linux. But as I was saying, it was working, but it was doing the thing where it was in 800x600 and not centered, just hanging out in the top left corner, so I thought ( i guess i was being to greedy,lol) that I could adjust it in the game itself, and as you might know the game must be reloaded to apply the setting. So I did that, and now it gets to the message but won't use the softwar
e now.I have done my own research, winehq and all, and I was trying to use playonlinux, but i find it easier to just use wine, I just need to know how I can config the (what is the term?) to use software rendering. And, if you could indulge me, how did I get it to work,lol.
Crash to Desktop caused by Bug in NAM
by John Winterton on Sunday July 18th 2010, 11:51
The May 2010 Network Addon Modd (NAM) has a problem that has a 50/50 change of crashing the game to the desktop when placing a car passenger ferry lot.

A fix is being worked on. SC4D and SC4RH players should keep an eye on the STEX.
Platinum?
by Antonio Carlos Salzvedel Furtado Junior on Sunday January 10th 2010, 5:11
This game shouldn't be rated as platinum.
I have the same problems the test said.

These rates seem to be based on short-time tests, but the glitches appear as the game requires more resources.
RE: Platinum?
by Jack Sexton on Sunday January 10th 2010, 10:19
Nope, I play this game for hours on end under wine with the only issue being the minor graphical glitching which does not affect game play, and that is basically constant, doesn't get any worse or better with time.
If you're experiencing issues after playing for awhile it may be due to any plugins you are using, try packing them down with datpacker (sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=26) and try again.
Even under windows Simcity 4 has a lot of issues with the plugins when they're only sitting loose in folders in the plugins directory.
RE: Platinum?
by Jack Sexton on Sunday January 10th 2010, 10:21
Also, the results under (appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iId=10515) are more upto date, with instructions that should work equally well under Rush Hour as Deluxe.
not starting
by ka2 on Sunday April 6th 2008, 23:45
Can't start the game - just get "Please insert the CD and restart the application" even when the cd is in the drive. The CD isn't a copy and it works with Cedega and under Windows in a virtual machine.
RE: not starting
by John Winterton on Friday July 23rd 2010, 11:13
This problem is due to the fact that your O/S wants the disk to be "mounted". Many versions of Linux using X11 want the disk to be seen by the kernel and not just loaded in the drive.
NO TEXT
by Jelle De Loecker on Sunday April 6th 2008, 8:47
This "no text" bug is STILL around!

Apparantly it happens completely at random but could anyone at least TRY to help us out? You can't really play the game without text
Should get merged
by Austin on Saturday March 8th 2008, 22:06
This should get merged with SimCity 4 Deluxe because SC4 Deluxe is just SC4 and Rush Hour put together.
RE: Should get merged
by Aaron on Wednesday January 28th 2009, 17:02
I agree, although some minor installation differences might exist.
no road tiles
by glenn on Wednesday November 21st 2007, 0:57
evrything works fine except road tiles (specifically road tiles) dont show. And also residential houses are rendered as green, blue or red blocks. Some items such as firehouse, police station render as cubes of all three colors. i also receive an error regarding DirectDraw upon startup. Could not initialize DirectDraw. Opengl works according to glxgears. I'll post my user.reg if needed. Thanks
Installing SC4 and its patches
by John Winterton on Tuesday September 18th 2007, 15:31
I was able to install sc4 vanilla then upgrade to rush hour. I then patched it up to level 638, then to 640 (BAT night lights). I did the installation stuff under wine, and all seems to be correct.

When I try to execute the program, either from the desktop icon or from the wine menu, the wine system loads, then crashes without comment for:
XP, W2K. When I set up for W98, I get a comment about turning off the debugger.

How do you turn off the debugger?

Contents of my current launcher are:
env WINEPREFIX="/home/john/.wine" wine "C:\PROG~FBU\Maxis\SIMC~ZMW\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -d:opengl -intro:off

I am running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn (7.04)
RE: Installing SC4 and its patches
by Brad Pritikin on Sunday September 30th 2007, 16:16
Don't use -d:opengl. That will always crash this application as others have pointed out. Here is my exact command that works for me:

env WINEPREFIX="/home/brad/.wine" nice -20 wine "C:\PROG~FBU\Maxis\SIMC~ZMW\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -d:software -intro:off

Also, as I pointed out in another post also try turning off OSS. I'm not sure what works, but OSS made it crash for me every time.
Crashes on map load.
by Pete Stoneman on Sunday August 12th 2007, 2:37
Thanks for the advice above guys. I used a no-cd patch and now it will launch properly. The start up video doesn't crash for me, by the way.

However, it will crash and minimise whenever I go to load a map.
RE: Crashes on map load.
by Brad Pritikin on Sunday September 30th 2007, 16:13
I had this too. I was able to resolve by changing to ALSA sound from OSS. With OSS it would always crash when trying to load a map, ALSA seems to make it work fine... I have no sound at the moment though... maybe. I haven't played the game before and don't know if it is supposed to have sound.

I was getting this error on the console:

err:ntdll:RtlpWaitForCriticalSection

I found in a discussion for another application that using ALSA helped, so I did that as well.
Can't install from cd
by Joao Santiago on Thursday June 21st 2007, 14:17
I copied the files from the cd to the disc but when I open the autoplay.exe a message appears saying "Could not copy 'J:\AutoRun.exe' to 'C:\windows\temp\AutoRun.exe'" and then "There is no application associated with the given file name extension. This error will also be returned if you attempt to print a file that is not printable.' wtf?
RE: Can't install from cd
by chris ogloff on Wednesday November 7th 2007, 23:02
Open a terminal and cd to the directory your game disc is mounted on. From there run "wine autorun.exe" or "wine setup.exe"

For example, my CDs get mounted on /mnt/cd. In a terminal window I'd run these commands:

[ chris@localhost ~]$ cd /mnt/cd
[ chris@localhost ~]$ wine autorun.exe
-d:opengl
by Peter on Sunday April 15th 2007, 8:15
How did you get Opengl to work? (works in software mode though)
Mine crashes when I do -d:opengl and -intro:off

Do you suppose it has something to do with the updates exe version?

WINEDEBUG=-dsound WINEPREFIX=/home/petri/.wine/simcity wine '/home/petri/.wine/simcity/drive_c/Program Files/Maxis/SimCity 4 Deluxe/Apps/simcity 4.exe' -d:opengl -intro:off
fixme:win:User32InitializeImmEntryTable (0x19650412): stub
fixme:win:User32InitializeImmEntryTable (0x19650412): stub
fixme:system:SystemParametersInfoW Unimplemented action: 94 (SPI_GETMOUSETRAILS)
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DDeviceImpl_GetAvailableTextureMem (0x177478) : stub, simulating 64MB for now, returning 64MB left
fixme:ddraw:IDirectDrawImpl_SetCooperativeLevel (0x175550)->((nil),00000008)
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DStateBlockImpl_Release Releasing primary stateblock
fixme:ddraw:IDirectDrawImpl_SetCooperativeLevel (0x1758a8)->((nil),00000008)
fixme:d3d:IWineD3DStateBlockImpl_Release Releasing primary stateblock
RE: -d:opengl
by Freya Wisperide on Thursday May 24th 2007, 13:27
Try to drop -d:opengl
RE: -d:opengl
by Peter on Friday May 25th 2007, 7:06
I wanted to run it in opengl, not in software mode, the person who wrote this claimed to have opengl for simcity working, but I've never seen that happen.
RE: -d:opengl
by Benjamin Hodgetts on Friday May 25th 2007, 8:21
Using that command will have one of two effects:

A) The game wont start at all because it'll wonder why you're passing it an invalid switch.
B) It will just ignore it and use whatever graphics mode is default.

This seems to stem from the delusion that people believe you can pass commands like -opengl to a game and it'll magically grow an OpenGL renderer out of thin air.

The game doesn't support OpenGL so using that is just a bad idea.
RE: -d:opengl
by Marcin on Thursday August 7th 2008, 19:38
Actualy the game supports opengl so please check before you make a false statement like that, alho i use software mode for SC:Deluxe anyways.
RE: -d:opengl
by Benjamin Hodgetts on Friday August 8th 2008, 4:32
It's not documented which means it's either exprimental or doesn't exist (and is falling back to another rendering mode, probably software). Either way if it's not starting then he should run it in software mode to make sure the game does actually work.
RE: -d:opengl
by Roland H�der on Tuesday July 23rd 2013, 9:44
From Linus Torwalds:
Stop arguing and get back to work! Hosh, hosh!!! ;-)

And here is my launcher:
#!/bin/sh

export WINEPREFIX=${HOME}/.wine-sc4/
cd .wine-sc4/drive_c/SimCity4/
wine Apps/SimCity\ 4.exe -d:opengl -intro:off >~/sc4.log 2>&1
cd -
RE: -d:opengl
by Nicholas Roth on Sunday August 5th 2007, 23:24
try using "pass-d:opengl -intro:off"
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