[Solved] Big issue with SC4 - Duplicate SC4 folder in My docs

[art128]

I'm having an extremely big issue with the game right now, to the point that I can't play it anymore.

I had my game installed on my SSD when I got it and it worked flawlessly. Then I got myself a 1TB HDD dedicated to games and thus installed SC4 on it. It worked too. But then recently, since I don't play much games anymore, I decided to put SC4 Back to my SSD and this is when it started to behave strangely.

I should also mention that I'm using the SC4 Launcher by Logic_bomb because I need the "Force draw on scroll" option since I'm using an AMD video card. I also have the game on steam.

I think all my issues are related since they started happening at the same time. (When I put the game back on the SSD)


1) First issue happens whenever I launch the Lot editor. For some reason, it creates a second SimCity 4 folder in My Documents and makes an empty plugin folder and a folder named Plugin_Disabled in it. (Both empty) Now, I thought it wasn't possible to have two folder of the exact same name inside the very same folder? Also why does my game uses a region and plugins folders located inside one of the Simcity 4 folders, but the Lot Editor, Region Census and other third party programs keep wanting to use another folder of the same name but empty?


2) This second issue started happening today when I tried to make a fresh installation of SC4 to try and solve the first issue. I launch the game through the steam library, with the startup options.(-intro:off -l:Japanese -r1280x1024x32 -w) It launches the game normally, but when I get to the region view, all the sound and graphics settings are set back to default, and whenever I change them, exit the game and launch again, it's still set to default. Also, when I leave the game it makes my computer freeze/lag for 5 to 10 seconds.
Now, when I launch the game using the SC4Launcher program, I set everything as I want. (1280x1024, 32-Bit, DirectX, Windowed, Audio Off, 4 cores and Force Draw on Scroll: otherwise I have a huge graphical issue when moving around in a city) I then launch the game but it still doesn't take into account the graphical change in the game settings (shadows, cursors etc), sound is off but music is on. When I leave the game I don't have any freeze/lag.

Here are my PC specs in case it's relevant:

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i3 4130; Gigabye B85N; 8GB HyperX Fury; Asus HD 7870 2GB; 840Evo 120GB with latest firmware; 2TB HDD; 3TB HDDx2 RAID1; Windows 7 ultimate 64bit

I have no idea what the hell is going on, but at the present state, I can't play the game at all.
If one of the big brains could help me, that'd be really cool.

[mgb204]

I wonder if you've a ghost install somewhere, something left behind in the registry or a symlink that's no longer helpful knocking around would explain this. How did you move the install of SC4 from one HDD to the other, you should uninstall/reinstall the application and probably SC4 launcher too, if you've not done this I'd start there.

[art128]

By moving it I did meant uninstalling and re-installing it in the new hard drive. Since the games takes only 15 mins to download anyway.

I did try to uninstall both game and SC4 launcher and it still does the same.

How would I go to hunt that ghost installation in the registry?

[mgb204]

I wouldn't recommend going through the registry, usually the uninstaller should take care of removing the registry entries for you, sometimes it fails though and in those cases unless you've got special uninstall software the only options are manual editing of the registry (very bad idea) or a reinstall of Windows to refresh it.

When you install SC4/Launcher the registry holds the information on where the plugins/regions etc are kept. The Steam version modifies these settings and puts the game data somewhere within the Steam folder rather than how the CD version works. If settings are not applying correctly, then either the changes aren't being applied at all or as I suspect they are being applied to the wrong files, hence SC4 then doesn't see the changes.

Perhaps if you've system restore active you can restore Windows to before you made the changes to SC4 (this restores the registry too), that would at least take you back to a working install for the meantime.

[art128]

Thanks you for suggesting a fresh windows install. I just did it this morning and it all works flawlessly now. thanks again.

[vortext]

Glad to hear you troubles are over Arthur!