Something unusual

capo · January 03, 2008, 10:46:37 AM

The last few weeks I have had a small graphic annoyance, let me show you:

These 'stripes' appear out of nowhere and usually they dissapear when I change the zoom. At first I thought it was the Italia terrainmod I just installed then, but now even with an empty plug-in folder the problem stays. What started with a few stripes, is now starting to become really annoying since it's getting harder and harder to take good pictures. With every zoom change stripes appear and dissapear.

I changed the settings of my graphic card (NVidia GeForce 8600 GT) and played the game on all different resolutions, nothing seems to change it. Does anybody knows where this glitch comes from and how I can prevent it?

TopCliff · January 03, 2008, 10:54:20 AM

I had a problem like this once. My question is, are you running any other programs when you play? Even just having your Recycling Bin open does it for me. So, make sure you close everything first, and then if it continues, there may be somethign wrong with the game itself. I hope I was of help to you.

capo · January 03, 2008, 11:59:03 AM

Thanks for the reply, but the problem is there with or without other programs running (I generally shut everything down except SC4 to speed up gameplay)

paroch · January 03, 2008, 12:07:37 PM

Hi Bas,

Sorry to hear bout your graphics problem. Never seen this myself and not a technical wiz, so don't have any suggestions. But...... the standard IT helpdesk response is "turn it off and turn it back on again", so have you tried unistalling SC4 and then re-installing it (taking care of saved plug-ins and regions first of course)?

Good luck sorting it out.

P.S. Like the new look Biroud

capo · January 03, 2008, 12:36:59 PM

Thanks Paul,

I will re-install SC4 when I get back from Germany to see if that helps, I sure hope it does because I don't have a clue what's wrong. I'm glad you like the new Biroud, even when it's only one pic I can show now.

jeronij · January 03, 2008, 12:40:22 PM

You may want to check your game's graphic settings and make sure they are not set to low.... just in case....

Ennedi · January 03, 2008, 01:11:00 PM

Check also what happens if the simulation is running. I had a graphic glitch (much more annoying

) caused by one of automatas

wouanagaine · January 04, 2008, 05:03:17 AM

What you're seeing is the tessalation of the S3D Models/Textures, and highly related to a driver card settings. this has nothing to do with the game itself nor any custom content.

This is only a bug in how S3D UV Textures are applied to the model/LOD.
If you have a Nvidia Card, check in its Manage 3D Settings ( wow just discovered there is a SimCity4.0 configuration preset )
and check the 'Conformant texture clamp' and antialiasing options

You'll see those boundaries in the Reader, when viewing a S3D and select the 'wireframe' mode

capo · January 04, 2008, 12:37:30 PM

Quote from: wouanagaine on January 04, 2008, 05:03:17 AM
What you're seeing is the tessalation of the S3D Models/Textures, and highly related to a driver card settings. this has nothing to do with the game itself nor any custom content.

This is only a bug in how S3D UV Textures are applied to the model/LOD.
If you have a Nvidia Card, check in its Manage 3D Settings ( wow just discovered there is a SimCity4.0 configuration preset )
and check the 'Conformant texture clamp' and antialiasing options

You'll see those boundaries in the Reader, when viewing a S3D and select the 'wireframe' mode

Thanks wou! As soon as Im back from Germany Im going to try that out. Yes I have a Nvidia card and I already changed the 3D settings, but I didn't check 'conformant texture clamp' so I will try that out for sure.

Thanks to all who posted advice to solve this problem, you all are great

capo · January 08, 2008, 04:49:21 AM

Wouanagaine: In my Nvidia control panel under the SC4 preset the conformant texture clamp is set to 'use global setting (use hardware)'. All the antialiasing presets are on 'use global settings', either application-contolled or use-hardware. The only anti-aliasing that is turned off is the the Antialiasing - Transparency one, to activate it I can use multisampling or supersampling. Which one would you suggest?

wouanagaine · January 09, 2008, 12:43:48 AM

As I'm pretty confident that SC4 make use of opengl, in the Conformant texture clamp, set it to 'Use opengl spec'

And after more reflexion, I'm pretty sure it is the only setting to change

capo · January 30, 2008, 04:47:45 AM

Sorry to bug you once more Wou but I have a question about this again..

What started as a small graphic annoyance has now become a major issue. I completely lost my city from my MD, I can't open any of the cities or regions I have built. I tried removing all the plug-ins and keeping the core ones (like the NAM, mods and all essential files) and tried it again..but it didn't work. I then installed plug-in after plug-in to see which file was corrupting the game but never got to boot one city again. Well, I didn't know what to do so I got very frustrated and reinstalled the game completely and the game now seems to be working again (ofcourse I have to rebuild, but that's ok) but now the same graphic glitch I was talking about is coming back and I'm worried my game will crash again. I've set the Conformant texture clamp to 'Use opengl spec' but that doesn't really solve the problem. I'm now having those black stripes on pretty much every building when I zoom in. I really don't know what to do here...

help?

wouanagaine · January 30, 2008, 05:15:45 AM

Ah, so that is why I have not seen you very often last times, sorry to read about your lost

Make sure the problem arise in software and in hardware rendering, so that will likely identify a bogus plugin
After that, you'll have to check each plugin

RebaLynnTS · January 30, 2008, 06:07:20 AM

I did not notice, fi you mentioned this, but is SC the only application that is acting this way?

capo · January 30, 2008, 07:33:37 AM

Quote from: wouanagaine on January 30, 2008, 05:15:45 AM
Ah, so that is why I have not seen you very often last times, sorry to read about your lost

Make sure the problem arise in software and in hardware rendering, so that will likely identify a bogus plugin
After that, you'll have to check each plugin

Also had a bad case of bronchitis which kept me to bed and away from SC for a long time but now Im feeling better..Thanks for the heads up

So you don't think this graphic problem and the game crash are related? I think then the problem might be in one of the plugins I downloaded from some Japanese site which descriptions I couldn't read. I'm sticking to the safe sites like the LEX and PLEX from now on I guess, important lesson learned. Still only 1200 files in my SC downloads folder for me to re-install

@RebalynnTS: I only have this problem with SC4, everything else is working as it should.