A few ways to hack SimCity 4
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A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Hopefully I posted this at the right spot, this shows you two pretty simple ways you can change the game configuration to make it awesome. Many people probably already know the region hack. I just learned about the screen resolution one. Both, to me, change the game as much as the NAM does. I hope this serves something useful to you, it does to me.
The Region Hack
The Region Hack allows you to make your region as big or as small as you want it, or in any strange shape. New Chandler is six large tiles by six large tiles. Some people have ten by ten because of this, although you are going to want a stronger computer for that. A five by five will keep you having fun for a long time. You can also make the tiles small, medium, or large. Large is the best, because small and medium can't give you much, in all honesty
Step one: Go into SimCity 4. Create a new region. Remember the name of the region. Then exit the game.
Step two: Go to "My Documents>SimCity 4>Regions>whatever you named it. Since you haven't loaded a tile up yet there shouldn't be all that much in there, a text file and an image.
Step three: Open the image in MS Paint. Do not do this with any other program, Paint does everything you need it to do here.
Step four: Zoom in as far as you can, I think the max is about 1000 percent.
Step five: Those little red spots are each a pixel each. Those are your small region tiles. Those green ones (2x2 pixels at 100% zoom) are medium, and the blue ones (4x4) are large tiles. Using your "dropper" thing, click on the blue tile, so you can draw in that same color blue. Fill in everything. Now you have four large tiles by four large tiles in your new region!
Step six: On the bottom right hand corner of the image you can make the image larger. Drag it out forty pixels (4 pixels in 100% zoom, remember we are in 1000%). It should be white. White doesn't do anything. If you put a white spot in the middle of your region, it will be like a big hole. This is dumb, don't do that. You can extend it out any direction and make the region as big as you want it. Do know that the screen will sometimes cut off the bottom few tiles from the region map. You can still play them though and in Region Census you can still see them.
Step seven: When you are done, close paint (remember to save!) overwriting the old file, close windows explorer, and load the game. If you see the "Timbuktu" tutorial region, it worked! Load up your new region with the region select thing at the top, and viola! your new awesome region.
Step eight: If you want to add more region tiles on, you can do that. You can only do so on the bottom and on the right though, to my knowledge. Be careful when reentering the folder though, it can be much more crowded with all your cities and terrain files on there.
The Resolution Hack
Lets face it, SimCity 4 is a pretty old game. It wasn't built for the newer 16:9 HD resolutions we have today (1920x1080, 1600x900, 1366x768), it was built for 4:3 fullscreen monitors (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960), which I haven't seen for years. With a 1366x768 monitor, the game would be only put into the 1024x768 pixels in the center of my notebook, surrounding it would be 150 some pixels of black screen. I can't tell you how much better this hack has made the game look since I learned about this hack an hour ago.
Step one: Make sure SC4 is not running. Go to My Computer>Hard Drive (C:)>Program Files>Maxis>SimCity 4 Deluxe>Apps.
Step two: Click the application file, the one with the SC4 icon on it. This is the file that boots the game, so don't double click it right now (that will start SC4 and waste time). Right click it once.
Step three: This menu should pop up. At the top it should say things like "Open" "Run as administrator" etc. Toward the bottom it says to create a shortcut. Click that.
Step four: A warning box should pop up, asking you to put it to the desktop. Do that. Close the window to the desktop.
Step five: Right click the new shortcut you made. Click "Properities" at the bottom of the right click menu.
Step six: At the top there are a few tabs. Click the "Shortcut" tab if it's not already open. You should see a little place where text can be entered or changed, called "Target"
Step seven: Go to the end of what it the target thing says. Add this in, without the quotes, but WITH the spaces.... " -CustomResolution:enabled -r####x####x32" Change out the pound signs in "r####" with your screen resolution the long way, and the "x####" the tall way. Keep the "x32"
(for me, it reads -r1366x768x32)
Step eight: Close the window by saying "OK" or "Apply", but not "Cancel" then double click the icon. The game should look absolutely stunningly beautiful, without any compressing or stretching, like it was years ago when you first got it in 2003 or 2004 or whenever that was. Now you can see everything! Pretty cool, huh?
If these do not work for you, please let me know. Do know that like any hacks or third party content, I am not liable for the damages. But don't expect any, as I said, I have used these for a very long time. If you need clarification, also let me know.
Thanks!
The Region Hack
The Region Hack allows you to make your region as big or as small as you want it, or in any strange shape. New Chandler is six large tiles by six large tiles. Some people have ten by ten because of this, although you are going to want a stronger computer for that. A five by five will keep you having fun for a long time. You can also make the tiles small, medium, or large. Large is the best, because small and medium can't give you much, in all honesty
Step one: Go into SimCity 4. Create a new region. Remember the name of the region. Then exit the game.
Step two: Go to "My Documents>SimCity 4>Regions>whatever you named it. Since you haven't loaded a tile up yet there shouldn't be all that much in there, a text file and an image.
Step three: Open the image in MS Paint. Do not do this with any other program, Paint does everything you need it to do here.
Step four: Zoom in as far as you can, I think the max is about 1000 percent.
Step five: Those little red spots are each a pixel each. Those are your small region tiles. Those green ones (2x2 pixels at 100% zoom) are medium, and the blue ones (4x4) are large tiles. Using your "dropper" thing, click on the blue tile, so you can draw in that same color blue. Fill in everything. Now you have four large tiles by four large tiles in your new region!
Step six: On the bottom right hand corner of the image you can make the image larger. Drag it out forty pixels (4 pixels in 100% zoom, remember we are in 1000%). It should be white. White doesn't do anything. If you put a white spot in the middle of your region, it will be like a big hole. This is dumb, don't do that. You can extend it out any direction and make the region as big as you want it. Do know that the screen will sometimes cut off the bottom few tiles from the region map. You can still play them though and in Region Census you can still see them.
Step seven: When you are done, close paint (remember to save!) overwriting the old file, close windows explorer, and load the game. If you see the "Timbuktu" tutorial region, it worked! Load up your new region with the region select thing at the top, and viola! your new awesome region.
Step eight: If you want to add more region tiles on, you can do that. You can only do so on the bottom and on the right though, to my knowledge. Be careful when reentering the folder though, it can be much more crowded with all your cities and terrain files on there.
The Resolution Hack
Lets face it, SimCity 4 is a pretty old game. It wasn't built for the newer 16:9 HD resolutions we have today (1920x1080, 1600x900, 1366x768), it was built for 4:3 fullscreen monitors (800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960), which I haven't seen for years. With a 1366x768 monitor, the game would be only put into the 1024x768 pixels in the center of my notebook, surrounding it would be 150 some pixels of black screen. I can't tell you how much better this hack has made the game look since I learned about this hack an hour ago.
Step one: Make sure SC4 is not running. Go to My Computer>Hard Drive (C:)>Program Files>Maxis>SimCity 4 Deluxe>Apps.
Step two: Click the application file, the one with the SC4 icon on it. This is the file that boots the game, so don't double click it right now (that will start SC4 and waste time). Right click it once.
Step three: This menu should pop up. At the top it should say things like "Open" "Run as administrator" etc. Toward the bottom it says to create a shortcut. Click that.
Step four: A warning box should pop up, asking you to put it to the desktop. Do that. Close the window to the desktop.
Step five: Right click the new shortcut you made. Click "Properities" at the bottom of the right click menu.
Step six: At the top there are a few tabs. Click the "Shortcut" tab if it's not already open. You should see a little place where text can be entered or changed, called "Target"
Step seven: Go to the end of what it the target thing says. Add this in, without the quotes, but WITH the spaces.... " -CustomResolution:enabled -r####x####x32" Change out the pound signs in "r####" with your screen resolution the long way, and the "x####" the tall way. Keep the "x32"
(for me, it reads -r1366x768x32)
Step eight: Close the window by saying "OK" or "Apply", but not "Cancel" then double click the icon. The game should look absolutely stunningly beautiful, without any compressing or stretching, like it was years ago when you first got it in 2003 or 2004 or whenever that was. Now you can see everything! Pretty cool, huh?
If these do not work for you, please let me know. Do know that like any hacks or third party content, I am not liable for the damages. But don't expect any, as I said, I have used these for a very long time. If you need clarification, also let me know.
Thanks!
K50 Dude- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 610
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
These are really useful, I'm sure many people will use them. And yeh, this is the right place.
Any more handy tips?
Any more handy tips?
Thomas- Overlord of Eurasia
- Posts : 5849
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Not right now, but if I find more useful ones, I will share them
K50 Dude- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 610
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Great, I'm looking forward to them. *changes his resolution*
Thomas- Overlord of Eurasia
- Posts : 5849
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Tell me how awesome it looks!Thomas wrote:*changes his resolution*
(just out of curiosity, what is it?)
K50 Dude- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 610
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
I'm widescreen HD, like you,1366x768. It looks superb.
Thomas- Overlord of Eurasia
- Posts : 5849
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
But I do want to warn all of you, by doing this, you can't scale the images to 800x600 (most forums guidelines for images). For me (and Thomas for that matter) I have to scale it to 800x450 :x oh well
Bruce: You have a netbook?
Bruce: You have a netbook?
K50 Dude- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 610
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Nice tips, I already knew them :p, but it is a good reference if I forget
ForthWall- Chancellor
- Posts : 2007
Age : 27
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Then you should have shared them with us! :twisted: kiddingForthWall wrote:Nice tips, I already knew them :p, but it is a good reference if I forget
K50 Dude- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 610
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Thanks, I never knew about the resolution thing...
EDIt: It says that there is a problem with the shortcut, and won't let me change it.
EDIt: It says that there is a problem with the shortcut, and won't let me change it.
Sky Guy- Chargé d'Affaires
- Posts : 1185
Age : 31
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Sky Guy: did you make a new shortcut or change the old one instead?
K50 Dude- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 610
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
If you set SC4 to Windowed Mode, you can switch windows faster. I set it to Windowed mode at my monitor resolution minus the height of the start bar.
emgmod- High Commissioner
- Posts : 1536
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
For Cattala, I print screen it into Powerpoint and then make it 800x600 on official updates, but not R&R.
Thomas- Overlord of Eurasia
- Posts : 5849
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Haha. I knew about the two "hacks" before this was posted. But since it's posted here, more people will get to use it and improve their quality!
I set my resolution to 1920X1080 btw.
I set my resolution to 1920X1080 btw.
Aranho- Sovereign
- Posts : 3602
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Well you can't pay SimCity 4 at school Aleks
K50 Dude- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 610
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
thanks for the support. Yes, I made a shortcut- it didn't give a warning message before though...
Sky Guy- Chargé d'Affaires
- Posts : 1185
Age : 31
Re: A few ways to hack SimCity 4
Well I'm sure everybody knows about the region GIF thing. Anyway, you might be able to hack SC4, but you would have to crack the exe. files and just mod them. Since its illegal to do that, I don't think you can release it to the public, but just for personal use. (i.e. You could release it for Junior and Full members only. )
Evillions- Permanent Secretary
- Posts : 733
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