SimCity 4 Tech Tips
By STG and Joshriddle_1234
Introduction
I can virtually guarantee you have had SOME sort of exception, hang, frustration, crash, or infestation in your game. I had a crash (on vanilla) this morning.

These tech tips are made to help out with your random crashing to desktop, as well as general technical resolving. I am very good at troubleshooting the game.

So lets begin.

How to Run SC4 in Windowed Mode


1: Create a shortcut to SC on your desktop. Skip this if you allready have one, which you most likely do.
2: at the end of the target path, put a space, and then put in -w
3: Launch your game, and it shows up in a window!
4: To reverse this replace -w with -f

How to Run SimCity 4 in a custom Resolution


1: If you allready have a SC shortcut on your desktop, continue, if not, create one. Go to properties of it, and look for the target box.
2: At the end, put a space
3: Then type in this, replacing "your resolution" with the one you want.
CustomResolution:enabled -ryour resolutionxyour resolution.
4: For example, mine looks like this:
CustomResolution:enabled-r1920x1080
5: To reverse this erase the end parts. Take note that this is outside of the game's default resolutions, and might cause a performance loss.

How to Run SimCity 4 in a Command Line


Running SC4 in a command line is a more stable way to open SC4. It does not alter the gameplay in anyway, just makes the game more stable and less vunerable to dumps or crashes.

1: Create a SC4 shortcut on your desktop, skip it if you allreay have one, which you should.
2: In the target box, type in C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c START "high priority sc4" /high "C:\Program Files|Maxis\SimCity 4 Deulxe\Apps\SimCity 4.exe" -w -intro:off.

NOTICE: On older versions of Windows such as XP or earlier, the folder titled Windows will be probably WINDOWS, and System32, system32. Check those folder's names before attempting this. You can also choose to take -w off the end to run it in full mode, as well as -intro:off to view the intro. Also you can add the custom resolution line as stated in the above article.

How the Game is Structured on Your Hard Drive


1: Program Files. This holds SimCity 1.dat, 2.dat, 3.dat, 4.dat, and 5.dat. These are the essential and mandantory files (especially simcity1.dat) that keep the game running.
2: Within that folder there is the folder titled English. Inside you will see SimCityLocale. This included driving side and other info.
3: You will see another plugins folder. This is the root plugins folder. This holds most things that are too sensible to go into the one in My Documents
4: You will see a folder titled regions. These are copies of the starter regions in SC4
5: Now we move onto the SimCity 4 folder in My Documents. This holds ergions, and most plugins. As well as albums, exception reports, and other things.
6: This is the basic structure of the SC4 game on your Hard Disk.
Essential SC4 File Types

• Sc4Model: Holds msot building design information on a custom building
  
• Sc4Desc: Describor of most information on a custom building including fire hazard, etc...
  
• Sc4Lot: Holds most lot information, such as ground textures and props
  
• .dat: These are larger files that run the core of the game. Also some people compact plugins into dats via DatPacker.
  
• .sav: Junk that can pretty much be deleted
  
• .rar: Mostly file types that can only be actived by using the software "WinRar"
  
• .mdmp: Minidump, which is pretty much a dump of the game during crashes, etc... All memory not saved from the game is written here.
  
• txt or rtf: Usually the file types readmes come in.
  
• .zip: The main folder that plugins come in.
  

I hope this helps! If you have any questions PM me.

For those of you who don't know what the STG is, it is a project that the SSS just launched (for SSS members to work on) that attempts to bring tutorials to the site. The SSS is also attempting to launch a featured tutorial of the month (where the SSS releases a tutorial each month -- hopefully), but I'm not sure if that will work out well or not. It is also in the early stages.
I has played a huge roll in launching this SSS project.

The above description of the STG is a quote from blakesterville (founder) of the STG.