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My game of SimCity wouldn't be the same without two very simple game configuration changes. I have been using the "Region Hack" for a long time, I just heard of the "Resolution Hack" recently. I will post how to do some cool stuff to your game here.
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" even if your machine is a 64-bit machine, the game can't handle 64-bit, it reverts to 16 bit instead.
(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 I am NOT liable for any damages to your game with this. Like any custom content from the game, or custom regions, or hacks, or anything, it is at your own risk.
Enjoy!
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" even if your machine is a 64-bit machine, the game can't handle 64-bit, it reverts to 16 bit instead.
(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 I am NOT liable for any damages to your game with this. Like any custom content from the game, or custom regions, or hacks, or anything, it is at your own risk.
Enjoy!
Last edited by K50 on 2010-09-19, 15:02; edited 1 time in total
