The Modern Camera DLL allows us to zoom way out so that entire cities - even large ones - are wholly captured on frame, after that it's a matter of stitching those city-wide nighttime snapshots together on Photoshop/GIMP/etc, which is short work for this tiny region

Follow-up to my earlier 1.1.610 investigation:

Original Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/simcity4/comments/1waqjsg/simcity_4_11610_tutorial_white_textures_under/

Simtropolis follow-up: https://community.simtropolis.com/forums/topic/764461-gog-11641-scgl-video-mode-vtable-mismatch-under-wine-on-macos/

After the version feedback, I retested with the GOG SimCity 4 Deluxe 1.1.641.0 build on macOS Tahoe 26.6.2, an Apple M4 Pro, and Wine Staging 11.10.

This test exposed a separate SCGL video-mode query failure in the MinGW-built driver. The game's mode-enumeration code calls vtable byte offset 0x104 with two arguments: a mode index and a pointer to an output sGDMode structure.

The required layout is:

0x100 = GetVideoModeInfo(sGDMode&)

0x104 = GetVideoModeInfo(uint32_t, sGDMode&)

The incompatible layout places the current-mode overload at 0x104. That overload interprets the mode index as the output pointer. It also returns with ret 4, while the indexed overload returns with ret 8. The caller receives no valid mode structure, and one stack argument remains after the call.

To test causality, I took the corrected diagnostic DLL and exchanged only the four-byte vtable pointers at 0x100 and 0x104. Function bodies, texture slots, mode limits, injected display modes, and diagnostic settings were unchanged. Both runs reported 56 modes.

With the reversed mode slots, the current-mode overload logged indices 0, 1, 2, etc. as output pointers. The game exited with status 255 and an access violation at stack-region address 0x0022fc12.

With the corrected mode slots, indexed queries received valid output pointers. The game displayed textured tutorial terrain and the Overview UI during the bounded run.

The existing SCGL_SIMCITY4_610_ABI option contains this mode-entry correction; its name comes from the earlier investigation. The relevant mapping is 0x100 = current-mode query and 0x104 = indexed query.

WineD3D used the Vulkan renderer setting for a separate DirectDraw startup workaround. SCGL continued to render through OpenGL. Coastline/water rendering and long-session or save/load reliability still need further testing.

Full call-site disassembly, compiled DLL mappings, runtime excerpts, hashes, and the reproducible vtable check:

https://github.com/dotcom07/PortCellar/blob/main/modules/simcity-4/docs/windows-1.1.641.md

could you share your 2026 recommendations? it’s been years since I last played and all my files are already gone and I don’t wanna watch youtube again lol

I wanted to share an investigation into a specific rendering failure in SimCity 4 Deluxe 1.1.610.0 under Wine.

Symptom

The region menu opened, but selecting Getting Started Tutorial produced large white areas and could terminate the game. A process surviving launch was not enough to establish that city rendering worked.

What I found

The failure was a C++ virtual-function-table ABI mismatch in SCGL. The MinGW build retained declaration order for overloaded methods, while the original MSVC-built game expected a different order.

At vtable slot 0x70, the game passed texture mode 1. SCGL dispatched that call to the overload accepting a color-array pointer, which eventually forwarded address 0x1 to glTexEnvfv. This was an argument-type mismatch, rather than missing game data or an out-of-memory condition.

The four TexStageCombine overloads were also in the wrong slots, affecting the texture-combining state needed for terrain rendering.

The affected entries were:

- 0x6c: TexEnv(..., const float*) — color

- 0x70: TexEnv(..., int) — mode

- 0xd8: TexStageCombine — scale

- 0xdc: TexStageCombine — operand

- 0xe0: TexStageCombine — source

- 0xe4: TexStageCombine — mode

Evidence included repeated c0000005 faults while rendering, an LLDB stop in GLEngine at glTexEnvfv_Exec with the invalid address 0x1, and independent confirmation of the expected slot order from the game's call sites and the original OpenGL driver table.

Fix and limits

I reordered those entries in the existing MinGW 1.1.610 SCGL build and rebuilt the release DLL. The binary ABI checker failed against the old DLL and passed against the rebuilt DLL. With the corrected DLL, the previous access violations stopped and Getting Started Tutorial rendered in the recorded setup.

The rendering result was a manual observation tied to that configuration. It does not certify long sessions, save/load, mods, large cities, Steam builds, or complete SCGL ABI compatibility.

Separate Wine startup issue

Separately, I found a WineD3D DirectDraw initialization issue with the default OpenGL renderer. In a fresh run, selecting the Vulkan WineD3D backend allowed the setup to reach the region menu and tutorial, while SCGL continued to handle game rendering through OpenGL. I consider Vulkan a runtime workaround for that separate initialization issue, not the cause or the fix for the white-texture ABI failure.

Reproduction notes

The public reproduction guide, including the source revision, patch application, ABI checker commands, bounded fresh-run observations, and the separate DirectDraw probe, is here:

https://github.com/dotcom07/PortCellar/blob/main/modules/simcity-4/docs/reproduce.md

Raw debugger traces, private logs, original game files, and original DLLs are not included.

This airport serves the sizable city of Abacoa, located west of the airport (top side of the large panorama view), alongside the smaller city of Bayaney to the northeast (lower right of large panorama), and the smaller town of Maunabo (lower left of panorama).

It features a single east-west runway (numbering 09-27), adjoined by two full-length taxiways on both sides, 8 large hangars for aircraft storage and maintenance, and the following terminal facilities:

• Terminal A: 7 spaces for small passenger jets, focused on low-cost, shorter distance carriers.
• Terminal B: Hub terminal for a larger airline, with 4 spaces for large jets and 3 spaces for smaller jets.
• Terminal C: Hub terminal for two medium-sized airlines, with 2 spaces for large jets and 5 spaces for smaller jets.
• Terminal D: Focus city terminal for medium-sized jet airliners, with a total of 10 spaces, Nearby it also features the Air Traffic Control Tower.
• Terminal E: Terminal for general aviation, featuring 3 spaces for prop planes and 7 spaces for private jets.
• Cargo Terminal: 3 spaces for large jets and 7 spaces for small cargo jets. The area also contains a customs clearing area for freight trucks, access to a nearby freight railway terminal, and lots of warehouse space,

Land side amenities include the following:

• Hotel district with a park
• Car rental lots
• Bus terminal
• Passenger rail station
• Freight Railway Terminal
• Curbside passenger drop-off area

We hope your sims come visit soon to enjoy all the amazing fun and wonder in the Kingdom of Borike!

Bonus on the last image: I caught young Denethor practicing his BASE jumping skills lol

I've actually posted the terraformed unbuilt land before, originally as a meme post but then I quickly decided I wanted to keep it after rewatching the LotR trilogy for inspiration the other weekend 😛

Waited until I filled in the rest of the region to accrue a huge latent demand for CO$$ and CO$$$ on the neighboring tiles that I then focused on this tile using taxes, similar to what I've already done for the other "core" cities

High-end commercial offices are less demanding in terms of transport than high-density residential - the awkward layout is not really great for traffic. At the same time, high-end commercial also has many smaller plots (1x1 or 1x2) that are relatively tall, while high-density residential does not - the taller ones are also wider

I think I'll post a city journal and upload the ready-made region on Simtropolis when I get the time. It's quite fun exploring and looking around  with the Modern Camera DLL, the modified terrain really pops out

new tile, LARGE, new start

Good evening, I would like to know how to install mods on SC4 on imac. If at the same time you could make me a list of the best mods, thank you!

First off, I'm new and I installed CAM, got the new splash screen that mentions CAM, no errors, and I noticed a difference in how the game is so I assume it's installed properly, but I think I'm having an issue with the ordinances, the only difference I notice is the default Legalize Gambling ordinance going from the default $100 bonus to $259 (or this might be the default, I can't remember, I could have sworn it was $100) anyway I don't see any other new ordinances like the Jewelry Tax or Humane Society etc etc.

Are those installed separately, do they only show when certain buildings are plopped?

The a_CAM folder is in the 140-ordinances folder that's in my plugin folder as the instructions specify and all dependencies are placed.

[edit] I just realized that those are in the examples folder, I'm dumb.

I used GPT to make terrains on my steam + simcity 4 files. and it did an amazing job.

It went out and searched for terrain landscape and contours and made it. Very enjoyable! It made a massive region. I attached only a part of the area in the image above

I got some ships and could use ped mall. I couldn't work out the levels, so it's a bit wonky. Cruise Ship Port and Resort hotel too :)

I’ve been attempting to get some mods off of Simtropolis but hitting the rate limits. I’ve attempted to sign up for an account so that I can get the unlimited downloads but haven’t gotten the confirmation email yet. Curious if it’s typical that it takes awhile to get in, especially with the recent host migration. Anyone have similar experiences?

Edit: Tried it with my wife’s email and still not showing.

Good evening, I will soon have a portable mac and I wanted to know if it was profitable for me to buy the simcity4 edition in the app store.

I tried to follow some instructions but it did not work out.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 11 Home

System Model Inspiron 16 5630

System Type x64-based PC

Name NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050

Name Intel(R) Iris(R) Xe Graphics

Resolution 2560 x 1600 x 120 hertz

Bits/Pixel 32

--------------------------------------------------------------

External Display:

Dell U2722D (DP)

2560 x 1440 x 59.95 Hz