README for SimCity 3000 - The best city simulator on Earth.



Table of Contents

General
Performance Tips
Troubleshooting


General

For the latest up to date information on SimCity 3000 visit
http://www.simcity.com.


Performance Tips

SimCity 3000 has many options to scale performance for low end systems 
and to take full advantage of higher end systems.

The game runs best with full graphics hardware acceleration.  Open 
Settings, Control Panel, System. This brings up the System Properties 
window.  Click on the Performance tab at the far right. This brings up 
the Advanced Graphics Settings. Full should be used.  

On lower end systems the game will default to 640x480 screen resolution,
traffic visible only in the closest 2 zoom levels, and sims visible only in 
the closest zoom level. Ways to further optimize performance are:  turn off some 
or all animations, select smaller city sizes, and run with the simulation at 
lower speeds. Music and sound also tax the system.  

On higher end systems, the game will default to 800x600 screen resolution, 
traffic visible at the closest 3 zoom levels, sims visible at the closest 2 zoom
levels. The screen resolution can be changed. You can run the game in screen 
resolutions 1024x768, 1152x864 on up. This allows you to see more of your city at 
any time.

In general, the system is stressed when running with the simulation at full speed, 
with all animations enabled, and with sounds and music playing. To improve 
performance, turn animations down, or off, and turn sounds and/or music off and 
use lower screen resolution settings. Increasing RAM will improve performance as 
well.


Troubleshooting


See the enclosed Reference Card for details about contacting Electronic Arts 
Technical Support.

· Problems with the mouse cursor flickering may be caused by old video 
drivers. Update the video drivers with the latest from the manufacturer.
· If running with Windows NT 4.0 service pack 3, you can turn off all sound 
and music to prevent any sound related problems you may have. Windows NT has 
some known problems with DirectSound that won't be fixed until the next version 
of Windows NT.  SimCity 3000 will not run with any version of Window NT before
Window NT 4.0 service pack 3.
· The game runs in a video resolution that may be different from your 
normal video resolution. If you have never run Windows in the resolution 
the game plays in, it may not center the screen correctly. If you see 
this happen, exit the game, change the resolution of Windows to that of 
the game and apply it. You can then set the resolution back to what it was,
then play the game.
· Some video cards, most notably the Matrox Millenium, will occasionally show
a flash as the screen is drawn incorrectly for a split second. This problem 
can be alleviated by getting the latest drivers for the video card. After 
doing that, turning off Bus Mastering will also help. Visit the card 
manufacturer's website for latest drivers and instructions on Bus Mastering.
· The Sound Blaster Live sound card will squeak if using old drivers. Updating 
the drivers will make the squeak go away.
· On systems with two video cards, some primary graphic cards do not provide 
much Windows acceleration or may not work at all with SimCity 3000 if they have 
less than 2 MB of memory. In such case, consider upgrading the primary card or 
choosing the display drivers for your secondary 3D effects card to improve frame 
rate and increase performance. Usually a primary graphics card with 
strong Windows acceleration will be more satisfactory than most 
secondary 3D effects graphics cards. This is particularly true when 
attempting to run the game at resolutions higher than 640x480 with 
Voodoo I cards and higher than 800x600 with Voodoo II cards.  
· If you are using any 3D card in high resolution and find that you 
cannot access parts of the screen or menus once a city is loaded, you 
must reload the city using a lower resolution. This is due to a bug in 
the drivers for that card. Use Alt-F4 to exit the city, lower the resolution 
through the Preferences in the Opening Menu, and finally reload the city.
· If you are experiencing problems with the Hercules Terminator Beast Video Card 
ranging from distorted graphics to missing text, update to the latest drivers 
for this card from S3's website.
· If you have a 3D sound effects card, you can take advantage of it by clicking
on the "Enable 3D sounds" in the Preferences window.  You will have to restart
the game for the setting to take effect.
· If your default .mpg player is QuickTime, you may not be able to play some of
the demos.  Please use another .mpg player to view the demo.