SimCity (TM) Societies Demo

Readme document
http://simcity.com
Version 1.0
30 May 2008
SimCity (TM) Societies 2008 Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Tilted Mill Game Engine 2008 Tilted Mill Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
----------------General
System Requirements
Installation
Performance Tips
Known Issues
Your User Data
Snapshots
Disclaimer of Warranties
GENERAL
------For the latest news, downloads, and information about SimCity Societies, visit h
ttp://simcity.com.
To find out about more EA games, visit http://www.ea.com. To learn more about T
ilted Mill Entertainment, the developer of SimCity Societies, come to http://www
.tiltedmill.com.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
------------------* OS: Windows(R) XP SP2 / Vista*
* Processor: 1.7 GHz Intel CPU or faster, AMD XP 2100+ or faster
* Memory: 1 GB RAM
* Hard drive: at least 900 MB free space
* Video card: 256 MB**
* DVD drive: 4 speed
* Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c compatible
* DirectX - Version 9.0c (included on disc)
* Input - Keyboard, Mouse
*Windows Vista requires a 2.0
uld be sure all of the latest
icrosoft has released several
es that can cause instability

GHz processor or equivalent and 1 GB RAM. You sho

Windows Updates and Service Packs are installed; M
fixes since the release of Vista that address issu
and performance problems when playing.

**Supported chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 Pro or gre
ater; onboard chipsets not supported. Windows Vista requires an NVIDIA GeForce 6
600 or greater, ATI Radeon X600 or greater. Laptop versions of these chipsets m
ay work but are not supported. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may
be required.
Supported video cards:
ATI Radeon(TM) series X600 or better)
X850 XT Platinum

HD 2600 XT, HD 2900 XT

X600, X700, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
9800 Pro
NVIDIA GeForce series (GeForce 6600 and better)
GeForce 8500, 8800
GeForce 7600, 7800, 7900
GeForce 6600, 6800
Unsupported video cards:
If you have an unsupported video card, SimCity Societies may run with reduced pe
rformance or in some cases it may not run at all.
Examples of unsupported video cards are:
ATI Radeon X300
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator series
S3 Graphics Chrome S27, S3 Graphics DeltaChrome S4 Nitro, S3 Graphics GammaC
hrome S18,
S3 Graphics MultiChrome S27
XGI Volari V3XT, XGI Volari V8
NVIDIA Quadro4
INSTALLATION
-----------Be sure to close all other programs during installation.
SimCity Societies requires DirectX 9.0c or later. This will be installed along
with SimCity Societies if necessary. Visit www.microsoft.com for the latest ver
sion of DirectX.
SimCity Societies requires .NET 2.0. This will be installed along with SimCity
Societies if necessary. Visit www.microsoft.com for .Net.
It is a good idea to defragment your drive prior to installing. (Start>All Progr
ams>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter).

PERFORMANCE TIPS
---------------When you run SimCity Societies for the first time, the game will automatically c
onfigure its graphics options based on your machine's specs. If game performance
seems sluggish or choppy, there are a few things you can try to improve things:
* Make sure your computer meets the game's system requirements (see above). If y
ou do not meet these requirements, the game is unlikely to run acceptably.
* In the game, go to the Options menu. Reducing or turning off options in the Vi
deo panel will improve the game's performance. Reflections, Shadows, Bloom, Spec
ular and Anti-Aliasing are the options that will affect your frame rate the most
, followed by Lighting and Terrain Quality.
* Turning off Anti-Aliasing boosts performance. On a flat screen monitor, you wi
ll get the sharpest graphics by turning off Anti-Aliasing and setting the game r
esolution to match the native (highest) resolution of your flat screen monitor.
However, a very high resolution may over-tax your system.

* Turn off all other applications while running the game.

* If you are experiencing choppy graphics, restrict the camera. Try changing the
camera to MOST RESTRICTED by going to the Settings> Game>Camera Settings pull d
own. However, if performance is not an issue, set it to Free Camera so you can s
ee the horizon.
* Angle your camera so it is looking down on the city as opposed to head-on into
the city.
* Adding RAM to your system is an efficient way to improve performance.
* Defragment your hard drive regularly for optimal disk performance (Start>All P
rograms>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter).

KNOWN ISSUES
-----------Low Hard Drive Space: If you run out of hard drive space while playing SimCity S
ocieties, the game will be unable to store new data, such as snapshots.
Large cities can require a lot of memory to run. Making sure no other programs a
re running will help, as will making sure your texture detail is set to low.
Installation / Uninstallation: If you experience any problems installing or unin
stalling the game, please temporarily close any virus scanning software you have
, and try again.
Having characters in the installation pathname that are not supported as part of
the standard character set for the operating system you are using may cause a c
rash upon launch. If you experience a crash on launch and suspect the pathname,
please verify that the regional settings on your OS match the character set of t
he game s install path.
Camera setting: If you want to be able to see the horizon, set the camera in the
Game panel of the Options menu to Free. Showing the horizon may reduce the game
's scrolling speed. Set the camera to a more restrictive setting to improve perf
ormance.
On ATI graphics cards, for performance reasons, SimCity Societies uses slightly
lower shadow precision. That means that very small objects may not have shadows
when viewed on ATI cards on some settings.
Video Problem tip: If you are seeing graphical problems not described here it is
always best to go to your video card or computer manufacturer's website and mak
e sure you have installed the latest drivers for your hardware.
Video Card Issues:
ATI RADEON SERIES
PROBLEM: Turning up detail settings to Ultra may cause the ground textures to ap
pear white on both the city and the mini-map.
CARDS: Radeon X700, X800, X850
YOUR USER DATA
--------------

* Any screenshots you take using the Printscreen key (PrtScn) are automatically
stored in C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\SimCity Societies\User
Data\playername\Snapshots (on Windows XP) or C:\Users\username\Documents\SimCit
y Societies\User Data\playername\Snapshots (on Windows Vista).
* If you want to take higher quality, uncompressed screenshots you can set the f
ollowing line in C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\SimCity Societi
es\SimCitySocieties.ini
Take BMP Screenshots
1
* The F12 key will hide the user interface to allow fullscreen snapshots to be t
aken.
All of us at Tilted Mill and Electronic Arts had a great time making SimCity Soc
ieties for you and we hope you'll have an even better time playing it for many y
ears to come. It's an honor to be bringing you the latest in a series that has
given us so much enjoyment. We're really excited to see the cities you imagine
come to life. Thank you for playing!
DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES
-----------------------THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR P
URPOSE WHICH ARE HEREBY DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT WILL ELECTRONIC ARTS BE LIABLE F
OR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM POSSESSION,
USE, OR MALFUNCTION OF THIS ELECTRONIC ARTS SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS AS TO HOW LONG AN IMPLIED WARRANTY LASTS AN
D/OR EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS OF INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES SO THE ABO
VE LIMITATIONS AND/OR EXCLUSIONS OF LIABILITY MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. THIS WARRAN
TY GIVES YOU SPECIFIC RIGHTS, AND YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS WHICH VARY FROM
STATE TO STATE.
ELECTRONIC ARTS RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MAKE IMPROVEMENTS IN THIS FILE AND TO THE
SOFTWARE AT ANY TIME AND WITHOUT NOTICE.
THIS FILE AND THE SOFTWARE HEREWITH IS COPYRIGHTED. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. NO
PART OF THIS FILE OR THE SOFTWARE MAY BE COPIED, REPRODUCED, TRANSLATED, OR REDU
CED TO ANY ELECTRONIC MEDIUM OR MACHINE-READABLE FORM WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN
CONSENT OF ELECTRONIC ARTS, P.O. BOX 9025, REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA 94063-9025,
ATTN: CUSTOMER SUPPORT.