0.5.0

The polish release, and the first one on the STEX and sc4pac. scvk now looks over your setup when the game starts and writes what it finds to scvk.log, and serious problems also show in a dialog when the region view opens. Scrolling is lighter, and scvk stays out of the way when another driver is drawing.

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 or Linux through Wine or Proton, and a graphics card with Vulkan support. With SC4RenderServices, version 0.8.3 or newer is needed.

To update from 0.4.0, replace scvk.dll in your Plugins folder. scvk.ini only gained DoctorDialog, so an existing one keeps working. With sc4pac, install aspct:scvk.

Added

• Setup checks at startup, which write to scvk.log: another driver drawing, any plugin loaded twice, SC4RenderServices older than 0.8.3, plugins built for SC4RenderServices before 0.8, plugins missing the Visual C++ runtime, no 4GB patch, compatibility mode, launch switch and scvk.ini typos, an unquoted -UserDir and unreadable lines in SC4GraphicsOptions.ini
• Serious setup problems also show in the game's own dialog when the region view opens. DoctorDialog=false in scvk.ini or -DoctorDialog:off keeps them in the log
• scvk.log names each graphics card's driver version and video memory, every DLL loaded with its version, and free address space, RAM and commit at startup and when an allocation fails
• -GPU:<n> picks a graphics card by its number in scvk.log, and scvk warns when a much faster card sits idle
• -DepthBuffer:32 and -DepthBuffer:16 launch options, ahead of Use32BitDepth in scvk.ini
• -LiveShadows:on and -LiveShadows:off, the name scd3d11 uses now, the same as -NativeShadowMasks:replace and off
• -d:Vulkan picks scvk for a launch, whatever scd3d11 or Driver= in SC4GraphicsOptions.ini would choose
• The setup checks tell a plugin that is a debug build from one missing the Visual C++ runtime, since only Visual Studio has what a debug build needs
• scvk.log notes a depth offset other than 0, the first time each one is asked for

Changed

• Scrolling is lighter: draws wholly outside the strip the game is redrawing are left out before their vertices are copied. -ViewportCull:off sends them all, as before
• Less work around each draw when the game repeats a matrix or texture setting it already made
• scvk stays out of the way when it isn't the renderer. With scd3d11 or the Software driver drawing, it doesn't start Vulkan, patch the game, install its fault log, change the video mode or show its setup dialog
• One Vulkan instance less at startup, since the slot the game does not use no longer makes one

Fixed

• After a lost graphics device the game is asked to upload its textures again, as its DirectX driver does
• A stalled graphics card no longer hangs the game while it saves, takes a photo or uploads textures. That read or upload is skipped instead
• A comment after a value in scvk.ini, such as Use32BitDepth=true ; note, no longer stops the value being read
• Live shadows redraw when a camera plugin changes the yaw or pitch
• Live shadows no longer force a full redraw on every scroll frame along the city's edge
• Live shadows no longer shade the backdrop beyond the city

Known issues

• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.4.0

scvk now has a stencil buffer, so SC4RenderServices can draw terrain decals back over shadows once per pixel. Driveways and plazas under shadows stay whole, and overlapping decals no longer come out darker.

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 or Linux through Wine or Proton, and a graphics card with Vulkan support. With SC4RenderServices, version 0.8.3 or newer is needed. Older versions send the wrong stencil operations, so decals under shadows stay hidden.

To update from 0.3.0, replace scvk.dll in your Plugins folder. The zip has a scvk.ini again, which you only need if you want to change a setting.

Added

• A stencil buffer, so SC4RenderServices 0.8.3 or newer draws terrain decals back over shadows once per pixel and overlapping decals no longer come out darker

Changed

• Cards without a 16-bit depth format that has a stencil use a 24-bit or 32-bit one, with every depth rounded to 16 bits
• The zip has a scvk.ini again, for anyone who wants to change a setting such as Use32BitDepth. scvk still runs without it

Known issues

• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.3.0

The same DLL as 0.3.0-rc.1, which players ran without problems. Most of this release is UlisseWolf's port of scd3d11's features.

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 or Linux through Wine or Proton, and a graphics card with Vulkan support.

To update from 0.2.2, replace scvk.dll in the game's Plugins folder. If you run rc.1 already, nothing changes. The zip no longer has a scvk.ini, since scvk needs no settings now. An old one keeps working, but its MaxFPS=0 keeps the game's own frame rate caps; delete that line to have them follow the display's refresh rate.

The game now starts borderless, in a frameless window covering the main monitor. -w gives a window and -f exclusive fullscreen, and with sc4-graphics-options installed its WindowMode decides as before.

Added

• ReShade's effects draw under the interface, with the city's depth, when ReShade is installed with full add-on support. -ReShade:off leaves it drawing over everything
• Live shadows for True3D props and network pieces, off by default. -NativeShadowMasks:all turns them on, and -NativeShadowMasks:replace adds the experimental shadow registry and terrain shadows
• PrintScreen in exclusive fullscreen puts the game's own picture on the clipboard, instead of opening the Snipping Tool and dropping the game out of fullscreen
• Region thumbnails no longer go blank when the game loses focus while saving
• -MaxFPS:<n> and -MaxFPS:off for the speed caps, ahead of MaxFPS in scvk.ini
• scd3d11's launch options: -VSync:off, -GPU:default, -FlipModel:off, -LogLevel:<level> and -FullscreenMode:Borderless
• -b and -borderless launch options for a borderless window, and -windowed and -fullscreen, the same as -w and -f
• A pipeline cache beside the DLL, so later sessions build their pipelines faster
• A watchdog and fault reports in scvk.log, which say where a frozen or crashed game was

Changed

• The game starts borderless, at the desktop's size. -w, -f or a -r size pick another mode
• The game runs in 32-bit colour even when its options or -r ask for 16, which made its textures band
• A -r size is used as given, without needing -CustomResolution:enabled
• The speed caps follow the display's refresh rate
• Faster scrolling, with 13 to 21% more frames a second in the benchmark's close, near and far scenes

Removed

• UnlockRunningFPS, which changed the same code as SC4CPUOptions and scd3d11

Known issues

• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer
• With SC4RenderServices, terrain decals drawn back over shadows come out a little darker where they overlap, since scvk has no stencil buffer yet

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.3.0-rc.1

Pre-release for testing. If it holds up, it becomes 0.3.0 unchanged. Most of this release is UlisseWolf's port of scd3d11's features.

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 and a graphics card with Vulkan support.

To update, replace scvk.dll in the game's Plugins folder. The zip no longer has a scvk.ini, since scvk needs no settings now. An old one keeps working, but its MaxFPS=0 keeps the game's own frame rate caps; delete that line to have them follow the display's refresh rate.

The game now starts borderless, in a frameless window covering the main monitor. -w gives a window and -f exclusive fullscreen, and with sc4-graphics-options installed its WindowMode decides as before.

Added

• ReShade's effects draw under the interface, with the city's depth, when ReShade is installed with full add-on support. -ReShade:off leaves it drawing over everything
• Live shadows for True3D props and network pieces, off by default. -NativeShadowMasks:all turns them on, and -NativeShadowMasks:replace adds the experimental shadow registry and terrain shadows
• PrintScreen in exclusive fullscreen puts the game's own picture on the clipboard, instead of opening the Snipping Tool and dropping the game out of fullscreen
• Region thumbnails no longer go blank when the game loses focus while saving
• -MaxFPS:<n> and -MaxFPS:off for the speed caps, ahead of MaxFPS in scvk.ini
• scd3d11's launch options: -VSync:off, -GPU:default, -FlipModel:off, -LogLevel:<level> and -FullscreenMode:Borderless
• -b and -borderless launch options for a borderless window, and -windowed and -fullscreen, the same as -w and -f
• A pipeline cache beside the DLL, so later sessions build their pipelines faster
• A watchdog and fault reports in scvk.log, which say where a frozen or crashed game was

Changed

• The game starts borderless, at the desktop's size. -w, -f or a -r size pick another mode
• The game runs in 32-bit colour even when its options or -r ask for 16, which made its textures band
• A -r size is used as given, without needing -CustomResolution:enabled
• The speed caps follow the display's refresh rate
• Faster scrolling, with 13 to 21% more frames a second in the benchmark's close, near and far scenes

Removed

• UnlockRunningFPS, which changed the same code as SC4CPUOptions and scd3d11

Known issues

• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.2.2

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 or Linux through Wine or Proton, and a graphics card with Vulkan support.

To update, replace scvk.dll and scvk.ini in the game's Plugins folder. The new scvk.ini only adds Use32BitDepth, so keeping your own works too. This replaces the yanked 0.2.1.

Added

• A Use32BitDepth setting in scvk.ini that brings back the 32-bit depth buffer of 0.2.0, off by default

Changed

• The depth buffer is 16-bit, as on the game's DirectX renderer. Surfaces that sit very close together now band where DirectX bands too

Removed

• The 0.2.1 change for the lines around ground lights, which turned other lines into patches of texture

Fixed

• Thin lines around ground lights that sit exactly on their model after scrolling slowly, seen on an AMD RX 570

Known issues

• On Windows 11, PrintScreen opens the Snipping Tool, which takes the game out of exclusive fullscreen. Win+PrintScreen captures the game
• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.2.2-rc.1

Pre-release for testing. If it holds up, it becomes 0.2.2 unchanged. It replaces the yanked 0.2.1.

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 or Linux through Wine or Proton, and a graphics card with Vulkan support.

To update, replace scvk.dll in the game's Plugins folder. scvk.ini is unchanged since 0.2.0.

Changed

• The depth buffer is 16-bit, as on the game's DirectX renderer. Surfaces that sit very close together now band where DirectX bands too

Fixed

• Thin lines around ground lights after scrolling slowly, seen on an AMD RX 570. Not confirmed yet

Known issues

• On Windows 11, PrintScreen opens the Snipping Tool, which takes the game out of exclusive fullscreen. Win+PrintScreen captures the game
• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.2.1

Yanked. The fix below made the lines worse on the RX 570 it was meant for, so it was taken back out. Use 0.2.0 instead.

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 or Linux through Wine or Proton, and a graphics card with Vulkan support.

To update, replace scvk.dll in the game's Plugins folder. scvk.ini is unchanged since 0.2.0.

Fixed

• Thin lines could appear around ground lights after scrolling slowly, seen on an AMD RX 570. Not confirmed yet, since no other graphics card shows them

Known issues

• On Windows 11, PrintScreen opens the Snipping Tool, which takes the game out of exclusive fullscreen. Win+PrintScreen captures the game
• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.2.0

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11 or Linux through Wine or Proton, and a graphics card with Vulkan support.

To update, replace scvk.dll and scvk.ini in the game's Plugins folder. SC4GraphicsOptions.ini no longer needs Driver=OpenGL, since both DirectX and OpenGL now select scvk.

Added

• scvk also takes the game's default DirectX slot, so installing it is copying two files and sc4-graphics-options is optional
• On a machine without Vulkan, the game keeps its own DirectX renderer
• A frame callback that lets other plugins draw over the game
• A benchmark mode in scvk.ini that compares scvk with the game's DirectX renderer, off by default

Changed

• Faster drawing, most of all zoomed out, where scvk used to be slower than DirectX

Fixed

• The game crashed at startup, or showed an empty region view, at 16-bit colour
• A paused city's frame rate was not unlocked when scd3d11 was installed too

Known issues

• On one AMD RX 570, thin lines can appear around ground lights after scrolling slowly, until a zoom redraws the scene
• The PrintScreen fix for AMD graphics cards from 0.1.2 is not confirmed yet
• On Windows 11, PrintScreen opens the Snipping Tool, which takes the game out of exclusive fullscreen. Win+PrintScreen captures the game
• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.1.2

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11, a graphics card with Vulkan support and sc4-graphics-options set to Driver=OpenGL and ColorDepth=32.

To update, replace scvk.dll in the game's Plugins folder. scvk.ini has not changed.

Changed

• In fullscreen, the graphics driver can no longer take exclusive control of the screen, which should let PrintScreen capture the game on AMD graphics cards

Known issues

• The interface sometimes flickers for a single frame
• Scrolling while zoomed out is slower than DirectX, by roughly 40% on average in a large city
• The PrintScreen fix for AMD graphics cards is not confirmed yet. scvk.log says whether it applied: "the driver will not take exclusive control of a fullscreen window"
• On Windows 11, PrintScreen opens the Snipping Tool, which takes the game out of exclusive fullscreen. Win+PrintScreen captures the game
• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk

0.1.1

Requires SimCity 4 Deluxe version 641, Windows 10 or 11, a graphics card with Vulkan support and sc4-graphics-options set to Driver=OpenGL and ColorDepth=32.

To update, replace scvk.dll in the game's Plugins folder. scvk.ini has not changed.

Added

• A line in scvk.log once the first frame is on screen, confirming scvk is running

Fixed

• Thin dark seams along the edges of street and lot tiles
• Two warnings scvk.log showed on every startup

Known issues

• The interface sometimes flickers for a single frame
• Scrolling while zoomed out is slower than DirectX, by roughly 40% on average in a large city
• PrintScreen does not capture the game in exclusive fullscreen on at least one AMD graphics card
• The game stopped responding once in testing, after leaving the Big City Tutorial
• Cannot be installed alongside SCGL, since both register as the OpenGL renderer

License: LGPL-2.1-or-later. See LICENSE.txt and Third Party Notices.txt in the download.
Source: https://github.com/aspctt/scvk