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ovm1tvllf31r's avatar
ovm1tvllf31r
Seasoned Newcomer
1 month ago

City completely dark – lighting/rendering bug

Hello EA Support Team, I’m experiencing a graphics/rendering bug in SimCity BuildIt. Description: My city suddenly became completely dark. This is NOT normal night mode. There are no street light...
android
bug
feedback
technical issues
nichogee's avatar
nichogee
New Novice
5 days ago

Same. I’m in the EA help chat loop right now. It’s been about a month or so of the game glitching out. 

It’s almost at the point where it’s hilarious. I send a help report ( in game ) wait a week and get an email ( bot ) saying sorry for the delay blah blah but if it’s fixed, I don’t have to do anything but if not, resume the case - which I do, then another week and same email.

After three of these you automatically go into a chat with an advisor, repeat everything then they transfer you to the dedicated team who redirect you to the in game help and it all begins again.

Ridiculous. 

I’ve just gone through it again but think maybe it’s time to nuke my cities. 

 

  • GiftedRere1986's avatar
    GiftedRere1986
    Rising Scout
    5 days ago

    VRAM is exhausted and GPU is artifacting. It is a hardware problem through and through.

    Do you have any apps or settings that are designed to boost performance? If so, those may work temporarily but over time they will cause your device to overheat and throttle and in so doing create these issues. 

    Pink pixelation is beginning signs of your hardware malfunctioning and potential permanent damage.

    • Vernissa's avatar
      Vernissa
      Seasoned Ace
      5 days ago

      While your efforts are appreciated, why does it only happen with Sim City? No other games cause the issue. It is clearly a fault with the game. EA need to resolve this.

      • GiftedRere1986's avatar
        GiftedRere1986
        Rising Scout
        2 days ago

        The only answer I have for you.

        SimCity Buildit works fine on my device. Warframe doesn't.

        Warframe is newer and designed for newer devices. My device is old.

        As systems and games update, they evolve with newer technologies.

        Android devices typically come with more RAM available than Apple devices.

        Most reports have come back that replacing the device solved it completely, while all software troubleshooting and user settings workarounds have not.

        The final contribution I have for troubleshooting the pink pixelation (a graphic specific issue) is to remove all Landscape, Landmark, Park, and Mayor's Pass items that have extra graphic visuals.

        It would be tedious to confirm this way, but I wish someone would try it and confirm.

        This has been a difficult issue to help troubleshoot. I hope there is a resolution (even if I am wrong and it is indeed a "bug").

    • nichogee's avatar
      nichogee
      New Novice
      4 days ago

      No. I don’t have any apps to boost performance. Could you name any?

      And besides that,  this only happens in the simcity buildit app and only when I try to use the menu items.  

      It doesn’t happen in other apps, specifically other games that have similar animations, so it’s clearly a game thing as it’s affecting other players too. 

       

       

      • GiftedRere1986's avatar
        GiftedRere1986
        Rising Scout
        1 day ago

        Performance boosters off the top of my head include Apple's "Game Mode" and on Android would be Google Play Games, "Game Mode." These are technically overlays rather than apps.

        Also, on Android there is a Setting --> System --> Performance --> 2 GB RAM Boost, depending on device, I'm sure.

        Specific apps, a quick glance on Google lists about 25 different apps for Android and none for Apple.

        However, that will take some digging deeper and I may experiment with it.

        At this time, since you are not familiar with any, I'd say it's not an issue for you. If you are looking to try any to improve memory, be careful. Try and avoid settings that displays a push activating overlay. Those are annoying. Easy to remove, but can make graphics issues worse.

        As I mentioned to Vernissa and others, it is entirely possible for one app/game to have issues without the software being the problem.

        For example, SimCity works beautifully on my device, but I'm having issues with "Warframe" constantly freezing. Turns out, reports indicate a device specific incompatibility involving PowerVR. This would be the same as this issue with Apple's Metal Graphics API.

        A patch may be necessary. Even then, troubleshooting will be required as solutions for one subset of problems could create another set of problems and the cycle continues. Eventually, some devices become "too old to play the game." 

        I'm rambling now. I hope only a patch would be needed and not the alternative.

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