[Mac] Mojave - Cursor & Display Resolution Problems

Hey,

I just updated macOS to 10.14.4 and started Simcity which worked fine.

Now I have a strange problem I never expierienced on the macOS version before.

The cursor is less accurate. It start's in the ingame homescreen. I can't correctly navigate to my city because the cursor is not accurate. I have to press like 5cm above the button to acutally press the button. Sadly thats also the case during the game, so I can't build new houses and stuff, I don't even get to the right menu. It's really sad.

Restarting the Mac did not help. Guess that's an game issue.

Hi @weinertwein - I don't know much about Macs, so I did a search for this problem. I found a couple of similar problems for different games, so let's see if this fix works for your Mac.

First: Launch SimCity in windowed mode. In Origin, right-click the SimCity icon and choose "Game Properties" > click the "Advanced Launch Options" tab > type "-w" (without the quotation marks) in the "Command Line Arguments" box. Launch SimCity and go to the Settings menu (upper right three dots) and choose the correct resolution for your screen in the graphics settings. Then launch your city and see if it works. If it does, you can change in the settings menu to play in full-screen windowed mode.

Please reply back and let us know if this works. 🤞 Happy Building!

Yay - finally a solution for this issue which started yesterday for me. Multiple hours and multiple different ways of trying to make it happen. -W factor was really the key in then being able to do other things as I couldn't get my mouse to work (timing wasn't great as also just purchased new mouse and keyboard and spent an hour or two thinking it was just them impacting). 

Thanks heaps, absolute legend......now if I can just get my screen settings right now so that my normal non-game screen looks great still without impacting the full-screen of simcity.

Cheers, again, absolute legend.

Hi @Scuba_Stevo72  - Thank you so much for keeping us updated. So happy we got the windowed screen to work, at least for a bit. I can tell you for sure that SimCity does not like ultra-HD settings, PCs also have this problem (game was built when HD 1920 x 1080 settings were the highest you could get). Also doesn't play well with most multi-display settings. You could check to make sure your display settings on the Mac don't have any multi-display settings enabled even if you don't have dual monitors. Sometimes PCs will default on install to double monitor settings for some reason - doesn't make a difference for the computer, but the game has trouble recognizing something.

Do you have an option in SimCity settings to choose 1920 x 1080 resolution? If you can choose that resolution, then check the box underneath that says "full screen" you should be able to run in full-screen windowed mode at those settings. If it looks good like that, you *should* be able to remove the "-w" from the startup options and have it start up at HD resolution and full screen. 

Having said all of that, do you have any issues on the computer with the new mouse or keyboard? Doesn't seem like it should impact it, but as you said before - updates and new stuff can screw up in all sorts of ways.

 There was one more tip I found that was related to a different game and different OS version, but helped some users. I have no idea why this would have an impact, kind of a shot in the dark, but I don't think it would hurt to try. Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility and check SimCity. If this helps, I would be very interested to know it lol.

I'm asking around with the helpers to see if there's a Mac expert who may have an idea on what to try. I will get back with any other ideas.

@Scuba_Stevo72 

I've split your issue into a separate post as the cursor issue is very specific, as is your display issues 🙂

@BlackjackWidow knows the game way better than me although I do have it installed on my Mac. Could you clarify a couple of things for me to see whether I can help as a fellow Mac user:

1. Please can you provide more information about your Mac. Instructions on how to do so here - http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-Mac/READ-FIRST-Sims-4-Mac-Help-Guides-and-Troubleshooting/m-p/4612396/highlight/true#M162
2. Which version of the game are you playing? Purchased from EA through Origin or from Aspyr through the App Store? I have both versions installed so can test whichever one you are using. I also have access to a Thunderbolt Display so can check on a second display.

Hello @weinertwein 

We'll look into this and contact Apple if needed.  In the meantime, BlackjackWidow has some good suggestions in this thread 🙂 .

Unfortunately the window mode is not working. I did all your steps and the game accepts the w in the Command Line Arguments but it's still starting in fullscreen mode.