Simcity - All Icons, Text Windows and Text too small [ Edited ]

[Nachmanhome]

Hi All

Current Environment:  Windows 10, Simcity, running at 3840 x 2160p, all other games from EA plus Origin and other companies games work fine, resolution and game play all work fine. Both PC and Simcity resolution match at 3840 x 2160p and no other games requre any resolution changes on the PC itself.

Problem:

The game landscape looks fine but all Icons, Text Boxes and Text are so small you need to move within a foot of the screen which is a 4K, 65"screen and therefore almost impossible to read clearly as it is just too small relative to the rest of the game.

Looking for the solution to increase the size of text and icons to make the game playable from a resonable distance from the screen. Changing the resolution just changes the size of the display segment and thefore full screen is not possible.   

[Nachmanhome · Accepted solution]

Brilliant

OptionUIZoomLevel 2

worked a treat - thanks for the help

[BlackjackWidow]

Hi @Nachmanhome - SimCity doesn't really work well with the high resolutions available today. I think, you should get the same detail if you just drop the game resolution to 1080p. However, there are a couple things to try:

Change the preferences.prop file: Default location is C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\SimCity\SimCityUserData\Preferences\Preferences.prop  Exit SimCity and Origin completely. Make a copy of the Preferences.prop file for backup purposes. Open the file with a text editor like Notepad. Scroll to the part that says: OptionUIZoomLevel 1 and change to OptionUIZoomLevel 2. Save the file and launch SimCity. That should double the size of the UI. You can experiment with different numbers to see if you can find one that works for you. (make sure you don't save with the *.txt extension at the end - it needs to be preferences.prop)

If that doesn't work, you could try windowed mode and force the 1080p resolution in the window. 

Launch in windowed mode and force a lower resolution via command line: In Origin, right-click the SimCity icon and choose "Game Properties" > click the "Advanced Launch Options" tab > type "-w -r:1920x1080" (without the quotation marks) in the "Command Line Arguments" box. Note: Use a resolution that your display supports. You can test which resolutions work best for you. Some examples:  -r:1600x900  -r:1024x768 -r:1920x1080

Hope this helps! Happy Building!

[Nachmanhome]

Thanks for these tips. I will be at my machine later and will try. I am able to change the resolution to 1080p but then I tend to lose a large segment of the screen. The text increases in size but the screen surface reduces and I lose full screen. I will give these all a go later today. 

[Nachmanhome · Accepted solution]

Brilliant

OptionUIZoomLevel 2

worked a treat - thanks for the help

[MrSupersprm]

@BlackjackWidow Playing on a Surface Pro w i3 at 2200 some resolution. Icons and all were so small, I had a hard time reading and was getting frustrated. Used the optionZoomlevel 2 and I am so happy it works now. Thank you!

[Jravelof]

@BlackjackWidow Sorry for resurrecting an old thread, but I am trying to fix this issue on the Gamepass / EA Desktop installation of Simcity and haven't been able to find the Preferences.prop file. I found a Properties file in (C:\Program Files\EA Games\SimCity\SimCityData\Config) which contains the "property OptionUIZoomLevel" but the value next to it is "0x0e7422ce float"

I'm going blind trying to read the UI on a 4k TV

[Jravelof]

@Jravelof If anyone stumbles into this, I finally found the Preferences.prop file in (C:\Users\**your user name here **\AppData\Roaming\SimCity\Preferences)

[BlackjackWidow]

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@Jravelof wrote:
@Jravelof If anyone stumbles into this, I finally found the Preferences.prop file in (C:\Users\**your user name here **\AppData\Roaming\SimCity\Preferences)

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I'm glad you were able to find the file, I'm not sure why you have it in the roaming folder, but if it works, that's great! Thanks for updating with this location.

Happy building!

[smokeykiller511]

Your in the wrong file. makes sure your in userdata folder and then find the preferences

[PCK-Maruzs]

@BlackjackWidow THX