3840x2160 resolution, menus so tiny I can't use them

[kjbgu04]

Hi I just returned to SimCity after many years away.  I upgraded my computer since then, to a new machine with a 17" retina display at 3840 x 2160 60 fps resolution.  When I select this display option in the Game Settings menu, the display appears correct, but all of the menu items are so tiny as to be unusable!  All other resolution settings give distortion.  How can I adjust the gameplay so that the menu items appear properly sized for my 3840 x 2160 resolution.  Thanks!

[BlackjackWidow · Accepted solution]

Hi @kjbgu04 - SimCity is an older game, so it doesn't play well with the newest UHD settings. I think you can get the UI to scale properly if you 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)

Reply back & let me know if this helps. If not, there are other options but I think this would be the best if it works.

[BlackjackWidow · Accepted solution]

Hi @kjbgu04 - SimCity is an older game, so it doesn't play well with the newest UHD settings. I think you can get the UI to scale properly if you 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)

Reply back & let me know if this helps. If not, there are other options but I think this would be the best if it works.

[KoP79Hun]

Hello

Your solution works for me! Many thanks! 

[BlackjackWidow]

@KoP79Hun - You're welcome! I'm very happy to hear it worked. Thanks for letting me know, it will help others with the same problem 

[kjbgu04]

Sorry for delay - working a crazy schedule at work right now due to social distancing!

That worked perfectly.  Thank you so much for your time and help!!

[BlackjackWidow]

@kjbgu04 - You're very welcome - thanks for getting back to us.

Stay safe & Happy Building!

[AureliusRexII]

Hey, I had the exact same problem as OP and at first this worked perfectly no problem when I installed the game last week my first time. Now Im not sure what has gone wrong but the game stopped loading my cities so I re-installed from EA play onto my desktop and now there is no UserData folder whatsoever? I even reinstalled a second time. What's also weird is there is a "recent places" link to the original UserData folder so I know I'm not crazy! haha. There definitely was a userdata folder at one point with the preferences.prop file when i first installed the game, but after re-installing it seems this file is no longer part of the SimCity folder at all? IDK what to do, just very confused. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

[AureliusRexII]

@AureliusRexII basically in short - now the cities are loading again fine but I cant scale my UI to 200% like I need to play, because once I re-installed the SimCityUserData folder with the preferences.prop file apparently doesn't exist anywhere. (I have made sure I turned on "view" for hidden files)

[BlackjackWidow]

@AureliusRexII - The SimCityUserData folder is usually created once you play the game for the first time. If you're playing offline/single player version, I would suggest you open a city, let it run for a minute, then save and exit. If you're playing online/multiplayer mode, it should have saved on exit and the folder should be there. And of course, as you already mentioned, be sure you have "show hidden files and folders" enabled.

If that isn't it, there might be a difference in the way EA Desktop installs the game (or a difference if you're playing with OneDrive or cloud gaming settings on). I do remember someone posting a while ago that their preferences.prop file was in C:\Users\<YourWindowsUserName >\AppData\Roaming\SimCity\Preferences  I don't have this folder on my PC, but I suspect it has something to do with roaming profiles or cloud gaming. I really thought it should still install the SimCityUserData folder after playing & saving the game, but maybe something changed with EA Desktop?

Let us know if/what works for you - if there is a difference in installation now, I'd like to update the answer so in the future others aren't as confused as we are right now lol