Here is a list of what is fixed in the update:
Performance Improvements
Zoom and rotation switching is faster in all cases, due to changes that made building graphics loading more conservative.
AutoZoomChange:off
Simulation and Frame rates in general are faster for many cities, due to bug fixes and performance improvements related to the traffic simulation and neighbor deals.
The application's memory cache is more aggressively reduced at runtime, so that memory will be freed for other uses, resulting in less paging on systems with less memory.
Control-Shift-Alt-S (or holding down Alt while clicking on the city save button) saves the city without updating the region thumbnail and should significantly improve the game save time, especially on memory-strapped systems.
Game default detail options have been made more conservative with respect to memory and processor speed. Because of the additions to the graphics options, your previous settings will be lost and reset with new default settings.
The game no longer forces itself into the underground view unless you have explicitly picked an underground tool.
Three new graphics options have been added under in-game graphics settings. They are: building detail, texture quality and building load speed. These options are initially set at conservative defaults and can be altered for your specific machine needs. Building detail will enable you to load one building style set per rank. (1 set=low, 2 sets=medium, all 3 sets=high). Texture quality will alter the textures based on the zoom level. Building load speed will enable tuning options for the rate at which buildings are loaded in memory. For example, at the low setting buildings will appear at a slower rate but there will be greater responsiveness to the mouse and scroll movements.
Caveats
Very large and dense cities with complex road and underground networks will continue to be a problem with computers that have less than 256MB of RAM unless the user turns graphics options down via the options dialogs and turns down day/night transitions via the God menu. It wouldn't hurt to turn down audio options via the options dialog as well in these cases. The immense scope of SimCity makes it difficult for it to run quickly at full breadth on machines with lower RAM, particularly when running complex operating systems such as Windows XP.
In our efforts to increase the speed and responsiveness of zoom changes and scrolling we had to make some trade offs. You will notice quicker response when changing zooms but one trade off is that the back ground loader will take more time loading in buildings. The result is that when loading there may be black boxes in view. This issue can be controlled to some degree by adjusting the new graphics option, "building load speed", to better suit the performance of your specific machine.
Additional Update fixes
Addressed Life Expectancy issue in how averages were calculated. This solves problems with sudden drops and oddly low values.
Addressed commuting issues related to highways and double counting on subways.
Addressed twitching for left hand turning vehicles.
Addressed graph (jobs & population) with multiple occupant types to toggle each type or with hover query.
Improved art for the heavy truck (industrial prop). It was previously rendered with 8 bit alpha instead of 1 bit giving it a large blocky black background.
Addressed neighbor deal status on rail query.
Streamlined garbage graph to display just the current capacity of landfills and garbage produced by the city.
Addressed several issues in highway connections to neighboring cities.
Addressed issue for airports and seaports initially showing up distressed.
Alphabetized region names in the UI.
Addressed issue regarding incorrect lot texture on a high wealth residential building and a texture with a high wealth commercial building.
Update for a connection-related neighbor deal problem associated with water.
Change neighbor deal to allow deals to continue for a short period of time even if the buying city runs out of money. This addresses the "neighbor deal cancelled too quickly" issue.
Added a desirability threshold to prevent abandonment if lots have high desirability.
Increased RCI demand max (allowing the largest structures to build easier). This is better known as the Stage 8 issue.
Addressed airport queries to report efficiency.
Addressed landfills to combine easier if drawn adjacent to each other. Still problematical if drawn between two landfills, so try adding them one at a time.
Lowered the alpha on distressed and abandoned so cities don't look so devastated.
Addressed Neighbor deal issues (escalating rates, canceling during suspension and canceling during obliteration).
Addressed issue of fires starting with missile silo while game was paused, Also helps stop fires starting from other special effects while game is paused.
Addressed issues related to power line occupant leaks that were causing some problems with saved games.
Tax fields in budget can now be entered directly in addition to using the spinners.
Addressed incorrect links to budget in multi-neighbor deal messages.
Addressed cost escalation to network tiles after drawing bridges/tunnels.
Addressed updates for automata (less getting stuck in intersections, better synching of lights, better stopping for trains).
Addressed issue for "go to disaster" link if auto go to disasters is turned off in options.
Addressed some network draw problems related to drawing highways over other networks diagonally.
Added support for crash report generator. This enables the creation of a log file if the game happens to shut down unexpectedly.
Addressed issue for flipped network piece (two diagonal roads against orthogonal T intersection).
Improved support for cities built with plugins opened by users who do not have those plugins.
Control-Alt-Shift-X will bring up cheat panel as stated in the strategy guide.
Lowered 'hotspot' effect for fires. This results in less fires breaking out.
Lowered frequency of busses (visual automata only) in large cities.
Update 2 also includes these fixes from the previous update.
Addressed issue related to conflict between MySim and Transportation Pack.
Addressed issue related to SIS video chipsets.
Addressed several incorrect links in advisor messages.
Updated car zots to display properly.
Addressed issue where the catalog was showing the incorrect capacity for the Recycling Center.
Addressed issue where industry development would occur even when commuters could not reach the zone.
Added support for ATI Radeon R300 series that add backing store capability.
Added option to turn off auto-road when zoning behavior by holding the shift-key while zoning.
Added option to change orientation of lots when zoning by holding the alt-key while zoning.
Added whales to the game.
Retuned pollution values for airports and seaports.
Port efficiency is now displayed correctly.
Airport upgrading now works correctly.
Freight trains can now drop cargo at ports.
Updated new zone graphics to better indicate the front of lots.
