RAID?

[nicky9499]

In MSTS, there's this problem when the camera reaches the edge of a tile (which are rather large as compared to TRS), the game will load most of the objects (tracks, buildings, other trains etc). This will cause the game to stutter quite abit in very dense areas and even the most powerful video card will not help much here since it's an I/O issue.

The above problem has been remedied by some in the MSTS community by setting up a RAID array. Honestly, it's really troublesome setting one up, and I would like to find out more about how TRS loads and if the trouble is actually worth it.

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[AussieNightcrawler]

Hi,

By todays standards it is easier to setup a RAID as it is usually controlled by the motherboard, everything is onboard as they say. I run 2 systems with RAID setups and to be honest, it won't improve performance while playing. It will improve loading times, as in when you first load a layout/route, but while playing it is memory/RAM that is used more then hard drive.

So you be better off looking at how much memory/RAM you have installed and increasing that if need be first before setting up a RAID.

 

[nicky9499]

I've got 4 gigabytes of OCZ DDR2-800. Windows 32-bit can only recognize a little over 3. Will overclocking the memory help?

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[Captain_Collins]

I've got 4 gigabytes of OCZ DDR2-800. Windows 32-bit can only recognize a little over 3. Will overclocking the memory help?

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

It should increase the speed of the memory, but there is no point if the bottleneck in your computer is elsewhere. Please note I said IF.

 

[john259]

You might like to look up the documentation for trainzoptions.txt. In TRS2004, TC and TRS2006 that file can be edited so as to optimise the program. I'm not sure if TRS2009 works the same way though.

John

 

[nicky9499]

Now I'm pretty sure I came across such a list a long time ago. It was extremely comprehensive, and definitely longer than the one that came with the 06 manual. I'm kind of having trouble remembering where...

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[big_b]

Trains Options detailed list
http://trainz.ws/tarl/
then select Utilities
then select Trains Options Generator
then select one of the tabs

When we did the comparisons in 06 the options didn't seem to make that much difference for me as far as performance went
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=23637&highlight=big_b

Dave

 

[AussieNightcrawler]

With 4GB memory/RAM, yes Windows 32bit will only see just over 3GB, I would be looking for you bottleneck first before you start overclocking.

What is your CPU and Speed?

What is your Video Card?

These with your memory/RAM (even motherboard in some cases) are the key areas to system performance.

 

[SerraAngel2007]

The onboard RAID that comes on most desktop motherboards is considered 'fake RAID' and puts an additional workload on the CPU to perform the work and has no cache for performance. Using this type of RAID can actually slow your machine.

Check RAID Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#Firmware.2Fdriver-based_RAID

If you go RAID of any type make sure you have matching drives; same vendor/model (size/speed...)

What type/size/speed of drive(s) do you have now? IDE, SATA I or SATA II?

How often do you Defragment your drive(s)?

If you have multiple drives, move your SWAP file off the drive Trainz is on (C: by default) to improve performance.

I am waiting to purchase a couple Western Digital VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM drives and a RocketRAID controller, when my wife isn't looking of course.

 

[nicky9499]

Asus M2N68-VM
Phenom X3 8540 2.1Ghz
OCZ 4GB DDR2-800
HD4850 IceQ4
Aerocool 500W
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA2 500gb
1x WD Caviar Blue 7200 SATA2 250gb

Is this information enough?

The swap file (which I assume is the page file cause that's what we call it here) is on a the second drive. The WD's primary and rest is storage. Everything's brand new so I don't think I'd need defragmenting anytime soon.

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[SerraAngel2007]

That hardware looks fine.

Yeah the page file. (in the Windows 3.x days it was called the swap file)

Do you have the latest drivers for your video card?

Windows... XP or Vista?

If you have XP you can try these:

Disable the Indexing Services: http://www.tweakxp.com/article37006.aspx

Turn off Last access time stamps: http://www.tweakxp.com/article37043.aspx

 

[nicky9499]

Trains Options detailed list
http://trainz.ws/tarl/
then select Utilities
then select Trains Options Generator
then select one of the tabs

When we did the comparisons in 06 the options didn't seem to make that much difference for me as far as performance went
http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=23637&highlight=big_b

Dave

I get a 'could not connect to MySQL server' error. Hmm.
But thanks for the suggestion, perhaps its only a temporary outage.

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[nicky9499]

@ SerraAngel2007:

Yes, it's Windows XP Professional, 32 bit with SP2 (but would SP3 help? I've read about many a problem with that).

Yes, I've got the latest 4800 series drivers an Catalyst from ATI's website (the one on the disc frequently crashed my computer under high-graphic situations and gave picture distortions too).

Indexing has been turned off, but I'll keep the timestamps on as I deal with many documents and having the Last Modified date would be helpful.

Also, may I suggest something I read off the TweakXP website:
http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-5173646.html

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

 

[john259]

I get a 'could not connect to MySQL server' error. Hmm.
But thanks for the suggestion, perhaps its only a temporary outage.

Cheerio,
Nicholas.

I've let Larry know about this but I don't know how long it will take to fix. (RBR hosts TARL now)

John