Trainz Plus keeps freezing after newest update

[LBMATTY]

Getting this weird issue with Trainz Plus after a new update where the game keeps freezing for a few seconds after adding and removing engines/rolling stock. It's becoming an issue. It's not so much an issue with my specs since I'm using an RTX 2070 and an AMD Processor.
The game runs perfectly fine with route building. This is only an issue with removing and adding engines and rolling stock. I'm not the only one with this issue as there are some other users running into this issue as well.

Any help/updates on the situation would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JCitron]

There are a number of things that can cause that.

1) The program is validating the new install. This will put a drag on the data access until it completes. You can see this occurring if you open up Developer and choose Show logs. You'll see validating in yellow and stuff scrolling underneath.
2) There are errors and your database needs to be rebuilt.
3) Your disk needs defragmenting (regular drives only not SSD's).

 

[LBMATTY]

None of those worked. Even if I do database repairs and defragmenting my disks, the game still freezes up with adding/removing engines.

 

[monroem]

Can confirm this. In my case, [FONT=Whitney, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]I've tried literally every trick in the book now; Database repair, restarting computer, changing streams, changing in-game settings, (Not Post-processing settings) Still no fix.[/FONT]

[FONT=Whitney, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Add/remove locos/wagons: Frame rate drops.[/FONT]
[FONT=Whitney, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Load wagons via asset settings menu: Frame rate drops when you close the in-game window.[/FONT]
[FONT=Whitney, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] Add/remove consist: [/FONT][FONT=Whitney, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Frame rate[/FONT] drops.
Do enough of that and the game literally becomes the slowest slug you'd ever seen until it crashes. Hard.
Again, Doesn't[FONT=Whitney, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] matter what computer specs you have because when you go into driver mode the frame rate jumps right back up to normal. Switch back to Surveyor and the frame rate is perfect again until you add locos and/or rolling stock or change loads in the wagons.[/FONT]

 

[JCitron]

No problems here so there's got to be something else going on.

What might be going on is your content is still being cached. This occurs every time there's a new version installed or updated. If you have a lot of content, this can take some time. Is there a message at the top of your screen that says compiling scripts and caching? Not necessarily worded that way? Once all your content has been cached, the process will be quicker going forward. This is a real problem if you have tons of content.

 

[LBMATTY]

No messages on the top either with this issue.

 

[monroem]

Same on my end too. No messages for precaching assets or compiling scripts. It seems like all of that is already done even after booting the game up.

 

[JCitron]

Have either of you changed antivirus or updated recently. Norton, McAfee (yuck) and others can be overly aggressive and stomp on any files that are opened up by Trainz (any version).

Go into your antivirus and exclude your Trainz data folders and the Trainz program its self from real-time scanning. This is the only other thing I can think of that will cause this. I along with many others do not have this issue even with my 1.5 TB of content installed.

 

[clam1952]

Might be an idea to use the TrainzUtil prebuild command to make sure everything is cached.

And have a look at resource monitor on the disk tab and see if anything else is accessing the Trainz files at the same time as you are loading a route. You can catch things like AV and antimalware programs and indexing for Windows Search.

I exclude any of them doing anything with Trainz stuff, not some AV programs such as Avast ignore exclusions and or reset them when you reboot, leastwise it did last time I used it pre Windows10, just use Defender now although that needs Trainz excluding as well if you have a lot of data.

 

[jfike]

Does anyone no for sure if a Windows Defender folder exclusion also excludes all subfolders of the excluded folder? I always assumed it did, but usually dialog's of this type have an "include subfolders" checkbox.

 

[JCitron]

Does anyone no for sure if a Windows Defender folder exclusion also excludes all subfolders of the excluded folder? I always assumed it did, but usually dialog's of this type have an "include subfolders" checkbox.

Good question. I assume so because by excluding the root-level of those folders seems to do the trick.

 

[MP242]

Post Deleted

 

[glenm74]

Two Bobs Worth... Ensure that your antivirus is definitely not live scanning the trainz directory as it opens files for use... Had the same issue here with AVG on every version of trainz... Once I created the exceptionin AVG for the trainz install directory the stuttering and freezing stopped...

G

 

[MP242]

Post Deleted

 

[ThomasFanForever1856]

I'm getting kind of sick with people coming up with the same solutions. Yes, they work most of the time, but something is wrong with this update for sure, there's just no way around it and the team behind the game needs to look into it. I am part of a big Trainz community on Discord, and every...let me repeat that...EVERY person that updated to the latest Trainz Plus update told me that their game freezes, hangs, crashes, loads up a huge amount of RAM when trying to place object, or sometimes just opening a route. I have these issues as well, so I downloaded the MyTrainz TRS2019 installer and am keeping that build unter further notice, it works just fine. I tried countless extended database repairs, made sure all the anti virus is off for Trainz, waited and waited for the game to respond again, but no, everytime these issues are the exact same. As a fellow Trainz Plus user, who would love to pay something each month to get the latest and greatest of Trainz, this is a huge dissapointment. It really is.

 

[JCitron]

I have no problems at all. Go figure.

I defrag my hard drive regularly. I ensure that all out of date assets are updated and obsolete assets are deleted. I also ensure that ALL content is error-free and not open for edit. The only errors I have currently are related to a route missing some assets, which do not count as faulty assets. I mean faulty.

Is it data size? Nope. I have 1.5 TB of installed data in my local folders so it can't be that

I also do not put my User data folders on my boot drive, ever for multiple reasons.

I also increased my page files (swap) files to 2 x my installed RAM, and since I have 3 data drives, I put 2 of them on my non-Trainz drive.

This is pretty much it.

Outside of data its self there are other factors. I recommend checking the graphics settings. It could very well be, and most likely the case, that things got changed in the update so that settings need to be reset. Whenever I do update, I always reset the graphics settings to the lowest, then set them back up to my customary settings. This resets the caches and seems to help a lot.

 

[pcas1986]

For the OP: you might turn on the developer's logs and watch the logs while adding those vehicles.

I discovered that many of my routes and sessions suddenly went faulty due to missing dependencies. Turned out that the coal commodity had disappeared from the installation database. Downloading that fixed it.

On loading the list of routes from Start Trainz, my logs fills with dozens of these messages:

? <NULL> IHTMLBox::RenderPage> http://- <NULL> GetUTF8Char> Bad UTF8 char encountered 146.

I think these are associated with each little window that displays route information.

 

[Tony_Hilliam]

None of those worked. Even if I do database repairs and defragmenting my disks, the game still freezes up with adding/removing engines.

For those experiencing this issue, can you please provide more information:
1. Is there a "precaching" message showing when you open the Trains tab? (If yes, if you wait until it goes away, is there still a problem).
2. If you create a new route, select a single train and place it on the tracks, does this freeze?
3. If you switch to "Train mode" and add a KSC consist, does this freeze?
4. In Content Manager, filter on Category = consist, Installed = True. How many consists do you have?
5. In Content Manager, select a KSC consist and R-click > Preview Asset. Does it display without any problems?
6. When it "freezes" what, if any windows are responsive? (e.g. can you still access and use CM?). Also is there a Windows "Busy" cursor (blue spinning circle)?
7. If you wait half an hour does it unfreeze?
8. Are there any log entries being written when it is frozen?
9. If you create a fresh local data folder and only have the builtin content installed, does it still freeze?

Also confirm your build number when responding, and confirm this if this is new to the latest build only.

 

[ThomasFanForever1856]

I use Trainz for filming and running a YouTube channel purposes, I want a stable version handling my huge local data folder, and will be keeping the built provided on the MyTrainz download. A good friend of mine also experienced the same issues I had and the many people I know. There’s something wrong in this update. As much as I appreciate you all trying to help out, and pointing out possible issues with our software and setups, I think we reached a point where this is considered a wide spread issue, and the team needs to look at the changes made in the update asap. It’s a shame not being able to use the lastert and greatest of Trainz where I pay good amounts of money for