A challenge

[johnwhelan]

We're seeing some new content made with Sketchup that have higher poly counts that traditional methods. Many say this doesn't matter, OK so the challenge is to come up with a hardware configuration that is capable of making use of this new content.

Paulsw2 has identified some content including a water tower of 166,000 polys without lod , assets made by #446443 would seem to be made in Sketchup so the challenge is to come up with a suitable layout and hardware to run it on that makes use of this content. The layout should consist of at least 50% of assets from Sketchup and should not be sparse. The performance sliders should be maxed. ie 5 kms not 1 kms etc.

I note that the GWR gas lights etc are very nice to look at.

Ideally it should be a lap top but suitable configured desktop would be acceptable.

Price looking at the Dell most popular $1,000 would seem to cover what Dell consider to be a reasonable machine.

Many thanks

Cheerio John

 

[TramDU1214]

Why don't you build your Custom PC??

The large companies (Dell, HP, etc) do usually rip you off and use bad parts (PSU, Weak GPU) and are not so upgradeable aswell.
If you need a laptop, look for an ASUS or a Sager and post a link.
If don't build yourself a nice Gaming rig.
If you already have windows 7 get this http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7GxU.
If you don't http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7GxR.
If someone has a better build, feel free to post it.
If you don't know, how to build, this video will help you.
<br>

 

[johnwhelan]

I'm very familiar with hardware, I used to be responsible for the selection of PCs and servers for a government department of 5,000 people. I've worked in the field for more than 40 years and built my own machines. Based on my knowledge and experience I don't think this can be done. If it can I'd be delighted since it would mean that using sketchup to create content is no longer an issue. The sketchup content listed is very demanding on Trainz.

Cheerio John

 

[RRSignal]

The large companies (Dell, HP, etc) do usually rip you off and use bad parts (PSU, Weak GPU) and are not so upgradeable aswell.
If you need a laptop, look for an ASUS or a Sager and post a link.
If don't build yourself a nice Gaming rig.
If you already have windows 7 get this http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7GxU.
If you don't http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7GxR.
If someone has a better build, feel free to post it.
If you don't know, how to build, this video will help you.

Interesting link; it might make things seem less daunting for first-timers, thanks. I would like anyone thinking of building that it's really not "building", more like "assembling"; it's not half as hard as it sounds.

 

[TramDU1214]

A build, that should handle it...

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/7Hdb This should be able to handle it (If TrainZ can..)
PS: Why not add custom watercooling and overclock a little...
PPS: Post a better build

 

[johnwhelan]

Just to give you some idea of the extra resources required I've seen one loco weighing in at 170,000 polys with no lod so my estimate is you need something of the order of at least ten times the computing power of a high end box.

Overclocking might get you 30% extra, and you'd need to think about overclocking the GPU as well, the water cooling adds complexity and expense. I didn't specify the screen size so it might be doable with a 640 by 480 screen but I think that's really cheating.

Cheerio John

 

[TramDU1214]

It is a matter of Trainz aswell...
If Trainz itself is unable to handle all the objects (BTW they sound great), no hardware will be able to handle it.
The hardware is limeted by the software used.
And I don't think Trainz is able to use something in the lines of dual or more CPUs and lots of Ram.
As for a layout, I think it should be a small Station with a little town and a fiddle yard (Portals) but there are lots of people around here, who are able to build far better layouts than I do...
And if it is not a giant railway system (like Razorback), it should be able to run on high end consumer hardware of today.
Builders, show your skills.

 

[johnwhelan]

It is a matter of Trainz aswell...
If Trainz itself is unable to handle all the objects (BTW they sound great), no hardware will be able to handle it.
The hardware is limeted by the software used.
And I don't think Trainz is able to use something in the lines of dual or more CPUs and lots of Ram.
As for a layout, I think it should be a small Station with a little town and a fiddle yard (Portals) but there are lots of people around here, who are able to build far better layouts than I do...
And if it is not a giant railway system (like Razorback), it should be able to run on high end consumer hardware of today.
Builders, show your skills.

Trainz currently can use multiple cores and the software can handle them especially under a 64 bit operating system. Most items created in Sketchup can be created visually identical in 3DS or Blender for a fraction of the polys. The larger the object the bigger the difference. So the 170,000 poly loco would probably be 15,000 polys but with lod the average seen would be nearer 1,000 polys.

Some people are saying the extra polys and textures don't matter but I think they do hence the challenge can some one come up with a hardware platform that will run these items at a reasonable cost to decide the issue one way or other.

Thanks for your input so far, its been useful in guiding people to better hardware solutions but in this case doesn't really address the issue.

Cheerio John