Display Problems

[Heppy]

I have both TRS2006 & TC and although I had not changed any settings the display is very jerky when a train runs past the camera and if you are outside watching the train run the scenery is again slightly jerky / stutters.

I have tried pausing the came and moving the sliders but to not much effect.

I don't know if it's my display card settings or something else.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Peter

 

[fran1]

What are your system specs, processor, graphics card and RAM ?

 

[4ndylloyd]

Peter,

If it worked fine before and now its jerky you have probably had a graphics card driver update delivered by windows update. You can check this by using Device Manager, browsing to your 'Display Adaptor' and checking the date of the driver. If its quite recent then Windows update has more than likely 'given' this to you. Try changing between Directx and OpenGL in options from the start up screen. As a basic rule of thumb ATi cards like Directx abd nVidia ru well on OpenGL. That said though my ATi card runs 2006 best in Directx but smoother in OpenGL in 2009 so its worth experimenting. You should also check your hard disk to see if it needs defragmenting

Regards, Andy

 

[cascaderailroad]

If it is a desktop, you may need a faster video card.

If it is a laptop, you might need a new PC.

Low end PC's with integrated graphics cards, and PC's with low end video cards, do not disply Trainz well at all.

 

[Heppy]

PC Specs

I 'm running XP on a Desktop PC with an ATI Radeon X1550. The card drivers show Feb 2010 and I checked the website for updates but none are available.
TRS 2006 sits on a SATA hard drive with 153GB free.
The processor is Intel Core(TM)2 CPU 4300 @ 1.80GHz with 2GB of Ram.

I was tweaking with the settings on the video card but I might revert to default.

Peter

 

[cascaderailroad]

Tweaking a video card factory settings will cause framerates to drop, but may improve quality, but performance will suffer with AF & AA maximised.

 

[sniper297]

IIRC the specs call for an Intel single core 3GHZ "or equivalent" as a minimum. I don't remember the conversion factor for Core 2 Duo processors but I suspect a core 2 duo at 1.8GHZ would fall a little short of a single core 3GHZ.

 

[Heppy]

Strange as I have had TRS2006 for 5 years now and it has only recently started acting up.

Also, according to Auran, the Minimum is 1.5Ghz and the Rec is 2.0Ghz.
I thought 1.8Ghz should not make that much difference.

The only thing changed recently was to purchase and install TC.

Peter

 

[Heppy]

Problem Solved

The ATI card came with the Catalist Control Centre which ate up memory for nothing. I uninstalled it and TRS2006 works perfectly.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Peter

 

[acelejalde]

Hey All,

I thought I would bump this thread, rather than starting a new one, because I am having similar display problems while running TS09 and TS10. My problem is that whenever I am in the front-cab mode during driver, I get a herky-jerky motion when driving the train and there'll be times when the view will run smooth for about 5-7 seconds, and then it'll be choppy for about another ten, then return to the smooth, then back to jerky. This happens on all trains, all routes, regardless of what it is. I even built a straight track across a new route, blank baseboard and ran just one loco, and still had problems. Below are the specs for my desktop as well as graphics information. Before I post them, would you recommend changing the settings that are in the nVidia control panel?

Manufacturer: HP
Model: p6754y
Processor: AMD Athlon II X4 640 Processor, 3.00 GHz
Installed Memory (RAM): 4gb
System: 64-bit OS
Windows 7 Home Premium, SP1

Graphics:
NVIDIA GeForce 210
Total Available Graphics Memory: 2815 MB
Dedicated Video Memory: 1024 MB
System Video Memory: 0 MB
Shared System Memory: 1791 MB

Thanks for the help!

-A :wave:

 

[RRSignal]

Well, what jumps out at me first and foremost is that's about as low-end a video card as you can get, save maybe for some legacy ones. You can get a GT240 for about $45 on sale or rebate; I know Tigerdirect has one for that. You'd need to check your power supply if you wanted anything more powerful.

That said, does your disk run during these period of stuttering? If so, a defrag may provide some relief.

 

[acelejalde]

What would you recommend for running TS10 smoothly? I'd like to stay within a budget of around $100-150.

 

[RRSignal]

Well, try the defrag first, since that's free and can be run overnight.

That said, it will depend on your existing power supply. Look at the wattage and the Amps output in the +12v rail(s). If that's too light, it's going to cost you $60-70 on top of whatever video card you get. I bought the GT240 specifically because it was about the best card I could get without upgrading my 500w PSU and maintaining a safety factor. Since your computer is OEM/pre-built (Dell, HP, etc.) then odds are it's got an even smaller supply.

 

[acelejalde]

Thanks for all the help!

While the defrag is running, I might revert to TRS2006, because it's not as heavy on graphics and actually still runs pretty good.

I'm slowly but surely getting the hang of all the common problems in Trainz--I guess that's what we get when we love this hobby!