dissapointed in ts12

[bishop_150]

I recently purchased my first copy of TS12, in store. My son and I were both excited to get started on it. I have 2 well equipped 17" HP laptops that I use for gaming, and they do so with no problem. I installed TS12 and launched a quick drive, it was so choppy that I couldn't do anything, with an unbelievable action/movement delay. I exited and changed all graphics settings to their lowest quality. I restarted a scenerio and it was only slightly quicker, everything took so long to render. I quit the session, checked all my video graphics settings, checked drivers, everything up to date and maxed at high performance. I tried it once more, and still dissapointment. Both my consoles are equipped with, Intel i5, 10 gb Kingston ram, 1 tb hdd, Intel high perf. HD graphics. I know it's not top of the line gaming equipment but, they perform very well when gaming with the exception of Trainz. It's pretty rediculous that you have to have an alienware MX18 just to run the simulator. It's a terrible waste of money for folks who would enjoy the sim and don't have a super computer on which to run it. It has been so overdone with graphics appearance and realistic animation that performance was completely trashed. I hope to get a refund from the vendor. :n:

 

[pdkoester]

I recently purchased my first copy of TS12, in store. My son and I were both excited to get started on it. I have 2 well equipped 17" HP laptops that I use for gaming, and they do so with no problem. I installed TS12 and launched a quick drive, it was so choppy that I couldn't do anything, with an unbelievable action/movement delay. I exited and changed all graphics settings to their lowest quality. I restarted a scenerio and it was only slightly quicker, everything took so long to render. I quit the session, checked all my video graphics settings, checked drivers, everything up to date and maxed at high performance. I tried it once more, and still dissapointment. Both my consoles are equipped with, Intel i5, 10 gb Kingston ram, 1 tb hdd, Intel high perf. HD graphics. I know it's not top of the line gaming equipment but, they perform very well when gaming with the exception of Trainz. It's pretty rediculous that you have to have an alienware MX18 just to run the simulator. It's a terrible waste of money for folks who would enjoy the sim and don't have a super computer on which to run it. It has been so overdone with graphics appearance and realistic animation that performance was completely trashed. I hope to get a refund from the vendor. :n:

Unfortunately, the problem is your low level on-board GPU. A dedicated GPU will work wonders. I have a laptop, with an i7 720Q, ATI Radeon 5650, 8 GB of RAM, and it runs just fine. Those laptops you specced out are just as good as my work laptops, which are great for presentations, word processing, and other chores that are not graphics intensive. You might consider putting it on a desktop, if you have one, with a dedicated GPU, to see how it works. Laptops usually cannot upgrade the GPU.

By the way, my laptop is HP brand, not an overrated Alienware.

Paul

 

[Steamdemon]

Well, my laptop can handle TS12 pretty well, for a machine with a chipset. It's not one of the high end GPUs, it's an Intel Cantiga chipset. Wierd huh?

 

[clam1952]

You really need dedicated Graphics preferably ATI / AMD or Nvidia, it won't work very well on any computer using integrated graphics, worst being Intel, really needs a dedicated graphics card with it's own memory, same applies to PC's.
However it should work..........
Make sure you graphics resolution is correct and that the setting is the same in the TrainzOptions.txt file if it's present.
Probably need directX9c as DX 10 / 11 is not fully backwards compatible with all cards, see here for updating DirectX http://trainz.shaneturner.co.uk/tutorials/index.php?page=updating-directx it should assuming you haven't got DX9C improve things a bit, sits along side DX 10 / 11. If you try using DX10 / 11 on it's own it will barely run at all on many graphics cards
Run the Game in DirectX not OpenGL as open GL is not supported very well by Intel.

 

[Robert2d6]

I have never seen a laptop with a built in graphics , be able to run any kind of current game decently.

 

[cascaderailroad]

Regular video games are not as detailed like Trainz is. Regular video games do not have the FOV, and distance view, and the millions of high polygon details that Trainz does.

A regular video game (such as Call Of Duty) might play exceptionally well on a lower end laptop.

Re-Building an old desktop, and retrofitting it with a higher wattage power supply, and a great video card, is rather inexpensive, and fairly easy.

 

[shaneturner12]

I recently purchased my first copy of TS12, in store. My son and I were both excited to get started on it. I have 2 well equipped 17" HP laptops that I use for gaming, and they do so with no problem. I installed TS12 and launched a quick drive, it was so choppy that I couldn't do anything, with an unbelievable action/movement delay. I exited and changed all graphics settings to their lowest quality. I restarted a scenerio and it was only slightly quicker, everything took so long to render. I quit the session, checked all my video graphics settings, checked drivers, everything up to date and maxed at high performance. I tried it once more, and still dissapointment. Both my consoles are equipped with, Intel i5, 10 gb Kingston ram, 1 tb hdd, Intel high perf. HD graphics. I know it's not top of the line gaming equipment but, they perform very well when gaming with the exception of Trainz. It's pretty rediculous that you have to have an alienware MX18 just to run the simulator. It's a terrible waste of money for folks who would enjoy the sim and don't have a super computer on which to run it. It has been so overdone with graphics appearance and realistic animation that performance was completely trashed. I hope to get a refund from the vendor. :n:

I'm afraid it's the Intel HD graphics that is the problem. I'm not sure if you're aware, but Intel graphics cards do not properly support OpenGL, which is needed for Trainz.

You may be able to get better performance using DirectX mode:

1.Click Options on the Launcher.
2.Click the Display Settings tab.
3.Click the DirectX option, then click OK.

Shane

 

[tomurban]

As Shane and others have said, it is your Intel integrated graphics causing the poor performance. I have a fairly new desktop (Intel i7) that came with integrated graphics. It was a no go for TRS12. I upgraded to a ATI 6670 video card (nothing else) and TRS12 now runs the most intense routes as smooth as butter. Laptops under $1,000 will struggle and are not recommended. Check the minimum specifications required.

 

[RRSignal]

Not to mention that laptop CPUs and other components are not up to par with desktops either. They run much slower, have to consume less power and generate less heat, and usually lack performance optimizations that desktop CPUs do not. Unfortunately, the OPs seems to be a case of somebody not checking the software requirements and/or not knowing about modern technology - especially since I can run Trainz pretty well on both of my ancient work desktops.