Graphics settings

[Twowit2woo]

I'm fortunate enough to be able to run TRS22 in Ultra HD. That said I have a few sessions that stutter a lot.

I appreciate there are lots of settings that can be tweaked but is there a best place to start, i.e. is there 1 single setting that might make a bigger difference than a lot of the others?

 

[autodctr]

What frame rate or FPS are you running? If above 30, try taking it down. The next thing that I do is to lower the shadows rate......I really don't need to see such exact shadows that the max setting gives you.

 

[JCitron]

In your in-game graphics settings, change the tree detail down a bit. I find that this helps a lot along with lowering the post-processing on the Launcher. On the Launcher settings, also try setting V-sync to half. It may seem weird but this puts far less strain on your video card and you get fewer stutters.

You need to fiddle with the settings to find what's going to work for you. There are a lot of factors that will cause the stuttering including the extra work that HD terrain causes.

 

[Twowit2woo]

What frame rate or FPS are you running? If above 30, try taking it down. The next thing that I do is to lower the shadows rate......I really don't need to see such exact shadows that the max setting gives you.

I've gone through all the settings I can find but can't see that anywhere?

 

[Twowit2woo]

In your in-game graphics settings, change the tree detail down a bit. I find that this helps a lot along with lowering the post-processing on the Launcher. On the Launcher settings, also try setting V-sync to half. It may seem weird but this puts far less strain on your video card and you get fewer stutters.

You need to fiddle with the settings to find what's going to work for you. There are a lot of factors that will cause the stuttering including the extra work that HD terrain causes.

I'll give that a go - thanks!

 

[MasterTracklayer]

I've gone through all the settings I can find but can't see that anywhere?

That`s because it isn`t a setting. It is a measure of how many Frames Per Second your graphics output achieves.

 

[JCitron]

If you want to see actual FPS, go to the Developer menu item located on the Launcher and choose Show Profile.

If you are seeing big swings in FPS, try the V-sync settings to half or full if set to none. I have found half does a good job, as I said above, with performance and minimizes the stuttering.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Show Profile? I`ll gave to remember that one. (I can`t do anything right now because I`m currently running KUbuntu on my Win10 machine, copying my Trainz programs, installers, and data from the Win10 hard drive to the KUbuntu USB SSD. About 4.5 hours remaining, I think.)

 

[RetroRails12]

Show Profile? I`ll gave to remember that one. (I can`t do anything right now because I`m currently running KUbuntu on my Win10 machine, copying my Trainz programs, installers, and data from the Win10 hard drive to the KUbuntu USB SSD. About 4.5 hours remaining, I think.)

Nothing to do with this TOPIC!

 

[Twowit2woo]

That`s because it isn`t a setting. It is a measure of how many Frames Per Second your graphics output achieves.

I'm aware of what FPS is. What I was saying is I couldn't find how to see what it is.

JCitron has answered it now

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Oh. Ok. Sorry to have bothered you, then, but perhaps someone reading in the future might not know. Good luck with your issue.

 

[Twowit2woo]

Oh. Ok. Sorry to have bothered you, then, but perhaps someone reading in the future might not know. Good luck with your issue.

You weren't bothering me. On the contrary I appreciate you taking the time and effort to respond

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Thank you.

 

[Twowit2woo]

What frame rate or FPS are you running? If above 30, try taking it down. The next thing that I do is to lower the shadows rate......I really don't need to see such exact shadows that the max setting gives you.

So I've had a look at a couple of sessions. One that plays nicely and one that doesn't.

On the one that plays nicely it runs consistently around 30.3 (I'm reading "Render?") and is as smooth as anything.

On the one that doesn't play nicely the fps drops down to around 9.3. At one point it dropped to 5. That's where it becomes really horrible.

Another observation I've just made is that lots of trees don't actually seem to affect it. I was on a session that had literally billions of them and it wasn't an issue. The one consistent factor where it seems to stutter is when there are a lot of buildings around.

Does that help me determine what I can reduce on these in any way!?

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Yes, in a way, sort of. Is it any particular building, or just buildings in general?

 

[Twowit2woo]

In your in-game graphics settings, change the tree detail down a bit. I find that this helps a lot along with lowering the post-processing on the Launcher. On the Launcher settings, also try setting V-sync to half. It may seem weird but this puts far less strain on your video card and you get fewer stutters.

You need to fiddle with the settings to find what's going to work for you. There are a lot of factors that will cause the stuttering including the extra work that HD terrain causes.

I just checked V-sync and it's already set to half.

Interestingly, having read up on this setting, it seems that it limits fps to 30. I changed it to none and one session (which plays nicely) now has increased fps to 41! Meaning my previous experience has been limited by that setting!

 

[Twowit2woo]

Yes, in a way, sort of. Is it any particular building, or just buildings in general?

I've just done some other tests and it appears to be when areas are highly built up. The buildings stretch for quite a bit i.e there's a lot of them.

Once I get out of that area into less detail, it runs nice and smooth. Then if I enter the next area that's heavily built it slows down again - so that 1 factor seems to be the culprit for me.

 

[MasterTracklayer]

Just making sure I understand correctly: Buildings in general, worse in areas with more buildings, not quite as bad in areas with fewer building, fine in areas with no buildings. Correct?

 

[JCitron]

I've just done some other tests and it appears to be when areas are highly built up. The buildings stretch for quite a bit i.e there's a lot of them.

Once I get out of that area into less detail, it runs nice and smooth. Then if I enter the next area that's heavily built it slows down again - so that 1 factor seems to be the culprit for me.

This isn't uncommon, sadly due to the number of polygons and textures being pushed at the graphics card to process. Part of the issue has to do with the kinds of buildings due to some being made better than others. This comes down to substituting buildings until you find the best combination that works best for your machine. The biggest culprits that cause this kind of drag on your system are Sketch-up models due to how they are constructed.

Sketch-up models do not have LOD, or levels of detail. What LOD does is allow models to load smoother due to the transitions. Using a full mesh for up close and lesser-detailed models for further back, this prevents the model from holding on to lots of memory and also from popping up suddenly when within camera range. The whole model too puts a big strain on your video card all the time because the whole thing is loaded at once and remains there.

The other issue with Sketch-up models is how the textures are loaded. Instead of the textures being in a single file, that loads into memory, that the model refers to, each surface and section of a Sketch-up model will have a single texture. For large buildings this means every window, brick surface, etc., is yet another texture. This is very inefficient and causes the graphics to stutter.

It's not that you can't use Sketch-up models, just use less of them and search for alternatives if you can.

 

[Twowit2woo]

Just making sure I understand correctly: Buildings in general, worse in areas with more buildings, not quite as bad in areas with fewer building, fine in areas with no buildings. Correct?

Absolutely spot on!

I took the plunge and actually started playing around with the settings.

I discovered that the one setting that makes the biggest difference for me is "Shadow Quality." Dropping this from Ultra to Medium has single-handedly quadrupled the framerate and stopped all the skipping. It's like a new game!

I don't need to leave it at that for 99% of the sessions but at least I now know the one thing I can change to make the jittery sessions at least playable.

Thanks again for finding the time to reply, as well as to everyone else who has contributed too.