Is TS12 SP1 for me???

G

gremlin1812

New member
G'day, Is TS12 SP1 for me??? I don't think so, it seems that N3V is going the way of "railjerks". One of the main reasons I never even considered using "railjerks" is because of "steam" and the removal of user control. I was hoping N3V may have made the stupid autodraw distance optional but NOOOOOO it seems they have just taken away more user control Well I have got TRS04 & 06 TS9,10 &12 all on my PC working nicely. TS10 is build 49933 to retain compatibility mode and TS12 will remain at build 49922 to retain what little user control is left and avoid the mega problems being experienced.
As for TSxx with the current trend that N3V is taking it's the end of the line, I have plenty to keep me occupied and I know of others who will feel the same. I honestly think N3V are shooting themselves in the foot but that is just my humble opinion.
Back to driving trains without N3V control.
Regards
Barrie
 
I would say to everyone to hold off on SP1 for the time being. Its a very painful ironing out bugs period right now.
 
hert said:
I would say to everyone to hold off on SP1 for the time being. Its a very painful ironing out bugs period right now.
Click to expand...

It appears that there will have to be a patch to fix the bugs in SP1. By that time, I would think TS14 will probably be released.
 
There is also a hotfix due mid-week next week to fix the max-coupler-gap issue, but only those who have installed SP1 will be able to download and install it.

Shane
 
fran1 said:
They'll need a steam press, an irons no good at the moment.
Click to expand...

In all honesty, i'm pretty happy with where we are right now despite the noise here on the forums. :)

There are a few bugs which have been found; one we've already fixed internally and are testing for a hotfix release; the others that we've seen don't look like they'll be hard to resolve and many of them are asset-specific (which is both why they weren't found earlier, and also means that their effect on our community is somewhat limited.) There are a few conflicts between our patcher and at least one brand of virus checkers; we always recommend disabling virus checkers while installing because of this sort of thing, but it would be nice to have it work anyway and we've got a guy looking into that.

There were certainly a few things that we should have communicated a little better up-front; working with a product for too long can make you forget how much you take for granted and how outsiders might not catch on to some of the subtleties without a thorough explanation. Hopefully we've covered most of the details across the various forum threads at this point, but we'll have to provide a proper summary in the near future so that everybody understands what we're trying to achieve with the new in-game DLC system.

One thing that I should stress for any people reading this who are having "general problems" is that an extended database repair, while time consuming, can fix a variety of possible issues. I don't recommend that everyone run out and do that now, or even on a regular basis, but it should be a go-to in the event that you're having serious issues.

In short; I don't really share your negativity here.

kind regards,

chris
 
Post deleted.

Very happy to see that a fix for the Raildriver issue is being worked on - many thanks!

Anthony
 
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G'day, after reading WindWalkr's eloquent reply I thought, OK lets give this gigamonster a go.
It downloaded in about 1.5hrs.
Using an install of TS12 that I use for testing (backed it up of course) only one non built-in route I installed the patch. It took 1hr40min and when finished there were on broken assets, OK so far so good.
I then started up the game and up came the usual box to select what function you want (it said it was build 57720) so I selected "start" and then came the first shock OMG the noise......HOW TO TURN IT OFF?????
I can see why WindWalkr and N3V are pleased with the patch, it is quite the marketing tool.
So, now to play a session I had previously played and noted performance, started ok but frame rates were down by 5fps right from the start just sitting there not moving anything and the ridiculous draw distance thingy was popping stuff in and out like a digital shooting gallery.
OK start driving and frame rates dropped another 2 so now down 7fps and the trees are popping in and out with gay abandon and in rhythm with them the game is stuttering so as I have observed previously most of the stutters mini freezes occur with the effects of the " ridiculous draw distance thingy".
My PC is no slouch, and I used the settings I had previously used with good results.
My PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 965 Processor (4 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM

Display Device
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460
Display Memory: 4051 MB
Dedicated Memory: 723 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)

Sound Device
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO Realtek(onboard 5.1)
Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio 5.1)
**************************************************

Internet
Cable, optic fibre to node then HQ copper to home.

speed
Download Speed: 16223 kbps (2027.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 473 kbps (59.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 7 ms

This PC has operated TS10 and TS12 quite well and I really feel that if the " ridiculous draw distance thingy" was removed or at least made selectable the game would perform much better. Lets face it, you have all this stuff being taken in and out of the game for no apparent reason (frame rates are good) It must use resources that the game could better use for performance (I won't hold my breath though).
I will continue to muck about with it and see if there is anything worthwhile there But HOW TO TURN OF THE AWFULL SOUNDS.
My 2 cents worth.
Regards
Barrie
 
Last edited:
gremlin1812 said:
.. frame rates were down by 5fps
..frame rates dropped another 2 so now down 7fps
...frame rates are good
Click to expand...

I take it that you're actually getting reasonable frame rates and that the drop is small compared to the actual total? I'm just stressing this point because it's not clear in your post. I'd also be interested to know if you're using OpenGL or DirectX, and whether you've tried both?


This PC has operated TS10 and TS12 quite well and I really feel that if the " ridiculous draw distance thingy" was removed or at least made selectable the game would perform much better. Lets face it, you have all this stuff being taken in and out of the game for no apparent reason (frame rates are good) It must use resources that the game could better use for performance (I won't hold my breath though).
Click to expand...

This has been covered a lot in forum threads over the last several years, but the short version is that draw distance is a function of the efficiency of the assets. The in-game performance HUDs can help identify problem assets if you're looking to improve the draw distance in your home-built routes.


HOW TO TURN OF THE AWFULL SOUNDS.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming this refers to the background sound in the menus (which is certainly not new, but hasn't been in Trainz for a few years.) If so, it's controlled in the in-game sound options.

chris
 
G'day All, well thought I would give this mega monster some further testing.
I take it that you're actually getting reasonable frame rates and that the drop is small compared to the actual total? I'm just stressing this point because it's not clear in your post. I'd also be interested to know if you're using OpenGL or DirectX, and whether you've tried both?
Click to expand...
before I was using OpenGL as although it gave slightly lower frame rates was much smoother and rendered the graphics better. I gave DirectX a go and to my surprise the frame rate was quite a bit higher, ran reasonably smoothly but more pop in and out than before and the graphics looked quite good. Has the game had "improvements" to it's handling of DirectX as still get poor performance in TS10 & 12 unpatched using DirectX .

This has been covered a lot in forum threads over the last several years, but the short version is that draw distance is a function of the efficiency of the assets. The in-game performance HUDs can help identify problem assets if you're looking to improve the draw distance in your home-built routes.
Click to expand...

I am not talking about draw distance as set in settings but the thing that was put into the game to "assist" users with lower end PC's but still pulls assets (especially trees) in and out near the "horizon". It's effect seems to trigger stutters.

I'm assuming this refers to the background sound in the menus (which is certainly not new, but hasn't been in Trainz for a few years.) If so, it's controlled in the in-game sound options.
Click to expand...

Soundsettings.jpg


Is it???
Nothing there here??

Regards
Barrie
 
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Crikey! After reading Gremlin1812's computer specs I think I better start shopping for a new one, providing the MoF will approve. :hehe: Although I doubt if I can do much about the download speed. During the patch download I was getting about 160kbps which was not unsurprising. During the DLC downloads I was getting 16kbps for each DLC download so I just left that run overnight which worked fine. I had a few DLCs.

I'm running a positively ancient 3 year machine and TS12 SP1 works fine.

ps don't use your old trainzoptions.txt in TS\userdata unless you remove the video options. In fact you probably don't need trainzoptions.txt at all unless you need the freeintcam option. That's something else that needs explaining.
 
G'day, so how do we turn off those awful sounds!! Drives me up the wall and turning the speakers on and off is a pain in the caboose. If we knew what sound it was we could exchange it for a silent sound or some nice relaxation music.
Barrie
 
gremlin1812 said:
G'day, so how do we turn off those awful sounds!! Drives me up the wall and turning the speakers on and off is a pain in the caboose. If we knew what sound it was we could exchange it for a silent sound or some nice relaxation music.
Click to expand...

As far as I can tell, it wasn't made optional, however I've brought this up with the team. Stay tuned :)

chris
 
G'day, I have now patched with the "hotfix 1" and it went well, quick and no problems or errors.
Things I have noticed are:-
Increased "pop up" in game which tends to cause stutter (this has been there since SP1 install).
I ran the "SnC Yorkshire Dales - Cattle for Hawes (ride) and got 25 - 45 fps @ 3000m in view 3 and the only time I had any stutter was when the "pop in and out " was occurring.
I normally have my frame rate capped to 25fps using trainzoptions which does seem to lessen this slightly.


Downloading of DLC content went well but murchison 2 kept re-downloading??? I disabled the auto downloading and that fixed it's little red wagon.


Downloading of DLS content in-game either updates or routes/sessions is painfully sloooow.


In CM 3.7 the download helper searching is very slow and downloading is also a lot slower than with other versions.


CM 3.7 filtered searches seem to take longer especially seeing as I have not got a lot in this install.


The coupling issue seems to be fixed and have had no more derailments.

Regards
Barrie
 
Unfortunately lacking in SP1 are two of the main problems with TS2012--The disattaching splines (sorry, but on a 1000+ board layout with a _lot_ of grade crossings this is a major PITA), and the continuing lack of usable train horns. The latter problem has been around since at least 2006, but one would have thought it could have been fixed by now. Being able to hear a train horn from 40-50 scale miles away is absurd, and renders any kind of extensive grade crossing horn signals impossible (unless you like hearing a continuous cacaphony of train horns). None of the other fixes listed seem like they're worth the trouble of installing a major SP and potentially having a long list of assets to repair.

--Lamont
 
G'day, Does anyone know why I cannot download updated assets in CM3.7? I drag the asset with the "update available" symbol into the download helper box and it does nothing. Is this a bug in SP1+ or is it making us use the silly in game updater which virtually renders the game unusable till it is done?
Regards
Barrie
 
That doesn't always work, regardless of whether you've got SP1 or not. I would suggest using View Asset Versions followed by View in Main List.

Shane
 
shaneturner12 said:
That doesn't always work, regardless of whether you've got SP1 or not. I would suggest using View Asset Versions followed by View in Main List.

Shane
Click to expand...
G'day Shane, my TS10 and TS12 (unpatched) will download updates in CM 95% of the time, TS12 SP1+ will not at all.
Regards
Barrie
 
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