Largest Yards

Hey Guys and Gals,

I am currently building a 124 track classification yard on a fictious CSX line I am building. I have noticed that certain customs tracks are a frame rate killer so I am forced to use the single US wooden.

Anyone else notice that with their yards and what are some your yards like and frame rate situation?

Any ideas on how to conserve frame rates without sacrificing prototypical operation and storage space?

I'll post pictures soon on Freeware along with other stuff on the 500 mile route-LOL-yes that long.

Best Regards.:)
 
You will have to use a low poly track, thats definate, as that amount of track will pull the FPS down to 5 or so.
 
Being a huge yard fan, and yard builder, i can tell you this:
Theres no way a computer can handle a yard full of cars.
I only use the MP tracks, because of the frame rates
Try also use some lo-poly switches.

Last, remember that a good yard is an empty yard:hehe:

Lars
 
WOW . . . . . 124 tracks !!!!

I thought I was nuts building a main yard thats 6000 plus feet long with 17 tracks ! 124 . . . . thats insanity, for me.

I used the "90#US wood OZ" track. Not sure if thats the exact name. Being a total NEWBIE . . . frame rate never entered my mind :hehe: This was one of the first downloads from DLS. Looks are very important to me. So I used the the best looking one. ALL my tracks are done with this track. After a few months of snooping in the Forum, I am now aware of Frame Rates . . . bu I didn't see a LARGER track than 2m. So my entire yard is done with 2m tracks. The switches look very nice. BUT . . . after putting in TONS & TONS of trees and a bunch of track side grass . . . I ran into the Frame Rate delema. So I removed trees and other things beyond "visual range" in Driver Mode. It is now at an acceptable range but I do notice a drop in frame rate when the yard comes into view.

I love long trains. 60 to 100 cars. With an 88 car train in tow, coming out of the yard and looking back at the long train drops the frame rate to NOTICEABLE-BUT-LIVABLE range. I need a better video card.

All in all . . . using 2m tracks isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Even at 1280x800, its not too bad.

If you built a yard with 124 tracks . . . You might not be able to run ANY trains. An empty ward with a sea of tracks might be nice to look at . . . but what good are tracks without trains. You might need to compromise SOMEWHERE . . . unless you are running Trainz on a bank of Silicon Graphics computers :eek:

Let us know WHEN you start to REALLY notice a decline in frame rates.
 
I fixed up my yard a bit at I have scaled it down to 82 tracks because I have a lot of industries that will be using it. In addition to the storage, there will be carshop (3 tracks), locomotive facility (2 or 3 tracks), MOW track (2 tracks), arrival/departure tracks (6 tracks) and a double track mainline running by it. The length of it is enough for a string of 50 cars but the arrival departure tracks should be able to with stand a 140 car train; I just have to make the yard leads kind of long.

The MP wood is nice and I am using the CNR Yard Switch 2 for switches because it looks prototypical. I was originally going to use SG1's US mainline 4m and US yard 4m but after experimenting with the frame rates, my computer almost had a stroke.:hehe:
 
Latsaluck.
The yard by the river in Tidewater is bad enough FPS wise, as is the Hinton yard in my Niles and Hinton (DLS). I would not try anything larger.
Even with a new computer, I would not recomend a 124 track yard, even empty.
 
Belen Yard on my upcoming Clovis Sub route is left correct length (handles 8000 ft trains) but has the number of yard tracks reduced to 10 plus four pit-stop refuel tracks either side - 18 tracks all up. This is as small as I could make it and keep any resemblance to the real thing. Even using MP lo-poly track four or five trains in the yard knocks fps back to single figures...

Andy :)
 
LOL-well unfortunately I need quite a few tracks because of the storage. I have about 15 major industries including a steel mill, 7 chemical plants and about 5 paper mills, an oil refinery and a Ford Autoparts/ Foundary plant. In addition, I have around an additional 25 small to medium industries. That is just 1 city; at the end of the route is another city that will have industries that give goods or recieve goods from City B including an auto assembly plant, Ultramar Transload, a large newspaper like NY Times or something like that, and other things that will continue to keep the thing going. There is a few instances where I will be exchanging some goods for other goods with a friend of mine via a portal too. I am not too sure how many cars that will require but I am certain quite a few.
 
In a case like mine, would it be easier for FPS if I just had a yard for departer and arrival with only a few storage tracks and a bunch of smaller yards spread out around the city district? It would mean more local switches/ Yard transfers mind you.
 
Great Lakes,

I hear you. My initial thought was for a yard 3 times the size I built. There really is no actual "STORAGE" that happens during a Driver session. You probably won't have any locos or cars that will stay static throughout your session.

I've decided to spread my industries to many far away places. I increased the output and consumption amount of each industry by a lot. The route I am working on have industries grouped together (3 to 6) for each branch line. My double track main line will eventually span several "cities", each with a sizable yard and each "city" having several branch lines.

So far I've finished my FIRST main yard for "San Angeles" which will have 3 or 4 branch lines. I've finished laying the main line track to the next two cities. I'm 75% done with with my first branch line that has a huge coal mine, a huge cement factory and several small general goods industry. Each branch line will have a "local" yard. Very long, but with maybe 4 to 8 tracks, a small shed to house the "local switcher" and maybe a small turntable. To make this type of layout interesting, for me, the run time to the branch yard is at least 20 minutes length. This will be true for all future branch lines from my main yard. Run time to another city is at least 30 minutes. All with lots of curves, grades and scenery.

Building is fun but operation is just as much fun. My first branch line serves 2 huge industries. In one session, its to serve the coal mine from the main yard (2 hours). Another session is to serve the cement plant 2 to 2-1/2 hours). Another session is to take the "empties" for the coal mine and the cement factory to the branch yard, pick up the "full" ones there and drive back to the main yard (1hr. 15min.). Another session is to be the "local" switcher, separate the "empties", load them up with cement and coal and prepare a consist to go to the main yard (2 to 3 hours). And many more pssibilities. Just imagine 2 or 3 more similar branch lines from my main yard all 20 minutes away. A similar set up in 4 or more cities alon the main line . . . and you've got a small railroad with plenty of activities.

My consist for the Cement factory is 32 empty 2 bay hoppers (bulk cement), 10 86ft. hi cubes (cement bag pallets), 8 tankers full of deisel fuel (fuel for equipment in the limestone quarry) and 9 bethgons full of sand (an ingredient for cement production).

My consist for the Coal Mine is 26 Bethgons and 8 tankers full of diesel. In the session to take the "empties" up to the branch yard, thats a 93 car train, up a 0.75% grade most of the way. A triple headed 4-axle locos (gp-38) can barely keep 48mph up the hill on the 25 minute run. The yard is long enough for 70 cars so the consist has to be split in two at delivery. Its a 5 track yard with two other tracks taken up with the "full" consists which you need to take back to the main yard. The locos takes forever to get up to speed at notch 8 . . . after you crest the summit, you have to really drive and watch your speed. Just for fun, I once uncoupled the train at the top . . . it was a TVG by the time it went through the yard and finally changed direction half way up the 1% main line grade to the next city.

The other thing in the plan is that the "consumers" of the coal and cement is located in two other cities. Which means they have to be shunted at the main yard and trains made up for opposite directions, not to mention other cars from other industries . . . if the computer can handle it, thats 3 to 4 hundred cars in the yard ! But since the comuter can't handle that, smaller bits of it has to be done as sessions.

I chose this type of operations because it offers literally hundreds of session opportunities. Later, if the entire route is too much to handle for the computer, just make copies of it and split it up into several routes with portals.

Instead of ONE MEGA YARD, think SEVERAL LARGE YARDS far apart from each other. Make each yard the "main yard" for each "city". So on and so forth . . . get the picture?

I'm not saying this is what you should do . . . rather, this is just what I'm doing. :D
 
I agree that the MP tracks are really soft on the framerates, which is good. In my case, I try to keep my yards as simple as possible, which means that the cannot be more than 2 turnouts to do a same operation (such as backing cars into the ladder). I have a medium-sized 10 track yard, with locomotive facilities and a roundhouse a little further away. I've noticed that stuffing everything within a confined space makes for poor framerates, and I try to reduce the amount of vegetation and scenery in the immediate vicinity of the yard. My route is not really industry-intensive, so perhaps some others may think a larger yard is still more neccesary.
 
Here's sopmething that worked for me on several occasion. When the frame rate goes down badly, try switching to Direct X. It improves my framerate, albeit it doesn't look as good as Open GL (at least on my Videa Card - Nvidia GeForce 7600 GS).
 
Thanks guys,

I did some calculating and found that I still likely need about 50 tracks but I am going to experiment. The "storage" part of the yard only takes up a square in real scale but it is a lot better than 3 which I calculated to be a little excessive last night-LOL. It would be kind of nice if they could design the game to allow large marshalling yards like that. What kind of a system and video card would I need to operate a protypical CSX Frontier Yard forexample?

BTW-what kind of ballast texture goes with the MP wood and MP concrete tracks-can't find anything seemingly.
 
My god man., are ya insane lol!

any yards over 10 tracks are gonna get fussy when 1/2 full........

and for ballast I under coat with "asphalt04" then dust over with "ballast new"....in some spots Ill redust it with the asphalt04 again....getting a bit more of a dirty look........ Its not perfect but it looks pretty good.........


Dave =)
 
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