Marias Pass TS2009 oddities

[Approach_Medium]

Hi;
I was running Marias Pass - Amtrak Superliner session and noticed a few strange things.

Telegraph poles are cut off midway, leaving them invisible. Some are totally invisible, while others are fully visible. Viewing angle appears to affect what you see.

Ground covers track. When viewing from a bit of a distance, with tracking camera view, ground appears overlapping track, then track appears when closer in.

Frame rates are slower in TS2009 than in TS2006.
I just upgraded video from GeForce 6800 w 256M to 9800 w 512M. This improved my game play, but still get some slow rates on some routes/sections.
I do understand that TS2009 has higher graphic complexity ability, but this is the same route from TS2006, is it not? So graphics complexity should be same?

I'll have to play around with TS2009 and TS2006 and find out why performance seems to be poorer in 09 than in 06, but in the mean time, I thought maybe I could get some input from others.

Thanks

FW

 

[bchester]

The problem you are mentioning sounds like the product of a known bug in 09. Auran is working on a solution to the alpha channel issue. The poles are being cut off by the alphas in neighboring trees. I have found definite performance hits if a scene heavily populated with the "old style" trees. Also some pole splines use alphas as well for the wire in between the poles and these alphas also cause the effect.

Others have been directed to the Trainzdev site for more info on this but I find the info there to fragmented to be of use.

Hopefully a patch comes out to solve the issue. I have the latest 38599 (I think it is) and still no improvement in the Alphas.

Bricey

 

[Approach_Medium]

I'll have to try and avoid those trees and other objects on my own route.
I am trying to use only the "hi-res" trees in 09.
I would think that with the GeForce 9800 and 512MB I should get good FPS, but as you said, it depends on how well the game handles its challenges.
I think the code in TS could have been better, but then I think we have another thread going on that issue.

I tried to compare Microsoft FS2004 to TS, but it's not a good comparison, since that version is so old it didn't even know what a GeForce 9800 was!

Edit: There's one more oddity in TS2009 that is not in 2006. The first signal the Amtrak nr 7 approaches when the session starts is restricting (yellow) compared to a clear (green) signal in TS2006.
There are also differences in the way AI handles the train. In 2009, the train comes into the station faster than it does in 06.
I'm wondering how much of the script was re-written for TS2009.

I am definitely getting better performance in 2006 than in 2009. Unless I crank all display settings to the max in 2006, I get an average of 10 FPS faster than in 2009 with "comparable" settings.
But comparable is kind of difficult to know. I don't know what the max draw distance in 2006 is compared to 09.
Also, in 06, I can set draw for scenery and track separately, in 09 I cannot.
Generally, I think 2006 is a better product, but then, it has been around a lot longer, and has had time to mature. I hope that Auran continues to work on 2009 to bring it up to a respectable quality.

FW

 

[Euphod]

I hope that Auran continues to work on 2009 to bring it up to a respectable quality.

FW

As do I, as do I.

 

[S301]

I think people are confusing a bug with a change here.
The alpha channel 'issue' (or 'bug' as many people like to call it, even though it was intentional) is an intentional change to help give better performance. The change involves the difference between alpha blending, and alpha masks. Alpha blending is an alpha channel which is made up of black, white, and grey pixels. And alpha mask on the other hand is an alpha channel made up of only black and white (pure black/white only). The problem is that alpha blending is not good in terms of performance, and has nearly always had trouble with sorting various items in terms of distance (an object at the back regularly appeared at the front). To remove both problems, Auran has 'disabled' alpha blending for TS2009 native mode, except for some specific cases (from what I can tell). This is only evident when you run in TS2009 in native mode of course...

So please, understand that the 'problem' is an intentional change. That said, you aren't being forced it, yet. You can still run in 'compatibility' mode, and continue using items with alpha blending, as I'm doing for my layouts till a large supply of TS09 trees become available.
Zec

 

[Approach_Medium]

I'll try compatability mode. I was trying to avoid it because it may cause performance issues.
On my own route, I haven't had so much of a problem. For one thing, I don't use a lot of tree groups, which I think have a bigger problem than the individual trees.


FW

 

[S301]

The 'performance problems' bring it back to similar (and in many cases better) performance than TRS06. Mine you, thats when using the same settings. Pushing out to the 5KM draw distance will cause fairly average performance...
Zec

 

[JohnnyG1973]

I too have noticed strange happenings in '09. Like you mentioned with the telephone poles...things in the background are appearing in front of things in the foreground. Also, I like the new shadows the train cast on the ground but the lead engine only cast shadows of what looks like the trucks or wheels. Then when the trains passes over a bridge the shadows don't cast on the ground below correctly or realistically. I have noticed this both on preinstalled routes and '06 routes running in compatability mode.