Numerous issues with TS12 performance

[BloodyRose]

I posted a ticket at the helpdesk 3 days ago and haven't got a response. I'll just copy and paste the most of the original message.

I'll start by saying that I haven't got my copy of TS12 yet but I'm writing on behalf of my friend who's not as good at English as I am. He's also not the kind of person who'd be looking for help. He got TS12 off Steam yesterday.
He complains about a number of issues related to the game performance. They include really slow performance, missing textures (like windows being replaced by plain colors) and problems with the lighting. Restarting, reinstalling the game or changing the graphic settings haven't been helpful. His PC specifications meet the requirements. They are: Dual Core e5300 2.60, 2 gb ram and GTS 450 1 gb. The operating system he has is Windows 7 32bit. I'm attaching a few screenshots to show you what he believes is the problem. Obviously, I can't show you the slow performance but we're hoping for your answer, since he paid for the game and it won't work as it must.

What needs to be added is that reinstalling the OS hasn't resolved the issues either.
The pictures are below. Note the green windows in the third one. They may not be as obvious as the lights.

 

[colourlight]

Firstly some people have had issues with Steam while others seem ok with it. 2nd point. Although I don,t have TS12 and only the older Windows XP I know that when you install it on your computer with Vista you must run in "Administrator" Which version does your friend have? 3rd point. After installation the first time you launch it it it will do an auto update which can take a while. Then he will need to register it with the serial key. At some point he should also download any avalable patches (check build number on the launchpad first). When you are playing Trainz he can select "options" and lower the games specs. That can also help. Then I think you,ll need to update this post before we can help further. I just noticed your ref to Windows 7. Not 100% certain but I think you should run in administrator with that as well.

 

[Eaglefan9727]

Firstly some people have had issues with Steam while others seem ok with it.

Does Trainz 12 need stream? If so, I will pass up on that sim.......

 

[sniper297]

No, there's a version you can download from STEAM, another version you can buy from Just Trains, and the safest one for future patching compatibility that you buy directly from the Auran store on DVDs. Which do not have to be in the drive to play BTW, no DRM except the keycode activation.


At BloodyRose, some stuff left out - is this all night time screenshots? If those are daytime it's pretty dark. If the problem is the weird pools of light, is that an addon route? if so, which one? TS12 has no compatibility mode for older content, so the alpha transparencies will look different in TS12 for older textures.

System specs, I have 2 gb RAM and a dual core 2.8ghz CPU running Windows XP, from what I understand Windows 7 requires more RAM just for the operating system, so a faster CPU and/or more RAM would probably help.

I have an older Nvidia 8500GT which is nowhere near as good as that GTS 450 you listed, and on my system I don't gain much from reducing quality settings - which indicates the bottleneck is not in the video card, so there's probably not much you can do to tweak the video settings on that card, the problem is RAM, CPU, or hard disk transfer speed.

 

[Eaglefan9727]

No, there's a version you can download from STEAM, another version you can buy from Just Trains, and the safest one for future patching compatibility that you buy directly from the Auran store on DVDs. Which do not have to be in the drive to play BTW, no DRM except the keycode activation.

That is good and I always go the DVD avenue when it it comes to games. It makes me feel much more safer when I have a hard copy in my hand. That is why it took me 2 years to get the racing sim Rfactor, Because for the first year or so. It was only for download until they decided to sell them on DVD.

 

[cofergus]

Interesting. I have the Steam versions of Trainz2009 & 10 (big mistake), and I notice a significant decrease in performance when I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7.

Basically I can recommend the usual -update graphics card drivers to the latest versions, make sure DirectX is fully updated, try the game in both OpenGl and Direct3D modes.

You might also try right clicking on the game exec, going to the compatability tab, and disabling visual themes. Not usually a problem on newer games but it has been known to occur.

Are you working from the steam version or retail?

 

[pware]

I posted a ticket at the helpdesk 3 days ago and haven't got a response.

Auran/N3V ticket response time is currently running at about 5 - 7 days plus, if I remember correctly from similar issues in the past, Steam has a different version of Tainz than the ones you get from Auran/N3V so any inquires would be better directed through Steam rather than Auran/N3V.

 

[sniper297]

" I notice a significant decrease in performance when I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7."

I always heard the opposite, most games run better in Win7 than they do in XP, but it probably depends on the hardware. Each OS had higher RAM requirements tho, best I recall Windows 98SE needed a minimum of 16 megs with 24 megs recommended, Windows XP required 64 megs with 128 megs recommended. So 2 gigs of RAM in Windows XP leaves a lot of memory left over to stuff the game files into, but looking it up just now the bare minimum for Windows 7 is 1 gigabyte RAM, which is a whopping increase over what XP needs for the OS. The Days of DOS and Dinosaurs and 640 kilobyte RAM barrier is far behind us, with Windows 95 and later the more the better up to the limit of what the OS will use. 98SE had a limit of 512 megabytes but you could get around that with a hack, I had 768 megabytes in my last 98SE system. XP has an upper limit of 4 gigs, dunno how high 7 will go but adding 2 more gigs would probably improve TS12 performance, minimum calls for 1 gig RAM, more is better.

 

[tomurban]

TRAINZ 2010 run considerably smoother and faster for me under WIN7 than it does under XP using compatibility mode. I have both in a dual boot system (32 bit), so it is easy to compare them.

tomurban

 

[sniper297]

You left out the fun part, how much RAM you got?

 

[George7fa]

I have a laptop with an i7, 8 GB RAM, a Geforce GT540M with 2GB of RAM, Win7 and performance still sucks for me. Any route the size of Mojave or larger regularly locks and crashes in map mode and small routes semi-regularly. I've played and tweaked with the settings and drivers are up to date. I have the Auran download version.

Pretty disappointing

 

[JCitron]

I have a laptop with an i7, 8 GB RAM, a Geforce GT540M with 2GB of RAM, Win7 and performance still sucks for me. Any route the size of Mojave or larger regularly locks and crashes in map mode and small routes semi-regularly. I've played and tweaked with the settings and drivers are up to date. I have the Auran download version.

Pretty disappointing

Hey George,

Welcome to the forums.

I have a similar laptop - an Alienware M17x that runs TS12 pretty well, actually.

What I've done though, is first ensure the machine runs cool by getting one of those coolers that sits under the machine.

And secondly, disabled and uninstalled a bunch of garbage that I know I'll never need to use while I'm using Trainz. Why does Skype need to run in the background, for example, how about other bloat-ware that every company likes to put on commercially-built PCs?

Disable the services, and uninstall what you don't need. I went as far as to remove Roxio, which was constantly pining their license server and nagging me to register. I hate Roxio and removed it, and used a better free program called CD-Burner XP.

Remember too that you need to defragment your hard drives often, unless you are using an SSD disk. This really helps with Trainz performance because the information has to be read from the disk, all the time in Surveyor and in Driver.

The end result is a machine that runs cleanly and quite nicely.

John

 

[BloodyRose]

Firstly some people have had issues with Steam while others seem ok with it. 2nd point. Although I don,t have TS12 and only the older Windows XP I know that when you install it on your computer with Vista you must run in "Administrator" Which version does your friend have? 3rd point. After installation the first time you launch it it it will do an auto update which can take a while. Then he will need to register it with the serial key. At some point he should also download any avalable patches (check build number on the launchpad first). When you are playing Trainz he can select "options" and lower the games specs. That can also help. Then I think you,ll need to update this post before we can help further. I just noticed your ref to Windows 7. Not 100% certain but I think you should run in administrator with that as well.

The original post already said that he has a Steam version and how changing the graphic settings does nothing. His game appears to be up to date, too. I'll ask him for the exact numbers just in case.

At BloodyRose, some stuff left out - is this all night time screenshots? If those are daytime it's pretty dark. If the problem is the weird pools of light, is that an addon route? if so, which one? TS12 has no compatibility mode for older content, so the alpha transparencies will look different in TS12 for older textures.

They are night time screenshots. As far as I know, the route is the Russian one that comes with the game. Even if it's not, he has not installed any addons. Why would he if the game doesn't even work on its own?

Basically I can recommend the usual -update graphics card drivers to the latest versions, make sure DirectX is fully updated, try the game in both OpenGl and Direct3D modes.
You might also try right clicking on the game exec, going to the compatability tab, and disabling visual themes. Not usually a problem on newer games but it has been known to occur.

He said he's tried it with different drivers, including the latest ones. I'm sure his DirectX is up to date as well. Changing from Direct3D to OpenGL has not affected the issues. The visual scheme he always uses is classic.

Auran/N3V ticket response time is currently running at about 5 - 7 days plus, if I remember correctly from similar issues in the past, Steam has a different version of Tainz than the ones you get from Auran/N3V so any inquires would be better directed through Steam rather than Auran/N3V.

I can only say that it looks exactly like a non-steam version. It even has the same launcher and what not. I'm not sure if you meant some other differences. Also, all the questions about third-party games should be sent to their developers, according to Steam.

A few more screenshots:

 

[BloodyRose]

The version of the game is 47103. Is it the latest one?
I hope somebody can also provide any help. I got a response from the developers and they refused to help indirectly. My friend submitted his own ticket now, but it means that it can take another 5 days to get an answer.

 

[sniper297]

I have 47059, I heard there was a problem with the second patch so I haven't installed that yet.

"As far as I know, the route is the Russian one that comes with the game"

Here's what I got built in to TS12;

Springfield Industrial District,<kuid:447264:1035>
Debrecen - Nyiregyhaza,<kuid:9999:20010>
Norfolk & Western - Appalachian Coal,<kuid:453099:100086>
Mojave Sub Division,<kuid:487560:69000>
ECML Kings Cross - Newcastle,<kuid:154322:100362>
NEC Wilmington - Philadelphia,<kuid:56511:100018>
Balezino - Mosti,<kuid:354694:1009>
Southern China,<kuid:521433:1079>
Municipal Transit Railroad,<kuid:82412:1152>


Debrecen - Nyiregyhaza is apparently Hungarian, would that be the Russian route he means?

 

[clam1952]

47103 is the Steam build, they initially have different build numbers to non steam versions, that may or may not change after the patches start to appear, depends on if the patches are from N3V or Steam I guess.

To the OP, I would think the ram needs increasing 2GB, is just about enough to run the OS and not a lot else without a lot of page file use and probably causing a bottleneck. May get an improvement by not having anything else running at the same time, such as Instant messengers browsers, email programs unnecessary services and programs that are constantly looking for updates. Plus make sure the hard drive has enough room for the paging file and isn't getting full up.

A 64 bit OS would probably improve things again, I have a GTS450 on my number two PC and that works very well with TS12, 3 core Athlon II and 4GB of DDR3, using Win7 64bit.

Slightly off topic but I am seeing quite a few people using Intel Processors having problems and not many using AMD? I use AMD and am simply not getting all these problems.

 

[BloodyRose]

I have 47059, I heard there was a problem with the second patch so I haven't installed that yet.

"As far as I know, the route is the Russian one that comes with the game"
Debrecen - Nyiregyhaza is apparently Hungarian, would that be the Russian route he means?

He says he's tried it with different versions of the game. Balezino - Mosti is the Russian route.

To the OP, I would think the ram needs increasing 2GB, is just about enough to run the OS and not a lot else without a lot of page file use and probably causing a bottleneck. May get an improvement by not having anything else running at the same time, such as Instant messengers browsers, email programs unnecessary services and programs that are constantly looking for updates. Plus make sure the hard drive has enough room for the paging file and isn't getting full up.

A 64 bit OS would probably improve things again, I have a GTS450 on my number two PC and that works very well with TS12, 3 core Athlon II and 4GB of DDR3, using Win7 64bit.

Are you sure the "low" amount of memory could have caused the graphic issues? Also, he claims he didn't have them in the past, all on the same PC. According to him, the game just went nuts without an obvious reason. No changes have been made before that.

 

[clam1952]

He says he's tried it with different versions of the game. Balezino - Mosti is the Russian route.



Are you sure the "low" amount of memory could have caused the graphic issues? Also, he claims he didn't have them in the past, all on the same PC. According to him, the game just went nuts without an obvious reason. No changes have been made before that.

If it was working before and now is having problems this could well be due to some hardware problem.

Possible overheating which will affect graphics.
I'd suggest checking the fans are all working properly and not blocked up with fluff.

Alternatively power supply may be failing, I had that happen here and the first sign was deterioration of the graphics, check the power requirements of that GTS450 are within the capabilities of the power supply, it's worth mentioning that some cheaper powersupplies do not actually supply what it says on the label. The GTS450 requires 22 amps on the 12 volt rail, that's in addition to whatever else is using 12 volts. OK so it may well work on a lower rating for a while but eventually the power supply will give up.

You can get an idea of what rating power supply is required from this online calculator. http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp