Perfomance issues when downloading content

[IntelligentGuava]

Hello there,

As the title says I'm experiencing heavy perfomance issues when downloading larger files from the DLS via CM. It goes as far as vids/streams/music stopping for a few seconds and mouse movement being delayed. Task manager says the process for trainz19 goes up to 97% cpu usage. I can't see a reason why this should happen.

Is there any way to fix this issue? Makes the pc unusable when you download a route...

Greets.

 

[JCitron]

The reason for the increase in CPU usage is Content Manager is decompressing from the package files - the CDP files as well as validating the content for errors. I have found increasing my Windows page file helps with this issue. I doubled the size initially, tested, then tweaked it down a tiny bit. Your results may vary.

I have also found that defragmenting the hard drive, if not using an SSD for your Trainz content really, really helps with this too.

 

[Kilrbe3]

You got a weak PC is all.

Its as JC said, decompressing the files and then writing them to disk. If you got a slow CPU, or older you will see the slow down much more. Having an SSD helps. Page File won't really help here as the scenario isn't RAM heavy and its more about the disk. A faster SSD or HDD / CPU is the trick here.

For example, I get nothing on my 6700k @ 4.7Ghz, 16GB DDR4 OC'd, 970s in SLi, on a 860 EVO SSD. I see no slow downs at all when download a route and its decompressing. But you easily will the slower your CPU is / clock speed.

 

[IntelligentGuava]

well granted - my 4400k isn't shiny and new anymore. But I didn't experience this kind of behaviour with any other game. Even ArmA works suprisingly well on this rusty old chip.

The cpu-usage at close to 100% isn't what worries me tho. The fact that everything freezes for a few seconds is the problem.

 

[Kilrbe3]

Hmm, run a defrag on the drive Trainz is on. Unless its an SSD, then no.

 

[grazlash]

The CPU running at close to 100% IS the problem as TRS19 will utilize all cores to complete its many tasks during a download which is also disk usage heavy. I only see a problem with multiple download streams running concurrently, as it also affects my audio driver and tells me constantly that the front audio is plugged/ unplugged. (4 core i5 7600) I would also make exclusions in your antivirus for any trainz folders, as your AV is likely scanning as trainz is decompressing.
cheers
Graeme

 

[kmver]

The reason for the increase in CPU usage is Content Manager is decompressing from the package files - the CDP files as well as validating the content for errors. I have found increasing my Windows page file helps with this issue. I doubled the size initially, tested, then tweaked it down a tiny bit. Your results may vary.

I have also found that defragmenting the hard drive, if not using an SSD for your Trainz content really, really helps with this too.

My thinking this was old school. So will it still works on HD?

 

[Kilrbe3]

Yes... Defrag is very much still a thing in 2019. If on Win 10, MS has already set it up for you and been doing behind the scenes if you didn't change anything.

People should be running a Defrag bi-weekly.

 

[PC_Ace]

For frequently-used old rust-based hard disk drives, I'd recommend at least weekly defragmentation, or even TWICE weekly, rather than bi-weekly.
Easy to set up by setting an appropriate schedule in the built-in 'Defragment and Optimize Drives' desktop app.
Simply type 'Optimise' (or 'Optimize' if US English) into your search bar (bottom left on the taskbar) to bring up the desktop app.
If you have SSDs, then Windows will use the TRIM function to optimise these, whilst defragmenting spinning disk HDDs.

 

[johnwhelan]

And I think defragging for the most part is a waste of time.

When you write a file to the disk the operating system looks for space to write the file to.

Trainz has a lot of very small files. Each asset has a group of files that are associated with the asset, texture files, config.txt files and scripts. On a hard disk with more than 25% free disk space these will be written to the hard disk in a group together. Win 10 and NTFS is actually much more intelligent than DOS used to be about placing files on the hard disk. It has a routine which analyses the hard drive fragmentation and shuffles files around once it sees a certain level of fragmentation. but more importantly moves frequently used files to the outer rim of the hard drive.

Hard drive access speed these days is more about do I have to move the head from one track to another. The outer tracks hold more data than the inner tracks so having the most frequently used files on the outer tracks means the access time is just the spin time and not a head disk move and a spin item.

If you run defrag software and it shuffles things around so that a trainz asset files get spread around the hard disk rather than be clustered together then you may end up with a perfectly defragged hard disk but the head has to bounce all over the drive from track to track to bring in all the files needed. If you hadn't run the defrag software they might even be clustered together as they were written the hard drive at the same time and be read in one pass of the head.

Generally speaking program files make up the majority of files. If you're lucky these get installed when the drive is empty thus all all together in one place. These files are typically very large. The files you use from time to time such as documents are much smaller. Typically 1% or less of the program files.

If you run the hard drives at 90+% full then you'll see performance problems as the operating system struggles to find new places to put files. Right click the drive and you'll see tools. On my 4 gig drive I have zero% fragmentation but it is 75% full.

With a 4 core xeon I don't notice any noticeable performance drop when I'm downloading files but there again I'm not using a laptop. Laptops are a bit different as they are built to save power and last a bit longer on the battery. My 4 gig drive is designed for the server market and has perhaps a little more cache than a laptop drive might have.

Cheerio John