Possible new computer in very near future

[wholbr]

Hi Everybody.
To put a different spin on the thread, on tuesday I purchased a Samsung galaxy S tablet to replace my laptop. I have always found that laptops are heavy to carry around, take up a lot of space when traveling on Trains and take a considerable time to boot and setup in meetings.

I have never had Trainz installed on my laptop as reading various threads on the forum even the highest specs seem to struggle to run it. Therefore it would seem to be the best bet to have two computers, one being a high spec PC for gaming and running processor and memory high software such as Dragon naturally speaking which I am using now on such a PC.

The second computer can be a tablet or a low spec (even secondhand) laptop for mobile use and general work. I may be wrong but I cannot think of many trainzers who would create content,build their routes or even drive consists while on the move, so I do not understand why members buy laptops to run our hobby unless it's for reasons of space.

Secondhand laptops or previously owned (as they like to call them in Britain) are very cheap to buy, so the above combination would seem to me to be the best idea.

My new galaxy seemed to cope very well while traveling up to Birmingham on Wednesday and also coped with everything thrown at it during the meeting. At the end I could just put in my pocket and be out of the meeting while everybody was still closing down and packing up their laptops. That was a great feeling and there were several others at the end, commenting " I will have to get one of them". So I think the IT department will be inundated with requests for tablet computers

Bill

 

[malikrthr]

That is true. It's kind of funny but a couple of months ago, I was riding the metro north hudson line and as I was on some shoreliner coaches, I played trainz classics metro north content. I thought the conductors would be suprised. You can't really play trainz on the go because the rides including car and bus rides are bumpy. Having the Galaxy s tablet would be a better thing to have on the go because of its size. Plus, trainz should be more used on a high end home computer with good gaming specs.

 

[mrscsi]

Hi Everybody.
To put a different spin on the thread, on tuesday I purchased a Samsung galaxy S tablet to replace my laptop. I have always found that laptops are heavy to carry around, take up a lot of space when traveling on Trains and take a considerable time to boot and setup in meetings.

I have never had Trainz installed on my laptop as reading various threads on the forum even the highest specs seem to struggle to run it. Therefore it would seem to be the best bet to have two computers, one being a high spec PC for gaming and running processor and memory high software such as Dragon naturally speaking which I am using now on such a PC.

The second computer can be a tablet or a low spec (even secondhand) laptop for mobile use and general work. I may be wrong but I cannot think of many trainzers who would create content,build their routes or even drive consists while on the move, so I do not understand why members buy laptops to run our hobby unless it's for reasons of space.

Secondhand laptops or previously owned (as they like to call them in Britain) are very cheap to buy, so the above combination would seem to me to be the best idea.

My new galaxy seemed to cope very well while traveling up to Birmingham on Wednesday and also coped with everything thrown at it during the meeting. At the end I could just put in my pocket and be out of the meeting while everybody was still closing down and packing up their laptops. That was a great feeling and there were several others at the end, commenting " I will have to get one of them". So I think the IT department will be inundated with requests for tablet computers

Bill

Working in surveyor probably wouldn't be a problem for any laptop. Running the route depending on what you set up might be daunting.

My laptop (albeit five years ago was top-notch) is a Dell E 1705 and it runs Dragon without missing a beat. Now granted that was 9.5 I haven't tried 11 on it yet. I've got to get out of the corner, put Windows 7 back on, and see how it runs Trainz 2010, I just haven't got around to doing it yet…

 

[William0d0]

Update

The initial delevery date Tigerdirect sent me via email has been pushed from the 5th to the 6th of April.

My initial plan was to take the old PC and connect it to my new 42" LCD, but then I got to thinking...

I leave the old PC in the computer room and throw my old 9400GT vid card back in it, it works fine for many uses.

Imagine the new kick butt PC with blu ray (already upgraded my netflix account to include blu ray) connected to my new TV and it should also play well with my Yamaha 7.1 surround sound amp (80 watts x 7 and a 200 watt powered subwoofer), with excellent sounding Klipsch speakers I might add.

I'm thinking Trainz will look good moving up to the big screen. I can't wait to see the UP Big Boy in all it's splendor on the big screen.:clap:

I can't wait till the parts come in. I'm 50 years old and feel like a little kid.:hehe:

 

[JCitron]

The initial delevery date Tigerdirect sent me via email has been pushed from the 5th to the 6th of April.

My initial plan was to take the old PC and connect it to my new 42" LCD, but then I got to thinking...

I leave the old PC in the computer room and throw my old 9400GT vid card back in it, it works fine for many uses.

Imagine the new kick butt PC with blu ray (already upgraded my netflix account to include blu ray) connected to my new TV and it should also play well with my Yamaha 7.1 surround sound amp (80 watts x 7 and a 200 watt powered subwoofer), with excellent sounding Klipsch speakers I might add.

I'm thinking Trainz will look good moving up to the big screen. I can't wait to see the UP Big Boy in all it's splendor on the big screen.:clap:

I can't wait till the parts come in. I'm 50 years old and feel like a little kid.:hehe:

Congratulations on your purchasing and setup decision! That 42" monitor will make Trainz into quite the "thing".

John

 

[mrscsi]

Congratulations on your purchasing and setup decision! That 42" monitor will make Trainz into quite the "thing".

John

Been running it on my 46" sony for over a year

 

[William0d0]

Initial impression

Well, I assembled it 2 days ago and been having loads of fun with it.

First, it is fast.:udrool:

Second, Trainz on a 42" monitor is really something to behold. I found the text to be a little small at 1920 * 1080 so I tried running the game full screen at 1600 * 900. That turned out to be much better.:mop:

The GTS 450 video card works fine and so I don't plan on swapping it out anytime soon.

Everything is still running at stock speed, will get into overclocking in a few days.

So, anywho. I installed Trainz to build 43434. Then I copied my userdata folder to the new computer.

Using the nvidia panel I set anisotropic filtering to 16X and antialiasing to 16X.

In game top 5 sliders (distance, detail, etc) all the way to the right.

With FRAPS running I fire up a couple sessions.

Summer UMR 2010 with 15 AI trains:

In the barren areas tracking camera was almost always over 100 FPS. In cab actually hit 170 FPS for a second.

Heavily wooded areas with other trains operating in view with outside camera was typically 50 - 60 FPS, never below 40 and often higher then 60.

Exiting the game and looking at jetlog showed an average of 75 FPS running for about 30 minutes.

Next I tried ECML.

Using an AI session I downloaded (I forget which one, had a bunch of AI trains).

This route is still a beast to deal with.

Outside cab view numbers varied wildly from high 20's to just over 140.

Inside cab numbers were more steady. Usually 50 - 70 FPS.

Exiting the game jetlog showed an average of 62 FPS over around 45 minutes.

I think it is safe to say the new machine is Trainz certified.:hehe:

 

[mrscsi]

Well, I assembled it 2 days ago and been having loads of fun with it.

First, it is fast.:udrool:

Second, Trainz on a 42" monitor is really something to behold. I found the text to be a little small at 1920 * 1080 so I tried running the game full screen at 1600 * 900. That turned out to be much better.:mop:

The GTS 450 video card works fine and so I don't plan on swapping it out anytime soon.

Everything is still running at stock speed, will get into overclocking in a few days.

So, anywho. I installed Trainz to build 43434. Then I copied my userdata folder to the new computer.

Using the nvidia panel I set anisotropic filtering to 16X and antialiasing to 16X.

In game top 5 sliders (distance, detail, etc) all the way to the right.

With FRAPS running I fire up a couple sessions.

Summer UMR 2010 with 15 AI trains:

In the barren areas tracking camera was almost always over 100 FPS. In cab actually hit 170 FPS for a second.

Heavily wooded areas with other trains operating in view with outside camera was typically 50 - 60 FPS, never below 40 and often higher then 60.

Exiting the game and looking at jetlog showed an average of 75 FPS running for about 30 minutes.

Next I tried ECML.

Using an AI session I downloaded (I forget which one, had a bunch of AI trains).

This route is still a beast to deal with.

Outside cab view numbers varied wildly from high 20's to just over 140.

Inside cab numbers were more steady. Usually 50 - 70 FPS.

Exiting the game jetlog showed an average of 62 FPS over around 45 minutes.

I think it is safe to say the new machine is Trainz certified.:hehe:

What I always found to work really well for because if you're like me you've noticed that when it goes from triple digits to double digits it's actually noticeable. I wound up setting the frame rate at 45 frames per second in the Trainzoptions.txt file and that keeps things at a pretty constant frame rate and the game APPEARS to run smoother and be less jerky and what I mean by jerky is having noticeable (however so slight) periods where watching you will notice as the frame rate drops dramatically a slight pause or jerk…

 

[William0d0]

What I always found to work really well for because if you're like me you've noticed that when it goes from triple digits to double digits it's actually noticeable. I wound up setting the frame rate at 45 frames per second in the Trainzoptions.txt file and that keeps things at a pretty constant frame rate and the game APPEARS to run smoother and be less jerky and what I mean by jerky is having noticeable (however so slight) periods where watching you will notice as the frame rate drops dramatically a slight pause or jerk…

Sounds like a good idea.