Serious framerate drop changing views in driver mode

T

teletekman

New member
So I've been a user of Trainz 12 for a little while now and so far I really love the game. I am still getting used to the differences coming from almost 10 years of playing MSTS and really only have one frustration. I haven't downloaded any additional routes yet and have really been playing in the few Mohave routes that come with the game. I drive mainly using the external cab views and am averaging framerates around 27 to 40fps depending on background scenery. Every now and then I will use the "in-cab" view and after a being in that view for quite some time, I'll switch back to one of the external views and my frame rate will drop sometimes to around 13fps or even into the singal digits. It only does this for a few seconds and then eventually everything will smooth out. It doesn't really become a big issue till I start recording my sessions which in the recording it shows and really makes for a crappy review.

So my question is, is there anything short of upgrading to a better video card that can help my situation here? Is this something that is normal given the big change in scenery changing views? I've read of a few tweaks to the trainzoptionz.txt file and have changed the framerate= line form 200 down to 40 which does help a bit.

I have been looking into getting a GTX 660Ti to upgrade from my GTX 470 I currently use now but still up in odds as if it will help me much. Other than that my 470 works fairly well.

I wasn't sure if my question should have been directed to the TS12 forum instead of here so apologize in advance if I have it in the wrong place.

My PC specs are, i7-2600K, DZ68BC Intel motherboard, 8GB RAM, Dual 40GB SSD Intel 320 Hard Drives (one for Win 7 OS and the other just for Trainz), 500Gb HD for data storage, GTX 470 video card and 650W power supply.

Thanks for any advice,

Sean
 
Welcome to the forums.

Firstly, using recording software will hammer the framerates, as it is fighting for the same resources that Trainz uses.

Secondly, what speed is your processor?

Thirdly, it is dependent on what assets are in the area - any faulty assets will affect it quite severely.

And finally, make sure your version is build 49922 - check this on the Launcher screen.
 
He said i7-3.4Ghz and the video is GTX 470, which should be way more than enough. 500GB WD Caviar Black is not a solid state drive but it's a pretty fast regular drive with a huge hardware cache, so should be good enough. If you haven't defragged the drive recently that's where I would start, Western Digital usually has better than average seek time but still needs to be defragged to keep the speed up.
 
Sean - When you go from in-cab to external view the amount of scenery that has to be displayed increases so your pc is having to load and process, possibly, a large increase in assets. Once they are loaded and displayed the demand on your PC drops hence the rise in the framerate to what you were seeing while in-cab. The initial fall could be lessened by reducing the display distance in options or while taking videos do not jump from in-cab to external view.
 
Thanks for the welcome and the replies. Yeah I did read about recording apps such as Fraps (which I use) and Bandicam degrading the framerate a bit while recording, however I did fail to mention that without any recording app running it does the same thing. I do get about a 1-2fps drop on average with recording enabled though.

Processor is 3.4Ghz. As far as assets goes I'm still learning the terminology but I assume you are talking about items related to the router I am using, correct? They are the stock routes that came with the simulator so I might get better results on a 3rd party route vs. the stock. Can you reccomend a good one to try?

The 500GB drive is only used for storing files such as my video recordings and downloads from the download station which I haven't done much yet. The simulator and all related files is directly loaded on it's own 40GB SSD as is the OS. I was always told defragging an SSD is a no-no. As far as the spinner drive goes, I haven't defragged it recently but should that have any affect of the performance of the SSD drive if that possibly is part of my issue? I'll definately try that though.
 
Thanks dnevans8, I failed to mention that. If I slide the distance slider to 1500 feet it does make a huge differance. Although the background can look pretty terrible. I have it set right now to 3000 which seems to look pretty good.

Would upgrading the video card to the GTX 660Ti over the 470 I use now make a big difference?
 
I do not know enough about the cards to be able to give you advice on which is better.

As well as decreasing the draw distance you could also increase the clear weather fog. Some say this gives a better effect in the distance for screenshots and video as it adds a haziness and hides the drop off in detail.
 
I just updated to version 3.10 which was released on the 5th of this month as of last night. I didn't get much time to mess with it yet but I did quickly load up one of the Mohave routes and did didn't seem to make much difference. I still want to play around with it a bit. I'll keep you posted on that thought.

I also played around with the good weather fog settings and right now have it set to 8. It does increase the framerate a bit while staying in external cab views but doesn't really help much changing out from in cab views. I do however as you mention try to stay away from in cab views while recording videos primarily for this reason but from time to time I do like to use it.

I do understand that there is a big difference in scenic material changing from internal to external views but don't know if it should bog down as much as I am getting despote the hardware I use.

I can post a video link tonight when I get home if that will help give a better idea of what I am talking about. Thanks for all the help btw...
 
The GTX 470 should be more than adequate. I would look else where for improvement. Have you performed a EDBR lately? That might help.
 
From in cab @ 40 fps to external view @ 25 fps. gtx560 Ti. I'd say what your seeing is par for the course.
 
Extended database repair. Click Content on the Launcher and it can be found in the File menu.

Also, as I asked originally, what is your 5-digit number on the Launcher? If it's less than 49922, you will need to patch first.

Shane
 
Actually Im getting from 25 to 40fps while in external views only. When I switch from internal to external my fps has droped to almost 8 but most of the time its around 12.

If this is just par for the course then I'll live with it but does anyone else while switching views see similar results? Yeah I would think that my 470 would be more than adequate as well.
 
Sorry over looked that. Yes I am running the latest patch 49922. I have not done an EDBR yet but I'll also try that when I get home.
 
BTW, I did try to OC the card a bit and it did make a slight difference in the framerate over all including switching views from internal to external.

Thats what led me to wonder if upgrading the video card would make a real difference or not.
 
Are you using OpenGL by any chance? I think DirectX may solve that problem it did for me on my GTX460 setup.
 
Try a good disk defrag too. I noticed that this helps with frame rates as well.

I agree with Malc. These cards like DirectX. The newer 6xx prefer Open/GL, at least my 680 does for me.

John
 
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