SP5 Update causing texture issues

ZackaryB

New member
Hey yall,

With the release of the new SP5 update, I've noticed that randomly throughout all my sessions, and now in the main menu as well, that the textures for the locomotives and rolling stock seem to get blurry n' whatnot and can't get them to fully load, even if I do what usually works for me. Normally, I'd just delete the consist and undo it/replace it, and if that doesn't work I save, close, and reopen in the hopes of it being fixed right then & there. I know this issue will probably be fixed, but this post is mainly just to A, bring this to attention so it *can* be fixed, and B, to see if anyone else is having the same issues. Thanks for reading!

-Z
 
This issue isn't related directly to the SP5 update. The content needs to be precached along with the textures and shaders. Once this is done, everything will work fine.

You can speed up the pre-caching-process by running a special command using trainzutil.exe

With only the Launcher running, click on the Developer menu located on the menu bar.
Click on Run trainzutil Command...

Two white bars will show up.

In the white bar you can type in put in the following text:

prebuild --force --nofail

... This process can and will run for a very long time.

If you can't find the Trainz util command on the developer menu:

Click on Trainz Settings.
Click on Dev tab
Click on Enable advanced debug tools

and then try again.
 
This issue isn't related directly to the SP5 update. The content needs to be precached along with the textures and shaders. Once this is done, everything will work fine.

You can speed up the pre-caching-process by running a special command using trainzutil.exe

With only the Launcher running, click on the Developer menu located on the menu bar.
Click on Run trainzutil Command...

Two white bars will show up.

In the white bar you can type in put in the following text:

prebuild --force --nofail

... This process can and will run for a very long time.

If you can't find the Trainz util command on the developer menu:

Click on Trainz Settings.
Click on Dev tab
Click on Enable advanced debug tools
Hi John,

Thanks for the guidance, really appreciated. I'm no stranger to waiting, but out of mere curiosity, how long should this take? And if the problem keeps persisting, what other avenues should I travel down? Either way, you've been extremely helpful. Thanks, man!
- Z

Edit: I ended up following your instructions and the process finished up a lot quicker than I thought. Unfortunately though, the issue remains and is still in full effect.
 
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Precaching does help but there could be other things going on here as well. Try lowering the graphic settings down and see how that works. It's possible that N3V has changed the graphics levels again so that standard is more like high and high is like ultra. They did this before and threw everyone for a loop. On my relatively quick system I set my graphics to Basic. Basic is what standard used to be before.
 
Precaching does help but there could be other things going on here as well. Try lowering the graphic settings down and see how that works. It's possible that N3V has changed the graphics levels again so that standard is more like high and high is like ultra. They did this before and threw everyone for a loop. On my relatively quick system I set my graphics to Basic. Basic is what standard used to be before.
Alright so, I'm a bit new to the forums so I'm not too sure how to convert my screenshots into linkable images, so here's my settings:

In the Launcher Window Settings in Performance tab:
All options are set to low except for shadow quality & detail scenery, those are off. Antialiasing is at 2x & PhysX Simulation is off.

In Game Settings window: Scenery & Tree Details, and Post Processing are all set to low, maximum draw distance 3000m.
For reference, I'm playing TRS22 on a Macbook, which although isn't ideal, it works n' does the job.

Not sure if this helps, but once again I appreciate you taking time out to help me, John. Thanks!
-Z
 
That does help. Screenshots need to be linked from an external photo-site.

Running on a Mac is a totally new ball of wax here, at least for me. I use PCs instead, although I used to support Apple products in the past - back in the Intel Mac days and before. It could be an issue with the Mac version of the program.

Your settings are very low. Did you do this prior, or are these new settings.
 
That does help. Screenshots need to be linked from an external photo-site.

Running on a Mac is a totally new ball of wax here, at least for me. I use PCs instead, although I used to support Apple products in the past - back in the Intel Mac days and before. It could be an issue with the Mac version of the program.

Your settings are very low. Did you do this prior, or are these new settings.
Yeah, honestly I've been running the same settings for over 2 n' a half years now, a lil bit after TRS22 was released. Only with the release of the new update has this issue come into the light. Ideally, I'm gonna upgrade at some point (I'm actually heading to a PC store for the first time in a week or so to start building one) but like I said earlier, this works to a degree, especially without the shadows. I know Fast Freight Productions on YT is having a similar issue and he a made post about it in his community tab. He also seems to be using apple hardware, but I'm sure it's far more powerful than my Macbook. Could always be wrong, but I figured it'd be better to include this as well. Here's a link to the video, it pretty much encapsulates the exact issue we're facing:

Seems to be an Apple hardware thing, I'm hopeful there's a workaround.

Thanks again John!
 
That's pretty tight and low with little wiggle room. With all the new features and neat stuff out there, you are missing out on a lot. The specs you are running at make everything look similar to the old TS12 and below.

Yup I see it. It could be that N3V has upped the ante for hardware requirements, or it could be a bug. You may want to bug report this and see what happens. I did notice a bit of slow loading yesterday myself after I had posted but I've had other issues lately with my system that I need to look into. It doesn't help when there are many causes for an issue when troubleshooting a problem.



Determining what is or isn't a bug is really hard. If you decide to fill out the bug report, which I recommend anyway, put in as much detail as you can.

Good luck with your PC search. Before taking the plunge, post the specs and a link if you want to in the Parts and Labour forum. We can take a look at it and help you spec out the system. If you are interested in systems, you may want to look at Dell's computers. Dell is having a nice sale right now.
 
That's pretty tight and low with little wiggle room. With all the new features and neat stuff out there, you are missing out on a lot. The specs you are running at make everything look similar to the old TS12 and below.

Yup I see it. It could be that N3V has upped the ante for hardware requirements, or it could be a bug. You may want to bug report this and see what happens. I did notice a bit of slow loading yesterday myself after I had posted but I've had other issues lately with my system that I need to look into. It doesn't help when there are many causes for an issue when troubleshooting a problem.



Determining what is or isn't a bug is really hard. If you decide to fill out the bug report, which I recommend anyway, put in as much detail as you can.

Good luck with your PC search. Before taking the plunge, post the specs and a link if you want to in the Parts and Labour forum. We can take a look at it and help you spec out the system. If you are interested in systems, you may want to look at Dell's computers. Dell is having a nice sale right now.
Thanks John, I appreciate the offer to help with PC specs, as well as your help with this issue as a whole. I'm trying to go for a good all around system, something to handle both TRS22 & maybe Assetto Corsa. I'll keep you updated if anything changes. - Z
 
That's pretty tight and low with little wiggle room. With all the new features and neat stuff out there, you are missing out on a lot. The specs you are running at make everything look similar to the old TS12 and below.

Yup I see it. It could be that N3V has upped the ante for hardware requirements, or it could be a bug. You may want to bug report this and see what happens. I did notice a bit of slow loading yesterday myself after I had posted but I've had other issues lately with my system that I need to look into. It doesn't help when there are many causes for an issue when troubleshooting a problem.



Determining what is or isn't a bug is really hard. If you decide to fill out the bug report, which I recommend anyway, put in as much detail as you can.

Good luck with your PC search. Before taking the plunge, post the specs and a link if you want to in the Parts and Labour forum. We can take a look at it and help you spec out the system. If you are interested in systems, you may want to look at Dell's computers. Dell is having a nice sale right now.
Hi John,

Figured I'd provide an update. After filing the report, the team got back to me with a limited email response. They suggested that the cause might be due to limited video memory. I'm not entirely sure what this would mean, as I'm not too tech savvy, but I'm not fully convinced of this given that A, the problem only arose with the recent update (went out on the 20th) and B, the youtuber I mentioned to you previously, "Fast Freight Productions", has a much more powerful system than my own (I've recently chatted with him on his channel to get as much information on his end as possible) and still is experiencing the issue. The last thing the team mentioned in the email was for me to give them details as to what I was using, but that was about 48 hours ago as of typing this message out...What say you?


P.S. Just saw on your profile icon that you're from Haverhill....I'm currently living in Jamaica Plains....small world innit :)
-Z
 
Hi Zachary!

Thank you for the update. They will get back to you. Remember, they are in Australia and there's 15-hours difference between here and there if you are on the Eastcoast.

Video RAM is very important. This is why you need as much as you can get on a video card. Video RAM is also very fast compared to the rest of your system and can push the data out faster to your screen. Dedicated video RAM also has to deal with only the video and nothing else, and with video RAM directly connected to your graphics processor this makes the process quicker because the data is processed quickly instead of going through controllers and other components on your motherboard first.

What you are experiencing is a common issue with laptops that share the system RAM with the video card which is common on less expensive PC laptops and on most Mac laptops as well as iMacs. Many companies will do this to save money to maximize profits while sacrificing performance. With shared memory, there's just so much RAM going around because you need RAM for other programs that run at the same time. If you haven't already, try shutting down any programs you don't need while using TRS22.

The newer M-series Macs use a new memory scheme that utilizes shared memory but if you only have a small amount of total RAM like 8GB on your system, you are going to run into the same bottleneck because there's just so much RAM going around for both. For some things this is fine, but when you have something that's really pushing the computer to its limits, the resources run out pretty fast.

Why does this patch do this but the others didn't? This is due to more things being done with the video card. This is the way many programs and games are going today. The GPU on a motherboard or video card is much faster than the CPU. When there are lots of complex calculations to be done or to process data very quickly, programmers have now been moving the processing from the CPU to the GPU or video card with the dedicated fast RAM and fast GPU to get the job done. This extra work on your video card takes away from the limited resources you have, making the graphics load slower.

On my desktop, I have an RTX3080 and this handles the graphics just fine. The latest cards out on the market are even better than what I put in my system only a couple of years ago.

I hope this explains things for you.
 
Hi Zachary!

Thank you for the update. They will get back to you. Remember, they are in Australia and there's 15-hours difference between here and there if you are on the Eastcoast.

Video RAM is very important. This is why you need as much as you can get on a video card. Video RAM is also very fast compared to the rest of your system and can push the data out faster to your screen. Dedicated video RAM also has to deal with only the video and nothing else, and with video RAM directly connected to your graphics processor this makes the process quicker because the data is processed quickly instead of going through controllers and other components on your motherboard first.

What you are experiencing is a common issue with laptops that share the system RAM with the video card which is common on less expensive PC laptops and on most Mac laptops as well as iMacs. Many companies will do this to save money to maximize profits while sacrificing performance. With shared memory, there's just so much RAM going around because you need RAM for other programs that run at the same time. If you haven't already, try shutting down any programs you don't need while using TRS22.

The newer M-series Macs use a new memory scheme that utilizes shared memory but if you only have a small amount of total RAM like 8GB on your system, you are going to run into the same bottleneck because there's just so much RAM going around for both. For some things this is fine, but when you have something that's really pushing the computer to its limits, the resources run out pretty fast.

Why does this patch do this but the others didn't? This is due to more things being done with the video card. This is the way many programs and games are going today. The GPU on a motherboard or video card is much faster than the CPU. When there are lots of complex calculations to be done or to process data very quickly, programmers have now been moving the processing from the CPU to the GPU or video card with the dedicated fast RAM and fast GPU to get the job done. This extra work on your video card takes away from the limited resources you have, making the graphics load slower.

On my desktop, I have an RTX3080 and this handles the graphics just fine. The latest cards out on the market are even better than what I put in my system only a couple of years ago.

I hope this explains things for you.
Hi John,

Thank you for this MASSIVE amount of information, honestly I appreciate the thorough explanation. It seems like based off what you've said, there's not really many solutions to the problem other than to suck it up for now and get started on my PC sooner than later. If I may pose one final question, do you think downgrading to TRS19 would do anything differently? My only reasoning being that the same youtuber in question downgraded to such and everything rendered correctly, but given what you've explained to me I'm doubtful, but curious. Thank you so much for the privilege of your time to help me with the issue the last few days!

-Zack
 
Hi John,

Thank you for this MASSIVE amount of information, honestly I appreciate the thorough explanation. It seems like based off what you've said, there's not really many solutions to the problem other than to suck it up for now and get started on my PC sooner than later. If I may pose one final question, do you think downgrading to TRS19 would do anything differently? My only reasoning being that the same youtuber in question downgraded to such and everything rendered correctly, but given what you've explained to me I'm doubtful, but curious. Thank you so much for the privilege of your time to help me with the issue the last few days!

-Zack
Hi Zack,

Downgrading to TRS19 will work because that version doesn't use as many resources. As the versions have evolved, there are more and more features added. If that makes sense.

If you haven't done anything yet with the new version, such as updating any routes or sessions, you can reinstall and keep your current data.

Keep your eyes out for a new computer though. There are some great deals going on now, especially with new video cards coming out causing really expensive ones to drop in price. I saw a new Alienware with a RTX4090 and 32GB of RAM for $2800 or so. That's about $1,000 off of what it cost a year ago for the same machine.
 
Hi Zack,

Downgrading to TRS19 will work because that version doesn't use as many resources. As the versions have evolved, there are more and more features added. If that makes sense.

If you haven't done anything yet with the new version, such as updating any routes or sessions, you can reinstall and keep your current data.

Keep your eyes out for a new computer though. There are some great deals going on now, especially with new video cards coming out causing really expensive ones to drop in price. I saw a new Alienware with a RTX4090 and 32GB of RAM for $2800 or so. That's about $1,000 off of what it cost a year ago for the same machine.
Hey John,

Hope things are goin' well for you. I've gotten a little bit of an update on the situation that I figured I'd fill you in on for some of your thoughts. This was the email I received last night upon sending them one asking if they'd found anything. The email reads:

"Hello Zack,

We have reproduced the issue using a Macbook Air, - M1 chip. I can also advise that the issue has already been addressed. Please retest for the issue in the next released version."

Given they too have been able to reproduce the issue, I'm a bit hopeful that the issue wasn't necessarily my graphics card or VRAM. This is something that upon hearing it, I was a bit skeptical about, not sure but I think it was just a gut feeling about it considering I wasn't the only one experiencing the issue at the same time. I partially want to ask in the response email when the next update version will release, but I don't want to bug them. But regardless, I'm happy that the Dev team too were able to replicate the issue which hopefully leads to it being fixed at some point soon.

-Zack

PS.
First visit to the PC shop is in 4 days, safe to say I'm *very* excited, Will make a separate thread if I have any PC questions :)
 
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Hey John,

Hope things are goin' well for you. I've gotten a little bit of an update on the situation that I figured I'd fill you in on for some of your thoughts. This was the email I received last night upon sending them one asking if they'd found anything. The email reads:

"Hello Zack,

We have reproduced the issue using a Macbook Air, - M1 chip. I can also advise that the issue has already been addressed. Please retest for the issue in the next released version."

Given they too have been able to reproduce the issue, I'm a bit hopeful that the issue wasn't necessarily my graphics card or VRAM. This is something that upon hearing it, I was a bit skeptical about, not sure but I think it was just a gut feeling about it considering I wasn't the only one experiencing the issue at the same time. I partially want to ask in the response email when the next update version will release, but I don't want to bug them. But regardless, I'm happy that the Dev team too were able to replicate the issue which hopefully leads to it being fixed at some point soon.

-Zack

PS.
First visit to the PC shop is in 4 days, safe to say I'm *very* excited, Will make a separate thread if I have any PC questions :)
That's great to hear. I wonder what else they've found. PC shopping can be fun.
 
Hey John,

Hope things are goin' well for you. I've gotten a little bit of an update on the situation that I figured I'd fill you in on for some of your thoughts. This was the email I received last night upon sending them one asking if they'd found anything. The email reads:

"Hello Zack,

We have reproduced the issue using a Macbook Air, - M1 chip. I can also advise that the issue has already been addressed. Please retest for the issue in the next released version."

Given they too have been able to reproduce the issue, I'm a bit hopeful that the issue wasn't necessarily my graphics card or VRAM. This is something that upon hearing it, I was a bit skeptical about, not sure but I think it was just a gut feeling about it considering I wasn't the only one experiencing the issue at the same time. I partially want to ask in the response email when the next update version will release, but I don't want to bug them. But regardless, I'm happy that the Dev team too were able to replicate the issue which hopefully leads to it being fixed at some point soon.

-Zack

PS.
First visit to the PC shop is in 4 days, safe to say I'm *very* excited, Will make a separate thread if I have any PC questions :)
Thanks John and Zack for all the above. I was about post of having identical issues - intel Mac, eGPU with the highest card an intel model can run: rx6600 with 8GB VRAM. Clearly some issue with the current TRS22 build I am guessing - though it could also be Sequoia 15.3 update, as I installed this fairly close to the TRS upgrade.
 
Thanks John and Zack for all the above. I was about post of having identical issues - intel Mac, eGPU with the highest card an intel model can run: rx6600 with 8GB VRAM. Clearly some issue with the current TRS22 build I am guessing - though it could also be Sequoia 15.3 update, as I installed this fairly close to the TRS upgrade.
Hey Tim,

Honestly, I'm not even running Sequoia, which makes me furthermore think it must be the M1 chip within the Apple hardware. I'm currently still running Sonoma, honestly I just forgot to update. Fingers crossed though it gets fixed soon!

-Zack
 
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