Speed Trees vanish

[pfx]

Hello, I had a few questions on speed trees, some of which I've managed to find answers for here. The one I can't find an answer to, relates to my speed trees vanishing in Surveyor mode.

Generally, I can place speed trees on my route and move them around in the normal way but quite often, the tree disappears from the asset preview window and I can no longer place trees, or move the ones that are already in place. This issue only happens with speed trees and no other fixed assets.

Has anyone else had a similar experience and if so, is there a solution?

Thanks,
pfx

 

[bolivar]

This is a known issue, PFX. Best get around is to jump into quick drive and back out. Your trees will show up again with the ability to move them . Or exit the layout and then return. Same. The issue has to do with the memory that speedtrees use. It is not CPU but rather GPU (Graphic card memory) Bigger the GPU , the more speedtrees that can be handled.

 

[pfx]

Ah, I missed that somewhere or other. Apologies if it's already been covered and thanks for letting me know the workaround. The only issue I have is that the route is so large, it takes almost 5 minutes to save.

I had been looking at a graphics card with a bigger memory, mine is only 512Mb, but had wandered away from the idea. Perhaps a card with a 1024Mb memory would be a good investment, though it brings me close to having to replace my PSU too.

Thanks again for the info.

pfx

 

[gfisher]

Perhaps a card with a 1024Mb memory

I have a card with that memory and I have the same problems. Makes speedtrees unusable in my opinion.

 

[clam1952]

Newer cards from the last 12 months or so don't seem to suffer as badly with the problem which doesn't exist for me now in TS12 at all and no where near as much of a problem in 2010 where I could plant over 100 trees without them vanishing, built in trees were the worst offenders so I avoid using them and stick to pofigs.
The problem may well be more to do with number of shaders the card has and whether the card is 64, 128 or 256bit and has DDR2, DDR3 or DDR5 memory rather than that there is 1GB of it.

 

[JCitron]

I've noticed too if there is a lot of older content in the region, this will happen, although far less with TS12 so this must be definitely a graphics processing and memory issue.

John

 

[NJCurmudgeon]

What are "speed trees"? I've seen this term referenced in a couple posts and have wondered what it referred to. Thanks!

Gordon

 

[Retro00064]

SpeedTree is a 3D foliage technology. SpeedTrees are the 3D trees, shrubs, etc., that use this technology. These are much more detailed than billboard trees.

DRickett's awesome Frisco High Line route (screenshots here: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=78007) and Dermmy's absolutely superb Kanshino Narrow Gauge Railway route (screenshots here: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=74045) are examples of fine routes that use SpeedTrees.

Some people love SpeedTrees, while some people hate them; I am one of those who loves them.

Regards,

Retro

 

[schweitzerdude]

Re Speedtrees

To pfx: I also have TS2010 and have not had the problems you describe. I'm at a loss and no help to you. And I'm running Trainz on a Sony laptop with an Invidia GeForce 310M, not exactly a Trainz dream machine. But my route is not nearly as large as yours, which you said takes 5 minutes to save. You could do some testing on smaller routes to see if the problem goes away.

But I do like Speedtrees and use them exclusively, but restrict myself to about 6 conifers and 6 decidious, with rare exceptions.

To gfisher: There is some (perhaps not unanimous) consensus on these forums that Speedtrees are a performance plus, not a performance minus.

 

[gfisher]

"If five million people believe a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing."