Track, 2m or 4m?

[Approach_Medium]

Hello fellow surveyors;

I have been working with several high res tracks, including two by sg1 named "us mainline 2m" and "us mainline 4m".

I believe that I understand the difference between the 2m and 4m versions, being that you use the 2m for tight curves, etc to create a more realistic looking track.
Some track comes in 2m, 4m, 8m, and 16m as well.

Am I suffering a performance hit by using the 2m track in places where I could use the 4m track?
I am starting what will be a large route today, so I would like to make a decision on what track to use now, before I get the whole route laid.
Of course, I can still use the replace asset feature in TS2010 to change the track whenever I want to, but why go through all of that if I can start out on the right track

Thanks for your help

FW

 

[bl4882]

I noticed a large performance benefit by using the longest segment possible. I reserved the 2m track for sharp curves. The benefit seemed most noticeable in things like classification yards with many parallel straight tracks.

I tried a large yard once with 4m track and it was unacceptably slowing things down in Surveyor as I was trying to lay the yard out. I then did the yard, with 34 classification tracks, using a 16m track with little noticeable degredation in performance. The downside was that at times it was impossible to maintain a reasonable appearance, with ties 3 or 4 feet wide, if I had to terminate a stretch of track in the wrong place.

I have since gone to Slavedriver's chunky mesh track for this because I liked the appearance better and and found no degredation in performance at all in the same 34 track yard, relaid with this track. Trains run as smooth as silk and there are no kinks in the track.

Bernie

 

[Approach_Medium]

I noticed a large performance benefit by using the longest segment possible. I reserved the 2m track for sharp curves. The benefit seemed most noticeable in things like classification yards with many parallel straight tracks.

I tried a large yard once with 4m track and it was unacceptably slowing things down in Surveyor as I was trying to lay the yard out. I then did the yard, with 34 classification tracks, using a 16m track with little noticeable degredation in performance. The downside was that at times it was impossible to maintain a reasonable appearance, with ties 3 or 4 feet wide, if I had to terminate a stretch of track in the wrong place.

I have since gone to Slavedriver's chunky mesh track for this because I liked the appearance better and and found no degredation in performance at all in the same 34 track yard, relaid with this track. Trains run as smooth as silk and there are no kinks in the track.

Bernie

I created CSX Selkirk yard from GE maps and track maps, and was using a 2m track. It was unusable if there were any trains in the yard.
I recently pared down the yard by about 1/3 on the classification tracks, but haven't tried filling it with trains yet.

I don't seem to have any 16m track around. I have disabled much of he built-in content because I didn't like the way it looks, or it was not appropriate for my region (USA).

I think I'm going to have to look for some decent track with 16m lengths.

I did some experimenting after I posted.
I ran a train of about 50 cars along a straight section of track in a lightly scenery area and checked frame rates and fluid train movement with different tracks.
I didn't see much change in the FPS or fluidity of train movement (at about 15mph) when changing tracks. Where I did see the change was when I reduced the visibility distance to 1500m from 3000m. The lower distance produced more fluid train movement.
At high distances, I get a "stepping" of train movement.

Of course, the system we are running TS on makes a big difference. If I had at least dual-core, things would be much improved.

I think the answer is compromise. I can use the lower poly tracks in areas that aren't highly detailed anyway, then use the hi-poly track in areas I want to make to look good.
Caveat with this method is that areas that are highly detailed in other ways are going to cause performance hit regardless of the track used, and using a hi-poly track in those areas is going to slow things down even further.

So now, I'm working on another (fictitious) route that will not have much scenery. Just basic ground textures and trees, few buildings, but will focus on railroad activity in yards, industry, and mainline.
I just have to concede to the fact that on this 5 year old system, I have to make sacrifices

FW

 

[bl4882]

Five years old! Our systems may be twins separated at birth.

Anyhow, I like your thinking. Model railroaders have been living with compromises such as curve radius, grades, selective compression, for decades. Virtual railroading frees us from many constraints, but we must compromise in the face of reality, too.

BTW, the 16m track I used was by Natvander and is, or was, on the DLS a little over a year ago when I last used it.

Good luck with your route and please let us know how your selection of track works out.

Bernie

 

[RRSignal]

How does this affect routes with a lot of scenery? I'm gearing up to produce a route (of many) if the Philadelphia area. How much would using good-quality track interfere with overall performance? I'm expecting this to be a highly-detailed route. Not especially busy, but detailed with static scenery.

 

[cascaderailroad]

High Poly Track

Using High Poly Track...it looks fantastic...there are several on USLW site...if you are making large multi-tracked freight yards, and complex interlockings...I would stick with chunky mesh tracks like MP Wood & MP Rusty. They are easy for future downloaders to find, and may work in 09/10 also.

I just love "WRRW TK2A High Detail" by Slave Driver, and several others tracks on USLW, as the RR tieplate, and spike detail is so very realistic. But when a high poly set of 4 SD45's by RR Mods comes by it sometimes makes a 1fps slidshow, and sometimes locks up my video card. If you make a 36 track yard, and fill it up with 10 trains, your video card will be maxed out.

Look at some of the great routes out there...a majority of them use chunky mesh tracks like MP Wood & MP Rusty, as the fabulous scenery and ground textures take center stage.

You can always use high poly track just for making a fabulous screenshot...and replace it afterward with chunky mesh tracks.

I used WRRW TK2A Dark Ballast, which has less tieplate and rail detail, with no RR spikes, and I found in switches it has objectionable straight segments of track repeating every at 2m segments. As opposed to Chunky Mesh tracks which seem to bend flawlessly in switches. Using 4m, 8m, 16m, track looks best only in broad curves and straight tracks.