Trainz "Next" & My Computer?

G

geno1005

Member
Just starting to notice all the 'excitement' about the Trainz next product. On at least two previous occasions, I have started enjoying a version of Trainz only to have the subsequent 'improvements' make it all but impossible for me to use on the computer that I had at the time. TANE sat idly on my last computer for more than 18 months until I finally bought a new machine that could barely run it.

My current machine lags already on larger, more detailed routes. Has there been any speculation as to how much more of a resource hog the new version is likely to be? Concerned that in my case, I will again be dead in the water until my now one-year-old machine craps out.

In fairness, I enjoy the program a lot, but no way I'm trashing a one year old machine that does all the practical things I need it to do just fine. Cheaper to just get a puppy to occupy my spare time! :) Thanks in advance for any advice.
 
geno1005 said:
Just starting to notice all the 'excitement' about the Trainz next product. On at least two previous occasions, I have started enjoying a version of Trainz only to have the subsequent 'improvements' make it all but impossible for me to use on the computer that I had at the time. TANE sat idly on my last computer for more than 18 months until I finally bought a new machine that could barely run it.

My current machine lags already on larger, more detailed routes. Has there been any speculation as to how much more of a resource hog the new version is likely to be? Concerned that in my case, I will again be dead in the water until my now one-year-old machine craps out.

In fairness, I enjoy the program a lot, but no way I'm trashing a one year old machine that does all the practical things I need it to do just fine. Cheaper to just get a puppy to occupy my spare time! :) Thanks in advance for any advice.
Click to expand...

Without knowing your specifications, we can't help you, and to be honest we don't know much about the 'next' version either. From some of the component testing I have done in Trainz Dev group, the program runs similar to what T:ANE does already. I have a feeling that the specifications for the new version will be the same as now.

With assets being optimized and updated, this will make a difference in performance as well. This is the reason for the stricter error, and stricter specs.

As always whenever specifications are given for a program, take them even with their recommended specs as a baseline, and go above that if you can afford to.
 
Last edited:
I too would like to know. Here are my specs:

*Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
* 250GB Samsung SSD + 1TB Western Digital HDD
*Intel i5 7600 processor @3.50GHz
*16GB of RAM
*NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Graphics
 
I have 120GB SSD
940M 4GB Card
i5, 7th gen.

Basically I have laptop not PC but TANE runs fine.
I have to upgrade in 10xx series for next generation games like Trainz Next and Train Sim World.
 
Once upon a time, I knew how to do get to that information.

I can find the following, but I can't decipher the rest, especially the video card out of two pages of numbers and stuff I don't understand...is what you need to know buried in all the stuff that follows? Sorry...I don't totally understand the hardware side of the computer (as you can obviously tell) but I do enjoy the game.

Thanks!

Windows Home 10
-----
Card name: AMD Radeon(TM) R7 Graphics
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x130F)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

AMD A10-7800 Radeon R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G (4 CPUs), ~3.5GHz

2 TB Hard Drive
 
geno1005 said:
Once upon a time, I knew how to do get to that information.

I can find the following, but I can't decipher the rest, especially the video card out of two pages of numbers and stuff I don't understand...is what you need to know buried in all the stuff that follows? Sorry...I don't totally understand the hardware side of the computer (as you can obviously tell) but I do enjoy the game.

Thanks!

Windows Home 10
-----
Card name: AMD Radeon(TM) R7 Graphics
Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x130F)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)

AMD A10-7800 Radeon R7, 12 Compute Cores 4C+8G (4 CPUs), ~3.5GHz

2 TB Hard Drive
Click to expand...

Have a look at belarc.com they have a scanner that should spot the GPU for you.

Thanks John
 
hiawathamr said:
I too would like to know. Here are my specs:

*Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
* 250GB Samsung SSD + 1TB Western Digital HDD
*Intel i5 7600 processor @3.50GHz
*16GB of RAM
*NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB Graphics
Click to expand...

I bet that hardware would perform better on Windows 10.
 
I'm sure N3V will come out with a minimum spec eventually.

The version of TRS18 I'm running at present doesn't run sessions but that's not why it was released. It was provided so that content creators can get a "heads up" on building the new PBR materials. This is not an insignificant task.

I run a rather ancient I7-4770 3.4GHz processor with 32GB RAM and a Gigabyte GTX780Ti video card. I do intend to update later this year.

TANE runs OK on this system with occasional pauses. I do have some settings turned up.


Those who want to play with the new PBR textures may need to review their video cards. In one imaging package, my 3GB VRAM is nearly maxed out so I will want a video card with lots of memory. I have a few in mind.

When we get a test version of TRS18 that allows us to run sessions then I think we will have a better idea. We can load up a route with lots of PBR ground textures and maybe some traincars and scenery that uses PBR. Any existing assets will get a PBR approximation so I imagine that will chew up some CPU and GPU resources.
 
TRS18 will definitely benefit from extra GPU power. If you have a machine that can run T:ANE well, then you should be able to run TRS18 (final specifications still pending) but if you want to really get the most from the new capabilities then you're looking at a GTX980 or better. PBR itself isn't that taxing, but parallax and some of the other optional effects do benefit from a top-of-the-line GPU.

chris
 
WindWalkr said:
TRS18 will definitely benefit from extra GPU power. If you have a machine that can run T:ANE well, then you should be able to run TRS18 (final specifications still pending) but if you want to really get the most from the new capabilities then you're looking at a GTX980 or better. PBR itself isn't that taxing, but parallax and some of the other optional effects do benefit from a top-of-the-line GPU.

chris
Click to expand...

Unfortunately with the bit coin mining craze these are rather expensive at the moment if you can actually buy one.


Cheerio John
 
johnwhelan said:
Unfortunately with the bit coin mining craze these are rather expensive at the moment if you can actually buy one.
Click to expand...

Yep, although they've been on the market for about 3.5 years now so a good number of people already have them anyway. And of course there are other cards (eg. 780, 970, 1060) that are in a roughly comparable bracket on the nVidia side of the fence, and there are also the AMD offerings. The GPU-based bitcoin mining may even die off a bit of current trends continue, but who knows where that will go really.

At the end of the day, if top-notch graphics means that much to you, then you need a top-of-the-line GPU. If you're happy with "merely acceptable" graphics then a cheaper GPU will do just fine.

chris
 
A few second hand 970's on Amazon around £250, new they are about £450 if you can find any in stock anywhere, double what I paid for mine 2015, still got it in my number 2 machine and still works reasonably well with TANE despite having one of the two fans bust, bearing was shot so I removed it, curiously it's not made any noticeable difference to temperatures, fan is easy enough to replace if push comes to shove.
 
I think pricewise the GTX1050 TI is $300 on Newegg.com compared to $150 for the GTX1050. Surprisingly enough there are one or two GTX1060 cards floating around the $300 mark.

So yes I agree a GTX 1060 or better would be nice for TANE but for many they are too expensive and it becomes a matter of TANE on something cheaper or no TANE.

Cheerio John
 
johnwhelan said:
I think pricewise the GTX1050 TI is $300 on Newegg.com compared to $150 for the GTX1050. Surprisingly enough there are one or two GTX1060 cards floating around the $300 mark.

So yes I agree a GTX 1060 or better would be nice for TANE but for many they are too expensive and it becomes a matter of TANE on something cheaper or no TANE.

Cheerio John
Click to expand...

This is all based on what's happening right now with video cards and the prices. Anything can happen with the markets by the time "NEXT" comes out. We could be seeing NVidia GTX2xxxx series video cards by then which will push even the GTX1080Ti right down to the mid-level with the new hardware priced at the top. Not being familiar with AMDs offerings, I'm sure they'll have something in the queue as well.

The whole Bitcoin thing too could flop or take a market hit just as the stock market did this past week.

It's all too far in the future to worry as us Trainzing Worrywarts do. :)
 
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