Trainz videos

pdkoester · Feb 21, 2013

leksie said:
Hi Pdkoester ,

I use 2009
First everything is depending of your hardware - PC - grafic card .....................

My experience :

Go to startscreen >>>>>>>>>options>>>>Tab : Advanced Options : shadow shut of.
Display settings : try switching between "Open GL >>>Direct X "

Go to Surveyor Main Menu (upper left corner) Klick.

Edit environment Tab "sun" choose "No Clouds 01"

Options Draw distance : Aprox. 3500 m.

Good wheater fog : 0.2 or higher

Use a track that is less heavy : Track wood ?

don't use a lot of spline objects . In your second video there were also a lot of loco's and they use lot's of Mb's

when playing switch of your virus scanner

Thanks for these tips. I will try some adjustments, hope they do not take away too much detail. I'm using TS12.

UPDATE:::
I do not see the environment tab "sun" or a way to choose "No Clouds 01"? Anyone know?

steamboateng said:
The first video of the train crossing a trestle was just fine. The second one, of the long freight was pretty 'heavy' on content; as Leksie implies. If your Trainz 'stutter' in the game, that will be picked up on the video (I know; that's a 'Duh!!) In the third video, of the truck waiting at a crossing gate with a fast freight passing; it seems the video itself was stuttering, as if the frame rate was slowed. The codec you initially used to capture the clip may be at fault there.

No, it doesn't stutter in the game, it seems more like if it does, the recording to video seems to make it look worse. Yeah, there was one video I recorded, it was horrible, but not when the recorder was not enabled. This "codec", what do you recommend I use, and how do I check/change it?

JCitron said:
I'd cut back on the grass splines or at least find a good substitution. Some of the splines can wreak havoc with the frame rates because of the way they're loaded.

There are some things to check too:

1) What are your machine temps like?
I found that I get some stutters not unlike yours when my machine gets a bit warm. I increase my fan speed on my video card and things run better.

2) If this is a regular drive, when was the last time you defragged.

3) I have found when writing video to disk I have better results if I write to a drive other than the one that Trainz is running on. The reading and writing at the same time does not help the performance with either the video or Trainz.

John

1) My machine temps are fine, CPU around 40s DEG C, GPU around 50s DEG C. CPU is Core i7 975 Extreme @3.75 Ghz, 24GB of DDR3 Tri channel RAM, two Corsair Force 3 SSDs in RAID0 for operating system, two WD Raptors in RAID0 for programs (Trainz), GTX 580 with 3GB of GDDR5 of video RAM.

2) The drives are optimized daily sometimes hourly depending on idle time. I have a program that is automated to do this.

3) I write the video to disk on a separate machine, my home server 2011 machine to be specific.

Thanks to everyone for feedback, I will see what I can do to tweak it, any more input about "codecs" would be greatly appreciated.

Paul

Jananton · Feb 21, 2013

Hmm, most video capture programs write raw AVI file(s) like Fraps or Bandicam. My guess is that the big stutter a little more then halfway in the video is the closing of the first file written en opening of the second by the capture program.

In fact, when making videos in real life I can hardly recall making shots that long, maybe life sport events, but certainly not documentairy style stuf like this. You should make a habit of stopping the recording after lets say a minute and make cut away shots to put in between. Actually I only looked the whole 4,5 minutes to see the stutter, otherwise I would be gone after 10 seconds. :hehe:

Greetings from nighttime Amsterdam,

Jan

JCitron · Feb 21, 2013

Paul,

That's good to hear about your machine. I see about the same temps on mine while using Trainz. I've been able to cool down my GPU a bit more using EVGA's Precision X to about 37C even in the most built-up areas.

I defrag my drives once a day prior to using Trainz. This ensures smooth operation right from the beginning.

If anything, I would write the video to a local drive. This may actually smooth out the video because what you're seeing in the video could also be the affect of writing the files over the network. There is a bit of caching that takes place then the data is finally written. If you want to write over the network, maybe you should setup fibre instead of CAT-5e or CAT6. A fibre-network is much, much faster and there wouldn't as noticeable a delay as you have now.

John

pdkoester · Feb 21, 2013

Fresh from today... about the same to me. I am using Bandicam full version.

Thanks for the info, looking into getting the files recorded locally, see if it does work.

Paul

steamboateng · Feb 22, 2013

The 'codec' is basically the program with which the video is compressed and decompressed for viewing. MP3 ia an audio codec and MP4 can be a video codec. Your Bandicam should have several codecs associated with it. This is deep technical stuff and not for these forums. I suggest excercising the 'Google finger' for that. Perhaps I would have been more correct referencing to the format your recording and playing back in. Some formats are better than others for this type of video. Common formats which U-Tube likes are AVI and WMV; both suitable for this type of video.
John pointed out that running Trainz on one hard drive while recording on another may give you a tip in performance. My Trainz are on it's own HD while I record from another drive. Also watch your recording resolution, and screen size; ie, wide screen or standard. Recording videos is an intensive operation, and your hardware can only do so much. Usually compromises must be made. Think about it; your running Trainz AND recording at the same time. That's a steep hill to climb for most home computers.
Movie hints: use trackside rotating cameras (in Surveyor), use 1 to 2 min. clips from various angles, use vegetation and buildings to set a scene.....use an editor to put it all together....