Video problems with 2009

[peter1jeep]

Hello everybody, need some guidance on possible problems with my setup.
1. some of the layouts - Intros graphics are jerky even at 2000 m but I noticed that the more details (scenery) the worse it gets.

2. The screen goes dark, right at the beginning, (now my cat found the solution by stepping on the "START" key which minimizes the Trainz, maximizing it solves the problem)) except for when lightning strikes then it goes dark again. Is this just a 2009 problem? is 2010 OK, I have just ordered it.

3. I found that the sound seems to trigger the jerky graphics, in time with the rhythm of the trains engines, anyone else have these problems?

My Computer.

XP Professional ver 2002 Service Pack 3

Computer AMD ATHLON II X 4 620
Processor 2.1 GHZ RAM 8 GB (computer show 3.25 G)
Local Disk (C) 232 GB Free 190 GB used 42.8 GB
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 GA-MA770-US3
Video ATI Raedeon 4800 series 1 GB RAM
Driver date 2/2/2010 ver 8.702.0.0
Sound is onboard
Trainz 2009 build 41844

Peter.

 

[4ndylloyd]

Hi Peter,

I found the same problems as you when I moved to 2009 and was ready to cast it aside and return to TRS06. I updated my graphics card to an ATi 5450 which improved things but I still had some issues. I used Catalyst Control to overclock my card and downloaded the latest drivers from the card manufacturers website not the ATi website. I ran my old ATi card on DirectX which was better for 06 but I have found that my latest drivers allow me to run my current ATi card on OPenGL and the graphics are much smoother. The trade off with this is that water wont display correctly on my ATi card in OpenGL but careful camera angles hide this fact.
2009 is claimed to perform better than 06 because of texture compression but when I run identical routes in 06 and 09 and check frame rates with fraps I find that the fps are higher in 2009 but the video seems smoother in 2006.

There are tweaks that can be made to the Trainzoptions file such as -framerate=XX which prevent jerkiness when moving from high graphics draw sections to those with less demand on the graphics card and -resourcememory=XXXX which sets the amount of memory to be used by the game.

In the options section on start up you can also adjust the 'Resouce cache size' and it is worth disabling shadows if performance is not so good.

I have seen in threads that -framestoaverage=xx can also be added to the trainzoptions file which would help with jerky graphics and I have tried this but didn't see much change either way.

After the fiddling that I have done in settings and trainzoptions by game runs pretty well so its worth sticking at it to see whats best for your set up

Andy

 

[peter1jeep]

Video in 2009

Thank you adadad, I shall look at overclocking my video card, I think I have enough speed with the quad 4.

Thanks again.
Peter.

 

[steve123]

in ati Catalyst Control make sure you are using the setting in smoothvision hd anti-aliasion edge-detection not the others in that display,
the other narrow-trend wide-trend box will slow your computer up,
so only use edge detection ,update drivers to 10.5 or 10.6
http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx don't forget to install ati hotfix if needed as well

 

[peter1jeep]

Video in 2009

Thanks Steve123 I shall go to the site and download the latest drivers and hotfix.

Peter.

 

[gremlin1812]

My Computer.

XP Professional ver 2002 Service Pack 3

Computer AMD ATHLON II X 4 620
Processor 2.1 GHZ RAM 8 GB (computer show 3.25 G)
Local Disk (C) 232 GB Free 190 GB used 42.8 GB
Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-MA770-UD3 GA-MA770-US3
Video ATI Raedeon 4800 series 1 GB RAM
Driver date 2/2/2010 ver 8.702.0.0
Sound is onboard
Trainz 2009 build 41844

Peter.

G'Day Peter, As you are using a 32bit operating system 3.25gig is the maximum ram it will use no matter how much you have.
I have XP pro SP3 duel booted with XP pro 64bit, the 64bit version will allow all of your ram to be available.
Regards
Barrie

 

[peter1jeep]

Video in 2009

Thanks
Barrie I am wondering if Vista home is any better

Peter

 

[SuperFudd]

Stay away from Vista. Win7 64 is what I recomend.
First though I might try a sound card. No need for anything fancy. Be sure the built in audio is disabled. Before that though, you might try a new sound driver.

 

[peter1jeep]

Video 2009

Thanks SuperFudd, I have the Vista home but I didn't like what it didn't allow
me to do, Win 7 would be nice but I just had to payout for a monitor so I'm stuck with XP Pro.
My next step is to try the the audio drivers then I have a Creative Live sound card that should still work.

Peter.