Why Are Some Of My Tracks Disappearing In A Sense?

Ok, my one fictional yard is pretty big. From edge to edge, the yard is 8 baseboards long. And it's detailed. But now, whether I'm in Surveyor or in an actual session, parts of the tracks seem to "disappear" when I free roam. In other words, it takes a while for some of the tracks to load in the shot. On some parts of the route it looks like the tracks aren't there, when they actually are. What's up with that? Graphics card? Would it be any different with T:ANE as opposed to TS12? It could be my computer as it is 8 years old, so it may be the graphics card that works overtime on the details of the route perhaps?

Can only guess, but my guess would be that the tracks have LOD and at the lower levels they disappear out of screen. I am guessing this because you talk about "yard with a lot of detail". What happens a lot, especially if you don't have a high end PC (just like I don't have) is scenery in the distance disappearing.

So... if I am right, you have a few options:
Reduce the amount of detail (remove some trees or check if you have some silly high-detailed assets without LOD).
Get a better PC.
Fiddle a bit with the settings (and I am no expert on that, so maybe someone comes by that can give a better clue on that).

What track are you using?

Some track is better than others. Try Jointed Rail track instead of the MRT track, for example, if you're using that MRT track which has a horribly high polygon count that will melt even the fastest PCs. Sometimes even the ProTrack can be a bit on the heavy side so you might want to try spline track in that location and limit the ProTrack to your switches.

JCitron said:

What track are you using?

Some track is better than others. Try Jointed Rail track instead of the MRT track, for example, if you're using that MRT track which has a horribly high polygon count that will melt even the fastest PCs. Sometimes even the ProTrack can be a bit on the heavy side so you might want to try spline track in that location and limit the ProTrack to your switches.

Click to expand...

I am using HP track which is fine on some sections of the route, but disappears on other parts. I use JR tracks as well which disappear in some frame rates within the yard. I don't think I am using any MRT tracks, but I'll check. What are some other tracks I should avoid?

In some parts of the yard I use JR 2 track splines and JR 6 track splines to save time on laying down 1 track at a time in parts of the yard. Could that possibly be another factor?

Graphic cards are the bane of existence sometimes,,,,,,With that, I see your Computer is 8 yrs old, 5 is considered a Dinosaur, DOA, but I have had many myself that our 5-10 years old, so I have no room to speak in that regard. The important thing here beyond Asset LOD, which is a mess in itself, is your Card built into the Mother board (integrated), or is separate and slid into the Motherboard?

If it's integrated, that's 75% of your problem along with Age, Integrated our the worst for Simulator Games.....Hands down......Speed and lack of enough VRAM memory, kills the performance, I know, because I have an integrated one on my HP Envy, and didn't realize when I bought with 12 Gigs of Ram, and 1-Tera HG drive, that it would impair my Trainz performance as much as it does, one straight out reason, I can't have more than 10 Tracks, like a Railroad yard in view, or I start losing them (disappear like yours) looks weird at close medium distance, my GPU simply can't keep up..

So If I download a nice route with Huge Yards, I have too Scalpel it back 30-60%, so for me, or I watch the Routes I download for now, and excessive tall Mountains (over 1000 Feet) in elevation will do it too, the upper half of your majestic range will be cutoff and look strange too!!!

it's all relative to my GPU's ability to draw Graphics on demand......

You can trim your settings back on performance etc to help Trainz show better, but then, you'll lose Detail, and other things, because your settings are lower.....

Other thing, make sure your WiFi is off, close all unneeded programs, etc, only run Trainz, I use airport method, quick and easy, make sure you don't have backup or sync operations going on either....All those things take away from TANE performance, it's a HOG, and Trainz can and will use all your computers resources when it runs! It and other Simulators are quite aggressive when it comes to Disk Read Write Access, RAM and GPU performance..........And your computer is too old to upgrade, you probably know that anyway.......But your in a tough spot there.........

Hope that helps you......

Update:ROG

Copy that sir, and I'm looking at another new laptop, maybe Xmas, will see, but here is something for your check out, I went to Costco one day, and did a conversation with a Tech there, who gave me some excellent info on Gaming Laptops, the straight up shot here, was ROG Computers,

https://www.google.com/search?q=rog+laptops+2018&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1

Check it out to see what you think, the one I'm looking has a 4 Gig Nvidia, and I could get a 6 Gig onboard memory, but my thoughts are such, it would hurt the battery if I'm not plugged in, that much raw VRAM I would think eat the battery up fairly soon.......So 4 would be the most, 2 probably just gets by, so I'm thinking 4 Megs of VRAM is the sweet spot..........

Check out the ROG Forum and see what you find out.....Pretty interesting, I had never heard of ROG till about 6 months ago when Costco started to carry these new Laptop models...........

Best of luck to you sir...........

blueodessey said:

Graphic cards are the bane of existence sometimes,,,,,,With that, I see your Computer is 8 yrs old, 5 is considered a Dinosaur, DOA, but I have had many myself that our 5-10 years old, so I have no room to speak in that regard. The important thing here beyond Asset LOD, which is a mess in itself, is your Card built into the Mother board (integrated), or is separate and slid into the Motherboard?

If it's integrated, that's 75% of your problem along with Age, Integrated our the worst for Simulator Games.....Hands down......Speed and lack of enough VRAM memory, kills the performance, I know, because I have an integrated one on my HP Envy, and didn't realize when I bought with 12 Gigs of Ram, and 1-Tera HG drive, that it would impair my Trainz performance as much as it does, one straight out reason, I can't have more than 10 Tracks, like a Railroad yard in view, or I start losing them (disappear like yours) looks weird at close medium distance, my GPU simply can't keep up..

So If I download a nice route with Huge Yards, I have too Scalpel it back 30-60%, so for me, or I watch the Routes I download for now, and excessive tall Mountains (over 1000 Feet) in elevation will do it too, the upper half of your majestic range will be cutoff and look strange too!!!

it's all relative to my GPU's ability to draw Graphics on demand......

You can trim your settings back on performance etc to help Trainz show better, but then, you'll lose Detail, and other things, because your settings are lower.....

Other thing, make sure your WiFi is off, close all unneeded programs, etc, only run Trainz, I use airport method, quick and easy, make sure you don't have backup or sync operations going on either....All those things take away from TANE performance, it's a HOG, and Trainz can and will use all your computers resources when it runs! It and other Simulators are quite aggressive when it comes to Disk Read Write Access, RAM and GPU performance..........And your computer is too old to upgrade, you probably know that anyway.......But your in a tuff spot there.........

Hope that helps you......

Click to expand...

Excellent answer. Thanks for your detailed input. I plan to get a new computer eventually. Hopefully it will improve the situation. Yea my yard has almost 40 tracks in the Classification and Departure sections - not including the tracks by the Car shops and Diesel shops.

JCitron said:

What track are you using?

Some track is better than others. Try Jointed Rail track instead of the MRT track, for example, if you're using that MRT track which has a horribly high polygon count that will melt even the fastest PCs. Sometimes even the ProTrack can be a bit on the heavy side so you might want to try spline track in that location and limit the ProTrack to your switches.

Click to expand...

I just checked John. Aside from JR and HP tracks, there are some FMA tracks that I use. No MRT's.

Railroader1970 said:

I just checked John. Aside from JR and HP tracks, there are some FMA tracks that I use. No MRT's.

Click to expand...

Substitute the FMA track with something newer. The track looks good, but it's really, really old.

JCitron said:

Substitute the FMA track with something newer. The track looks good, but it's really, really old.

Click to expand...

Got it. I'll use some HP tracks. I would use HOTT tracks, but they're probably old as well.

Railroader1970 said:

Got it. I'll use some HP tracks. I would use HOTT tracks, but they're probably old as well.

Click to expand...

Yes those are really old as well. They were great in their day, but not as nice as the HP track and others which are made for the more modern Trainz versions. You'll notice that the HP tracks will bend better and not look like printed track on a piece of paper tape.

JCitron said:

Yes those are really old as well. They were great in their day, but not as nice as the HP track and others which are made for the more modern Trainz versions. You'll notice that the HP tracks will bend better and not look like printed track on a piece of paper tape.

Click to expand...

Although I mainly use HP track and JR track on my routes, do you or anybody else have any recommendations for other tracks that are good that I could use, provided the polygon count isn't too high? Does the DLS have matching ballast for the HP tracks? Haven't been able to check yet.

I use SAM tracks by Samplaire.
They are mostly Polish/European so don't know if they are suitable for USA yards.
He does high detail and low detail versions of some tracks and has matching ballast.
Beware though, he has a mega amount listed!
To help me choose, I made a new empty route and laid out his tracks and ballasts, long process, but worth it in the end.

The SAM track is really nice, but be aware because some will disappear unfortunately due to some LOD issues. There are hopes that author will update them someday.

I deleted some of the extra tracks in my yard. Instead of 2 car shops and 2 diesel shops, I just have 1 of each. I took out some of the extra tracks around those 2 areas which alleviated the problem somewhat. Then I made the yard a "rails only" yard by replacing the JR track assets with Dock Rail tracks. Should this option make things a bit easier perhaps?

Railroader1970 said:

I deleted some of the extra tracks in my yard. Instead of 2 car shops and 2 diesel shops, I just have 1 of each. I took out some of the extra tracks around those 2 areas which alleviated the problem somewhat. Then I made the yard a "rails only" yard by replacing the JR track assets with Dock Rail tracks. Should this option make things a bit easier perhaps?

Click to expand...

Maybe but I doubt it. One of the issue you may have is your use of multi-track splines, which never rendered well even in the old days due to how they're constructed. They are actually classed as a kind of bridge and share many of the characteristics of a bridge including the inability to create switches and smooth curves.

Dock rails really don't matter and they tend to float off the surface because they are meant to be buried in the pavement. With those you'll spend a lot of time burying them up the edges.

Your best bet is to use single tracks which are spaced evenly with a track spacer. There are many track spacers available, and you can even use a short piece of a multi-track spline for that because that will not impact your screen rendering.

Well, I do have 2 or 3 parts of the yard that have JR double track and 6 track splines. So I can delete those and just lay single track instead. Covering the dock rail edges won't be a problem. I just raise the ground above the rails, level it off until I see the rails slightly appear and then I lay the ground from that level across. I haven't heard of Track Spacers, obviously since I'm still elementary to all of this stuff. Any suggestions for some good track spacers? Yesterday I did notice, after I replaced the tracks with the dock rails, my computer screen would freeze for 10 seconds every 30 seconds. So I shut down the computer. It was hot anyway since I already worked a few hours on it. I'll see about getting rid of any unnecessary clutter on my computer which may also add to any problems.