Poor TR2019 Performance

Revernd

Member
Morning all,

I've had TRS2019 since release and I am really struggling to understand where my FPS issues are coming from. I routinely am getting 30-40fps on barebones, 2D tree routes (Such as The Loops by GFisher) and when I just into something like NS Sandusky by ESCD84 I drop to 20+. Addt, I'm having weird shadow artefacting when in Cab View. Shadows appear grainy and flickering, completely enveloping the cab. My CPU and GPU are only running, at best, 35% when running Trainz so the bottleneck isn't there. I've tried Googling troubleshooting methods, trying to find the right set of graphics combinations that work for me however all I've accomplished is dropping my settings (As you'll see below) down to a fairly unreasonable level for a system that is running AAA games at 100fps+.


System Specs;

-Intel i7-4790K
-GTX 1080
-32GB of Ram
-Up-to-date Graphics Drivers
-Trainz Build 105175
-2560x1080 Monitor (Albeit, there was only a 1fps gain on a standard 1920x1080 second monitor that I am running.)

Current Trainz Settings;

-Shadows- Medium
-Shader- Standard (Was having issues with the PBR textures and creating a weird effect)
-Texture Detail- High
-Post Processing- Low
-Water Quality- Low
-Detail Scenery- Clutter Only
-Antialiasing- 8x
-Detail Update Rate- Low
-Texture Streaming- Off
-PhysX- Off
-Dev- Maximise Performance

In-Game Settings;

Draw Distance- 3500m
Scenery Detail- Normal
Tree Detail- Normal
Post Processing- Low
Process Objects Behind Camera- On

I'm open to any and all suggestions, because I would really like to enjoy and explore the amazing creations here, but not at the cost of performance and display.

Regards,

R
 
The shadows in cab view seems to be an issue, which varies from model to model, thread on this forum somewhere about it.
PBR ground textures don't mix with normal mapped one and to be honest people are still learning how to create stuff with it, doesn't work very well on slopes either, seems to move around!

Dev needs to be set to Compatibility, Performance is only for testing new scripts and such and does nothing for 99% of assets and routes which are not 100% TRS19 standard and probably won't be for a long time.

I'm using a 1080TI / i7 6700K / 16GB DDR4

Using the following settings.

Shadow Quality - Ultra
Main Shadow resolution - 2048
Shader Quality - Ultra
Texture Detail - High
Post Processing - Low
Water Quality - High
Detail Scenery - Clutter and TurfFx
Antialiasing - 8
Detail Update Rate - High
Use Physx - off
Process Objects behind Camera - on

In Game

Draw distance 6000 - 10000m depending on the route
Override Draw Distance Cap on
Scenery - High
Tree - High

I use similar setting on my other PC a Ryzen 5 1600 / GTX980TI.
Would say you have some sort of problem or that route has a lot of items that don't have any lod.
 
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The performance will vary greatly depending upon the age and quality of the assets used. In heavily built-up areas, this can and will lower the framerates down a bit and this is common in many other programs the same well.

With that said, does this occur in any particular area on that route? I know the area the Nickel Plate museum tends to be a bit busy and some of those older train consists can cause issues as they have for me in the past.

PBR textures are something that many people are still getting used to and they can be a bit heavy. I don't like them and don't use them due to that odd artefact issue with the clear gel that surrounds them and causes the ground to sink as well as causing shadows and spaces under tracks. The buzzy textures in cabs has been discussed and hopefully there will be a solution to that someday.
 
Thanks for the replies all!

Clam- Resetting to Comparability mode showed no obvious FPS improvements. As far as the routes, unfortunately it's across the board, whether they be built-in or otherwise. Like I said, it's interesting as I haven't had this problem with any other AAA title. The only thing I can believe is my RAM is outdated, it's DDR3. But in the most load heavy area of my route and of the Sandusky sub my Memory is only at 25%. CPU maxed at 50%.

JCitron- No, unfortunately it's almost universal across any and all routes. The built-in CP route is general capped at 30fps at best. Which is weird, though the game also REALLY struggles to load even to the main page, and often times the engines that display lag loading by several seconds.

Tony- Ran the benchmark, results are below. RAM is likely the culprit if I had to guess, but even still, it's barely at Medium at 40fps. The SSD (FM-25S3) has only Trainz 2019 on it.

UserBenchmarks: Game 94%, Desk 81%, Work 69%
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K - 83.8%
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1080 - 101.9%
SSD: FM-25S3-120GBP3 120GB - 59.8%
HDD: Microsoft Storage Space Device 666GB - 91.1%
HDD: Seagate Momentus 2.5" 500GB - 44.9%
RAM: Kingston HyperX DDR3 1866 C10 4x8GB - 69.3%
MBD: Asus SABERTOOTH Z97 MARK S


Happy to hear any and all thoughts!

Regards,

R
 
Well I'd be the first here to say I'm no expert, but which drive have you got it on (out of 3?) and which drive is Windows installed on? If either are on the second one, then just maybe you don't have enough room for 'swap files' and virtual memory. Also the size of the virtual memory is important, but off hand I don't recall exactly how much you need, except it should be considerable more than your actual RAM.
 
Most likely culprit here is the Seagate HDD if that is where your Local Data folder and/ or program files for Trainz resides. (Nope- Just read that you have this on the SSD, so belay that!)
Also check that your Devils Canyon i7-4790K CPU is properly cooled and is not throttling due to high temps during gameplay. (Suggest use monitoring software like the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility to optimize your CPU for running games). I can run mine at up to 4.7Ghz in T:ANE and TRS19 on moderately-detailed routes with average utilization considerably under 50%.
If temperatures get out of hand on either your CPU or GTX-1080 during gameplay, then throttling can occur on one or both devices, with concomitant drops in graphics stability and FPS. So look carefully at your case, CPU and GPU cooling solutions and rectify any shortcomings, including re-applying thermal paste on your CPU if it has been a while since you installed it. If you're still running the stock cooler that came with the 4790K, get rid of it and replace it with a decent air cooler! It was totally inadequate for the TDP of that CPU!
Your current visual quality settings are relatively low for your current hardware spec. You should be able to max-out many of the performance parameters with that 4790k and 1080 combo and still get the FPS you're observing now with those low settings.
 
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I believe Revernd said Trainz is on the SSD, in which case SSD: FM-25S3-120GBP3 120GB - 59.8% that is an incredibly poor result for an SSD, especially that model which is a G.skill Phoenix III (550 read, 510 Write) and the 2.5 Seagate is pretty poor, probably a 5400RPM with a tiny cache.

I suspect that although TRS19 is installed on the SSD, the user data is still in the default location in the C:\Users......... A 120GB SSD probably isn't big enough for a full Trainz install once you start adding stuff.

Storage spaces is IMO a not very helpful Microsoft feature and creates a Virtual drive comprising of the total storage available, it may be why performance is so low. Ram looks OK DDR3 won't be an issue, I have an ancient AMD PhenomII rig with DDR3 in it and it works quite well on mid settings with a GTX1060, take a long time to load though as on a SATA2 mechanical drive, not my main rig obviously!

Is that Seagate a 5400 or 7200 RPM drive? looks to be a 5400 from the performance test.

Also looking at that SSD's figures are you using the AHCI drivers or the default MS IDE ones, AHCI makes a big difference in SATA drive performance.
 
Alilkiwi- Trainz is isolated to it's own separate drive, specifically to avoid conflicts or storage issues with other apps.

PCAce- Yeah, I'm running an AIO from Corsair across the CPU. I'll run a stress test tonight when I have a chance to see where my temps Max. MSI Afterburner is utilized for my 1080 and there are no abnormal Temp spikes and the GPU remains relatively cool all things considered. That was my thought as well, which is why I was caught by surprise that I was having such glaring issues when on other platforms I'm achieving 100+FPS.

Clam- So I took a look and found the User Date just as you have explained. So, with that in mind; can I isolate that to the same Drive that I have Trainz on by simple copy and paste or is there a path that Trainz is expecting that requries the C: drive? If I can get that moved, and perform a stress test on the CPU/GPU temps I may be able to narrow this down even more. As far as storage spaces, you're referring to combined drives or a function within W10? As far as I know, I'm on default IDE drivers but I will run a benchmark to confirm. Finally, the Segate is 5400. All these drivers were given to me, hence why the seemingly random storage capacities and writing speeds.

Again, thank you all for all your help and idea's.

Regards,

R
 
One of my usual hints ...

Does your virus checker exclude TS19 and its files?
Running a disc scan regularly is good, but you don't want the virus checker to examine every file as it loads!

Colin
 
So I took a look and found the User Date just as you have explained. So, with that in mind; can I isolate that to the same Drive that I have Trainz on by simple copy and paste or is there a path that Trainz is expecting that requries the C: drive?

I'll pipe in here.

You can easily move the data folder to wherever you want.

Once moved, start up TRS19. At the Launcher:
Click on the Trainz Settings.
Click on Install tab.
Click on the elipse (three dots).
Browse to your new folder location. Click on the folder
Click on Select folder to close the window.

A quick updating translations will occur and you'll be prompted to restart.

Do as instructed.

Check the folder location and your login in the internet tab. If everything is all set, your login will appear in the login box and everything is good to go.
 
Cole- Yep, already excluded the entirety of the drive from automatic scanning. Like I said, it's the only thing on that particular drive so essentially AV is just ignoring that drive unless I specifically request it reviewed.

JCitron- So interestingly, I had a build file in C:User/ and another one in R/Trainz (Where my current Trainz is located.) I deleted the build in C:User (Leaving the .txt. file) and will run a benchmark as well to see what the results are.

Thank you both!

Regards,

R
 
Watch that MSI Afterburner.......I must have accidentally changed something on mine. FPS was lousy. I reset set the Afterburner and got about 20 more FPS.
 
I'll run a stress test tonight when I have a chance to see where my temps Max. MSI Afterburner is utilized for my 1080 and there are no abnormal Temp spikes and the GPU remains relatively cool all things considered. That was my thought as well, which is why I was caught by surprise that I was having such glaring issues when on other platforms I'm achieving 100+FPS.

Just re-read this...

My GPU (RTX 2060) runs at about 70C (and 60fps or less) with TS19 - that's with the fans @ 90% of max.
Most other games I have are 60fps limited (no options), though Elite Dangerous would run at 200+fps with the same heating effect on the GPU. Frame limiting to 60fps means that TS 19 is the only application I have which pushes the GPU hard and doesn't aachieve a consistent 60fps.
For my setup, there's no point in more than 60fps as that's the monitor refresh.

Expect TS19 to drive your GPU as much as it will take.

Colin
 
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