TRS2019: what's the word on trees?

frogpipe

Yesterdayz Trainz Member
I've been bitten by bad tree choices in the past. Either obliterated frame rates or in a other version of trainz no trees at all.

Obviously none of us has a crystal ball, but what Id ask one for if I did (have a crystal ball) is a good looking tree, future proof, and FPS friendly.

So fellow V scale civil engineers, what do you recommend?

And please provide evidence for any "x is rubbish" or "y kills frames" statements. Show your work.

Thank you.
 
The answer will depend on so many variables - the hardware that each user has is just one, the number of times a frame-killing asset is used in a scene is another - that you will get different answers from different people.

What I found that works best for my setup is to use the performance analysis feature that is built into TRS19 and TANE CMs.

Basically:-


  1. Start CM
  2. Select an asset, such as a building, tree or railcar, that you want to test its effect on frame rates, etc
  3. Right Mouse Click on the asset and select Open from the popup menu
  4. Select Preview Asset from the second popup menu

This will display the asset rotating in a smallish window and supply some statistics.
Look for the Triangle Count figure, the bigger the number the worse it will perform but that by itself is not a complete guide, the textures in the asset can also play a big part.

Take a note of how smoothly the asset rotates


  1. Look for the Mode drop down box - it will initially be showing Inspect
  2. Click the drop down arrow in the box and select Performance Analysis. This will fill the small display window with hundreds (or more) of this asset and will attempt to rotate them all.

Take a note of how smoothly (or not) the assets are now rotating. Again this is only a guide to what your frame rate would be like if you had that many copies of the asset in a scene of your layout, unlikely but not impossible.

When I tested this prior to making this post I selected an old Auran asset, a coal mine, with an asset size of over 30MB. It rotated quite well when it was by itself but it completely choked my system (with an i7 7700HQ and a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti) when I switched to Performance Analysis. Luckily, you are unlikely to have a layout scene containing hundreds of this particular coal mine asset.

My thoughts.
 
Do you find ANY assets that dont choke on performace? Ive only done a few and it ties my system down for many seconds at a time. I've never even seen rotation.
 
Do you find ANY assets that dont choke on performace? Ive only done a few and it ties my system down for many seconds at a time. I've never even seen rotation.

I just did a random sample to make sure I had the facts right before posting. I only found the one that totally choked the system (no rotation at all). Some had near normal rotation (a bit of a "stutter") and many had no noticeable effect.
 
Since you were specifically inquiring about trees, here is my experience.

I have yet to find a Speed Tree asset that causes any performance issues - none of the ones I have tested using the criteria outlined in one of my previous posts caused a single stutter in Performance Analysis mode.

Use CM to search for:-

Category: Flora
Minimum build version: 4.2
Name: st_

... which should bring up over 200.
 
Are all of the "options" that are set-on included in the analysis?


LOD I leave at Auto. Season at 0. These are used to display the LOD levels (if any) and the season option (if present). AFAIK they do not form part of the Performance Analysis.
 
Check the frame rate of Speedtrees using the Preview asset performance analysis. Virtually no change with a board full of trees is good. Low FPS to stalled Tree is bad.
 
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